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Galatians 3:13

13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.

Though I don't hunt much, I do know there are many ways to kill a deer. There are also many ways to kill a man -- by hanging, with the sword, stoning, drowning, etc. . . . We celebrate Easter this morning by asking the simple question why did Jesus die on a cross?

1. Because the cross is prophesied in Scripture -- "for it is written . . ." (Galatians 3:13).
   Peter said the prophets "testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ" (I Peter 1:11). Paul said to Agrippa in Caesarea "I say none other than those things which Moses and the prophets said should come, that Christ should suffer" (Acts 26:22). I have a book in my library written in 1728 by John Gill entitled The Prophecies of the Old Testament Respecting the Messiah Considered; and Proved to be Literally Fulfilled in Jesus. Gill looks at several passages from the Old Testament and shows that the prophets predicted:
   
   • Christ would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12),
   • forsaken by his disciples (Zechariah 13:7),
   • and beaten and scourged (Micah 5:1).
   • He would die on a cross (Psalm 22),
   • numbered among thieves (Isaiah 53:12).
   • His garments would be parted (Psalm 22:18)
   • and He would be given vinegar to drink (Psalm 69:21).
   • No bones would be broken (Psalm 34:20).
   • He would die in shame before men (Psalm 22:13),
   • and he would die abandoned by God (Psalm 22:1).
   But we have not really answered the question, "Why the cross?" Why not some other means?
2. Because the cross is God's symbol of a curse.
   Galatians 3:13 is a quotation from God's law to the Jewish nation given in Deuteronomy 21:23.

   22. And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:
   23. His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

   A Jewish man worthy of death is to be hanged on a tree. This is not the western Gunsmoke form of hanging, but the Jewish hanging of crucifixion.

   "They fix a beam in the earth, and a piece of wood goes out of it (near the top of it) and hang him; the hands are spread, and one hand is fastened to the one part of the cross-beam, and the other to the other end" (Jewish Rabbi Jarchi) as quoted by Gill.

   The person hanged on a tree in the Old Testament pictured a person "cut off" from God. This cursed person is hanged to demonstrate to others he is cursed by God. Throughout the centuries Jews have mocked Jesus calling him, "he who is hanged."
3. Because the cross becomes God's curse for us.
   Have you broken the law of God? Are you worthy of the condemnation of God? Are you "cut off" from God, or abandoned by Him? Does the venom of sin flow through you? Sinners have only one hope -- only one escape -- from God's wrath. We are in the same predicament the children of Israel were in thousands of years ago. Bitten by fiery serpents in the wilderness, facing imminent death, they needed relief. God instructed Moses to build a serpent on a brass pole and to "lift it up." God then said, "Everyone that is bitten, let him look and live" (Numbers 21:8). Look to what (a pole in the ground with a cursed serpent hanging on it)? Look! Look and live!

   "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14,15).

   Jewish law required the cursed person be buried by sundown, the law had been fulfilled.

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