Redeemed from the Curse¹

A Sermon by Alexander Stewart

Galatians 3:13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.

We have noticed the legal value of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ as a satisfaction to divine justice for the sins of all His elect people. And we have seen that the suffering of the Surety, or Substitute, as satisfying justice, was in exact conformity to the principle by which all men are virtually reckoned to be created in Adam. All men, by the terms of the covenant [of works], stood in Adam; and all men fell in him. Therefore the admission of a Substitute in the room of the sinner, though an act of unspeakable grace, is not a relaxation of justice, but is in true harmony with the principle by which all men are accounted to be one in Adam.

How fitting the name given to the Surety – the second Adam. So truly does He stand, as did the first Adam, as the Head and Representative of all His people. It must be evident that this arrangement is founded in justice, seeing it is the appointment of the God of justice. If no connection existed between the Redeemer and His saved people, or if they were united but by a slight tie, it would clearly be an act of injustice that He should suffer, or that His suffering should be accounted any satisfaction for their sin. But as the union between them is what it is, the rectitude of the arrangement is apparent.

The holy Jesus and His redeemed people are one, by the sovereign act of God – by His gracious purpose from eternity. “I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.” “He . . . spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.” By His sovereign purpose from eternity, God chose whom He would and gave them to Christ to be redeemed by Him and to be united to Him for ever. And this purpose of God was fixed by the Son’s accepting the strange gift, the gift of a multitude of lost souls – souls dead under the wrath and curse of God – and becoming so thoroughly one with these lost souls that, in their room and stead, He undertook to bear the curse and to satisfy the justice of God on their behalf.

The blessed Saviour and His people are also united in a bond of everlasting

¹Taken, with editing, from The Mosaic Sacrifices, a book produced from notes of Stewart’s sermons on this subject; these notes were made by a hearer. There is an overlap with the larger work, The Tree of Promise, which covers a wider range of topics and was produced from the notes prepared by Stewart with a view to preaching. This is the fourth in a series of sermons on the sin offering. The latter volume is available from Free Presbyterian Publications for £16.95. Stewart (1794-1847) was minister in Cromarty.

love. “Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it” – that is, for His mystical body, all who savingly believe in Him. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” This bond of love is of everlasting duration, without beginning, without ending, immeasurable, a love whose height cannot be scanned and whose depth cannot be fathomed.

When the time was come, Christ and His people were further united by the tie of nature. That He most truly has taken our nature, we see in the chapter read, Hebrews 2, where it is said: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil”; and again, “For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren”. And in another place the Apostle says, “We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones”.

Instead then of its being an objectionable procedure that the one should stand as the representative of the many, it is a strict, exact adherence to the principle by which, in God’s moral government, He was pleased to constitute Adam the head and representative of the whole human race. Jesus, the blessed Surety, being God as well as man, makes the satisfaction which He has rendered an adequate satisfaction to Divine justice. It is not the worth of the souls He redeems which gives value to the satisfaction; it is the intrinsic worth of the Sufferer which renders the satisfaction superabundantly satisfactory. Three things are to be carefully noticed:

1. It is the free, sovereign appointment of God that a guiltless Substitute should stand in the room of the guilty sinner.

2. Because Christ and His redeemed people are so truly one, the way of salvation is a way of strict justice and of conformity to the principles of God’s dealings with man.

3. The price paid for the redemption of sinners was so intrinsically valuable as to render superabundant satisfaction to the justice of God.

We are now treading on holy ground, and it becomes us to approach the subject with reverence, to put our shoes off our feet when we come to consider this great mystery – the way by which Jesus, the Son of God, became a curse in the room and stead of guilty man. We read that “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law”. Those He came thus to redeem are under the law, but not as men and angels are under the law as a rule of life. The law is the expression of the will of the supreme moral Ruler of the universe. Men and angels are equally bound to reverence and

obey this law, but those whom Christ came to redeem were under the law as a covenant of life, and under the curse of a broken law.

In the text, the Apostle says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law” – the curse incurred by the transgression of the law. All descended from Adam are under this curse – under the wrath and curse of God, which is due for the transgression of His holy law. By His miraculous conception, the Divine Saviour escaped the inheritance of the curse; though He was truly man, He did not partake of the pollution of man’s nature. It was not by inheritance that He was under the law; it was His own voluntary, sovereign will to come under the law. Adam himself was not in this sense created under the law. It was after his creation in the garden of Eden that Adam became bound by the law as a covenant; so truly was the second Adam like the first in every respect.

Adam, though bound by the law as a covenant of life, failed in its requirements, and consequently brought on himself, and entailed on all mankind, the curse of the broken law. It was from this curse that Christ came to redeem man, by voluntarily coming under the law, that in their room and stead He might keep the whole law, satisfying its utmost demands, and so obtain eternal life for Himself and all His people.

What may be called a legal term often occurs in the Bible: for example, the words, “He shall bear his iniquity”, as they are applied in many passages to a soul guilty of sin. This means that the soul thus guilty, whatever the nature of the transgression, should lie under the guilt of sin and sooner or later suffer the punishment due for sin.

These words are pointedly applied to Christ in Isaiah 53, where, it is said at verse 11, “By His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities”. And in verse 12, “He bare the sin of many”. And why, it may be asked, should He bear the sin of many? This is answered at verse 6. It is because “all we like sheep have gone astray”, because “we have turned every one to his own way”, that “the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all”. Thus, because of our transgression, God causeth to meet on the head of the Divine Surety the iniquities of all His people. He bears their iniquity. Throughout His life on earth, there was, as it were, a gloom on the mind of the Holy Jesus. He was a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Let us look at His position on earth. He was doomed to die from the hour He first drew breath on earth until He voluntarily resigned His life on the cross. He bore the burden of guilt, and was under a sentence of death throughout His life on earth.

Moses points out the spirit suitable for those in such circumstances – condemned to die, charged by God with guilt. That spirit includes a humbled

heart, acceptance of the punishment of their iniquity, owning the righteous judgement of God. If this is the spirit impressed by the Word of God on any ordinary man in such a position, must it not then surely have been the spirit of this unique Divine Man also, so that He should own the justice of the sentence and accept of the punishment inflicted? Should anyone wonder that, under this burden of guilt, the blessed Saviour was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief?

It was as a man that Jesus suffered; by His sufferings His manhood is distinctly brought into view. His human nature was especially displayed on earth; but, though His humanity was prominent, His true Deity was not concealed. His spotless purity was manifest, but freedom from sin does not constitute Deity. Angels and glorified spirits are free from sin, but they are not therefore equal with God. The purity of Christ was more than the purity of angels or of men; it was divine excellence. And this excellence was displayed on earth, His enemies themselves being judges; they owned that never man spake like this man.

The majestic dignity of His acts testified to the Deity of Christ. Who but God might say to the raging sea, “Peace, be still,” or to someone dead, “Lazarus, come forth,” or to one diseased of leprosy, “I will, be thou clean”? Who but God might act with this supreme authority? His miracles implied His Deity, but Jesus, meek and lowly and full of humility as He ever was, never disavowed that He was God. The answer He gave to John’s disciples, when they were sent to Him, implied that He was God; for the works He did were the works which only God could do. John instantly disavowed that he was the Messiah and bore witness that there came one after him who was mightier than he. Jesus asserted His authority; He even said to the Jews that, if He should deny it, He should be a liar like themselves.

While Christ was on earth, though He never disavowed His Deity, it was veiled. It was kept close, while His manhood was shown forth. So truly was He in the likeness of man that it is apparent that He was subject to man’s lowest sinless infirmities.

Another circumstance to be noticed is that Jesus acted by inspiration of the Holy Ghost. In proof of this we may turn to Acts 10:38, where it is said, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went about doing good . . .”. Also Luke 4:1 says, “Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led of the Spirit into the wilderness”; and verse 18 reads, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor . . .”. Thus we clearly see that Jesus was anointed by the Spirit, or acted by inspiration of the Holy Ghost; and we must beware of thinking that He thus acted in a way in-

consistent with His true Deity. It was not inconsistent with His Deity to act by inspiration of the Spirit.

God created all things by the Son, but the Son acted by the agency of the Spirit. So truly is the blessed Jesus assimilated to His servants that, like them, He acted by inspiration of the Spirit of God. Like Enoch, He walked with God, but how much more closely than any Enoch could. Like Noah, He bore testimony to the truth of God amidst the scoffing and mocking of an apostate world. Like Abraham, His faith was triumphant and His obedience unswerving in the midst of unparalleled trial. Like Jacob, He was a wrestler, and as a Prince He had power with God and prevailed. Like Joseph, He was hated and despised of His brethren, and how noble was the love and forgiveness He extended to these brethren! Like Job, He was patient; when reviled He reviled not again. Like David, He was a persecuted saint, but also a royal and triumphant conqueror. Like Elijah, He was a burning reformer – He was clad with zeal as a cloak. It is written: “The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up”.

These saints who have been named all acted by inspiration of the Spirit, and so closely was Jesus assimilated to His servants that He acted by the same Spirit. The difference was: the Spirit was given by measure unto them; the Spirit was given to Jesus without measure. Instead of it being inconsistent with true Deity to act by inspiration of the Spirit, it is Deity only which is capable of receiving this fulness of the Holy Ghost – the Spirit without measure.

How immeasurably Jesus excelled these saints in those graces for which they were so distinguished! Pre-eminent as their excellence was, Jesus far surpassed that excellence. Yet how like His servants He was – David especially. Like him, He suffered, being tempted. So closely does even the experience of this Divine Man resemble David’s that the very language which describes the experience of the one prophetically anticipates that of the other.

But how marvellous that the Holy Son of God should be a scholar in the school of experience, and that His experience should be that of a servant! In Philippians 2:6 it is said: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”. Thus the holy Son of God, in human nature, learned the duties of a servant, being faithful and obedient. We see this further in Hebrews 5: “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him”.

We may notice the suffering of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ during His life on earth, during His public ministry, but how impossible is it for us to conceive His sufferings unless we could see sin as it appeared in His Holy eyes. How, it may be asked, would parliamentary orators appear if we saw them with Christ’s Holy eyes? Those who, in their projected plans of improvement, employ their talents and eloquence ostensibly to ameliorate the condition of the poor; but yet, in the eyes of Him who seeth not as man seeth – who can discern the end from the beginning – they may appear but as one party of souls under the curse holding out better facilities to another, to rush on to perdition.

Many plausible pretexts in the name of benevolence are urged as excuses for the desecration of God’s holy day. There are but two alternatives – either believe the Bible to be the Word of God or deny it. Let the pretended philanthropist deny the truth of the Bible and they may frame what laws they please for the Sabbath. But believing the Bible to be the revelation of God’s will to man, those pretexts for the profanation of the day which He commands to be kept holy can have no weight.

How would the holy soul of Jesus suffer on seeing men bent on destruction? How would He look on the works of art, to the accomplishment of which concentrated energy and talent have been employed? Or what would He see in the toil-worn labourer – truly under the curse – earning his bread not only by the sweat of his face, but exhausting his very life-springs in labouring for the meat which perishes. How would the compassionate Jesus look on someone, thus toil-worn for the things of time, while not bestowing a thought on the things of eternity? What suffering would His holy soul endure thus to witness souls under the curse!

If He were in this congregation, what would He see? Maybe, on looking around, His all-seeing eye might discern, in many apparently attentive and interested hearers, only souls under the curse. Or if His eye should rest with complacency on an individual, it would be on seeing a soul redeemed from the curse. A person remarkable for his gravity was asked flippantly why he was so grave. He replied to the questioner, “It is seeing such as you that makes me grave”. The cause of sadness in the mind of the Man of Sorrows was the sight of lost souls – His spotless purity coming in contact with all the filthiness of sin – for He did not live the life of a hermit but associated with sinners. And what suffering to His compassionate nature it was to live among dead souls – to live in a charnel-house! His holy soul was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.

We know that Lot was a righteous man and was vexed by the abominations he witnessed. We know this because Peter tells us so; otherwise it might

have been a matter of doubt, but no doubt can exist as to the holiness of this Divine Man, who dwelling among sinners, in seeing and hearing, most truly vexed His righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. But all similitudes come unspeakably short; all language fails to express the unutterable loathing of His holy soul in witnessing sin.

What suffering the holy Saviour endured in His teaching and preaching among men! By parables He endeavoured to present the truth and elude the wiles of Satan in shutting the heart against its reception. By miracles He recommended the truth He taught, yet He had to say, “Who hath believed our report?” and, “All day long have I stretched out My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people”.

Among men’s sons, those He came to save, His soul was as if He were among fierce lions. And if at any time He condescended to visit them – to join in their social meetings – how infinitely preferable would retired communion with His Father have been to His holy nature! But if He thus at any time condescended to attend their feasts, what testimony does He bear to the treatment He received? “With hypocritical mockers at feasts they gnashed on Me with their teeth.” How universal is human depravity! When He looked to see if there were any that did understand – that did seek God – they were all together become filthy; there was none that did good; no, not one. And how deep-rooted is sin! It is in the heart that Satan has his stronghold. What a work then was before the blessed Saviour to accomplish! What mountains there were to remove before the work of redemption could be completed and the curse taken away!