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).