sympathy, because the children are yet to live by faith, are not yet
come to the inheritance—‘Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be
made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful
High-priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the
sins of the people’ (Heb 2:17,18).
Two reasons are rendered in this text why he must take flesh—namely,
that he might be their priest to offer sacrifice, to wit, his body and
blood for them; and that he might be merciful and faithful, to pity and
preserve them unto the kingdom appointed for them.
Mark you, therefore, how the apostle, when he asserteth that the Lord
Jesus took our flesh, urgeth the reason why he took our flesh—that he
might destroy the devil and death, that he might deliver them. It
behoveth him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be
merciful and faithful, that he might make reconciliation for the sins
of the people. The reason, therefore, why he took our flesh is
declared—to wit, that he might be our Saviour. And hence you find it so
often recorded. He hath ‘abolished in his flesh the enmity.’ He hath
‘slain the enmity’ by his flesh. ‘And you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in
the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and
unblameable—in his sight’ (Eph 2:15,16; Col 1:21,22).
How he took flesh.
Second. I come now to the second question—to wit, How he took our
flesh. This must be inquired into; for his taking flesh was not after
the common way; never any took man’s flesh upon him as he, since the
foundation of the world.
1. He took not our flesh like Adam, who was formed out of the ground;
‘who was made of the dust of the ground’ (Gen 2:7, 3:19). 2. He took
not our flesh as we do, by carnal generation. Joseph knew not his wife,
neither did Mary know any man, till she had brought forth her
first-born son (Matt 1:25; Luke 1:34). 3. He took flesh, then, by the
immediate working and overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. And hence it is
said expressly, ‘She was found with child of the Holy Ghost.’ ‘Now the
birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was
espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child
of the Holy Ghost’ (Matt 1:18). And hence again, when Joseph doubted of
her honesty, for he perceived she was with child, and knew he had not
touched her, the angel of God himself comes down to resolve his doubt,
and said, ‘Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary
thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost’
(Matt 1:20).
But again, though the Holy Ghost was that by which the child Jesus was
formed in the womb, so as to be without carnal generation, yet was he
not formed in her without, but by, her conception—‘Behold, thou shalt
conceive in they womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name
JESUS’ (Luke 1:31). Wherefore he took flesh not only in, but of, the
Virgin. Hence he is called her son, the seed of the woman; and hence it
is also that he is called the seed of Abraham, the seed of David; their
seed, according to the flesh (Gen 12, 13:15, 22; Luke 1:31, 2:7; Rom
1:3, 9:5; Gal 3:16, 4:4).
And this, the work he undertook, required, 1. It required that he
should take our flesh. 2. It required that he should take our flesh
without sin, which could not be had he taken it by reason of a carnal
generation; for so all children are conceived in, and polluted with,
sin (Psa 51). And the least pollution, either of flesh or spirit, had
utterly disabled him for the work, which to do, he came down from
heaven. Therefore, ‘such an High-priest became us, who is holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the
heavens’ (Heb 7:26).
This mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God was thus completed, I
say, that he might be in all points like as we are, yet without sin;
for sin in the flesh disableth and maketh incapable to do the
commandment. Therefore was he thus made, thus made of a woman; and this
the angel assigneth as the reason of this his marvellous incarnation.
‘The Holy Ghost,’ saith he, ‘shall come upon thee, and the power of the
Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing that
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God’ (Luke 1:35).
The overshadowing of the Holy Ghost and the power of the Highest—the
Father and the Holy Ghost—brought this wonderful thing to pass, for
Jesus is a wonderful one in his conception and birth. This mystery is
that next to the mystery of three persons in one God; it is a great
mystery. ‘Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the
flesh.’
The conclusion is, that Jesus Christ took our flesh that he might be
our Saviour; and that he might be our Saviour indeed, he thus took our
flesh.
That it was necessary that he should take our flesh if he will be our
Saviour.
Third. I come now to the third thing—namely, that it was necessary that
he should take our flesh if he will be our Saviour.
1. And that, first, from the nature of the work; his work was to save,
to save man, sinking man, man that was ‘going down to the pit’ (Job
33:24). Now, he that will save him that is sinking must take hold on
him. And since he was not to save a man, but men, therefore it was
necessary that he should take hold, not of one person, but of the
common nature, clothing himself with part of the same. He took not hold
of angels, ‘but he took on him the seed of Abraham’ (Heb 2:16). For
that flesh was the same with the whole lump of the children to whom the
promise was made, and comprehended in it the body of them that shall be
saved, even as in Adam was comprehended the whole world at first (Rom
5).
Hence we are said to be chosen in him, to be gathered, being in him, to
be dead by him, to be risen with him, and to be set with him, or in
him, in heavenly places already (Rom 7:4; Eph 1:4,10; Col 2:12,13,
3:1-3). This, then, was the wisdom of the great God, that the Eternal
Son of his love should take hold of, and so secure the sinking souls of
perishing sinners by assuming their flesh.
2. The manner of his doing the work of a Saviour did call for his
taking of our flesh.
He must do the work by dying. ‘Ought not Christ to have suffered?
Christ must needs have suffered,’ or else no glory follows (Luke 24:26;
Acts 17:3). ‘The prophets testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ, and the glory that should follow’ (1 Peter 1:11). Yea, they did
it by the Spirit, even by the Spirit of Christ himself. This Spirit,
then, did bid them tell the world, yea, testify, that Christ must
suffer, or no man be blest with glory; for the threatening of death and
the curse of the law lay in the way between heaven gates and the souls
of the children, for their sins; wherefore he that will save them must
answer Divine justice, or God must lie, in saving them without
inflicting the punishment threatened. Christ, then, must needs have
suffered; the manner of the work laid a necessity upon him to take our
flesh upon him; he must die, he must die for us, he must die for our
sins. And this was effectually foretold by all the bloody sacrifices
that were offered under the law—the blood of bulls, the blood of lambs,
the blood of rams, the blood of calves, and the blood of goats and
birds. These bloody sacrifices, what did they signify, what were they
figures of, but of the bloody sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ?
their blood being a shadow of his blood, and their flesh being a shadow
of his flesh.
Therefore, when God declared that he took no pleasure in them, because
they could not make the worshippers perfect as pertaining to the
conscience, then comes Jesus Christ to offer his sinless body and soul
for the sin of the people—‘For it is not possible that the blood of
bulls and of goats should take away sin. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, Sacrifices and offering thou wouldest not, but a
body hast thou prepared me; in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin
thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of
the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God.’ Since
burnt-offerings cannot do thy will, my body shall; since the blood of
bulls and goats cannot do thy will, my blood shall. Then follows, By
the will of God ‘we are sanctified, through the offering up of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all’ (Heb 10:4-10).
3. The end of the work required that Christ, if he will be our Saviour,
should take upon him our flesh.
The end of our salvation is, that we might enjoy God, and that he by us
might be glorified for ever and ever.
(1.) That we might enjoy God. ‘I will dwell in them, and they shall be
my people, and I will be their God.’ This indwelling of God, and
consequently our enjoyment of him, begins first in its eminency by his
possessing our flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. Hence his name is
called ‘Immanuel, God with us’; and ‘the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us.’ The flesh of Christ is the tabernacle which the Lord
pitched, according to that saying, ‘The tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God
himself shall be with them, and be their God’ (Rev 21:3). Here God
beginneth to discover his glory, and to be desirable to the sons of
men.
God could not communicate himself to us, nor take us into the enjoyment
of himself, but with respect to that flesh which his Son took of the
Virgin, because sin stood betwixt. Now this flesh only was the holy
lump, in this flesh God could dwell; and forasmuch as this flesh is the
same with ours, and was taken up with intent that what was done in and
by that, should be communicated to all the children; therefore through
that doth God communicate of himself unto his people—‘God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself’ (2 Cor 5:19). And ‘I am the
way,’ saith Christ, ‘no man cometh unto the Father but by me’ (John
14:6).
That passage to the Hebrews is greatly to our purpose. We have
boldness, brethren, ‘to enter into the holiest,’ the place where God
is, ‘by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath
consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh’ (Heb
10:19,20).
Wherefore by the flesh and blood of Christ we enter into the holiest;
through the veil, saith he, that is to say, his flesh.
(2.) As the end of our salvation is that we might enjoy God, so also it
is that he by us might be glorified for ever—‘That God in all things
might be glorified, through Jesus Christ our Lord.’
Here indeed will the mystery of his grace, wisdom, justice, power,
holiness, and glory, inhabit eternal praise, while we that are counted
worthy of the kingdom of God shall admire at the mystery, and see
ourselves, without ourselves, even by the flesh and blood of Christ
through faith therein, effectually and eternally saved. Oh, this will
be the burden of our eternal joy—God loved us, and gave his Son for us;
Christ loved us, and gave his flesh for our life, and his blood for our
eternal redemption and salvation!
THAT CHRIST WAS MADE UNDER THE LAW.
SECOND. But, secondly CHRIST WAS MADE UNDER THE LAW—‘When the fulness
of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law’ (Gal 4:4).
Of right, being found in flesh, he must needs be under the law, for
that there is not any creature above or without law to God; but this is
not to the point in hand. Christ was not therefore under the law
because he was found in flesh, but he took flesh, and designedly put
himself, or was made under the law; wherefore it is added, He was made
under the law to ‘redeem,’ to redeem them that were under that law.
Wherefore, here is a design, a heavenly contrivance and device on foot;
Christ is made—that is, by design subjected—under the law, for the sake
and upon the account of others, ‘to redeem them that were under the
law.’
Made under the law—that is, put himself into the room of sinners, into
the condition of sinners; made himself subject to the same pains and
penalties we were obnoxious to. We were under the law, and it had
dominion over us, bound us upon pain of eternal damnation to do
completely all things written in the law. This condition Christ put
himself into that ‘he might redeem’; for assuredly we had else
perished.
The law had dominion over us, and since we had sinned, of right it
pronounced the curse, and made all men subject to the wrath of God.
Christ, therefore, did not only come into our flesh, but also into our
condition, into the valley and shadow of death where we were, and where
we are, as we are sinners. He that is under the law is under the edge
of the axe. When David was to go to visit his brethren, and to save
them from the hand of Goliath, he was to look how his brethren fared,
and to ‘take their pledge’ (1 Sam 17:18). This is true of Jesus Christ
when he came to save us from the hand of death and the law; he looked
how his brethren fared, took to heart their deplorable condition, and
put himself into the same plight—to wit, under the law, that he might
redeem them that were under the law.
I told you before that he came sinless into the world, that he had a
miraculous conception, and wonderful birth; and here you see a reason
for it, he was to be put, or made, under the law, ‘to redeem.’ He that
will be made under the law to redeem, had need be sinless and spotless
himself; for the law findeth fault with the least, and condemneth man
for the first beginning of, sin.
Without this, then, there could not have been redemption, nor any the
sons of God by adoption: no redemption, because the sentence of death
had already passed upon all; no sons by adoption, because that is the
effect of redemption. ‘God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons.’ Christ, then, by being made under the
law, hath recovered his from under the law, and obtained for them the
privilege of the adoption of sons.
For, as I told you before, Christ stood a common[3] person, presenting
in himself the whole lump of the promised seed, or the children of the
promise; wherefore he comes under the law for them, takes upon him to
do what the law required of them, takes upon him to do it for them.
He began, therefore, at the first tittle of the law, and going in man’s
flesh, for man, through the law, he becomes ‘the end of the law for
righteousness to every one that believeth.’ The END of the law—what is
the end of the law but perfect and sinless obedience? that is the end
of the law, both with respect to its nature, and the cause of its being
imposed. God gave the law, that complete righteousness should by that
be found upon men; but because sin was got into man’s flesh, therefore
this righteousness, by us, could not be completed. Now comes Christ the
Lord into the world, clothes himself with the children’s flesh,
addresseth himself to the work of their redemption, is made under the
law; and going through every part of the law without sin, he becometh
‘the end of the law for’ justifying ‘righteousness to every one that
believeth’ (Rom 10:4). For he obeyed not the law for himself, he needed
no obedience thereto; it was we that needed obedience, it was we that
wanted to answer the law; we wanted it but could not obtain it, because
then the law was weak through the flesh; therefore God sent his own
Son, and he did our duty for us, even to become the end of the law to
every one that believeth. In this, therefore, Christ laboured for us,
he was made under the law to redeem. Therefore, as I said before, it
behoved him to be sinless, because the law binds over to answer for sin
at the bar of the judgment of God. Therefore did his Godhead assume our
human flesh, in a clean and spotless way, that he might come under ‘the
law, to redeem them that were under the law.’
For, consisting of two natures, and the personality lying in the
Godhead, which gave value and worth to all things done for us by the
manhood, the obedience takes denomination from thence, to be the
obedience of God. The Son’s righteousness, the Son’s blood; the
righteousness of God, the blood of God (Heb 5:8,9; Phil 3:9; Acts
20:28; 1 John 3:16).
Thus Jesus Christ came into the world under the law to redeem, not
simply as God, but God-man, both natures making one Christ. The
Godhead, therefore, did influence and give value to the human flesh of
Christ in all its obedience to the law, else there would have been
wanting that perfection of righteousness which only could answer the
demands and expectation of the justice of God; to wit, perfect
righteousness by flesh.
But the second Person in the Godhead, the Son, the Word, coming under
the law for men in their flesh, and subjecting himself by that flesh to
every tittle and demand of the law; all and every whit of what was
acted and done by Jesus Christ, God-man, for us, it was and is the
righteousness of God; and since it was not done for himself, but for
us, as he saith in the text, ‘to redeem,’ the righteousness by which we
are set free from the law is none other but the righteousness that
alone resideth in the person of the Son of God.
And that it is absolutely necessary thus it should be, is evident, both
with respect to God and also with respect to man.
With respect to God. The righteousness is demanded by God; therefore he
that comes to redeem must present before God a righteousness absolutely
perfect; this can be done by none but God.
With respect to man. Man was to present this righteousness to God;
therefore must the undertaker be man. Man for man, and God for God,
God-man between God and man. This daysman can lay his hand upon us
both, and bring God and man together in peace (Job 9:33).
Quest. But some may say, what need of the righteousness of one that is
naturally God? Had Adam, who was but a mere man, stood in his
innocency, and done his duty, he had saved himself and all his
posterity.
Answ. Had Adam stood, he had so long secured himself from the wages of
sin, and posterity so long as they were in him. But had Adam sinned,
yea, although he had not defiled his nature with filth, he could never
after that have redeemed himself from the curse of the law, because he
was not equal with God; for the curse of the law is the curse of God;
but no man can deliver himself from the curse of God, having first
transgressed. This is evident, because angels, for sin, lie bound in
chains, and can never deliver themselves. He, therefore, that redeemeth
man from under the law must not only do all the good that the law
requireth, but bear all the penalty that is due by the law for sin.
Should an angel assume human flesh, and in that flesh do the law, this
righteousness would not redeem a sinner; it would be but the
righteousness of an angel, and so, far short of such a righteousness as
can secure a sinner from the wrath of God. But ‘thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy soul, with all thy heart, with all thy mind,
with all thy strength.’ If there were no more required of us now to
redeem ourselves, it would be utterly impossible for us to do it,
because in the best there is sin, which will intermix itself with every
duty of man. This being so, all the heart, all the soul, all the
strength, and all the mind, to the exact requirement of the justice of
the law, can never be found in a natural man.
Besides, for this work there is required a perfect memory, always to
keep in mind the whole duty of man, the whole of every tittle of all
the law, lest sin come in by forgetfulness; a perfect knowledge and
judgment, lest sin come in by ignorance; an everlasting unweariedness
in all, lest sin and continual temptation tire the soul, and cause it
to fail before the whole be done.
For the accomplishing of this last, he must have—1. A perfect
willingness, without the least thought to the contrary. 2. Such a
hatred of sin as is not to be found but in the heart of God. 3. A full
delight in every duty, and that in the midst of all temptations. 4. A
continuing in all things to the well-pleasing of the justice of God.
I say, should the penalty of the law be taken off, should God forgive
the penalty and punishment due to sins that are past, and only demand
good works now, according to the tenor of the law, no man could be
saved; there would not be found that heart, that soul, that mind, and
that strength, anywhere in the world.
This, therefore, must cease for ever, unless the Son of God will put
his shoulder to the work; but, blessed be God, he hath done it—‘When
the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.’
CHRIST TOOK UPON HIM OUR SINS.
THIRD. But thirdly, CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR TAKES UPON HIM OUR SINS. This is
another step to the work of our redemption. ‘He hath made him to be sin
for us.’ Strange doctrine! A fool would think it blasphemy; but Truth
hath said it. Truth, I say, hath said, not that he was made to sin, but
that God made him to be sin—‘He hath made him to be sin for us’ (2 Cor
5:21).
This, therefore, showeth us how effectually Christ Jesus undertook the
work of our redemption—He was made to be sin for us. Sin is the great
block and bar to our happiness; sin is the procurer of all miseries to
men both here and for ever. Take away sin, and nothing can hurt us; for
death temporal, death spiritual, and death eternal, are the wages of
sin (Rom 6:23).
Sin, then, and man for sin, is the object of the wrath of God. If the
object of the wrath of God, then is his case most dreadful; for who can
bear, who can grapple with the wrath of God? Men cannot, angels cannot,
the whole world cannot. All, therefore, must sink under sin, but he who
is made to be sin for us; he only can bear sins, he only can bear them
away, and therefore were they laid upon him—‘The Lord hath laid upon
him the iniquity of us all’ (Isa 53:6).
Mark, therefore, and you shall find that the reason why God made him to
be sin for us was, ‘that we might be made the righteousness of God in
him.’ He took our flesh, he was made under the law, and was made to be
sin for us, that the devil might be destroyed, that the captives might
be redeemed, and made the righteousness of God in him.
And forasmuch as he saith that God ‘hath made him to be sin,’ it
declareth that the design of God and the mystery of his will and grace
was in it. ‘He hath made him to be sin.’ God hath done it, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. There was no other way;
the wisdom of heaven could find no other way; we could not by other
means stand just before the justice of God.
Now, what remains but that we who are reconciled to God by faith in his
blood are quit, discharged, and set free from the law of sin and death?
Yea, what encouragement to trust in him, when we read that God ‘made
him to be sin for us.’
Quest. But how was Jesus Christ made of God to be sin for us?
Answ. Even so as if himself had committed all our sins; that is, they
were as really charged upon him as if himself had been the actor and
committer of them all. ‘He hath made him to be sin,’ not only as a
sinner, but as sin itself. He was as the sin of the world that day he
stood before God in our stead. Some, indeed, will not have Jesus Christ
our Lord to be made sin for us; their wicked reasons think this to be
wrong judgment in the Lord; it seems, supposing that because they
cannot imagine how it should be, therefore God, if he does it, must do
it at his peril, and must be charged with doing wrong judgment, and so
things that become not his heavenly Majesty; but against this duncish
sophistry[4] we set Paul and Isaiah, the one telling us still, ‘the
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all’; and the other, that ‘God
made him to be sin for us.’
But these men, as I suppose, think it enough for Christ to die under
that notion only, not knowing nor feeling the burden of sin, and the
wrath of God due thereto. These make him as senseless in his dying, and
as much without reason, as a silly sheep or goat, who also died for
sin, but so as in name, in show, in shadow only. They felt not the
proper weight, guilt, and judgment of God for sin. But thou, sinner,
who art so in thine own eyes, and who feelest guilt in thine own
conscience, know thou that Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God in
flesh, was made to be sin for thee, or stood sensibly guilty of all thy
sins before God, and bare them in his own body upon the cross.