Our Cursed Christ (A Good Friday Sermon)

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 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”-so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:10-14)

The point of this sermon is very simple: for us to understand what Jesus was doing on the cross.

Jesus died. That’s what we remember today. He died as a convicted criminal on a Roman cross on a Friday afternoon in the first century on a hill outside Jerusalem. Those are the facts. But what was the meaning of his death? Why do Christians sing songs about a bloody cross? Why did the cross become the universal symbol for Christianity? What happened there on the instrument of execution? Read more