p. 8 | Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 36.

Question Corner

“Enquire, and make search, and ask diligently.”

No. 631. Of the Holy Ghost—Sinful Flesh.

(1) Why was Christ conceived by the Holy Ghost? (2) Did he have sinful flesh the same as we have? W. W. G.

1. The Scriptures do not say that Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost. See Matt. 1:20, margin, and Luke 1:35. Jesus was begotten of God, and God's power in operation is his Holy Spirit, “the power of the Highest.” Only by being begotten of God could he be called the Son of God; and only by uniting his own “eternal spirit” with humanity could Deity become incarnate, or dwell in flesh. How it could be done is beyond our knowledge. The fact that it has been done is proved by every soul that is born again by faith in Christ Jesus.

2. Yes, the flesh of Christ was sinful flesh; for he was “made of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Rom. 1:3); “in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren” (Heb. 2:17). Had he not been in sinful flesh he could not have “condemned sin in the flesh.” Rom. 8:3. But he “did no sin” in himself, but he “bore our sins in his own body on the tree.” 1 Peter 2:24.

No. 632. Three Days and Three Nights.

How can it be possible that Christ was “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth,” as stated in Matt. 12:40, if, as stated in “Christ Our Saviour,” page 42, he “was buried on Friday [sixth day] and arose on Sunday [first day]”? S. A.

There is no such statement on page 42. Is it page 142? “The heart of the earth” does not necessarily mean the grave. It is a purely arbitrary interpretation to say that it does. The three days and nights may begin with the betrayal of Christ into the hands of the rulers of this world. Then it was that Jesus said, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53; see also John 12:27. Again, parts of days are reckoned as whole days. In this view Jesus was three days and three nights, or, as we would say, three days, in the hands of the powers of darkness. There is not a scintilla of evidence to show that Jonah was in the stomach of the great fish any longer period than a part of two days and the whole of another. If Jesus were betrayed the evening following the fifth day, he was practically all of the sixth day, all of the Sabbath, and a part of the first day, “the third day,” in the hands of the powers of darkness. Luke 24:21.