Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,— The curse of the law, from which Christ hath redeemed us, was that which doomed us to eternal misery; whence it has been justly inferred, that the law of Moses, which is included in this expression, was established on the sanction of future punishments. But, further, it is evident, that the course of the Apostle's argument here implies, that all true believers are redeemed from the curse, and, consequently, that he speaks of a curse to which all, as sinners, were liable: whereas the Gentiles, being under no obligation to the Mosaic lawat all, could not possibly be affected directly by its curse, nor could, indeed, be at all affected by it, otherwise than as the word law in this place includes the law of nature, or the Adamic law, as well as the Mosaic, as it undoubtedly must.
Christ was made a curse for us, by enduring the penalty which our sins had deserved; for such was the death which he bore in our stead, not only when considered as a capital punishment, which universally implies something of this kind, but as thus stigmatised by the express declaration of the law, Deuteronomy 21:23.