Chapter 115

2. This stumble of theirs might arise from their not observing and keeping in mind the alarm that God gave them of his birth. (1.) God began to give them the alarm at the birth of John the Baptist, where was asserted that he was to go before the face of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare his ways. ‘And fear came on all that dwelt round about them, and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea’ (Luke 1:65). (2.) Again, what a continuation of this alarm was there also at the birth of Jesus, which was about three months after John Baptist was born? Now come the angels from heaven. Now comes a strange star over the country to lead the men of the east to the stable where Jesus was born; now was Herod, the priests, the scribes, and also the city of Jerusalem, awakened and sore troubled; for it was noised by the wise men that Christ the King and Saviour was born. Besides the shepherds, Simeon and Anna gave notice of him to the people. They should, therefore, have retained the memory of these things, and have followed God in all his dark providences, until his Sun of Righteousness should arise among them with healing under his wings.

3. I may add another cause of their stumble—they did not understand the prophecies that went before of him. (1.) He was to come to them out of Egypt—‘Out of Egypt have I called my Son’ (Matt 2:15; Hosea 11:1). (2.) He turned aside into Cana of Galilee, and dwelt in the city of Nazareth, ‘that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene’ (Matt 2:23). (3.) That saying also was to be fulfilled, ‘The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up’ (Matt 4:15,16; Isa 9:2, 42:7).

At these things, then, they stumbled, and it was a great judgment of God upon them. Besides, there seemed to be a contradiction in the prophecies of the Scripture concerning his coming. He was to be born in Bethlehem, and yet to come out of Egypt. How should he be the Christ, and yet come out of Galilee, out of which ariseth no prophet? Thus they stumbled.

Hence note, that though the prophecies and promises be full and plain as these were, that he should be born in Bethlehem, yet men’s sins may cause them to be fulfilled in such obscurity, that instead of having benefit thereby, they may stumble and split their souls thereat. Take heed then; hunt not Christ from plain promises with Herod, hunt him not from Bethlehem, lest he appear to your amazement and destruction from Egypt, or in the land of Zabulon! But this much to the second question; to wit, What it was for Jesus to come into the world.

I come now to the third question.

[WHAT IT WAS FOR JESUS TO COME TO BE A SAVIOUR.]

QUEST. THIRD. What it was for him to come to be a Saviour.

For the further handling of this question I must show—First. What it is to be a Saviour. Second. What it is to come to be a Saviour. Third. What it is for Jesus to come to be a Saviour. To these three briefly—

First. What it is TO BE a Saviour. 1. A saviour supposeth some in misery, and himself one that is to deliver them. 2. A saviour is either such an one ministerially or meritoriously.

Ministerially is, when one person engageth or is engaged by virtue of respect or command from superiors, to go and obtain, by conquest or the king’s redemption, the captives, or persons grieved by the tyranny of an enemy. And thus were Moses and Joshua, and the judges and kings of Israel, saviours—‘Thou deliveredst them into the hands of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies’ (Neh 9:27). Thus was Jesus Christ a Saviour; he was engaged by virtue of respect and command from God to obtain, by conquest and redemption, the captives or persons grieved. God sent his Son to be ‘the Saviour of the world’ (John 4:42).

Meritoriously is, when the person engaging shall, at his own proper cost and charge, give a sufficient value or price for those he redeemeth. Thus those under the law were redeemed by the money called the redemption-money—‘And Moses gave the money of those that were redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons’ (Num 3:46-51). And thus was Jesus Christ a Saviour. He paid full price to Divine justice for sinners, even his own precious blood—‘Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ’ (1 Peter 1:18,19).

And forasmuch as, in man’s redemption, the undertaker must have respect, not only to the paying of a price, but also to the getting of a victory; for there is not only justice to satisfy, but death, devil, hell, and the grave, to conquer; therefore hath he also by himself gotten the victory over these. He hath abolished death (2 Tim 1:10). He hath destroyed the devil (Heb 2:14,15). He hath been the destruction of the grave (Hosea 13:14). He hath gotten the keys of hell (Rev 1:18). And this, I say, he did by himself, at his own proper cost and charge, when he triumphed over them upon his cross (Col 2:14,15).

Second. What it is TO COME to be a Saviour.

1. To come to be one, supposeth one ordained and fore-prepared for that work—‘Then said he, Lo, I come, a body hast thou prepared me’ (Heb 10).

2. To come to be a Saviour supposeth one commissionated or authorized to that work—‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me,’ authorized me, ‘to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised’ (Luke 4:18). And upon this account it is that he is so often called Christ, or the Anointed One; the anointed Jesus, or Jesus the Anointed Saviour. ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.’ ‘This Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ.’ He ‘testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ,’ ‘and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving’ by the Scriptures ‘that this is very Christ’ (John 11:27; Acts 9:22, 17:3, 18:5); the very anointed of God, or he whom God authorized and qualified to be the Saviour of the world.

3. To come to be a Saviour supposeth a resolution to do that work before he goeth back—‘I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction; repentance shall be hid from mine eyes’ (Hosea 13:14).

And as he resolved, so he hath done. He hath purged our sins (Heb 1:3). By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified (Heb 10:14). He hath obtained eternal redemption for them (Heb 9:12; 2 Tim 1:10; Heb 9:26; Col 2:15; Heb 6:18-20).

Third. I come now to the third question—What it is for JESUS to come to be a Saviour.

1. It is the greatest discovery of man’s misery and inability to save himself therefrom that ever was made in the world. Must the Son of God himself come down from heaven? or can there be no salvation? Cannot one sinner save another? Cannot man by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him? Cannot an angel do it? Cannot all the angels do it? No; Christ must come and die to do it.

2. It is the greatest discovery of the love of God that ever the world had, for God so to love the world as to send his Son! For God so to commend his love to the world as to send it to them in the blood of his Son! Amazing love! (John 3:16; Rom 5:8).

3. It is the greatest discovery of the condescension of Christ that ever the world had, that he should not come ‘to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many’ (Matt 20:28). That he should be manifest for this purpose, ‘that he might destroy the works of the devil’ (1 John 3:8). That he should come that we ‘might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly’ (John 10:10). That the Son of God should ‘come to seek and to save that which was lost’ (Luke 19:10). That he should not come ‘to judge the world, but to save the world’ (John 12:47). That ‘Christ Jesus should come into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief’ (1 Tim 1:15). That he should ‘love us, and wash us from our sins in his own blood’ (Rev 1:5). What amazing condescension and humility is this! (Phil 2:6-9).

HOW JESUS CHRIST ADDRESSED HIMSELF TO THE WORK OF OUR REDEMPTION.

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 particularly, 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 him our flesh. I showed you before that he came in our flesh, and now I must show you the reason of it—namely, because that was the way to address himself to the work of our redemption.

Wherefore, when the apostle treated of the incarnation of Christ, he added withal the reason—to wit, that he might be capable to work out the redemption of men.

There are three things to be considered in this first head. First. That he took our flesh for this reason—that he might be a Saviour. Second. How he took flesh, that he might be our Saviour. Third. That it was necessary that he should take our flesh, if indeed he will be our Saviour.

[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, by reason of the inability that is in our flesh to do it—for the law can do us no good until it be 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 certain 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 himself took part of the same.’ Had the children, the heirs, been without flesh, he himself 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 goeth 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, by means of 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 overthroweth all that perish. Now this did Christ destroy 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 deliver 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 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.