"Go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (Matthew 9:13).
God sent forth His Son, "born of woman," and, therefore, a real man. He lived and suffered all the ills and troubles that fall to the lot of man. "The Word became flesh" (John 1:14). Christ always designated Himself as "the Son of man," thus forever identifying Himself with the whole human race. The bond of union can never be broken.
Being "born of woman," Christ was necessarily born "under the law," for such is the condition of all mankind. "In all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (Heb. 2:17). He redeems us by coming into our place literally and taking our load off our shoulders. "He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21).
In the fullest sense of the word and to a degree seldom thought of when the expression is used, He became man's substitute. That is, He identifies Himself so fully with us that everything that touches or affects us, touches and affects Him. We cast our cares on Him by humbling ourselves into the nothingness that we are and leaving our burden on Him alone.
We must acknowledge that we are, or were before we believed, "under the law." For Christ came to redeem none but those who were under the law. To be "under the law" means to be condemned to death by the law as transgressors. The law condemns none but those who are accountable to it and ought to keep it. Since Christ redeems us from condemnation of the law, it follows that He redeems us to a life of obedience to it. [1]
"That hope ... is like an anchor for our lives, an anchor safe and sure. It enters in through the veil, where Jesus has entered on our behalf as forerunner" (Heb. 6:19, 20, NEB).
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