The Glorious Humanity of Our Lord Jesus Christ

“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.”

– Hebrews 10:5

A body was prepared for the Son of God in eternity, in the everlasting covenant of grace. Our Savior was not a man before he came into this world. Neither his human body nor his human soul is eternal. Yet, his human nature was prepared by God in predestination, in the arrangements of the covenant of grace, before the world began (Ps. 139:13-16). The incarnation of our Savior has always been the purpose of God. When the Lord God made Adam in his own image and likeness (Gen. 1:27), he had in mind's eye that Man who, in the fulness of time would come, who would be "the express image of his person" (Heb. 1:3).

These words also reveal the sure salvation of God’s elect. As the Lord God prepared a physical body for our Lord Jesus Christ, in which he fulfilled all righteousness and accomplished eternal redemption as the federal Head and Representative of his elect, he has also prepared a spiritual, mystical body for his Son as the Mediator of his elect and the Surety of the covenant. The church of God is the fulness of Christ as his mediatorial body (Eph. 1:22-23). As God, Jesus Christ needs us for nothing. But as the Mediator, Christ must have all his elect, every member of the church, which is his body, that he may be complete and full in his mediatorial glory. In order that Christ may enjoy the fulness of his glory as the Mediator of the covenant, a body of elect sinners has been prepared for him from eternity.

The Lord God prepared a body for his Son in eternal election. All the elect were chosen in Christ to be his body before the world began (Eph. 1:3-4). Christ was chosen to be our Head. And we were chosen in him. And the salvation of that elect body is as sure and certain as the exaltation and glory of Christ himself.

This body has been prepared for Christ by the satisfaction of divine justice (Rom. 3:24-26). God’s chosen ones, before they could be brought into union with his Son, must be both redeemed from all sin and made perfectly righteous before the law. It is true, Christ himself has made us righteous and redeemed us to God by his own obedience and death. But the scheme of redemption was devised by the Triune God, for the glory of Christ, that he might have a body of redeemed sinners for his praise (Job 33:24; Ezek. 16:62-63).

And the church is a body prepared and made ready for Christ by God the Holy Spirit in regenerating grace (Eph. 1:20-23). In divine regeneration the Spirit of God gives each of God’s elect, those men and women redeemed by Christ, a new, holy, righteous nature. The righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us in justification. The righteousness of Christ, his righteous nature, is imparted to us in regeneration. By making us righteous, sanctified, giving us to be partakers of the divine nature, God makes us a body prepared for Jesus Christ, his dear Son.