3005.—The Human Nature of Christ
By Editor
Am surprised that you will dare to say that Christ was born of sinful flesh. Nothing could be more contrary to Scripture. It says He was born in the likeness of sinful flesh, but without sin. He was born, created, like Adam, without sin, but subject to all the temptations of man. He was not born of man, but of the Holy Ghost, so that He had not any inherited sin in sinful flesh. If Christ had sinful flesh He could not have been our Saviour. Any other good man could have been as well. First, we have not said that Christ was a sinner; we have expressly said that He did not sin. In no way did He sin. He was “without sin,” “who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.” Rom. 8:3 tells us that He was “in the likeness of sinful flesh.” But contrary to what our querist says, Gal. 4:4 declares that “when the fulness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” So reads the Revised Version; “made of a woman, made under the law,” Common Version. “Under the law” means under condemnation, because He bore our iniquities and was counted even as we, because our sins were upon Him. More than that, the apostle Paul states the great fact, which is patent to all who accept the Word as it is, that He was “made of the seed of David according to the flesh.” Rom. 1:3. Not that He was made like Adam according to the flesh, but like the seed of David according to the flesh. And certainly the seed of David was not sinless flesh, but sinful flesh. If ever a family manifested it in the history of this world, it was manifested through the family of David. Again we read, “For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.” Heb. 2:16. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood [not Adam, but the children, those who have descended from Adam], “He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Verse 14. “Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren; that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” Verse 17. So instead of saying, “If Christ had sinful flesh He could not have been our Saviour,” we must say that if Christ had not had sinful flesh He could not have been our Saviour; because the very ones that He saves, He saves out of sinful flesh; and therefore He came down to the very lowest depths to which man had fallen, and took upon Himself the nature of fallen man, in order that He might save men that were in that condition, and that every one in sinful flesh might feel that he had a friend in Jesus Christ, who knows all his temptations, all his trials, all his weaknesses; yet He did not sin. Satan induced man, in whom God was incarnated, to turn from God and become a sinner; therefore sin became incarnated, infleished. Down into the depths of that bondage, the Lord Jesus Christ came, and lived above all the environments, by the simple power of faith in the Father; lived above it perfectly; lived above it always, and did not sin. It is not degrading Christ to say that He in His wonderful love came right down to share what we share, in order that He might make the way plain for us that there was victory. But it is taking away from humanity the hope, and from divinity the manifestation of His love, to say that He did not come down where humanity needed help. No man ever lived but what sinned, no man ever lived but what needed the Saviour; but Christ Jesus came where man needed a Saviour, and overcame for man.