The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross-46

"It is finished"

6. Here we see the fulfillment of the law’s requirements.

"The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good" (Rom. 7:12). How could it be anything less when Jehovah himself had framed and given it! The fault lay not in the law but in man who, being depraved and sinful, could not keep it. Yet that law must be kept, and kept by a man, so that the law might be honoured and magnified, and its giver vindicated. Therefore we read, "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 of the law might be fulfilled in (not "by") us, who walk not after flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:3, 4). The "weakness" here is that of fallen man. The sending forth of God’s Son in the likeness of sin’s flesh (Greek) refers to the Incarnation: as we read in another scripture, "God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, that he might redeem them that were under the law" (Gal. 4:4, 5 RV). Yes, the Saviour was born "under the law", born under it that he might keep it perfectly in thought, word and deed. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy. but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17); such was his claim.

But not only did the Saviour keep the precepts of the law, he also suffered its penalty and endured its curse. We had broken it, and taking our place, he must receive its just sentence. Having received its penalty and endured its curse the demands of the law are fully met and justice is satisfied. Therefore is it written of believers, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13). And again, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom. 10:4). And yet again, " For ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14).

Free from the law, O happy condition!
Jesus hath blest and there is remission.
Cursed by the law and dead by the fall,
Grace hath redeemed us once for all.