The cross of Christ accomplished God’s eternal redemption for us according to the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory to become the basis of our eternal salvation. Hence, we must thoroughly know the cross.
1) “Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse on our behalf; because it is written, Cursed is everyone hanging on a tree” (Gal. 3:13).
“Tree” here signifies the cross, which was made of wood. In Deuteronomy 21:23 of the Old Testament, God prophesied in the judgments of the Law that Christ would be hung on a tree, that is, be hung on the cross.
1) “They cried out then, Away with him, away with him, crucify him! Pilate [the Roman Governor] says to them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered. We have no king but Caesar [the Roman Emperor]” (John 19:15).
The Jewish form of execution was to stone a criminal to death (Deut. 22:24). However, about sixty years before the Lord’s birth, the Jewish nation fell to Rome. Not long before the Lord was sentenced to death on the cross by the Roman governor, the Roman Empire had adopted crucifixion as the form of execution for the most evil persons. Thus, when the Jews sought to kill the Lord, they crucified Him through the hands of the Roman governor, fulfilling God’s prophecy in Deuteronomy 21:23 concerning how the Lord would die. This was done by the sovereign hand of God.
1) “Now it was the third hour [9 a.m.], and they crucified Him” (Mark 15:25).
Christ was crucified beginning at nine o’clock in the morning.
2) “Now from the sixth hour [noon] darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour [3 p.m.]” (Matt. 27:45).
Christ was crucified until three o’clock in the afternoon. From nine in the morning to three in the afternoon is a total of six hours. In the first three hours, God did not punish Him in the sinners’ place; it was men persecuting Him. In these three hours, He suffered for martyrdom, not redemption. At noon, the earth became dark. From this point until three o’clock, it was not men persecuting Him but God judging Him in the sinners’ place. In those three hours, He suffered for redemption, not martyrdom.
1) “Who Himself carried up our sins [plural, referring to man’s sins in his outward deeds] in His body onto the tree, in order that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness” (1 Pet. 2:24).
The first thing Christ accomplished on the cross was to bear the various sins in our outward actions, that is, the sins committed by a person himself, that we may be saved and pass from death into life.
2) “But now...He has been manifested for the putting away of sin [singular, referring to man’s sin in his inward nature] by His sacrifice” (Heb. 9:26).
On the cross, at the same time, Christ removed the sin in our inward nature, that is, the sin inherited by birth, that we may be delivered from our sinful nature within.
3) “Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse on our behalf; because...Cursed is every one hanging on a tree” (Gal. 3:13).
Christ bore our outward sins and removed our inward sin on the cross, receiving the curse which, according to God’s law, we should have received because of our fall and our sin.