Christ was crucified in order to give Himself for us that He might impart life to us. This is altogether positive, whereas dealing with sins and rescuing us from the evil age are negative. On the positive side, Christ crucified imparts the divine life to us so that He might live in us in resurrection to free us from bondage under law (2:20). Through His death on the cross, Christ released His divine life and imparted the divine life into us. This makes it possible for Him to live in us in resurrection.
If Christ had not been crucified, it would not be possible for Him to come into us. A “raw,” unprocessed Christ cannot dwell in us. Before Christ could come into us and live in us, He had to deal with our sins and with our fallen nature. The old “I,” the “I” without God, had to be dealt with. To deal with sin and with our fallen nature, Christ had to be crucified. Dealing with these negative things opened the way for Christ to impart Himself into us as our life and thereby to live in us. Thus, Christ’s living in us is based upon His death on the cross.
Furthermore, the Christ who lives in us is a Christ in resurrection. If Christ had not been crucified, how could He have been resurrected? This would, of course, have been impossible. And if Christ were not in resurrection, He could not live in us. The only Christ who can dwell in us is a resurrected Christ, a processed Christ, a Christ who has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. The process through which Christ has passed affords Him the ground and the way to enter into us and to live in us in His resurrection life. A “raw” Christ could never be life to us. The Christ who is our life and who lives in us is the processed Christ. Through His crucifixion He dealt with our sins and with our fallen nature. Now, based upon the work accomplished in His crucifixion, He lives in us in resurrection. This indicates clearly that the cross is the center of God’s operation for the carrying out of His economy.
Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse on our behalf; because it is written, Cursed is every one hanging on a tree.” Christ as our substitute on the cross not only bore the curse for us, but also became a curse for us. The curse of the law issued from the sin of man (Gen. 3:17). When Christ took away our sin on the cross, He redeemed us out of the curse.
The Galatians surely were foolish in going back to the law. What did they expect to do about the curse of the law? As descendants of Adam, they were under the curse like everyone else. If we read Romans 5, we see that Adam brought us all under the curse. But the curse was not altogether official until the law was given. But the law now declares that all the fallen descendants of Adam are under the curse. In Galatians 3:13 Paul seemed to be telling the Galatians, “The law is not good to you, for it has made the curse official. The curse brought in by the fall of Adam has been made official by the law. You are very foolish to return to the law. The law condemns you and makes your curse official. But through His crucifixion, Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law. On the cross He was even made a curse for us.”
Sin, the evil age, and the curse were all serious problems. Without the cross of Christ, how could God deal with these problems and carry out His economy? We certainly need Christ crucified. We need the Christ who has died on the cross to solve all these problems.