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).