So, the azazel became cursed, not only through having sins laid on it, but also though being sent away from the Holy Place. Being sent outside the camp symbolized divine rejection. Symbolically, one was separated from fellowship with the source of life and all good, which is certainly a curse. Sin entered the world through Adam (Romans 5:12), and he was sent away from the Garden of Eden, away from God's holy presence (Genesis 3:17, 23).
Paul bases his statement on Deuteronomy 21:23, which says, …he who is hanged is accursed of God. Those instructions concern the requirement to bury a hanged man on the same day as his execution because he has been cursed by God. To leave an accursed thing hanging would defile the land. Now, Paul applies this to Jesus Christ, recognizing that because Jesus was hanged on a tree, He was cursed.
Think about Him crying out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Well, He knew why. He became a curse, not because of something He had done, but because of what we have done.
This refers to Christ on the tree, which is when and where He bore our sins, as we saw. The Father laid on Christ the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6), just as the high priest laid the iniquities of Israel on the azazel. And Paul says Jesus became a curse. He does not say that Jesus is accursed in the present, because the curse of the law was fulfilled when Christ died. He was then raised up, and the next time He appears, it will be apart from sin, as it says in Hebrews 9:28 - apart from what He took on and became. In the present, He is blessed (Romans 1:25; 9:5; I Timothy 6:15). Yet Paul declares that Christ became a curse for us. He fulfilled the awful, shameful role of the azazel, as only He could.