2. That he might be fully under the obligations of the Mosaic law —
[Mankind at large were subject only to the moral law; and therefore for their redemption it would have been sufficient for the Son of God to assume our nature : but the house of Israel, for whose salvation he was sent in the first instance, were under the ceremonial law; and therefore for their redemption he must be made under that also. This is particularly noticed by St. Paul, who says, that " in the fulness of time God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law\" Now it was by circumcision that the children of the Jews were initiated into the Mosaic covenant, and brought fully into subjection to the law. Hence therefore Christ submitted to circumcision, and acknowledged at all times his obligation to obey that law in every thing. He says himself, " I am not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them." There is one very remarkable instance of his obedience to the law, which reflects considerable light on the subject before us. Baptism was not any part of the original law: but it had been intro- duced as an additional rite for the admission of proselytes into the Jewish religion : and the introduction of it had been so far sanctioned by God himself, that John, the forerunner of our Lord, was expressly commissioned to baptize all who desired an admission into the kingdom of the Messiah. Hence Jesus Christ himself went to be baptized of him : and upon John's declining it as unsuitable to the dignity of our Lord, Jesus said to him, " Suffer it to be so now ; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness1." The same strict adherence to the law was observable in him at all times, except when the exe- cution of his high office, and the establishment of his Divine authority, required a temporary deviation from it. Indeed, he not only fulfilled the law, but was himself the completion of it; every part of it being accomplished in him as its great proto- type. In a word, if he would redeem mankind, he must do it by obeying that law which we had broken, and enduring those penalties which we had incurred. This therefore he undertook to do, that, by his atoning sufferings and perfect obedience, he might restore us to our forfeited inheritance. Of this work his circumcision was the commencement: it was the commence- ment of those sufferings which constitute his atoning sacrifice, and of that obedience which constitutes our justifying right- eousness. It was the commencement of that " work which God had given him to do," and which terminated at last in what the Apostle fitly calls, " his obedience unto death."]
k Gal. iv. 4, 5. » Matt. iii. 15.