by A.T. Jones
“The Word was made flesh.”
“When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman.” Gal. 4:4.
“And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isa. 53:6.
We have seen that in His being made of a woman, Christ reached sin at
the very fountain head of its entrance into this world and that He must
be made of a woman to do this. Also there was laid upon Him the
iniquity, in the actual sins, of us all.
Thus all the sin of this world, from its origin in the
world to the end of it in the world, was laid upon Him—both sin as it is
in itself and sin as it is when committed by us; sin in its tendency
and sin in the act: sin as it is hereditary in us, uncommitted by us;
and sin as it is committed by us.
Only thus could it be that
there should be laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. Only by His
subjecting Himself to the law of heredity could He reach sin in full and
true measure as sin truly is. Without this there could be laid upon Him
our sins which have been actually committed, with the guilt and
condemnation that belong to them. But beyond this there is in each
person, in many ways, the liability to sin inherited from generations
back which has not yet culminated in the act of sinning but which is
ever ready, when occasion offers, to blaze forth in the actual
committing of sins. David’s great sin is an illustration of this. Ps.
51:5; 2 Sam. 11:2.
In delivering us from sin, it is not enough
that we shall be saved from the sins that we have actually committed;
we must be saved from committing other sins. And that this may be so,
there must be met and subdued this hereditary liability to sin; we must
become possessed of power to keep us from sinning—a power to conquer
this liability, this hereditary tendency that is in us to sin.
All our sins which we have actually committed were laid upon Him, were
imputed to Him, so that His righteousness may be laid upon us, may be
imputed to us. Also our liability to sin was laid upon Him, in His being
made flesh, in His being born of a woman, of the same flesh and blood
as we are, so that His righteousness might be actually manifested in us
as our daily life.
Thus He met sin in the flesh which He took
and triumphed over it, as it is written: “God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” And
again: “He is our peace, . . . having abolished in His flesh the
enmity.”
And thus, just as our sins actually committed were
imputed to Him that His righteousness might be imputed to us, so His
meeting and conquering in the flesh the liability to sin and in that
same flesh manifesting righteousness, enables us in Him, and Him in us,
to meet and conquer in the flesh this same liability to sin and to
manifest righteousness in the same flesh.
And thus it is that
for the sins which we have actually committed, for the sins that are
past, His righteousness is imputed to us, as our sins were imputed to
Him. And to keep us from sinning His righteousness is imparted to us in
our flesh as our flesh, with its liability to sin, was imparted to
Him. Thus He is the complete Saviour. He saves from all the sins that we
have actually committed and saves equally from all the sins that we
might commit dwelling apart from Him.
If He took not the same
flesh and blood that the children of men have with its liability to sin,
then where could there be any philosophy or reason of any kind whatever
in His genealogy as given in the Scriptures? He was descended from
David; He was descended from Abraham; He was descended from Adam and, by
being made of a woman, He reached even back of Adam to the beginning of
sin in the world.
In that genealogy there are Jehoiakim, who
for his wickedness was “buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast
forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem” (Jer. 22:19); Manasseh, who caused
Judah to do “worse than the heathen;” Ahaz, who “made Judah naked, and
transgressed sore against the Lord;” Rehoboam, who was born of Solomon
after Solomon turned from the Lord; Solomon himself, who was born of
David and Bathsheba; there are also Ruth the Moabitess and Rahab; as
well as Abraham, Isaac, Jesse, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah:
the worst equally with the best. And the evil deeds of even the best are
recorded equally with the good. And in this whole genealogy there is
hardly one whose life is written upon at all of whom there is not some
wrong act recorded.
Now it was at the end of such a genealogy
as that that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” It was at
the end of such a genealogy as that that He was made of a woman.” It was
in such a line of descent as that that God sent “His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh.” And such a descent, such a genealogy, meant
something to Him, as it does to every other man, under the great law
that the iniquities of the fathers are visited upon the children to the
third and fourth generations. It meant everything to Him in the terrible
temptations in the wilderness of temptation, as well as all the way
through His life in the flesh.
Thus, both by heredity and by
imputation, He was “laden with the sins of the world.” And, thus laden,
at this immense disadvantage He passed triumphantly over the ground
where at no shadow of any disadvantage whatever, the first pair failed.
By His death He paid the penalty of all sins actually committed, and
thus can justly bestow His righteousness upon all who choose to receive
it. And by condemning sin in the flesh, by abolishing in His flesh the
enmity, He delivers from the power of the law of heredity and so can, in
righteousness, impart His divine nature and power to lift above that
law, and hold above it, every soul that receives Him.
And so
it is written: “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Gal.
4:4. And “God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for [on account of] sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3,4. And “He is our peace, . . .
having abolished in His flesh the enmity, . . . for to make in Himself
of twain [God and man] one new man, so making peace.” Eph. 2:14, 15.
Thus, “in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren.
. . . For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to
succor them that are tempted.”
Whether temptation be from
within or from without, He is the perfect shield against it all; and so
saves to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him.
God
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, Christ taking our
nature as our nature is in its sinfulness and degeneracy, and God
dwelling constantly with Him and in Him in that nature—in this God has
demonstrated to all people forever that there is no soul in this world
so laden with sins or so lost that God will not gladly dwell with him
and in him to save him from it all and to lead him in the way of the
righteousness of God.
And so certainly is his name Emmanuel, which is, “God with us.”
(The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection. – Chapter 7)
