I come, then, in the next place, to show you how Jesus Christ addressed himself to the work of man’s redemption.
The Scripture saith, ‘He became poor,’ that he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, that he humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross. But remarkably, FIRST, He took upon him our flesh. SECOND, He was made under the law. THIRD, He took upon him our sins. FOURTH, He bore the curse due to our sins.
[HE TOOK UPON HIM OUR FLESH.]
FIRST. He took upon himself our flesh. I showed you before that he came in our flesh, and now I must show you the reason for it—namely, because that was the way he addressed himself to the work of our redemption.
Therefore, when the apostle spoke of the incarnation of Christ, he added the reason—to wit, that he might be capable of working out the redemption of men.
[He took our flesh, that he might be a Saviour.]
[First.] For the first. That he took our flesh for this reason—that he might be a Saviour: ‘For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh’ (Rom 8:3).
The sum of the words is, Forasmuch, as the law could do us no good, because of the inability that is in our flesh to do it—for the law, can do us no good until it is fulfilled—and because God had a desire that good should come to us, therefore did he send his Son in our likeness, clothed with flesh, to destroy, by his doing the law, the tendency of the sin that dwells in our flesh. He therefore took our flesh, that our sin, with its effects, might by him be condemned and overcome.
The reason, therefore, why he took flesh is because he would be our Saviour—’ Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage’ (Heb 2:14,15).
In these words, it is asserted that he took our flesh for specific reasons.
1. Because the children, the heirs of heaven, are partakers of flesh and blood—’ Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also took part of the same.’ Had the children, the heirs, been without flesh, he had not taken it upon him; had the children been angels, he had taken upon him the nature of angels; but because the children were partakers of flesh, therefore leaving angels, or refusing to take hold of angels, he took flesh and blood, the nature of the children, that he might put himself into a capacity to save and deliver the children; therefore it follows, that ‘through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.’
2. This, therefore, was another reason—that he might destroy the devil.
The devil had bent himself against the children; he is their adversary, and goes forth to make war with them—’ Your adversary, the devil.—And he went to make war with the remnant of her seed’ (1 Peter 5:8; Rev 12:17). Now the children could not destroy him, because he had already cast them into sin, defiled their nature, and laid them under the wrath of God. Therefore Christ puts himself among the children, and into the nature of the children, that he might, using his dying in their flesh, destroy the devil—that is, take away sin, his [the devil’s] work, that he might destroy the works of the devil; for sin is the great engine of hell, by which he overthrows all that perish. Now Christ destroyed this by taking on him the similitude of sinful flesh, of which more anon.
3. ‘That he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them.’ This was the thing in chief intended, that he might deliver the children, that he might deliver them from death, the fruit of their sin, and from sin, the sting of that death—’ That he might deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.’
He took flesh, therefore, because the children had it; he took it that he might die for the children; he took it that he might deliver the children from the works of the devil—’ that he might provide them.’ No deliverance had come to the children if the Son of God had not taken their flesh and blood; therefore, he took our flesh, that he might be our Saviour.
Again, in a Saviour, there must be not only merit but compassion and sympathy because the children are yet to live by faith, are not yet come to the inheritance—’ Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High-priest in things about God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2:17, 18).
