But, though the sentence is passed in what I may term ‘loving righteousness,’ there is something inexpressibly awful in it. Indeed it is all the more awful when regarded as the righteous sentence of a God who loves us. The fact that the sentence is passed, notwithstanding such love, is itself a proof of its awful importance, and the clearest possible evidence that a righteous God cannot clear the guilty, and cannot set aside the law which He has given to His people. We must conclude, therefore, that the curse is certain, and that it cannot be set aside by anything that we can do. We have no power to deliver ourselves from the awful curse of the law of God. It is a judgment far more certain, and far more awful, than that of the wretched criminal in the condemned cell waiting for execution. It is more awful, for it cuts us off from God Himself. It hides His countenance; it separates from His love, and it reaches right away into eternity. Such is the curse of the law, the curse that foolish sinners trifle with, the curse that ungodly men bandy about in foul oaths. It is a just curse—a curse inflicted according to law; a curse pronounced by one who loves the culprit; a curse that could not be set aside unless the Lawgiver were to neutralise His law, and the righteous King abandon the holy principles of His kingdom. * * * * * III. So we now turn to the third point,—the redemption price, or the great act by which He has redeemed us. Now, you will observe that with reference to this great subject there are no illustrations employed in the text. There is nothing said about a ransom, or an offering, or any other illustration; but we are brought at once to the great fact of the substitution of the Redeemer for the redeemed: ‘He hath redeemed us from the curse, being made a curse for us.’ I know of no way of explaining that passage, except by the doctrine of substitution. The passage is exactly like those other words of the Apostle Paul, 2 Cor. v. 21: ‘He hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.’ In the one passage the Lord Jesus is said to be made a curse, and in the other to be made sin; and in both it is said to have been done ‘for us’ (ὑπερ ἡμῶν), _i.e._ on our behalf, or in our stead. Now do not suppose that I do not recognise the depth of mystery involved in this most wonderful truth. I can sympathise with those that scarcely know how to grasp it. I know there is a depth about it beyond the limits of human thought; but there are two considerations that have always satisfied my own mind.