In his letter to Christians in Galatia, the Apostle Paul describes God’s law given to Israel through Moses as a “guardian.” The Law serves to guard God’s people until the day of Christ, to the end that they “…might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24, ESV). The Law, per Paul, prepares the human heart to receive Jesus Christ.
Consider this truth on display with a striking passage in Deuteronomy 21. In verses 18-21 of this chapter, we read the following:
“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear” (ESV).”
In Jesus’ case, these words of the Law unfolded as prescribed, yet in reverse and via crucifixion. In Christ, this prescription of parental discipline occurred not against the stubborn and rebellious son, but against the gracious (Lk. 2:52) and submissive (Lk. 2:51, Phil. 2:8) son. It was the will of the Heavenly Father to crush his divine Son (Is. 53:5, 10), and it was the sin of Israel’s elders that their hands did the crushing (Lk. 23:1-2, 20-25). Jesus died like the son of Deuteronomy 21:18-21, and yet he lived as the only wholly righteous son ever to grace the earth.
Now, interestingly, consider where Deuteronomy goes immediately after this passage. In verses 22-23 we read this:
“And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance” (ESV).”
These words stand in the background of John 19, when the Jewish leaders want Jesus dead and buried before the Sabbath begins (vs. 31). Paul, in Galatians 3, applies them to Jesus when he 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’…” (vs. 13, ESV).
The person who hears the Law of Moses in Deuteronomy, and then sees it fulfilled, in reverse, in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, faces the inescapable question: “Why?” Why did this righteous son unjustly suffer the penalty of a rebellious son? The answer is first, “For you,” and then second, “He didn’t.” Let me explain…
Jesus suffered unjustly for you. If you’re asking the above question, then I trust it’s because the Spirit of God has stirred your heart to hear and believe the Gospel. Jesus died the death of Deuteronomy 21:18-21, and suffered the curse of Deuteronomy 21:22-23, so that you won’t. You’re the rebellious son (so was I) or daughter, and yet God, in love, ordained that the gracious and obedient divine Son should die in your place. Jesus lived Deuteronomy 21:18-23 for you.
Now for that second answer, “He didn’t.” What I mean is this: Ultimately Jesus’ death on a cross wasn’t unjust. From a human perspective the righteous Jesus died at the hands of unjust, unrighteous persecutors. That’s true. But it’s not the whole picture. From God’s perspective, according to the Father’s good plan – the one established before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8) – Jesus’ death occurred to fulfill God’s justice, not to violate it. Jesus died for sin, and therefore his death was good and just.
A part of me struggles to type those words, but they’re true. Here it is from the Holy Spirit, through Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (ESV). There’s deep mystery in that statement, every bit as deep, and perhaps deeper, than the divine Son becoming human (Phil. 2:5-7). The mystery of Christ’s incarnation prepared for the mystery of sin’s imputation to this righteous God-Man (Phil. 2:8). It was right that Jesus died, and just that Jesus died, because God the Father placed on him – he imputed to Christ – the iniquities of all God’s children (Isaiah 53:6). In one breath we must say two things: 1) Jesus’ death was the greatest travesty of justice that ever occurred, or ever will occur; 2) Jesus’ death was the greatest act of wrath-quenching justice that ever occurred, or ever will occur. Both statements are true!
Brothers and sisters, the Law of God in Deuteronomy prepares us for Jesus Christ. In the end, the question of God’s Law is simply this: “Will you receive God’s Son?”
Fix Your Mind 