Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 21:22-23 but the application of that passage to Christ is hard to take in because it raises so many questions. How could Christ, the Son of God, be made a curse, for as God he is above all suffering? How could Christ be made a curse for us unless he was under the law himself? How could God who made the law become subject to the law? Since only man is subject to the law, how can the Son of God who is not a man place himself under the law? If the Son of God takes on human nature by becoming incarnate, how can he do so without himself incurring the guilt of Adam’s first sin? How can one person stand in the place of another person under the law? How could a single man endure the weight of the suffering of the curse due to millions of his people? How could he bear all this without spending eternity in hell and himself being destroyed? How can God’s people become free from the curse of the law while remaining alive in the world?
Christ, the Son of God, redeemed us from the curse of the law by coming in infinite condescension and making himself liable for the sins of his people. God who is incapable of suffering took human nature in order that he could suffer on our behalf, and in so doing the Creator joined himself with one of his own creatures. Only as a man could he suffer the penalty due to men and women whom God wished to redeem. In being born a man Christ voluntarily placed himself under the law and made himself responsible for fulfilling all its requirements. He escaped the corruption of Adam’s first sin through the virgin birth, by having a human mother but not a human father. He lived in perfect obedience to the law so that he earned life for himself under its terms. On the cross he willingly took the guilt of the sins of his people, becoming surety for them, and God the Father punished him with the punishment that we deserve to suffer for all eternity. His divine nature enabled him to sustain this suffering without being destroyed, and his resurrection from the dead proved that he had succeeded and that the Father accepted his atoning death for the sake of his people. When anyone responds to the call of the gospel and exercises faith in the cross of Christ, they are justified by faith alone and his perfect righteousness is imputed to them so that they are viewed as without sin and the curse of the law is removed.