BY what means was Christ made flesh? Through what means was He partaker of human nature? —Exactly the same means as are all of us partakers: all of the children of men. For it is written: "As the children [of the man] are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same."
Likewise signifies "in the like way," "thus," "in the same way." So He partook of "the same" flesh and blood that men have, in the same way that men partake of it. Men partake of it by birth. So "likewise" did He. Accordingly, it is written, "Unto us a Child is born."
Accordingly, it is further written: "God sent forth His Son, made of a woman." Galatians 4:4. He, being made of a woman in this world, in the nature of things He was made of the only kind of woman that this world knows.
But why must He be made of a woman? Why not of a man? —For the simple reason that to be made of a man would not bring Him close enough to mankind as mankind is, under sin. He was made of a woman in order that He might come, in the very uttermost, to where human nature is in its sinning.
In order to do this, He must be made of a woman; because the woman, not the man was first, and originally, in the transgression. For "Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." 1 Timothy 2:14
To have been made only of the descent of man would have been to come short of the full breadth of the field of sin; because the woman had sinned and sin was thus in the world, before the man sinned.
Christ was thus made of a woman in order that He might meet the great world of sin at its very fountain head of entrance into this world. To have been made otherwise than of a woman would have been to come short of this, and so would have been only to miss completely the redemption of men from sin.
It was "the Seed of the woman" that was to bruise the serpent's head; and it was only as "the seed of the woman," and "made of a woman," that He could meet the serpent on his own ground, at the very point of the entrance of sin into this world.
It was the woman who, in this world, was originally in the transgression. It was the woman by whom sin originally entered. Therefore, in the redemption of the children of men from sin, He who would be the Redeemer must go back of the man, to meet the sin that was in the world before the man sinned.
This is why He, who came to redeem, was "made of a woman." By being made of a woman, He could trace sin to the very fountain head of its original entry into the world by the woman. And thus, in finding sin in the world, and uprooting it from the world, from its original entrance into the world till the last vestige of it shall be swept from the world, in the very nature of things, He must partake of human nature as it is since sin entered.