[He sent his co-equal, co-eternal Son, " in the likeness of sinful flesh," and to be a sacrifice " for sinc;" that, through his obedience unto death, he might " deliver those who had been, and must for ever have continued, subject to bondage." How this expedient was to succeed, will come under our considera- tion presently: we therefore only observe at present, that it was a plan which nothing but Infinite Wisdom could have devised. It could not have entered into the mind of any finite being, to subject God's only dear Son to such humiliation ; to make him a partaker of our nature, with all its sinless in- firmities; to substitute him in our place, and, by his vicarious sacrifice, to restore us to the image and favour of God : this does, and must for ever, surpass all finite comprehension.]
But though we cannot fathom all the depths of this mystery, we may shew II. In what way it is effectual for the end proposed —
We speak not of the way in which the death of Christ obtains our justification, but of the way in which it is instrumental to our sanctification. In reference to this, we say,
1. It displays the evil and malignity of sin —
[The evil of sin had been seen in a measure by the miseries which it had introduced, and by the punishment denounced against it in the eternal world. But in what light did it appear, when nothing less than the incarnation and death of Christ was able to expiate its guilt or destroy its power ! Let any person behold the agonies of Christ in the garden, or his dere- liction and death upon the cross, and then go and think lightly of sin if he can. Surely if men were more habituated to look at sin in this view, they would be filled with indignation against it, and seek incessantly its utter destruction.]
2. It obtains for us power to subdue sin —
[Though man is in himself so weak that he cannot, of him- self, even think a good thought, yet through the influence of the Holy Spirit he can " fulfil the righteousness of the law," not perfectly indeed, but so as to walk altogether in newness of lifed. Now, by the death of Christ the promise of the Spirit is obtained for us ; and all who seek his gracious influences, shall obtain them. Thus the axe is laid to the root of sin.
c This is the meaning of Tvepl a/napnag. See Heb. x. 6. and 2 Cor. v. 21.
d There is a two-fold fulfilling of the law mentioned in the Scrip- tures ; the one legal, the other evangelical. Compare Matt. v. 17- with Rom. xiii. 8. and Gal. v. 14.