4. It was necessary in regard of the offices of Christ.
require it; and the justice of God made the death of Christ necessary for our redemption; so, 4. It was necessary in regard of the offices of Christ.
(1.) For his priestly office. The reason that he was to be made like his brethren, subject to the law, and the penalties and curse of it, with an exception of sin in his own person, was, that he might be a faithful and merciful high priest. Heb. 2:17, 18, 'Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people;' faithful to God for the expiation of the guilt of sin, merciful to men for the succouring them in their miseries by sin; faithful to God in that trust committed to him, to satisfy God for the guilt of sin, that his anger might be averted, and the sinner received into favour, and therefore he was made like to them in the curse, though not in the sin; which was necessary for his being a merciful high priest. This qualification of compassion could not result in such a high manner from anything so well as from an experimental knowledge of the miseries we had contracted; and this must be by a sense and feeling of them. No man is so affected with the wretched state of men in a shipwreck by beholding it in a picture, as when he sees the ship dashed against the rocks, and hears the cries, and beholds the strugglings of the passengers for life; nor is any man so deeply affected with them upon sight, as upon feeling the same miseries in his own person. That makes a man's compassions more readily excited upon seeing or hearing of others in the like state. Now, had not Christ run through the chief miseries of human life, and the punishment of death, he had not had that experimental compassion which was necessary to qualify him for this priesthood. It was by being made perfect through sufferings that he became the author of eternal salvation, Heb. 5:10.
It was a thing becoming God as a just and righteous sovereign, in bringing many sons in glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings, Heb. 2:10; 'it became him, by whom and for whom are all things.' It became God, as the sovereign of all
things, to have his justice vindicated, and, as the end of all things, to have the glory of his attributes exalted. Had not Christ suffered, he had not been a perfect Saviour, neither faithful to God nor merciful to man, because without blood justice had not been satisfied, and so sin, the great hindrance of salvation, had not been expiated. If he were a priest, he must have a sacrifice. A priest and a sacrifice are relatives. A priest is not properly a priest without a sacrifice, nor a sacrifice properly a sacrifice without a priest. Being settled a perpetual priest, Ps. 110:4, he must have a perpetual sacrifice. Now, having nothing worthy of God's regard but himself, he sacrificed himself. No other sacrifice could have been perpetual in its efficacy, and consequently without a perpetual sacrifice he could not have been a perpetual priest. He as a priest purged our sins, but by himself as a sacrifice: Heb. 1:9, by his own blood as an offering, he entered into the holiest as a priest, Heb. 9:12. He could not have entered into heaven to act as a priest there without blood, and no blood was fit to be brought in there but his own. There had been else no analogy between him and the legal priests, who were to enter into the most holy place with blood, and never without it. He could not have been an interceding priest unless he had been a sacrificing priest, because his sacrifice is the ground of his intercession. His intercession is not a bare supplication, but a supplication with unanswerable arguments, a presenting his atoning blood, which he carried with him into the holy place when he went to appear in the presence of God for us; whence the apostle, speaking of his advocacy, joins it with his propitiation, 1 John 2:1, 2. His propitiation on earth and his advocacy in heaven complete him a priest for ever. The one is the foundation of the other. Without it, Christ had been a bare petitioner in heaven, and would have had no ground for any plea against the demands of justice.
(2.) For his kingly office. The first thing he was to do for our reconciliation, was the offering his soul for sin, Isa. 53:10. Upon this article did all the promises of his mediatory exaltation depend; so that nothing of the dignity promised could be rightly claimed, or reasonably expected, by him, without the performance of this main
and necessary condition, which himself had consented to in the first agreement. For consenting to this undertaking, upon the condition of the promise of his exaltation, he implied that he would not expect any exaltation, unless he performed the condition required on his part, of making his soul an offering for sin; and therefore, without such an oblation, could not justly demand the making good the promise to him. There was an ought to die, and then to enter into glory by the way of death, as a price to be paid for the restoration of our nature to that happiness from whence it fell; his obedience to death was to precede, his exaltation to a throne and dominion was to follow; he was not to sit down on the right hand of the Majesty on high till he had purged our sins by himself, Heb. 1:3; nor had he been
Lord of the dead and living unless he had died, Rom. 14:9. The royalty, not only over those whom he had redeemed from sin, but over the good angels, was granted him as a recompence for his sufferings, Philip. 2:8, 9, and the conquest of the evil angels was by his death; for in his cross he triumphed over principalities and powers, Col. 2:15. The change of laws in the church, which is a part of royalty, was to follow this sacrifice of himself, which is understood in Cant. 4:6, 'Until the day break, and the shadows fly away, I will get me to the mountains of myrrh.' The removing the shadows of the law was to follow his being upon the mount Moriah, the place of his sufferings, there being an allusion in the word מור, myrrh, or Moriah.
Nor had the Spirit been sent into the world, unless his death had preceded: John 7:39, 'The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because
Jesus was not yet glorified.' This rich treasure could not be dispensed till the acceptation of this sacrifice, till his glorification; and he could not have a mediatory glory till he had offered his mediatory sacrifice.
It is the Lamb slain that hath seven eyes and seven spirits, Rev. 5:6; power to prefer his people, and power to send the Spirit to them for their supply. Besides, the Spirit could not have come as a comforter without it, because the consolations he shoots into the soul are drawn out of this quiver. Without his death, we had not had a propitiation for sin, the mysteries of divine love had lain undiscerned in darkness; since we cannot be renewed without the Spirit (because the nature of man was depraved by his fall, whereupon justice denied