+I. The mission of Jesus Christ and the manner in which He manifested Himself.+--"God sent forth His Son." These words present the great fact of Christ's mission from the Father and His appearance in the world. To denote the inexpressible dignity of Jesus, as being one with the Father in His most essential prerogatives and perfections, He is here styled, "His Son." He was "made of a woman." The circumstances of His incarnation placed Him at an immeasurable distance from all other parts of the human race. He was the immediate production of God, by His Divine power He was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and thereby completely exempted from the taint of original sin. He was the holy thing born of a virgin. He was by constitution placed in the same state as our first parents. He underwent a similar but severer trial and maintained His innocence against all the assaults of Satan. He was "_made_ under the law"; whereas all other creatures are under it by the very terms of their existence, by the condition of their nature. He was made under the _ceremonial_ law, under the _moral_ law, under the _mediatorial_ law. +II. The design of Christ's mission.+--"To redeem." He came not merely to exemplify a rule of life, but to satisfy its violation; not to explain the statutes of heaven, but to pay the penalty arising from the curse announced against their transgression. He came essentially to change the moral situation of mankind. Christ has added to our original brightness; He has not only redeemed us from the first transgression, but accumulated blessings which man, even in innocence, could never have obtained. +III. The fitness of the season at which Christ was manifested.+--"The fulness of time." 1. It was the period foretold by the prophets. Hence the general expectation of His coming. 2. It was a period of advancement in politics, legislation, science, and arts, and manners; an age of scepticism. 3. It was a period of toleration. The epoch will arrive when this world shall be thought of as nothing but as it furnished a stage for the manifestation of the Son of God.--_Robert Hall._ Ver. 4. _The Fulness of the Time._--Christ comes when a course of preparation, conducted through previous ages, was at last complete. He was not the creation of His own or any preceding age. What is true of all other great men, who are no more than great men, is not true of Him. They receive from their age as much as they give it; they embody and reflect its spirit. Christ really owed nothing to the time or the country which welcomed His advent. +I. The world was prepared politically for Christ's work.+--There was a common language--the Greek; a common government--the Roman. +II. There was a preparation in the convictions of mankind.+--The epoch of religious experiments had been closed in an epoch of despair.