"THE Word was made flesh."
"When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman." Galatians 4:4
"And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 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 belongs 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. Psalm 51:5; 2 Samuel 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."