What does it mean that Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh?

But what the law could not do God has done. He sent forth His own Son, who came in the likeness of sinful flesh — only in the likeness of it, be it noted, for though perfectly a Man He was a perfect Man, without the slightest taint of sin. God sent Him "for sin," that is, as a sacrifice for sin; so that in His death sin in the flesh might be condemned. Sin is the root principle of all that is wrong with man; and the flesh is that in man which furnishes sin with a vehicle in which to act, just as the electricity generated in a power station finds a vehicle for its transmission and action in the wires that are carried aloft.

Then in verse 3 Paul shows the foundation for those two great truths. He mentions three things about our Lord Jesus Christ. Firstly, He came "in the likeness of sinful flesh". When He lived on earth, outwardly He looked exactly like those men who had sin dwelling in then, but sin was not in Him. It was a great humiliation that He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. Then the reason for His coming is mentioned. We could list a large number of reasons why the Son of God became man, such as to offer Himself as a king to Israel, and the highest reason was to reveal the Father, but the main reason was to bring in order this matter of sin in the sight of a holy and righteous God. Finally the result is considered. At Golgotha God judged sin during the three hours of darkness when He was made sin. What our Saviour suffered there we will not fully fathom even in eternity.

But the Scripture also says that God sent “His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3). He was not here in sinful flesh as every other man was, His flesh, His holy nature, was sinless, but in outward appearance He was like other men. The brazen serpent that Moses lifted up was in the likeness of a serpent, but it had not the nature of the venomous serpents that bit the people. So was it on the cross, so that in His death God might condemn the sin that was in the flesh of every other man, and tell out His great love in making life available for all who believe in His Son.

But "that which the law could not do" God did. And how? "Sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh." It could not have been in the reality of sinful flesh. In that case He could not have been a sacrifice for sin at all. If there had been an atom of the reality of sinful flesh, if there had been a single taint, it would have destroyed the sin offering. Of the "meal-offering" which represents the life of Christ, and of the "sin" (and "trespass") offering which brings before us His death — of both these offerings are we alike told that "it is most holy." No, the Lord Jesus looked like another, therefore is it said, "in the likeness." There was nothing outwardly to distinguish the Lord, as far as His body was concerned, from another man. Mind, I am not speculating upon the Lord's appearance — I abhor all such speculations, but, at the same time, I am bound to believe from what Scripture says, that He was like any other man. Truly a man, as truly as we are, there was nothing in our Lord's outer man to indicate the essential difference, nothing to indicate that infinite difference that there is between Him and every other.

In verses 11–14 a fresh distinction is brought in. But first there is the fulness of the fragrance of Christ. We must remember that it was not the offering of Christ made Him fragrant, it was what attached to His own person. He was ever the Father's delight. Not a particle in Him offends God. The Son became a man, the Word was made flesh. He was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, though for that reason not sinful flesh. On the other hand, neither is it true that He was merely in the likeness of flesh. He was made really flesh, but when "sinful" is added, then only in the likeness of it. He was really and properly a man, and He is so still. His being risen from the dead does not in any way detract from His real humanity. He is man and will be so for ever. He is much more, we know; He is the Son of God. That blessed One deigned to be a man, but a man without sin, and so He could be made sin. He never was made sin before the cross, but He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, the moment He entered the world.

That Christ was made "in the likeness of sinful flesh," scripture declares; but even this shows that fallen nature, peccable humanity, was not in Him, though truly a man, without anything to single Him before the outward eye from others; a man who could be buffeted, spit upon, crucified, and slain. The Lord Jesus, thus viewed, had nothing apparently to mark Him out from the crowd. It could not have been said that He was in the likeness of flesh, any more than that He was in the likeness of God; for this would have denied the truth of His humanity and of His Deity. "The Word was God;" "the Word was made flesh." The one was and is His eternal glory; the other, what He deigned to become in time and will not give up for evermore. But it could be and is said also, that He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, which, as far as it goes, proves that He had not the reality of sinful flesh, but only the likeness of it. Otherwise He could not have been a sacrifice for sin, He could not have been made sin, as He was, on the cross. In "a body hast thou prepared me" the same truth is indicated, as we have already seen. Christ's body, though as much a human body as that of any man, was not generated and made after the same fallen fashion as ours. Even in this His humiliation God prepared Him a body as for none else, that it should have a specific character, suited for the singular work He had to do (Heb. 10). It is all a blunder to suppose that the reality of the incarnation involves the condition of either Adam fallen or of Adam unfallen.

Lastly, we are reminded in vv. 3, 4 of the subject of chap. 7 "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness (or, righteous requirement) of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Sin in the flesh, that evil principle, or nature within us, has been condemned; not by the law, for it could not do it, but by God, through the incarnation and death of Christ. Both were needed for its full condemnation. God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. He came to this earth as a man, was found in fashion as a man, being born of a woman, born under law. Thus He was in the likeness of sinful flesh, though as conceived of the Holy Ghost He was Himself perfectly holy, being without sin (Luke 1:35). He has walked too here for God, the only perfect example of an obedient man which the world has ever beheld. To no one in whom there was sin could God point His people as furnishing a perfect standard for their walk. Another man, the Second man, must come for that. God sent Him, His own Son. Thus by His incarnation sin in the flesh was manifestly condemned. He then died, died to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. It must be bad indeed if it needed to be put away, and at such a cost to the Lord Jesus Christ. Fully, then, and in the most emphatic manner has God condemned sin which is in each one of us. And He has done that, "in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Here the clause improperly inserted at the end of verse 1 has its place, for that which the law enjoined can only be responded to as we walk after the Spirit.

382 How can you be relieved from the burden? CHRIST has died for it. God has condemned sin in the flesh. But how and where? See the grace of God: "What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin [that is, as a sacrifice for sin], condemned sin in the flesh." God has condemned sin in the flesh, that which is troubling you; but He has done it in Christ as a sacrifice. He, the sinless and holy One who knew no sin, not only bore our sins in His own body on the tree, but was made sin for us. Come in the likeness of sinful flesh, taking the form of man in our nature and place, though holy and sinless in it, yet in the likeness of sinful flesh, He was made a sacrifice for the putting away of sin. God condemned the whole nature and condition we are in, but for him that believes He did so in that which has put it away, just because the blessed One did suffer the condemnation of it there. It is sin, the whole thing and state and condition of our nature, that He suffered for - was made a sacrifice. He was a sacrifice for sin, not merely for sins; He did not suffer for the fruits of the tree, and leave us the evil of the tree itself to appear in before God. God condemned - has condemned - sin in the flesh; your judgment of it cannot be too bad, but He has condemned it in Christ's being a sacrifice for it. Now you can lift up your head. The thing that has justly tormented you has been atoned for, put away out of God's sight. Christ has died for your state of sin as for your sins. Nothing shews so clearly its unbearableness in God's sight; only, when so shewn, it is, as existing before God, put away for ever out of His sight in the sacrifice of Christ. You, as in the flesh, have died in Him. You are not in it before God. You are in Christ, who has suffered and atoned for it, and He is risen.

So God has done what the law could not. But it required an expense unspeakably beyond human thought. He must send His own Son, and send Him “in the likeness of sinful flesh.” What a sacrifice on the part of the Father; what humiliation for the Son! “Found in fashion as a man” (Phil. 2:8), the One in whom “is no sin” (1 John 3:5), “who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21), “who did no sin” (1 Peter 2:22), “humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Blessed beyond expression to think that He in whom there could be no sinful flesh has yet been sent “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” for the sake of meeting sin and condemning sin in the flesh. This has been done at the Cross. God is the source of it, His Son the fulfiller of that glorious work.

What is grace? — "God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh," etc. Grace is the wondrous love of God in saving man, when a sinner, by the death of His only-begotten Son. Man had been responsible for fulfilling the law, and man must obey; man had sinned, and man must be made a curse; therefore the Son of God became man. God sent forth His Son made of a woman, not in sinful flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh; thus the holy and just One could fulfil and suffer, in the stead of the unjust and unholy, so as to bring us to God. Thus the grace of God brings salvation to the chief of sinners. Sin having been condemned in the flesh by the cross, God can justly pardon the sinner; and the Righteous One having fully obeyed unto death for us, we are "made the righteousness of God in Him." Thus we see that grace was manifested in the cross, by God condemning our sin in His own Son, and making us righteous in Him whom He raised from the dead, thus doing what the law could not do. The work of Christ's cross, then, is the ground of our peace and confidence in God. It is in the cross we see that God is the God of all grace, and that Christ's death is the ground of our life and peace. "From the cross our hope we draw, Tis the sinner's sure resource; Jesus magnified the law, Jesus bore its awful curse; What a joyful truth this is! Oh, how full of hope it is!" The grace of God in Christ exactly meets the sinner's necessities. It needs a sinner to display itself upon. A spotless holy angel before the throne may be the subject of Jehovah's love, but cannot taste that the Lord is gracious; it is for man, sinful, rebellious man, that the throne of grace is established. Other creatures of God will behold its wonders, but man realizes eternal redemption through the blood of the Lamb. "For man, O miracle of grace! For man the Saviour bled!"