What does it mean that Jesus was born under the law (Galatians 4:4)?

It is asked, In what sense and for what purpose was He made under the law, if from His very birth He were not the very substitute on whom our sins were laid? Scripture will answer, "He was made under the law that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Besides, He magnified the law and made it honourable — a matter not without its moral importance. It was of moment to honour the law, the measure of God's requirement from His creature, at the moment He was going to take him entirely from under it, to deliver him from it. But this touches on the ground of righteousness, which I reserve for another paper.

The great divide between the old dispensation and the new was when Christ appeared. Then was the "fulness of time" and the Lord Jesus came "made of a woman," i.e., really and truly Man; "made under the law," i.e. come of the chosen stock of Israel, who were by Divine appointment under law's dominion. He came under the law, not that He might keep it for us, and atone for our failure to keep it by so doing, but that He might redeem those that were under it. How He thus redeemed has been told us in verse 13 of the previous chapter. It was by "being made a curse for us," that is, by bearing the penalty which the law inflicted. This is redemption by death or by blood, after the type of Abel's offering. The idea that disobedient sinners can be redeemed by another producing the fair fruit of obedience on their behalf is more after the type of Cain's bloodless offering.

With "the fulness of time" all is changed. Did not the fulness of time come when man had fully manifested the evil of his heart, and entirely failed to answer to his responsibilities? When it was proved that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," and that all was over on man's side, then it was that God acted in pure sovereign grace by sending forth His Son, come of a woman, come under law.

It is false, utterly false, that Jesus took this place when He was born. It is true, that then was the fullness of the time come for God to send forth His Son. The very children were enslaved under the rudiments of the world, and all were shut up under sin. Man had proved himself competent to ruin himself under the law of God, only the more readily because it was good and he was bad. But was God's business done when the Son was here, come of a woman, come under the law? By no means. The Incarnation was but the means, not the end. Redemption was the grand point to which God turned. Therefore the Son was thus sent and “come to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye [the Gentiles, who had not been under the law] are sons,” etc. (Gal. 4:4-6).

The King of glory (Ps. 24:7) did not come from heaven manifesting forth His mighty power and glory, but He came of a woman, born of a woman. He took on Himself our human nature. He came under law (not under the law), that He might redeem (or, buy out) those that were under law. We may see plainly that instead of bringing Christians under law, God is really leading those who had been under law out from it. But He had to buy them out, and the cost was His well beloved Son. No doubt this applies first of all to the Jews, and many Jewish believers then alive, who had been brought up under the law of Moses, learned what it meant to be bought out from under that law. But when the Holy Spirit says, "He came under law, that He might buy out those that were under law" (not, the law), it tells us that Christ's work went much further than to the Jews alone. His redemption went to the ends of the earth, for man by nature loves to put himself under law, nor was it the law of Moses alone but law of every kind from which Christ redeemed us. And so the Gentile Christians in Galatia shared in this redemption from under law. Redemption places all, that is all who believe in Christ and His work on the cross, under the benefit of that work, whether they be Jews or Gentiles. In God's sight these are bought out from under law, in order that those who were under law might be delivered from it, and that they might receive from Him the sonship. For we have seen that the son was free. The son was no longer under a child-trainer, or a guardian or a steward. Before God could give to us the place and the spirit of sons, He must buy us out from under law.

God sent His Son: He came and took the form of a man down here. Born of a woman, under the law, He took His place in the world in two relationships: with man, through the woman; with the Jews, as born under the law; and every one, when converted, puts himself under it, unless, indeed, he be already there in spirit. This is very useful for the soul, as it thus learns its weakness. Redemption places all, that is, all who believe in Christ and in His work, under the benefit of that work, whether they be Jews or Gentiles; they are redeemed before God, who has accepted the work of His Son according to His own righteousness, even as He gave Him in His love, in order that those who were under the law might be delivered from it, and might receive the adoption.

Yet He was "born of a woman" (v.4). It was through a woman that sin first entered the world. He was "born under the Law" (v.4), - the Law which demanded facing the question of sin. He fully identified Himself with the circumstances of His creatures, though Himself altogether pure. If He placed Himself in a realm where sin was, and where the Law condemned sin, He willingly took the responsibility of facing these questions. Consequently, He gave Himself in suffering and death "to redeem those who were under the law," not merely that we might be forgiven, but "that we might receive the adoption of sons" (v.5).

His circumcision; as the apostle says of this, makes Him "debtor to do the whole law" (Gal. 5:3). "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son; come of a woman, come under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Gal. 4:4-5). He thus pledges Himself to full legal obedience, which on His part is to have no relaxation. To others He is to be the Source of a grace which for Himself He is never to know. And the law itself marks out for Him a special place, apart from all others.

As being brought up in a godly Jewish home, where the law was adhered to and loved, the child Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day. We are reminded of the words of the apostle Paul here: “ … made of a woman, made under the law” (Gal. 4:4). How wonderful it is to consider the Son of God becoming so lowly, found in obscure circumstances, and submitting to the law as a godly Israelite. It must be so if redemption is to be found for Jew and Gentile alike.

At this point we may perhaps appreciate more fully the immense importance of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was born of a Virgin. There was a hint of this great fact in the first prediction concerning Him ever given. It was the Lord God Himself who spoke of "the woman" and "her seed" (Gen. 3:15). Hence, "when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman" (Gal. 4:4), yet conceived under the direct action of the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:35). Therefore it is that while the Deliverer was by the woman He was not an ordinary son of Adam at all. The virgin birth means that the Lord Jesus while truly Man was yet a Man of a new order.