Purposes of Christ's Death: Galatians 3:13-14

This is yet another repost from the Purposes of Christ’s Death series. You can find the other posts from this series by clicking on the purposes of Christ’s death label at the end of this post.

In this post in the series looking at the explicit purpose statements for Christ’s death found in scripture, let’s consider Galations 3:13-14:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we could receive the promise of the Spirit by faith. (NET)

The purpose statement found here for Christ’s death—or for Christ becoming a curse for us—is “in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we could receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.”

What exactly does it mean when it refers to the blessing of Abraham? We can find the answer in the text just prior to these verses:

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel to Abraham ahead of time, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” (v. 8)

God promised Abraham that through his lineage blessing would come to the Gentiles. Verse 14 tells us that the promise to Abraham that all the nations would be blessed in him was the promise of the coming of the Spirit to those of faith.

The law, which contained promised blessing to those who kept it, also contained a curse for all those who didn’t keep it, and so it became a universal curse upon mankind, for there was no one (except Christ himself, of course) who kept the law. All human beings, both Jew and Gentile, find themselves with a curse hanging over them because of their disobedience to the demands of the law. In Christ’s death on the cross, he bore the curse of the law that we earned for ourselves by not keeping the law.

This is one of the clearest references in scripture to the substitutionary nature of Christ’s death. Christ’s death accomplished what it did because He became a curse for us. This text calls Christ’s vicarious bearing of our curse an act of redemption for us.

These two verses are set within the context of Paul’s contrast of the Spirit over against the law. While everyone has earned the curse of the law, those in Christ Jesus, both Jew and Gentile, receive the blessing promised to Abraham instead when they receive the Spirit by faith.

In these verses we see that one of the purposes of Christ’s death was the fulfilling of the promise to Abraham that the nations would be blessed in him, and this promise was fulfilled in the coming of the Spirit through faith, and this coming of the Spirit is grounded in Christ’s bearing of the law’s curse in our place.

Purposes of Christ's Death: Hebrews 2:14-15

This is another reposting of a piece from the Purposes of Christ’s Death series that I began shortly after I started blogging. You can find the other reposts from this series by clicking on the purposes of Christ’s death label at the end of this post.

Today’s purpose statement comes from Hebrews 2:14-15:

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death. (NET)

The purpose statement in this verse is actually a purpose statement for Christ’s incarnation, but the purpose of the incarnation as given is so that Christ could accomplish something through his death. Christ became human just like we are “so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death.” Christ had to be just like us and live our sort of life in order to represent us as our high priest and offer himself to God in our place (See verse 17.).

The purpose of this representative death is to defeat the devil. The text describes the devil as “the one who holds the power of death”. It was Satan’s influence that introduced death into creation, and he continues to work within the sphere of death, bringing about as much death as God allows. Christ’s death nullifies Satan’s deathly power, so that those who belong to Christ are freed from their subjection to Satan. They no longer are forced to live their lives in fear of death because, through Christ and his work, they have freedom from Satan’s power and the hope of eternal life.

Another purpose of Christ’s death is to take the power of death away from the devil and, in this way, set people free from their fear of death.

Purposes of Christ's Death: Titus 2:14 and Ephesians 5:25-27

This is another reposting of a piece from the Purposes of Christ’s Death series that I began shortly after I started blogging. You can find the other reposts from this series by clicking on the purposes of Christ’s death label at the end of this post.

This post looks at two portions of scripture at once, because the purpose statements in each of these texts are similar.

He gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good. (Titus 2:14 NET)

Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, so that he may present the church to himself as glorious—not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:25-27 NET)

The purpose statement in the first verse is “to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good”; and in the second text it is “to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, so that he may present the church to himself as glorious—not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.”

Since I’m concluding these two purpose statements are similar, you can see that I’m making the assumption that the church and a people who are truly his are roughly equivalent in meaning. Each statement, then, says that a purpose of Christ’s death is have a group of people who are pure or spotless. In the first verse, these people are called “a people who are truly his.” The idea is ownership. These are people who belong to Christ; they are his treasured possession. In the second text, the group of people are called “the church”, and you can see the idea of treasured possession here, as well, because the church is likened to Christ’s bride—something He loved in the same way that husbands are encouraged to love their wives, and something that He was willing to give himself to obtain.

In Titus 2:14 it is said that Christ’s death was “to set us free.” This literally means “to release when a ransom is paid”. Christ’s death, or his giving himself for us, is intended as a ransom payment whereby His people are released from sin, and also as the basis upon which they are purified. I would take this purification to be that of the sanctifying process, although some might argue that. These purified people who belong to him are then identified by their zealousness for good works. To obtain for himself a purified people, then, is the purpose of Christ’s death given to us in this verse.

In the second statement, Christ is also described as having given Himself. He gives Himself on behalf of the church, in order to sanctify her; and then, when she is completely sanctified, He presents her to Himself in all of the glorious purity that has been worked in her based on His own death for her. According to these verses, possessing a purified church is a purpose of Christ’s death.

One purpose for Christ’s death, then, is for Him to possess a purified people.