Chapter 21 ends like this: "If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, you must not leave the body hanging on a pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance." (Deuteronomy 21:22-23)
These two verses are not a reference to the use of crucifixion as a method of capital punishment. Crucifixion is believed to have been invented by the Persians somewhere around 300 BC- 400 BC, about a thousand years after the lifetime of Moses, so Moses isn't talking about crucifixion but about the ancient practice of displaying the dead body of a person who has been executed for a capital offense. The purpose of displaying the body was so it could serve as a warning to anyone else contemplating the same crime. But in Israel the body was not to be left for days on end in the manner of other nations. Some cultures would display a carcass until it completely rotted and fell apart or was pulled down and dragged apart by wild animals. The Lord doesn't intend for such displays to take place in Israel; the body is to be taken down and buried before nightfall. This is an act of mercy upon the body of the executed person and upon the loved ones of the executed person. Leaving a body hanging until it decomposed was heaping insult upon injury, so to speak, and the pagan cultures regularly did this. But once capital punishment has been carried out in Israel, that is to be the end of the matter. Nothing is to be gained by prolonging this display; it only hurts the innocent relatives of the executed person and it creates a stench and a potential health hazard.
Although Moses isn't speaking of the practice of crucifixion, which did not exist in his day, the Apostle Paul took the words of Moses and applied them to Jesus Christ. We will take a look at how Paul was not twisting the text of the Old Testament when he applied Moses' words to Christ even though crucifixion was not known by Moses. Paul spoke of the "curse" of living under the law because no man could perfectly keep the law. He contrasted living under the law with living in the era of grace---the era in which Christ has redeemed mankind from the law---saying: "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 pole.'" (Galatians 3:13) Paul was saying, "Christ took the curse upon Himself so we would not have the curse of our sins placed upon us. We deserved to be hanging on the cross instead of Him but He offered Himself in our place. God put all our guilt on His shoulders."
The Apostle Peter put it like this: "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed." (1 Peter 2:24) Peter was quoting the words of the prophet Isaiah, who foresaw the death of Christ and said: "Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:4-6)
Why did those who observed Christ on the cross consider Him punished and stricken and afflicted by God? Because Moses said that cursed is anyone who is hung on a pole---meaning cursed by God. Many who saw Jesus on the cross believed He was getting what He deserved, that He actually was a sinner who had blasphemed the name of God by claiming to be the Son of God, and they felt that God was punishing Him for His sins. But what was actually taking place was that He willingly took our place. The curse we deserved was given to Him instead. Because Christ allowed our sins to be placed on Himself, He was bearing the curse that should have been ours. He stood in our place like a sacrificial lamb, but because He was the holy and spotless Lamb of God, His sacrifice was capable of saving the soul of every person for all eternity. This is something a sacrificial animal could not do. And because Christ was the Lamb of God, no grave could hold Him. Isaiah foresaw not only the death of Christ but also the resurrection of Christ. He said that all was not as it seemed, for the death of Christ on the cross was not an ending, but a beginning: "Yet it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hands. After He has suffered, He will see the light of life and be satisfied." (Isaiah 53:10-11a)
You and I don't have to be under a curse today. We can live in the grace of the Lord instead. We can look in faith to what Christ did on the cross and accept that He became a curse in our place. He bore our iniquities. He accepted our punishment. He "canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross". (Colossians 2:14) Christ bore our sins in His body on the cross, nailing our sins to the cross and leaving them there! Those charges will no longer be read against us if we have trusted in Jesus Christ as our Savior. We won't stand before a holy God someday and be condemned for our sins. He will not bring any charges against us because they were left way back behind us, on the cross of Christ, and now when He looks at us He sees His Son in us. He will declare us "not guilty"---not because we aren't guilty but because Christ took our place and because we have put our trust in Him.
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