The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 351

, crs. 22, 23.-.Accursed of God. The criminal who had committed a sin worthy of death, and was put to death under the law, was viewed as dying under the ban or curse of God. \:Vben the crime was very execrable, and the criminal might be regarded as perishing under God's most awful curse, the fact was intimated by exposing the body on a tree. Compare the old custom of hanging a notorious criminal in chains. The piacing of the body on a tree was not that which made the person accursed, but was an external sig:n or token of his being an accursed one. It was, therefore, a singular and striking: feature in God's providential arrangements, not only that the death of Christ should be brought about as a result of jud~ment passed on .him by the consti- tuted authorities of bis nation, pronouncing him guilty of the worst of all crimes under the theocracy, that of blasphemy, but that in the manner of his death even this external token of ignominy should not be wanting. In this act, the placing of Jesus ou the cross, the sin and madness of the world were overruled, as in several other instances (Matt. xxvii. 25, 29, 42 ; Mark xv. 27, 28; John xi. 50), to give unwitting expression to the highest truth. "Christ bath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being: made a curse for us ; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Gal. iii. 13). The crucifix.ion of Jesus signifies to us: 1. The world's judgment upon Christ. It put him to death as one accursed of God. It treated ~im as the worst of malefactors, and interpreted his death upon the cross as a. sure token of God having forsaken him (Matt. xxvii. 43). To many it may have appeared as if the iuference were just. 'l'be Sanhedri~ had convicted him of blasphemy, and their verdict seemed c0nfirmed by the failure of Christ to deliver himself out of their hands. A true Christ would not thus have succumbed befure hi~ enemies. 'l'he cross was the refutation of his claims, and the proof of his being an impostor, justly doomed to. die. "We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted" (Isa. liii. 4). The world was wrong, for Jesus was never dearer to bis Father t,ba.n in that hour when ho hung upon the tree; but, in a sense unkuown to itself, it gave utterance to a truth. 2. Christ's bubrr.i6sion to a cur6ed dtathfor the world. The subjection of the sinless Christ to tho death of the cross is a fact which requires explauation. If the world put him to death a,; one e.ccll!lled, it -is noue the less true that he voluutarily submiUed to this sutferiDIJ on. X1. 1-23.] THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. 351