The typological nature of the civil law given to OT Israel finds it’s fullest expression in the execution of Christ at Calvary. The application of these laws from the national to the spiritual realm can only be accounted for by the “spiritualizing” and “eternalizing” of the preparatory nature of the Old Testament in the finished work of Christ.

An important biblical theological idea emerges out of Paul’s use of Deuteronomy 21:23 in Galatians 3:13. In the middle of the most polemical book in the New Testament, Paul made the astounding declaration: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’).” The immediate context shows that the curse to which Paul is referring is the curse of the law (Gal. 3:10-11). Returning to Deuteronomy 21, out of which Paul takes the command for capital punishment and applies it to Christ, we discover the theological riches of Gal. 3:13. In Deuteronomy 21:23 we read:

“If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God” (Deut. 21:22-23).

The civil law, given to Israel in redemptive-history, was meant to prepare God’s people for the coming Redeemer. Just as the moral and ceremonial laws pointed to Jesus and our need for Him, so too did the judicial principles of the civil law. The civil law as a redemptive-historical guide is one that has often been neglected–and yet it is one of the richest in all the Scriptures.

Prior to considering the redemptive-historical purpose of the civil law, as it pertains to Galatians 3:13, it will be beneficial to consider the other purposes of the civil law given to Old Covenant Israel. God gave Israel civil law in general-and the death penalty specifically-to reflect His justice among the covenant people and the nations. In so doing, the holiness and justice of God was manifest to all. Additionally, the civil law was meant to restrain civil disobedience in the theocratic church-state of Israel in the Old Testament.  The OT civil law was given because “bad company corrupts good morals” (cf. 1 Cor 15:33). The more unrighteousness was permitted to exist among the covenant people, the more Jehovah’s holiness was obstructed.

The death penalty was the most severe of the juridical laws given to Israel. This irremediable punishment reflected what all men deserve by nature. God had told Adam, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, in dying you will die” (Gen. 2:17). In the Mosaic Law, the death penalty was accompanied by a public display of justice. Death came in by virtue of Adam’s relation to the tree, therefore in the exhibition of the curse of God–in the civil law–the offending party would be hung on the tree as a reminder of that curse (Deut. 21:22). Physical death symbolized eternal death, by which the sinner was banished from God’s favorable presence. When the life of an offending party was taken away, the curse of God was displayed before the eyes of others.

Not all crimes in Israel merited the death penalty. God had arranged a just system to adequately reflect the severity of the crime. We see this distinguishing characteristic in the phrase, “you shall put away the evil from among you.” This verse is repeated nine times in the book of Deuteronomy (Deut. 13:5; 17:7; 12; 19:18; 21:21; 22:21, 22; 24; and 24:7). It is used with reference to the death penalty for those worthy of receiving it. By putting away the evil one from the congregation, the influence of morally unacceptable practices were restrained.

The law always was, in and of itself, powerless to change the heart of the sinner. Obedience to God could never be legislated. Habakkuk declared, “The law is powerless” (Hab. 1:4). The apostle Paul explained this powerlessness when he said, “What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin, He condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3-4).

The limited restraining influence of the civil law served the redemptive-historical purposes of God. By its limited restraint, the nation could continue until the Redeemer came. In this sense, the civil law given to Israel was given to preserve the nation for the coming of the Redeemer; but it was also meant to prepare the nations for the Redeemer and His saving work through typological elements. The civil law, like the moral law was given to show men what they deserved for their sin, and set the stage for the punishment that Christ would endure in the place of His people.
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