Why did the Jews call Jesus accursed or a curse?
The Jews called Jesus a curse because they leaned on Deuteronomy and on what Judas had done, reasoning that His crucifixion—being hanged on a cross—made Him accursed. They did this in unbelief, not under the Holy Spirit's control, as Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 12.
Les explains that Paul, reflecting on his own pre-salvation experience, had literally told Israel that Jesus of Nazareth was a curse because He was hanged on the cross. The Jewish unbelievers were giving Christianity a bad time and 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. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul makes plain that no believer under the Holy Spirit's control would ever call Jesus a curse simply because He had been crucified. The other side is that no man can say Jesus is the Lord and really mean it except by the Holy Spirit; no unbeliever can claim Christ as his Lord. Les notes that years ago this verse bothered him: how could anybody accuse Jesus of being a curse? But this was their reasoning.
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.
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.