Why did Paul tell Israel that Jesus of Nazareth was accursed?
Paul, before salvation, told Israel that Jesus of Nazareth was accursed because He had been hanged on the cross. The Jews were leaning on Deuteronomy and on what Judas had done, and they spoke in unbelief, not in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Les explains that Paul is speaking especially to Jewish unbelievers who were giving Christianity such a bad time, and he reflects on his own pre-salvation experience. He was literally telling Israel that this Jesus of Nazareth was a curse because He was hanged on the cross. The Jews were leaning on Deuteronomy and on what Judas had done, so they were calling Jesus a curse. They were not doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit but in their unbelief. Les also notes that this verse once bothered him, and that I Corinthians 12 shows no believer under the Holy Spirit's control would ever call Jesus a curse simply because He had been crucified. By the Holy Spirit, no man can truly say Jesus is Lord, while no unbeliever can ever claim Christ as his Lord.
Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
More Questions
Can a Spirit-filled believer call Jesus accursed because he was crucified?
Paul makes it plain in 1 Corinthians 12 that no man who is now a believer and under the control of the Holy Spirit would ever call Jesus a curse simply because He had been crucified.
Who is the one called accursed of God under Israel's Law?
Under Israel's Law, it is specifically the one hanged on a tree who is accursed of God.