What does it mean that Jesus became a curse for us (Galatians 3:3)?

In Galatians 3:13, the apostle Paul writes, “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’” (ESV). The phrase becoming a curse for us summarizes what Jesus did on the cross. His was more than a physical death; there was a spiritual dimension to what He did, and that is why His sacrifice is significant for our salvation.

Disobedience to God’s moral law places a curse on the one who disobeys. In the Old Testament, God made a covenant with Israel and gave them rules to obey. If they obeyed His laws, they would receive blessings. If they disobeyed His law, they would receive a curse. Deuteronomy 27:26 says, “Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.” A curse was God’s righteous judgment against sin, disobedience, and rebellion. The “curse of the law” mentioned in Galatians 3:13 was upon us all, for we have all broken God’s moral law (Romans 3:10, 23).

The New Testament picks up Deuteronomy 27:26 and applies it to humanity as a whole: “All who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law’” (Galatians 3:10) Because no one can perfectly obey the law, everyone is under the curse of the law.

The situation seemed hopeless, until Jesus graciously became a curse for us. In other words, Jesus suffered the penalty meant for us. Galatians 3:13 in the NLT says, “When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing.” Jesus was sinless, but He willingly took the curse of sin when He hanged on the cross and died. The blood He shed was the payment for our iniquities. Jesus went to that cross because He loved us; He died in our place by suffering the consequence of our sins.

Paul alludes to Deuteronomy 21:23, which says that “a hanged man is cursed by God” (ESV). As Jesus became a curse for us, He was being treated as if He were accursed (see Isaiah 53:4). The one who had no sin was regarded as if He were full of sin. The only Holy One was handled as if He were the most unholy. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The doctrine of substitutionary atonement—that Jesus died as a substitute for sinners—is clearly taught in the fact that Jesus became a curse for us. The same doctrine is prefigured in the Old Testament. In Leviticus 16, a goat was symbolically burdened with the people’s sins and then sent away into the wilderness. The goat was regarded as carrying the sins of the people away. Jesus was the perfect and final scapegoat. He bore our sin and, in doing so, took the curse we deserved. He, in fact, became a curse for us.

On the cross, Jesus experienced excruciating physical torment (Isaiah 53:5). He also experienced spiritual torment, bearing the weight of our sins and transgressions. In Matthew 27:46, Jesus cried loudly, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” We deserved the punishment, but Jesus took it for us.

Jesus became a curse for us to free us from the power of sin and death. In Romans 6:6, Paul writes, “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.” In other words, by becoming a curse for us, Jesus freed us from the dominion of sin as well as the penalty of sin. The curse is lifted, and the promises of God are available to us by grace through faith in Christ.