“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” Galatians 3:13
Every time we sin against God, we incur a debt of guilt to God for our sin. Overtime, that debt grows. And like a credit card that we can’t pay off, we are unable to pay the debt we owe to God, because we keep sinning again and again and again and the debt just grows larger and larger and larger.
Because of this, we need someone to do what we can’t, to pay what we owe. We need a redeemer.
As our substitute Jesus lived a perfect sinless life, the life we haven’t, and by doing so he met the standard of the law and fulfilled the law on our behalf. Even more, Jesus became a curse to take away our curse of sin. On the cross he substituted himself for us. He died in our place for our sin taking the wrath we deserved, and paid our debt in full. When Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished,” he was saying, “Father, justice is served. I have fulfilled all that you asked. The debt is paid in full.”
How do we know our redemption is secure? After Jesus died a literal physical death; on the third day he rose from the grave proving he is God, proving he is the savior of the world, proving he conquered Satan, sin and death. And proving he is not only willing and able to redeem us; but proving he has redeemed us.
Friends, Jesus paid our debt of sin, and on account of him, God sees our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us—this is called the great exchange. Jesus takes our sin and gives us his righteousness. So in Jesus and because of Jesus, we are declared to be righteous, holy, without blemish in God’s sight.
When a person believes in Jesus and becomes a Christian, they are set free from bondage to sin and the standard of the law. They no longer need to worry if they are good enough or have done enough to please God. They can have joy in the freedom of knowing they aren’t good enough and they haven’t done enough, but it doesn’t matter because of Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus, for taking my sin and becoming a curse so that I could be freed from the curse!
Bubba Jennings is the lead pastor of the Federal Way church.
