Galatians 3 and the Atonement - part 3

Continuing a look at the atonement in Galatians 3. Part 1 here and part 2 here.

"Christ became a curse for us"

So now, back to the rather messy situation in Galatia. If the curse of the law is an exile designed to bring about a restored people who thus share in the Spirit and the blessing of Abraham (see especially 3:14) then the children of Abraham trace their history back through this long process of curse and restoration which has now culminated in Christ. But in what sense did Christ become a "curse for us"? First of all, it must be understood that the curse was not a retributive punishment simply to balance the scales of divine justice against human sin but that it was ultimately corrective and was designed to be restorative. Beyond the punishment of exile was always intended to be a new restored people without the disobedience and uncircumcised hearts of their predecessors. This theme is picked up in the other oft-quoted "proof" for penal substitution, namely Isaiah 53. Again the context is covenantal and presupposes the story of Abraham and the Torah. In Isaiah 53 however, the punishment (of the law) is borne by one individual, the Suffering Servant, and it is through him that the new covenant and restoration that Isaiah and the other prophets envisage is brought about. Ultimately, the whole OT story of how the blessing promised to the Gentiles via Abraham is bound up with Israel, but Israel does not walk the path set out for her and is cursed. It is through this curse however that the restoration (and by implication, the blessing promised to the Gentiles) comes. Moreover, this is not brought about by Israel as a whole, but by one Israelite in particular.

So then Galatians 3:13 can be more clearly understood now we have set out (however briefly) the OT framework for its interpretation. The Messiah, Jesus Christ, has borne the curse set out in the law himself, he has been cut off and rejected, and oppressed and crushed at the hands of pagan powers (both Jewish and Gentile) and in so doing has done what the curse of the law was intended to do - bring about a restored people who would inherit the blessing of Abraham and share in the Spirit, and thus constitute the people of God. so we find in 3:13-14 -

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit."

There is no mention here that Christ became a curse in order to satisfy a demand for divine justice, or as some kind of method of compensating God's honour. If Paul does have these things in mind, he is not interested in mentioning them. The issue, as I stated above, is "who constitutes the children of Abraham?" a question which must now be answered in terms of the Messiah and the Spirit and not, as Paul's opponents had been advocating, in terms of circumcision and other "works of the law".

So what about the works of the law then?

 We can now quite quickly clear up the main Galatian issue here, namely the issue of "works of the law". These works seem to involve circumcision and food laws (amongst other things) and are causing a division among Christians along the lines of Jew and Gentile. We are told that Peter has withdrawn from eating with Gentile Christians, and that the Gentile Titus was compelled to be circumcised (Gal 2). Such actions are dangerous because they are dividing the newly-established people of God. 'Works' such as circumcision marked Jews out from Gentiles, and served as a boundary marker between those who were "in" and "out" of the covenant people. If, as Paul has shown in chapter 3, the covenant people are now established by their receiving Christ and sharing of the Spirit, then any attempt to introduce circumcision and food laws as additional boundary markers are not only dividing up the body of Christ, but they are subverting the work of Christ himself. Hence 3:28-29:

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

All cannot be "one in Christ Jesus" if the church is split into Jewish and Gentile factions by introducing 'works of the law'. Indeed 3:10 quite clearly states that those who rely on these works remain under the curse of the law - but why would this be so? I would argue that since the law is not only a set of commandments, but that it also establishes a divinely-given narrative of curse-exile-restoration, Paul is criticising those who 'rely on the works of the law' because they are seeking to fulfil the law but in the wrong way. Fulfilling the law does indeed bring about life and justification (Lev 18:5, quoted in 3:12) but it does so because the law required that the exile and restoration happen in order for the blessing of Abraham to come to the whole world. This fulfilment has enacted by the person of Christ himself on behalf of Israel ('for us') and thus, by extension, for the whole world, and so any attempt to define the people of God in terms of "works of the law" is not only the wrong way of obeying the law anyway, but Christ has rendered such observances obsolete. Such a reading, I argue, also helps resolve the apparent contradiction between Paul's usage of Deut 27:26 and Lev 18:5 in Galatians 3.

Galatians 3 and penal substitution

 I hope it will be clear by now that if Galatians 3 does teach penal substitution, it does only in the sense that Christ bears the curse put upon Israel in order that Israel and the world be restored. It puts a great strain upon the text to read it as being 'about' how the divine demand for justice have been satisfied by Christ by the hammer of God's justice falling upon him rather than on the mass of sinful humanity, or by Christ making satisfaction, or whatever, and Paul does not reach these conclusions either. His answer to the question "why did Jesus become a curse for us?" is answered in 3:14: "so that the blessing promised to Abraham the the gift of the Spirit might come to the Gentiles" and so we need to be extremely careful of using these verses to support doctrines and theologies that they do not even necessarily support.