(10) For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. (11) But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. (12) And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. (13) Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree: (14) That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Let the Reader, as he passeth over this paragraph, first notice the form of expression the Apostle useth, concerning the law. He doth not say, as many as were born under the law; for he himself was born under it, as well as multitudes of God's people, whom the Lord had brought out of it. Neither doth he say, as many as live according to the commandments of the law; for we read; that Zacharias and Elizabeth were both enabled, through grace, to do this. Luke 1:6. Paul doth not speak slightingly of the law; for elsewhere he saith, the law is good, if a man use it lawfully. 1 Timothy 1:8; Romans 7:12. But the Apostle's expression is: For as many as are of the works of the law; that is, are looking to it, either in whole, or in part, for justification. All such, saith Paul, are under the curse; that is, are necessarily under the condemnation of it, because it universally condemns, every son and daughter of Adam: for all have sinned and come short of it. Romans 3:23; Deuteronomy 27:26. Reader! are you fully impressed, with this great, and most unquestionable truth? Romans 3:19; James 2:10. Such only are, whom God the Holy Ghost hath prepared, for receiving with holy joy, the soul-reviving Scripture, which the Apostle adds: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us!
I be the Reader to weigh well the statement of this passage; for it is most weighty, and precious. There are indeed two Scriptures, which in point of mystery, and in point of mercy, overwhelm the soul of every regenerated child of God, when he comes, under the Holy Ghost's teaching, to contemplate them in his mind. The one is, where Christ is said to be made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5:21, And the other is, what the Holy Ghost hath recorded in this place: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Reader! behold them together, and ponder well the vast expressions. Christ, the holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, first made sin, and then a curse! He who knew no sin, made sin for us; that we, who know no righteousness, and literally have none, should be made the righteousness of God in him.
We shall enter into a clearer apprehension of the unspeakable mercy in this dispensation, if, under the Lord's teaching, we consider the Scripture-sense of redemption. The word is borrowed from an ancient, well-known custom, among men, of buying off, or redeeming, what is pledged by one man to another, by way of security. A man may be said to redeem a thing, when he buys it out. And, in case of want, if he gives an equivalent value for it. In the Jewish Church, the Lord himself appointed this method of redeeming, and no doubt with an eye to his own vast redemption of his Church. Leviticus 25:25. The mortgaged inheritance, became a striking resemblance, of our forfeited privileges. And what a redemption was that which Christ made, when to deliver us from the curse, he himself was made a curse? And having, therefore, paid the fullest equivalent, yea, infinitely beyond all possible conception of greatness, as an equivalent for the debt; the law can have no further demands, the Principal, and Surety, cannot both pay. And the debt once paid, the prison doors Justice herself throws open; and the Lord's redeemed ones are free. Christ hath once died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. 1 Peter 3:18; Zechariah 9:11; Isaiah 49:9.