by Rev. J. Colquhoun, D.D.
I proceed now to the third head of discourse, which was—To assign reasons of Christ’s incarnation.
1. The eternal Son of God assumed the human nature to a personal union with himself, that the prophecies and types of his incarnation might be fulfilled in him.
Many prophecies of this were, under the Old Testament, announced to the Church. The Psalmist speaks of him as the Man of Jehovah’s right hand, the Son of man, whom he hath made strong for himself. Isaiah speaks concerning him thus:—“Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.” “A man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest.” “He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground:” and “as a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Jeremiah thus prophesies concerning him—“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper.” Ezekial speaks thus of him—“I will set up one Shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them and he shall be their Shepherd.” Daniel prophesies of him as the Messiah who was to be cut off, but not for himself. Micah prophesies thus—“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee He shall come forth unto me who is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” And Zechariah—“Behold, the Man whose name is THE BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord: even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory.” None of these prophecies could have been fulfilled in him, without his assumption of the human nature; nor without this could he have answered the various typical representations under the Old Testament; especially the bush burning though not consumed, and the law concerning the near kinsman.
If an Israelite, under the ceremonial law, had through poverty sold away his possession, or sold himself for a servant to another man, none had a right to redeem either his mortgaged inheritance to him, or him to his inheritance, but his GOEL, or near kinsman. We had all sold away the inheritance of eternal life for one morsel of forbidden fruit, and neither we nor any of our kindred were able to buy it back; and being reduced to the most abject poverty, by the loss of original righteousness, we had sold ourselves to the most sordid slavery, and were utterly unable to redeem ourselves from it. Now, the only begotten of the Father having, in the everlasting covenant, engaged to redeem by price and power, not only the inheritance of spiritual and eternal life to us, but us to this inheritance; condescended in his love and in his pity to assume our nature, in order that he might become our near kinsman, and consequently have the right of our redemption devolved upon him. He should have had, agreeably to this illustrious type, no right to redeem us, if he had not, by assuming our nature, become our near kinsman.
2. The Son of God assumed our nature, that he might be made under the law, and be capable of obeying and suffering in our stead.
“When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law”, Gal. 4, verses 4 and 5. He engaged to become our Surety for those who were, in the everlasting covenant, given to him; and, as sustaining that character, to pay their debt of perfect obedience for life, by obeying the precepts of the law as a covenant of works in their stead, and their debt of complete satisfaction for sin, by enduring for them the full execution of the condemning sentence of the law. But seeing it was impossible for him to obey or suffer, considered as God, he assumed human nature, that he might, agreeably to his suretyship engagements, be capable of fulfilling all righteousness. “Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me”, Heb. 10: 5. As the sin of the first Adam implied this, that though he was under the law, and obliged to obey it, yet he aspired to be above the law, and to be free from its obligations; so the glory of God, which had been obscured by this and every other sin, could not be retrieved, unless the second Adam, who had been naturally above the law, and nowise obliged to obey it, should be made under it as a covenant, and be obliged to yield obedience to it. The disobedience of those who are naturally obliged to obedience could not be compensated but by the obedience of Him who was NOT naturally nor originally obliged to obey. But because what the Son of God engaged to do in the room of his elect could not have been obedience, had he not been under the law and bound to obey it, he therefore assumed the human nature, that as a man he might be capable of yielding obedience, which as God only he could not be. On account of the dignity to which his human nature was advanced, in consequence of its union with the Divine nature in his Person, he was under no obligation to obey for himself, because his human nature never existed by itself, but, from the moment of its assumption, subsisted always in his Divine person: notwithstanding, as he was hereby capable of obedience, he became bound to obey, as Surety for the elect. Besides, as in the character of Surety for them, he had engaged to bear the execution of the curse of the law for the satisfaction of Divine justice, he became man, that the sword of justice might have an opportunity of smiting him.
3. He became man, that the honour of the Divine law might be supported, and Divine wisdom be more illustriously displayed in his obedience unto death.
He was “made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law”; that is to redeem them in a way fully consistent with the honour of the Divine law, and with the glory of infinite wisdom. If he had assumed the angelic nature, he might no doubt have been capable of obeying and suffering, and his obedience and sufferings might, perhaps, have had as much INTRINSIC value as they could have had in the human nature. But in that case, Divine wisdom could not have been so illustriously displayed, nor the honour of the Divine law maintained: whereas, in consequence of his assumption of the human nature, the wisdom of God is displayed to the uttermost, and his law is magnified and made honourable. In consequence of this, the law is honoured with perfect obedience in the same nature that disobeyed it; the curse is endured in the same nature that deserved it; Divine justice is completely satisfied in the same nature that offended it: God is glorified by the same nature that came short of his glory; Satan is conquered by the same nature that he overcame; death is endured in the same nature that was doomed to die; and the inheritance of eternal life was purchased in the same nature that lost it. In this the glory of Divine wisdom shines with transcendent lustre.
4. The Son of God assumed human nature, that he thereby might show his people HOW MUCH HE LOVED THEM.
Love among men, wherever it is unfeigned, has an assimilating tendency. The Lord Jesus loved people with an immense love, and therefore he resolved, not only to make them partakers of a Divine nature, that they might resemble Him as nearly as it was possible for them to do, but to become a partaker of human nature, that he might be as like unto them in all things, sin only excepted; as it was possible for him to be. “Wherefore, in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren,” Heb. 2: 17. So infinite was his love to sinful men, that though the human nature was infinitely distant from the Divine, yet he took it into the nearest union with himself; and though it was far inferior in dignity to the angelic nature, yet he hath taken it up with him to the highest heavens, and exalted it, in union with his Divine nature, far above the nature of angels. The Apostle Paul informs us, that, clothed in human nature, Christ “ascended up far above all heavens”: and that “God set him at his own right hand, far above all principality, and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named”. Well, then, may we exclaim with the holy Psalmist, “What is man that thou art mindful of him! and the son of man that thou visitest him!”
5. Christ became man, that he might overcome Satan in such a manner as to put him to the greater shame.
“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.” If that wicked spirit had been overcome immediately by God, he would have had it to say, that he was conquered by one who was much stronger than he; if he had been vanquished by an angel, he would probably have comforted himself by reflecting, that he was overcome by one who was an equal match for him. But when he was vanquished by a man (for Christ, though not a mere man, was yet a real man)—I say, when he was overcome, and, as the Scriptures inform us, was dragged in triumph, and exposed to the view of holy angels and redeemed souls, by a man, with what confusion must that proud spirit have been filled! The Son of God therefore assumed our nature, that, as Satan had triumphed in the shame and destruction of it in the first Adam, he might baffle and triumph over him in that very nature over which he had triumphed.
6. Christ assumed a holy human nature, that he might thereby lay a sure foundation for his people’s perseverance in holiness.
“Let thy hand be upon the Man of thy right hand, and the Son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself; so shall we NOT GO BACK from thee”, Psal. 80, verses 17-18. When man was at first made after the image of God, he was perfectly righteous and holy, able to love, serve, please and glorify God; but, seeing God did not unite our nature to himself by a personal union, the holiness that he had communicated to it was quickly lost; the fabric of it, as it were, fell to the ground. By permitting this most grievous loss, the Lord, as it were, declared, that no gracious relation between him and our nature could be secure and permanent, unless it were assumed to a subsistence in himself. This union then, is the sure foundation of the Church’s saving relation to God, as a God of grace, and of the conveyance of gracious influences to its true members; and so long as that foundation stands, the safety, holiness, and happiness of believers shall be secure. Now, the only-begotten of the Father assumed our nature, that it might, in personal union with him, be secured, and that our persons might never be in danger of losing conformity to him, or communion with him. “By him all things consist”, Col. 1: 17.
7. He assumed our nature, that he might, in our nature, EXHIBIT AN EXAMPLE of what he would by his Spirit renew us unto, and of what we are bound to attain.
His humanity, or our nature in him, was richly furnished with all those heavenly endowments, and divinely adorned with all those spiritual graces which were necessary to render it a perfect pattern of holiness to believers. Our nature was entirely divested of its original righteousness by the breach of the first covenant; so that none of the children of Adam could ever pretend justly to the smallest degree of true holiness, since that woeful apostasy, far less to such perfection of it as would render them capable of exhibiting a proper example of it. Christ, therefore, assumed the human nature, that he might again present it to the view of men, shining in all the beauty of perfect holiness, as an example for them to follow. “Such an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.” He took our nature into personal union with himself, that he might be the pattern of the renovation of the image of God in us. We are predestinated, says an apostle, “to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren”; that is, the PATTERN of what he would advance the younger brethren to; that as they have borne the image of the first Adam, they might bear the image of the second.
8. Christ took unto him human nature, that in it he might be the Heir of all things, and might secure the inheritance of his spiritual seed from the second forfeiture.
Whatever God imparts to his children, he bestows it on them by way of inheritance. He vested a great inheritance in the first Adam; he made him Lord and heir of all things under the sun. But man by transgression forfeited this inheritance, as well as that of spiritual blessings. Now, as this was an inheritance only for man, and as it could not be secured from a second forfeiture, were it again lodged with a mere man, the Lord vested it in the Man Christ Jesus, whom he appointed heir of all things, Heb. 1: 2. He transferred it to him; he settled it in him, that it might never any more be forfeited. Now, Christ became man, that the inheritance intended for men who shall believe, might be settled and secured in him. When a man receives an inheritance, its burdens and debts descend to him along with it. In like manner, the inheritance of spiritual blessings and temporal blessings descended to Christ Jesus with all its burdens. There was a burden of boundless debt upon it—the debt of infinite satisfaction for sin, and of perfect obedience for a title to eternal life. This debt it behoved him to pay, else he could not lawfully possess the inheritance in name of his people; and this, as was already said, required his assumption of the human nature.
9. The Son of God became man, that he might have an experimental knowledge of his people’s infirmities; or, as it is expressed by an apostle, that he might be touched with the feeling of their infirmities.
In consequence of his omniscience as a Divine Person, his knowledge of the infirmities and trials of his people, even before his incarnation, was as exact and comprehensive as it was possible for it ever to be. But it was only in consequence of his incarnation and subjection to the sinless infirmities of human nature, that it was rendered experimental, and that he could be properly said to sympathise with his people in such circumstances, from his own experience. It is because he himself hath suffered, being tempted, that he is able in this sense to succour them that are tempted. Oh how comfortable, how reviving, that the believer’s great High Priest is more sensibly touched with the feeling of his infirmities, his distresses, than he himself can be! And he is not more sensibly touched with the feeling of them, than ready, in his own time and way, to remove them.
Lastly, Christ assumed the human nature, that, in its exalted state at the right hand of God, it might be the pattern or model of that glory which will be conferred on the souls and bodies of his redeemed after the resurrection.
The apostle Paul informs us, that their bodies shall be fashioned “like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself”, Phil. 3: 21. Oh, how transcendently bright is the glory, how resplendent the lustre, that is to be seen on the humanity of our adorable Immanuel! And how reviving to think that the bodies of all the saints will resemble his glorified body, in as high degree as infinite power and immense love can make them!
A close-up photograph of a person’s hand, likely holding a book or a similar object. The hand is positioned vertically, with the thumb and index finger visible, suggesting a grip. The skin is light-colored with visible texture and some minor blemishes. The background is dark and out of focus.
From what has now been said, the following inferences may be drawn:—
1. If the love of our Divine Redeemer to us was so ineffably great as to determine him to stoop so low as to become man, in order that he might be like unto us in all things, sin only excepted; should not the same amazing love constrain you whom he hath redeemed, to press toward perfect likeness to Him in the Beauty of holiness?
Did he take unto him our nature, that he might be capable of dying for our offences, and of rising again for our justification; and should not we desire and endeavour above all things to be planted together in the likeness of his death, by dying to sin, of his resurrection, by rising to righteousness, and walking with him in newness of life?
2. Is the union of the Divine and human nature in the person of Christ a SURE FOUNDATION OF HIS PEOPLE’S PERSEVERANCE in union with him, and conformity to him?
Let believers, then, be encouraged to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”. This personal union is, and will continue to be, an everlasting security for the perpetuity of the mystical union between his person and the persons of believers. It will be as easy for an enemy to ascend to the celestial throne, and tear asunder the glorified humanity from the Divine person of our exalted Immanuel, as it will be to dissolve the union which subsists between him and the weakest member of his mystical body. “Because I live, ye shall live also.”
3. Is the human nature of Christ intended to be the pattern after which his spiritual seed are renewed and advanced to perfection of holiness?
Then let the believer, by the renewed exercise of particular trust in him, constantly derive from his fullness grace to make him come “to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”, or, “grow up unto him in all things who is the head”.
4. Let us meditate often on the glory of the person of Christ.
There are such mysteries in his adorable person as will be sufficient to employ the contemplative mind, and to afford new matter of admiration to it throughout all eternity. “Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh . . .” The spiritual and devout contemplation of the glory of the great mystery would be attended with many advantages to the exercised Christian; it would promote establishment in the faith, increasing resemblance to Christ in his image, and the cure of earthly mindedness. All the spiritual exercise of the saints proceeds upon, and relates to, the mediatorial person of Christ.
5. How tender, how great, is the compassion of the Lord Jesus to his afflicted children!
He is touched with the feeling of their infirmities. He is as willing as able to sympathise with and relieve them. What high encouragement, then, have they, to come boldly to the throne of grace, and plead the promises of his name!
6. In conclusion: How highly is our nature dignified in the person of our Redeemer!
Human nature in its first creation was made a little lower than that of the angels; but now, in the person of Christ, it is exalted far above their’s. “To which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemy thy footstool,” Heb. 1: 13. Should not this distinguishing honour believers, constrain you to glorify your exalted Redeemer in your bodies and in your spirits, which are his?