tions. In his own essential nature, he was the brightness of the Father's glory, and express image of his person. But in this nature, he, the Revealer, is himself concealed. Although the Creator's glory was displayed in his works, although the Father was discovered in the things which he made by the hands of the Son, yet was the Son, in all this, as unsearchable as was the Father. He was the blessed and only Potentate, "dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see."-1 Tim. vi. 16. If the Shechinah declared his presence, it was as the Invisible; and it is only in the flesh that God is manifested,-seen of angels. He, thus, so perfect a likeness of the Father as to be absolutely one in essence and glory with him, condescends to render that glory visible by assuming the form and nature of a creature. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," says John, "and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father."John i. 14. He was made flesh by becoming one of that race who were in their creation ordained the image of God,-whose whole nature was constructed by the divine wisdom, not only as in itself a wonderful irradiation of God's glory, but with specific reference to the purposed incarnation of the Mediator, and incorporation of the elect in his body. And when the Son says to the Father, "A body hast thou prepared me," the declaration is not only true respecting the body of his flesh, as born of the virgin, but true as implying the council and decree by which Adam was created to have contemplated the providing of a fitting nature for the second Adam; by the assumption of which the Son might reveal, in otherwise unapproachable clearness, the mystery of God's glory. Thus, whilst the divine nature of the Son is the very outshining and counterpart of the Father's person, his human nature constituted the nearest likeness of God which creature could possess; and at the same time was the most fitting instrument, as head of his body the Church, for the disclosing of the divine perfections;-a glass through which the glory of the Highest pours its concentrated rays in a flood of radiance, which fills the universe with light, and all holy beings with adoring wonder, joy and praise.

1. Christ's

obedience vo

luntary.

CHAPTER XXI.

CHRIST'S OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW.

THE one word, obedience, expresses the whole work of Christ, in atoning for his people, and acquiring for them freedom from sin and the curse, and a title to eternal life. It so expresses his work, moreover, as to show it to have been in fulfilment of the requirements of the law; which he obeyed, satisfying its claims, both penal and preceptive, in the terms which that law defined. He thus provided a righteousness whereby God may "be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."-Rom. iii. 26.

In order to Christ's being held responsible to the law, for the accomplishment of his atoning work, it was necessary that he should freely and voluntarily place himself under its authority, in such manner that its claims should, without any arbitrary construction, but spontaneously and of right, come upon him; so that, not only should justice be entitled to make demand of him, but be bound to accept satisfaction at his hand. That Christ, even as to his mediatorial humanity, was not bound under the law, by any natural necessity, we have already seen. The absolute necessity of spontaneity in his sufferings is abundantly demonstrable. To imagine him to have unwillingly borne any part of those pangs with which he was afflicted, involves us in one of two conclusions. Either those sufferings were contrary to justice,-which is every way absurd and blasphemous; or, the soul of the Redeemer did not acquiesce in the demands of justice. In that case, his work, so far from atoning for the sins of others, would itself need atonement,-which it is blasphemy to imagine. To suppose him to have endured reluctantly any thing, is to attribute to the law an essential authority over

him, irrespective of his will. This is, to deny him to have humbled himself by obedience; since obedience was, in that case, due. It is, to deny him to have magnified the law and made it honourable; since that cannot be done by an obedience to which the law had a native right. Further, it would render his salvation altogether empty and futile; since such an authority of the law, being essential and irrespective of his consent, must be of perpetual obligation; and therefore can never be finally satisfied. In short, to question the entire and cordial acquiescence of the Mediator in bearing the curse, involves an impeachment of his fidelity to that eternal covenant under the terms of which he endured the cross. This is the argument to which he himself appeals:-"How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?"-Matt. xxvi. 54. "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?"-Luke xxiv. 25, 26. The only necessity involved in the case, was the moral necessity,-if even that be not a misuse of language,—that the unchangeable Son of God should be unchangeably himself; that he who, with every condition, and the whole result, fully present to his eternal mind, had undertaken the work of salvation, should finish freely, what freely he began. "For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame."—Heb. xii. 2. That joy consisted, as we have formerly seen, in four things:-the salvation of his people, the overthrow and destruction of his enemies, the exaltation and glory of his mediatorial person, and, as the crown and end of all, the revelation and honour of the blessed Trinity. To imagine the Son of God to have been, in the slightest thought or deed, faithless to such objects as these, were a blasphemous contradiction in terms.

It is to be considered how Jesus assumed the place of his people at the tribunal of the law. For it was not enough that he should obey. His obedience must sustain such 22. How he a relation to them as to be acceptable by justice on came under their account. It is not sufficient that he should suffer. He must meet and exhaust the very curse which was

the curse.

launched against them. His position must be such that justice, in searching for the transgressors, shall find him in such a relation to them as to render him the party responsible to its curse for their sins. Here is no room for a mere arbitrary interposition. If the law do not find him responsible, it cannot be satisfied by any obedience he may perform, or suffering he may endure. Justice and truth must meet together, in the atoning work. Unless Christ occupied such a relation to the sins of his people that they may, in some proper sense, be called his sins, they cannot be imputed to him, nor punished in him. His position must be such that he shall be "numbered with the transgressors."-Isa. liii. 12. What has been presented, on the subject of the union of Christ and his people, suggests the solution, which the wisdom and love of God have devised, for the problem here suggested. It was not in his individual capacity, as a man, that Jesus stood at the tribunal;-but in that relation, a recognition of which we have seen to be essential to a complete conception of his person and position, -as head of that body the church, which Paul so remarkably represents as all comprehended in his name:-"As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ."-1 Cor. xii. 12. Inasmuch as he has condescended to become their head, he, in so doing, makes himself responsible for his members, at the bar of justice. So says Owen, "The principal foundation hereof is, that Christ and the church, in this design, were one mystical person, which state they do actually coalesce in, through the uniting efficacy of the Holy Spirit. He is the Head, and believers are the members of that one person; as the apostle declares, 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13. Hence, as what he did is imputed unto them, as if done by them, so what they deserved on the account of sin was charged upon him." "That our sins were transferred unto Christ, and made his; that thereon he underwent the punishment that was due unto us for them; and that the ground hereof, whereinto its equity is resolved, is the union between him and us," this eminent divine shows to have been the common faith of the church,

by appeal to many witnesses.* The reason and propriety of the proceeding is obvious. The several and individual personality, which natively belonged to Christ's people, being, at the bar of justice, merged in that higher identity, by which they are members of his body, of one Spirit with him, and pervaded by one life, it follows of necessity that any responsibilities to which they may have been previously subject, are transferred to him their Head. This does not imply that there is any such confounding of identity, as that the sins of the members become, in the same sense, the sins of the Head; or, in any sense which would imply the infusion of the turpitude of sin into him who knew no sin. But, in uniting them to himself, Christ finds in his people sin, on account of which, they are not only infected with turpitude, but indebted to justice, By making them members of his person, he, by the power of his Spirit, purges the turpitude and destroys the sin; whilst, at the same time, he becomes responsible to the law for the penalty already incurred; and that, for the reason, that law and justice, in all cases, pass by the members, and hold the head responsible. Thus, a kingdom or sovereignty, which incorporates a foreign province into itself, in so doing, becomes responsible for any obligations previously incurred by the acquired territory; although it may not at all admit any intrinsic moral communion or participation in the facts by which those responsibilities were incurred. On the contrary, itself becomes the fountain of influence; and, thenceforth, both infuses its own intrinsic character into the new possession, and is of itself the exponent of the whole, in all external interests and relations.

The history of Christ's undertaking such a relation is beautifully stated by Boston:-"First, The Father designed a certain number of lost mankind, as it were, by name, to be the constituent members of that body chosen to life, of which body Christ was the designed Head; and he gave them to him for that end. Phil. iv. 3: My fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life.' John xvii. 6:-'Thine they were, and thou gavest These were a chosen company, whom sovereign.

them me.'

* Owen on Justification, ch. viii. Board of Pub., p. 198.