“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”— 1 Peter 2:24
The gospel is the good news that broke into this world gone desperately wrong. When Adam and Eve gave into temptation in the Garden of Eden, their sin brought a curse into the world (Gen 3:1–19). That which was to be life-giving became pain-inflicting. The harvest of the ground, meant to be life-sustaining fruitfulness, would become an exhausting part of our existence (Gen. 3:17–19). Childbirth, bringing new life into the world, would be excruciating and painful (Gen. 3:16). What would mankind have to show for this labor and toil and pain? “To dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). And when Adam and Eve were sent away from the Garden, the way back home with God was barred by an angel with a flaming sword, picturing the curse of the broken law which no sinful human being could hope to overcome (Gen. 3:22–24).
The curse could only be broken by someone who didn’t deserve to bear it, taking its full penalty on himself. Peter speaks in terms of the curse when he says that Christ “bore our sins in his body on the tree.” This is curse-bearing language. Paul writes, citing Deuteronomy 21:23, “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’” (Gal. 3:13).
The one who perfectly obeyed the law, and didn’t deserve to be inflicted with the pain of the curse, died in agony so that we might live the life we were created to live: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). It’s worth remembering the words Jesus spoke to the penitent thief who hung next to him on the cross: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Through his cursed death on the cross—cursed finally and fully in the place of all who believe—Jesus walked through the flaming sword of God’s justice and opened the way to paradise. “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus says, “No one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6). That’s the good news—there’s a way back home again by faith in Jesus.
What Jesus accomplished for all who believe is not just re-entrance into the blessing of God’s presence, but a return to the blessed way of righteous living according to God’s law. It can no longer inflict judgment upon us because through his wounds we have been healed (Isa. 53:5). Christ has paid it all—our record of debt was nailed with Jesus to the cross (Col. 2:13–14). Now, rather than fear death, we can live to righteousness, because in him we have been made righteous (1 Cor. 1:30).
