January 11

Without Sin.—Hebrews 4:15.

As it behoved Christ to assume human nature, and become our kinsman, that he might redeem us. so it was essential that the Mediator between God and man, should be immaculate, "without sin." By the miraculous conception of Christ, his nature was formed entirely free from every stain that defiles the human family. That nature which was born of the virgin, is emphatically styled, "that holy thing." It was produced by the mysterious power of the Spirit of God, from whom frailty or imperfection could not possibly proceed. Hence while Jesus our blessed Lord assumed human flesh, yet he was holy, harmless, and separate from sinners. Had he been in the least polluted with sin, he could not have stood forth, as the Mediator between God and man. A sacrifice for his own guilt would have been requisite, before he could have had any fellowship with the Father. Besides, the thought cannot be entertained for a moment, that the Immaculate Deity, would enshrine himself in a tabernacle, defiled by that which he abominably hates. The human nature of Christ, was free from all taint and imperfection. The Apostle reminds us, that he offered himself without spot to God. (Hebrews 9:14.) And he is also set forth as a Lamb, without blemish, and without spot. (1 Peter 1:19.) God therefore could behold his son, with perfect approbation and delight. In him he beheld the perfect image of his own holiness, and therefore when he was baptised in Jordan, he proclaimed him his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased. As God's only begotten, well-beloved Son, "he was the brightness of the Father's glory, and express image of his person." (Hebrews 1:3.) In the Redeemer's human nature, we see man in all his moral lustre and beauty. Ought we not to feel ourselves attracted by it, and should we not aspire after a close assimilation to that likeness. The Apostle informs us, how the transformation is to be effected. "But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18.)