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The Cross and God's Wrath: Exchanging Curse for Blessing |
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 Frosty Hansen's second article in his series that focuses on the Cross of Christ.
Familiarity breeds contempt. A person or a place can lose significance, the saying goes, when too often regarded. That can be true about the message of the Cross. We can nonchalantly speak of the substitutionary death of Christ. Songs about “…that wonderful Cross” and “…blessed Calvary” flow effortlessly from our lips without much thought of the horror that fell upon Christ. We know and love to tell the story, and maybe have been moved to tears by a vivid account of the physical suffering associated with crucifixion, but how often are we gripped by the spiritual hell Christ endured? More can be said about the substitutionary atonement and its implications than many issues of Truth Magazine can hold, so this is by no means the final word. My prayer is that this will serve as a reminder of the awful price of our salvation and lead us to awe-filled worship of the Savior. In an effort to help us shift away from a cavalier approach to the Cross, I would like to focus on one phrase in Scripture:
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us"….Galatians 3:13a
What a powerful statement! I want to concentrate on two points underscored in the context (3:10 -14). First of all, Christ became a curse while He hung on the tree. Originally this curse, or judgment of God, deservedly rested on us. Because of our failure and inability to continue to do everything written in the law, we faced the impossibility of ever being justified before God based upon our own abilities. And secondly, by becoming a curse, Christ not only removed the curse from us, he replaced it with blessing.
The Wrath of God
The concept of a “curse,” whether upon us or Christ, has troubled theologians and their followers for centuries. The idea of a curse implies intense anger or wrath from God, and we prefer to concentrate on verses that tell us “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8). We want a God who blesses, not a God who curses. Love and blessings are what we want to embrace, not wrath and curses. A friend illustrated this years ago when he told me he only read the New Testament. “I just don’t like the God of the Old Testament,” he said. “He’s harsh and angry. I prefer the God of the New Testament – a God of love and grace.” Did God change when the calendar flipped from B.C. to A.D.? Were God’s judgements and wrath harsher in ancient times? With the coming of Christ, did his love and grace mollify some of God’s “Old Testament” attributes?
God is not like a leading man in a second rate Hollywood remake, with attributes that can be slightly altered or reinterpreted to make Him more palatable to our current sensibilities. God is exactly Who He has always been and Who He always will be. When He says, “I the Lord do not change” (Mal. 3:6; Num. 23:19; Jas. 1:17), we can understand that God’s attributes have not altered one iota. Neither do they rise and fall as our emotions are wont to do. They never cease to be at work in perfect balance and harmony with each other.
God’s wrath – His holy reaction to sin – might not be something we like to talk about in our tolerant Twenty-first Century society, but it is a reality. God’s holiness cannot coexist with sin (or sinners). We read this throughout the Bible. Sin in any form – action, word, thought or emotion – is rebellion that separates creation from Creator, sinful man from holy God. He cannot tolerate sin and is angered by sin, so much so that sinners cannot please nor approach Him with impunity. This is what lies behind Paul’s statement in Galatians 3. God’s righteousness stands in stark contrast to humanity’s sinful rebelliousness. By nature He is holy and cannot tolerate sin; by nature we are sinful, called children of wrath, who know that they which commit sin “…are worthy of death…” (Rom. 1:32). Nobody may base their hope for a right standing before a holy God on personal acts of random kindness or good intentions; all of us have sinned, falling short of the glory of God. All of us should conclude: We are under a curse.
Christ on the Cross redeemed us, becoming that curse for us. At the Cross two attributes – God’s wrath and love – worked together in perfect harmony. In order for that to happen, the sinless Son of God faced a prospect exceedingly more horrific than the cruel, physical torture of Roman crucifixion. Christ bore our sins and endured the full measure of the Father’s wrath, which humanity rightfully deserved.
The historical account of that event unfolds in Matthew 27. Having been placed on the Cross the third hour (9 AM), he endured insults and mockery until the sixth hour (12 noon) when a tremendous darkness began to engulf the whole land. At the ninth hour (3 PM) when the darkness was breaking, “…Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is to say, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (vs. 46). If there was a, “the moment,” when Christ became a curse for us, this was probably it. He was not, as some have stated, merely quoting Psalm 22. Nor was it that Jesus only felt alone and forsaken at the time of physical death. This was the genuine cry a loving and obedient Son being abandoned by his Father at the moment of his greatest need, as he alone carried the weight of the penalty for our sins. An actual, dreadful separation was taking place between the Father and the Son. Christ was enduring the hell of separation from the Father so that we would never need to experience it.
As we consider the awful forsakenness Christ endured, we must not forget two things. Firstly, even though the abandonment by the Father and that horrible separation were real, the unity of the Triune God was never broken. Scripture tells us, at the same time the Son was experiencing the horror of the wrath of God on the Cross, “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself…” (2 Cor. 5:19). And, this was not an arbitrary act that caught Christ off guard. It was according to the predetermined plan of the Triune God. The purpose of the incarnation was so that the Son might give his life as a ransom for sinners: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).
Our Blessings
It should never cease to amaze us that Christ redeemed us “…by being made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). God made the sinless Son “…to be sin for us…” (2 Cor. 5:21). These two verses speak of Christ as our substitute, taking our place. The concept of a substitute was taught in the sacrificial system God implemented for Israel in the Old Testament. Though all of these offerings point in one way or another to the coming of Christ, the annual Day of Atonement in particular gives us the clearest picture of Christ being a substitute.
On that holy day, according to Leviticus 16, two goats were required. One was sacrificed for the sins of the people. The second goat was the “scapegoat.” Instead of being sacrificed on the altar, the scapegoat was brought to the priest who would lay both hands on the goat’s head. This act identified him and the people with the goat. Then he would “…confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat…” (16:21). After ascribing or imputing symbolically the sins of the people onto the goat, it was taken into the desert where “…the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited…” (16:22). For another year, Israel’s sins had been atoned for.
Though the transfer of sins to a scapegoat was temporary in nature, like all Mosaic sacrifices, it served as a picture of the transaction that occurred on the Cross. As Israel’s sins were transferred to the goat and were no longer counted against them, so too, Christ has willingly taken our sins upon himself. Because of our Savior’s once-for-all sacrifice, in a more perfect and complete way than Israel’s annual sacrifices, God is no longer imputing or counting our sins against us (2 Cor. 5:19).
The concept of imputing is not a one-way street. As great as it is, that our sins were imputed to Christ at the Cross, Paul goes on to tell us that this occurred so that “…we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). The sinless Christ was made sin with our sin, so that we might be made righteous with his righteousness. Because of Christ we now stand righteous before God, holy and blameless in His sight!
Our Response
John Newton, a slave ship captain who turned to Christ, gave testimony of his faith in a number of hymns, including “Amazing Grace.” His most famous quote, though, came at age 82 when Newton said, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: That I am a great sinner; and that Christ is a great Savior.” We do not truly understand the Cross of Christ unless we reach these same conclusions.
Our sin is great. It separates us from God. We are worthy of eternal condemnation because of our sin. And it was because of our sin that Christ went to the Cross: those “little” things that tug at our hearts – bitterness, selfishness, greed, lust…pride – they are not that little. But we have a great Savior in Jesus Christ. God could have left us to go our own way, but while we were still sinners Christ came and died for us. Because he loved us he was willing to become sin for us, even though that meant the darkness of separation on the Cross. In him God has provided the ultimate substitute who reconciles us to Himself, forgives us of our sins, and clothes us with Christ’s righteousness.
What is your response to the love poured out for you on the Cross? Christ has already paid the price. Salvation is offered to you freely, by grace through faith in Christ. If you have any questions about having a relationship with Christ, please contact us at
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. Next issue – Reconciliation through the Cross
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