But, formidable as these obstacles were, we behold in our text,
II. The way in which they are removed —
All has been done for man that was required of man —
[A substitute has been provided for our guilty race. The Son of God himself has come down from heaven, and been made under the law, that, in the very nature that had sinned, he might bear the penalty of sin, and fulfil the utmost possible demands of that law which we had broken. True it is, that the law denounced eternal death ; and that Christ bore that penalty only for a season : but then it must be remembered, that he was God, as well as man : and from his godhead is derived a virtue on all that he did or suffered, a virtue which is fully adequate to the obedience or sufferings of the whole world. Indeed the law gains more honour by the sufferings of our incarnate God, than it ever could have gained from the sufferings of the whole human race : for, if man had undertaken to pay the penalty, no time could ever have arrived, when it might be said, " Now divine justice is satisfied, and the law has received a full compensation for the dishonour done to it:" but in the sufferings of God's co-equal Son there is " a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." In his obedience also to the law there is an honour done to it far beyond all that could have accrued to it from the obedience of man. That God himself should become subject to his own law, and fulfil in Ins own