Light for Them that Sit in Darkness, Book · Part 4
That it was necessary that he should take our Flesh, if he will be our Saviour.
I Come now to the Third Thing, namely, That it was necessary that he should take our Flesh if he will be our Saviour.
And that first, from the Nature of the Work; his Work was to save, to save man, sinking man: man that was going down to the Pit, Job 34. 24. Now he that will save him that is sinking, must take hold on him. And since he was not to save a Man, but Men; therefore it was necessary that he should take hold, not of one Person, but of the Common Nature, clothing himself with part of the same.
He took not hold of Angels, but took on him the Seed of Abraham. For THAT Flesh was the same with the whole Lump of the Children, to whom the Promise was made; and comprehended in it the Body of them that shall be saved, even as in Adam was comprehended the whole World at first, Rom. 5.
Hence we are said to be chosen in him, to be gathered, being in him, to be dead by him, to be risen with him and to be set with him, or in him in Heavenly Places already, I phes. 1. 4, 10. Rom. 7. 4. Col. 3. 1, 2, 3. Chap. 2. 12, 13.
This then was the Wisdom of the great God, that the Eternal Son of his Love should take hold of, and so secure the sinking Souls of perishing Sinners by assuming their Flesh.
Secondly, The Manner of his doing the Work of a Saviour, did call for his taking of our Flesh.
He must do the Work by dying: Ought not Christ to have suffered? Christ must needs have suffered, Luk. 24. 26. Acts 17. 3. or else no glory follows. The Prophets testified beforehand the Sufferings of Christ, and the Glory that should follow, 1 Pet. 1. 11. Yea, they did it by the Spirit, even by the Spirit of Christ himself. This Spirit then did bid them tell the World, yea, testify that Christ must suffer, or no man be blest with Glory. For the threatning of death, and the Curse of the Law lay in the Way between Heaven-Gates and the Souls of the Children, for their Sins; wherefore he that will save them, must answer Divine Justice, or God must lye in saving them without inflicting the Punishment threatned. Christ then must needs have suffered, the Manner of the Work, laid a necessity upon him to take our Flesh upon him; he must die, he must die for us, he must die for our Sins. And this was effectually foretold by all the Bloody Sacrifices that were offered under the Law; The Blood of Bulls, the Blood of Lambs, the Blood of Rams, the Blood of Calves, and the Blood of Goats and Birds. These Bloody Sacrifices, what did they signifie, what were they figures of, but of the bloody Sacrifice of the Body of Jesus Christ; their Blood being a Shadow of his Blood, and their Flesh being a Shadow of his Flesh?
Therefore when God declared that he took no pleasure in them, because they could not make the Worshippers perfect as pertaining to the Conscience; then comes Jesus Christ to offer his Sinless Body and Soul for the Sin of the People: For it is not possible that the Blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin: wherefore, when he cometh into the World, he saith, Sacrifices and Offerings thou wouldest not, but a Body hast thou prepared me; in Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, to, I come, in the Volume of thy Book it is written of me to do thy good Will. Since Burnt-Offerings cannot do thy Will, my Body shall; since the Blood of Bulls and Goats cannot do thy Will, my Blood shall.
Then follows, By the Will of God we are Sanctified through the offering up of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all, Heb. 10. 8, 9, 10.
Thirdly, The End of the Work required, That Christ, if he will be our Saviour, should take upon him our Flesh.
The End of our Salvation is, That we might enjoy God, and that he by us might be glorified for ever and ever.
1. That we might enjoy God. I will dwell in them, and they shall be my People, and I will be their God. This Indwelling of God, and consequently our Enjoyment of him, begins first in its Eminency, by his Possessing our Flesh in the Person of Jesus Christ. Hence his Name is called Emmanuel, God with us; and the Word was made Flesh and dwelt amongst us. The Flesh of Christ, is the Tabernacle which the Lord pitched, according to that saying: The Tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his People, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God, Revel. 21. 3. Here God beginneth to discover his Glory, and to be desirable to the Sons of Men.
God could not communicate himself to us, nor take us into the Enjoyment of himself, but with respect to that Flesh which his Son took of the Virgin, because sin stood betwixt. Now this Flesh, only, was the Holy Lump; in this Flesh God could dwell, and forasmuch as this Flesh is the same with ours, and was taken up with intent that what was done, in, and by that, should be communicated to all the Children; therefore through that, doth God communicate of himself unto his People. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself. And▪ I am the Way, saith Christ, no man cometh to the Father but by me, 2 Cor. 5. Joh. 14. 6.
That Passage to the Hebrews is greatly to our purpose: We have boldness, Brethren, to enter into the Holiest, (the place where God is) by the Blood of Jesus, by a new and living Way which he hath Consecrated for us through the Vail, that is to say, his Flesh, Heb. 10. 19, 20. Wherefore by the Flesh and Blood of Christ, we enter into the Holiest; through the Vail, saith he, that is to say, his Flesh.
2. As the End of our Salvation, is, That we might enjoy God: so also it is that he by us might be Glorified for ever. That God in all things might be Glorified through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Here indeed will the Mistery of his Grace, Wisdom, Justice, Power, Holiness, and Glory, inhabit Eternal praise, while we that are counted worthy of the Kingdom of God, shall admire at the Mistery, and see our selves, without our selves, even by the Flesh and Blood of Christ (through Faith therein) effectually, and Eternally saved. O! This will be the burden of our Eternal Joy; God loved us, and gave his Son for us, Christ loved us, and gave his Flesh for our Life, and his Blood for our Eternal Redemption and Salvation.