character has stamped its own impression of perfectness
on all eyes even the most unfriendly or indifferent. In Him there is
seen the perfect union and balance of opposite characteristics; the rest
of us, at the best, are but broken arcs; Jesus is the completed round.
He is under law as fully, continuously and joyfully obedient; but for
Him it had no accusing voice, and it laid on Him no burden of broken
commandments. He was born of a woman, born under law, but he lived
separate from sinners though identified with them.

III. The marvel of exaltation that results.

Our Lord's lowliness is described in the two clauses which we have just
been considering. They express His identification with us from a double
point of view, and that double point of view is continued in the final
clauses of our text which state the double purpose of God in sending His
Son. He became one with us that we might become one with Him. The two
elements of this double purpose are stated in the reverse order to the
two elements of Christ's lowliness. The redemption of them that were
under law is presented as the reason for His being born under law, and
our reception of the 'adoption of sons' is the purpose of the Son's
being sent and born of a woman. The order in which Paul here deals with
the two parts of the divine purpose is not to be put down to mere
rhetorical ornament, but corresponds to the order in which these two
elements are realised by men. For there must be redemption from law
before there is the adoption of sons.

We have already had occasion to point out that 'law' here must be taken
in the wide sense and not restricted to the Jewish law. It is a
world-wide redemption which the Father's love had in view in sending His
Son, but that all-comprehending, fatherly love could not reach its aim
by the mere forth-putting of its own energy. A process was needed if the
divine heart was to accomplish its desire, and the majestic stages in
that process are set forth here by Paul. The world was under law in a
very sad fashion, and though Jesus has come to redeem them that are
under law, the crushing weight of commandments flouted, of duties
neglected, of sins done, presses heavily upon many of us. And yet how
many of us there are who do not know the burden that we carry and have
had no personal experience like that of Bunyan's Christian with the pack
on his back all but weighing him down? Jesus Christ has become one of
us, and in His sinless life