This text gives two reasons 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 asserted that the Lord Jesus took our flesh and urged why he took it—that he might destroy the devil and death and deliver them. It behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be merciful and faithful and make reconciliation for the people's sins. Therefore, the reason he took our flesh is declared—to wit, that he might be our Saviour. 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 now come to the second question—How he took our flesh to wit. This must be inquired into, for his taking flesh was not after the standard 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, ‘which 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 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, to be without carnal generation, yet was he not formed in her without, but by, her conception—’ Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy 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 therefore 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 because 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 he came down from heaven to do. Therefore, ‘such a 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 at all points like we are, yet without sin; for sin in the flesh disabled and maketh incapable to do the commandment. Therefore, he was made, thus made of a woman, and this is what the angel assigned as the reason for his marvelous 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 is a great mystery next to the mystery of three persons in one God. ‘Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.’
The conclusion is that Jesus Christ took our flesh and that he might be our Saviour.
That he needed to take our flesh if he would be our Saviour.
Third. I come now to the third thing—namely that he needed to take our flesh if he would 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, he was necessary to 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 have 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 was the wisdom of the great God that the Eternal Son of his love should take hold of it and so secure the sinking souls of perishing sinners by assuming their flesh.
