JESUS CHRIST - THE DIVINE HUMAN SON OF GOD
The prophecy declared : "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6
And "... when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law," Gal 4:4
What sort of woman was He made from? A woman who was a sinner. The woman declares: "And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour" Luke 1:47 He was made of a woman who was a sinner with a sinful, fallen human nature, a woman who had sinned and needed salvation, a woman who rejoiced in God her Saviour. He came to redeem them who were "under the law". This woman was one of them. And this woman passed onto him her humanity, a humanity that was fallen and sinful.
The good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ did no sin despite partaking of His mother's sinful, fallen human nature. He is the only human being with a fallen human nature who did not commit a single sin even to the cross. He did not allow his sinful human nature to express itself in the transgression of God’s law.
Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6
Christ is the only way to salvation. The disciple said: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”John 3:16,17
But what does it mean to believe in Him, to “believeth in Him”? Christ said: “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. John 12:46-48
To believe in Christ is to receive and accept His word. It says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path”. To receive the word is to not walk in darkness. To believe in Christ is to accept his Word, to believe in His Word, to trust in what he says. Christ said: “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life.” John 6:63
When you receive His word, you receive His Spirit, you receive Christ in an intangible form because the Word is Spirit.
"God’s Holy educating Spirit is in His word.” COL 132.2
And He is the Word. Hence to receive the Word is to receive the Spirit and to receive the Spirit is to receive Christ and to receive Christ, you receive His person and become a partaker of the divine nature.
“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Christ is not here referring to his doctrine, but to HIS PERSON, the divinity of his character”. Review and Herald - 04-05-06
“It is through the word that Christ abides in His followers.” DA 677
“Christ abiding within, is the life of the soul. And we are to receive Christ through his word.” {RH, February 16, 1892 par. 18}
You not only receive Christ but you receive life because the Word is LIFE. Therefore, it is the Word that quickeneth. He that hath the son (the Word) hath life.
“Do you desire to become a follower of Christ, yet know not how to begin? Are you in darkness and know not how to find the light? Follow the light you have. Set your heart to obey what you do know of the word of God. His power, His very life, dwells in His word. As you receive the word in faith, it will give you power to obey. As you give heed to the light you have, greater light will come. You are building on God's word, and your character will be builded after the similitude of the character of Christ. {MB 150.1}
“The Word of God is life,and it will abide forever. Through all eternity it will stand fast. How can man, knowing what God is and what He has done, choose Satan's way instead of God's way? There is only one path to Paradise restored--the path of obedience.” {UL 318.3}
“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Christ is not here referring to his doctrine, but to HIS PERSON, the divinity of his character”. Review and Herald - 04-05-06
You who were once dead in trespass and sin are now born again by the word of God, by that quickening life giving power:
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh[is] as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” 1Peter 1:23-25
The NATURE of Christ, the human nature “mysteriously blended” with the divine nature is the key to our salvation.
WHAT SORT OF HUMAN NATURE DID CHRIST INHERIT FROM MARY?
We saw that it was sinful, fallen human nature but let the Scripture speak that this is so. In connecting his divinity with our weak humanity, he overcame temptation in that humanity and did no sin, so may it be with us as we connect our sinful human nature with His divine nature we become like Him, victorious in all things.
A change wrought by the Word, it is one of the deepest mysteries of the Word. We cannot understand it; we can only believe, as declared by the Scriptures, it is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." {AA 476.1}
There is a teaching doing the rounds that a literal God, a literal person and NOT THE word dwells in us. That while Christ is in heaven in the most holy place He is also dwelling in us as a literal being which has nothing to do with the Word. These folk do not accept what the Spirit of prophecy says as to how Christ dwells in His people through His word.
On a practical level, as we receive the Word which is Spirit, we receive Christ and as we receive Christ we become partakers of the divine nature, we with our sinful, fallen nature become connected with divine power, the human nature and the divine nature working together and the end of it is the salvation of our souls. When we receive Christ through receiving the Word, we receive the power of the word because “Where the word of a king [is, there is] power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?” Eccl 8:4
And when we receive His word we receive the King. He dwells in our hearts by faith, by the faithful word. Christ is King of Kings so His word has immense power, immense creative power as it was in the beginning. Even the power to withstand temptation, to overcome all the wiles of the devil, to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory. Hence “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”.
And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. The gospel then is the good news, the good news which makes manifest the power of the Word to control the carnal nature, the power of the Word to overcome temptation, the power of the Word to heal the soul of sin and to deliver from sin. Just as another King had said: "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee" Ps 119:11
THE UNION OF THE HUMAN NATURE WITH THE DIVINE NATURE
It says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “And the Word was made flesh,and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:1,14
The Word was God and this Word was made flesh. What sort of flesh? The flesh that is as grass,“for all FLESH is as grass”, the flesh that is as grass which withereth, corruptible flesh, the flesh whose glory is as the flower of grass which falleth away.
AND WHAT SORT OF FLESH WAS THIS?
Flesh that “profiteth nothing”, Corruptible flesh, fallen flesh, sinful flesh which is man’s nature after the fall of Adam when he sinned. The Word took on that sort of flesh and so it says: “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:” Romans 8:3
WHAT COULDN'T THE LAW DO?
The law could not bring about righteousness.
Why? Because it was weak through the flesh, in having to contend with the flesh, with weak, fallen, sinful flesh which on its own has transgressed the law, which on its own does not and cannot produce the righteousness of the law in us, which on its own does not walk after the Spirit and which on its own, minds the things of the flesh so that “…they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Rom 8:8
WHY CAN'T THEY PLEASE GOD?
Because it says: “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:” Rom 8:13 And the only reason you will die is because you live in sin “For the wages of sin is death…” Sin cannot please God and to live after the flesh is to live in sin, to continue in sin and the end of thereof is death. And it does not please God that you should die. He pleads: “For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn [yourselves], and live ye.” Eze 18:32
How then shall we who are of the flesh escape the wages of sin for it says, “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”? We must be born again, “…Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 because, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” John 3:6,7 because “…they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” And “… if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:” If you live your life according to the flesh, according to the carnal nature you were born with you will die because that flesh on its own cannot keep the law of God and will continue to transgress the law and to transgress the law is to none other than sin and the wages of sin is death so that, that flesh will perish.
YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN
We are commanded, “…Ye must be born again.” How? “being born again…by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever…” In order to live we must eat. When we were “born” the first time, we forsook the Lord and drank out of broken cisterns, cisterns we hewed ourselves which could not hold water (Jer 2:13) and became thirsty bereft of the Spirit. We ate our own bread and wore our own apparel. We spent “...money for that which is not bread…” Isaiah 55:2
But what sort of food do we need as newborns, as born again Christians? - “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.” Jer 15:16. We are to eat the Word in order to live. We are to desire as newborn babes “…the sincere milk of the word..” And what is the Word – it is Spirit: John 6:63. And Spirit is divine. In partaking of the Word, we partake of the Spirit and in partaking of the Spirit we partake of the divine nature and so the victory is assured as verily as God has said, “…Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” Zech 4:6
Christ therefore took on our flesh, sinful flesh, flesh which is as the grass that withereth, flesh which is the flower of the grass that withereth which falleth away, flesh which “profiteth nothing”, sinful, fallen flesh.
He took this sort of flesh at great risk to himself and us. If He had sinned we would have been lost. He would have been lost. The Father would have lost His Son. Can we appreciate how serious and risky it was for Him to partake of our flesh, our fallen human nature with its strong natural inclination to sin? We ought to because:
“After the fall, it had been impossible for man with his sinful nature to render obedience to the law of God, had not Christ, by the offer of his own life, purchased the right to lift up the race where they could once more work in harmony with its requirements. {RH, September 27, 1881 par. 11}
“Remember that Christ risked all; "tempted like as we are," he staked even his own eternal existence upon the issue of the conflict. Heaven itself was imperiled for our redemption. At the foot of the cross, remembering that for one sinner Jesus would have yielded up his life, we may estimate the value of a soul. {GCB, December 1, 1895 par. 22}
“…God permitted His Son to come, a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity. He permitted Him to meet life's peril in common with every human soul, to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk of failure and eternal loss.” (Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages. Page 49 ‘Unto you a Saviour’)
“He became subject to temptation, endangering as it were, His divine attributes. Satan sought, by the constant and curious devices of his cunning, to make Christ yield to temptation. Man must pass over the ground over which Christ has passed. As Christ overcame every temptation which Satan brought against Him, so man is to overcome.And those who strive earnestly to overcome are brought into a oneness with Christ that the angels in heaven can never know. {7BC 926.5}
The testimonies repeatedly state that Christ took our fallen, sinful human nature. That it was in the order of God that Christ should take man’s nature in its fallen condition. Human nature that was “identical” with our own and not only identical with our own but “perfectly identical” with our own. That he was “a real man”.
Hence he was not in a lost condition while possessing our sinful nature because it was in God’s order that He should take such a nature.
“The new tomb enclosed Him in its rocky chambers. If one single sin had tainted His character the stone would never have been rolled away from the door of His rocky chamber, and the world with its burden of guilt would have perished. ……” Ms. 81, 1893, p. 11. (Diary entry for Sunday, July 2, 1893, Wellington, New Zealand.)
SIN & NATURE NOT ONE AND THE SAME.
One single sin on His part and He would have been lost. Can we appreciate the difference between that one single sin on His part which would have spelt doom for Him (and us) and the fallen human nature He partook of? They are not one and the same. Nature is not sin and sin is not nature.
Those who believe that “Sin is Nature”, like the Immaculate conception doctrine of the Papacy, believe the possession of a fallen nature is SIN and hence one is condemned and lost as a result of possessing such a nature and naturally must preach “….another Jesus, whom we have not preached…” 2 Cor 11:4, a Jesus with a different human nature from us, in order to avoid the so called lost condition of a sinful nature. Human NATURE is sinful but is not sin itself. There is a difference. God created human nature which comprises the physical, intellectual and moral powers. That human nature was tainted by something called sin is not in question. Human nature was tainted by something the man Adam DID! He sinned. He transgressed the law and so it is written: “Thy first father hath sinned…” Isaiah 43:27 and with that sin Adam passed to us a nature which is described as sinful, fallen, or carnal having tainted it by his own transgression, by his own ACTION!
THE GREAT LAW OF HEREDITY EXCEPT WITHOUT SIN ON HIS PART.
Remember Jesus accepted the great law of heredity and partook of the same nature we inherited from fallen Adam. Note the apparent contradiction of the following quotes from the Spirit of Prophecy. The contradiction is only apparent and not real and must be correctly interpreted and understood else we will arrive at an erroneous conclusion when reading them in isolation:
The following quotes demonstrate that Christ DID possess certain kind of passions that we have:
1. “He blessed children that were possessed of PASSIONS like His own.” E.G. White, Signs of the Times, April 9, 1896.
2. “Though He had all the strength of PASSION of humanity, never did He yield to temptation to do one single act which was not pure and elevating and ennobling.” E.G. White, In High Places, p155.
The following quotes demonstrate that Christ did NOT possess certain passions that we have.
3. “He was a mighty petitioner, NOT POSSESSING THE PASSIONS of our human, fallen natures, but compassed with like infirmities, tempted in all points even as we are.” E.G. White, Testimonies Vol. 2, p509. 4. “He is our example in all things. He is a brother in our infirmities, but NOT IN POSSESSING LIKE PASSIONS. As the sinless One, His nature recoiled from evil.” E.G. White, Testimonies Vol. 2, p202.
What is the difference between quotes 1&2 and 3&4? The point is Christ inherited certain natural passions of ours as part of the sinful human nature he partook of (quotes 1&2) and these He controlled and never allowed to be expressed in sin. Notice that while possessing “…all the strength of PASSION of humanity, never did He yield to temptation to do one single act which was not pure and elevating and ennobling.” He never sinned while possessing those passions. He never allowed those passions to result in the transgression of God’s law.
The other type of passions and propensities which we have cultivated as a result of our sinning or having sinned repeatedly, and which Christians must eliminate from their experience, He did not have at all (quotes 3,4). Hence the SOP is not contradictory.
It is what happens as a result of the fallen nature which is important and not so much the possession of such a nature because clearly Christ possessed the same sinful fallen nature as us and He never sinned in that nature and He was not in a lost condition while possessing such a nature.
Neither was He condemned in that same nature because He never exercised that nature to its natural predisposition to transgress God’s law. He kept that fallen nature, the flesh, under the control of the Holy Spirit by a full surrender of His fallen humanity to God and hence condemned sin in the flesh (sarx). He lived the sanctified life even to the cross in our nature. Remember He was the seed of the woman, Genesis 3:15. a fallen woman, not a woman with a sinless nature as Papal Rome proclaims. The only way He could have been lost was if He had transgressed God’s law and not because He possessed a fallen nature.
“Abundant provision has been made that finite, fallen man may so connect with God that, through the same Source by which Christ overcame in His human nature, he may stand firmly against every temptation, as did Christ.” {6MR 111.3}
As it was for Him so it is for us - He had to surrender that fallen nature to the control of the Spirit. The sinful nature is to be kept under the control of the Spirit of God. The transforming grace of Christ will bring the will into harmony with the will of Christ. …. {GCDB, February 6, 1893 par. 15}
Does this statement or the following one suggest that the sinful nature disappears at conversion when one is born again? Obviously not. It is to be kept under the control of the Spirit of God.
“There is not an impulse of OUR nature, not a faculty of the mind or an inclination of the heart, but needs to be, moment by moment, under the control of the Spirit of God.”--PP 421 (1890). {LDE 65.3}
“Human nature will continue to be human nature, but it can be elevated and ennobled by union with the divine nature. It is by partaking of the divine nature that men and women escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.” {TDG 70.3}
He took our fallen human nature, lived human nature and was victorious over its natural inclination to sin.
His condescension, His sacrifice, His victory and His resurrection would be meaningless to us If He failed to take our sinful, fallen nature. He was not fireproof when entering the furnace of affliction else it was all a facade. The Roman antichrist has successfully removed Jesus from the realm of humanity by giving Him an unfallen, “unhuman” sinless nature. Many are following in her path but do not know they are sprouting the same thing.
I suspect many of us have not come to terms with the difference between possessing a fallen human nature and sin itself because we have not abandoned the idea that nature is sin, hence our perception of Jesus’ human nature, unfortunately is an erroneous one, similar to the Papal view - in essence some part or the whole of his human nature must be unlike ours. Even worse are the brethren who say they believe Christ took our sinful nature but then go on to teach that his nature did not include his human mind. More later.
The problem for us is adjectives like selfish, depraved, evil, degenerate etc, used to describe our fallen human nature result in a mental block or objection on our part, that Jesus could not possibly possess a human nature described by such words because we’ve subconsciously identified these descriptive words as SIN. In effect believing NATURE IS SIN.
One person replied in discussion with the following, “I looked up these references and have discovered that many of these quotes were applied to specific individuals like Herod, or parents etc.....”
Correct, but these quotes are only descriptions of our sinful human nature. One cannot say that the “…jealous nature…” pertained to Herod alone to the exclusion of the rest of the human race or that parents have a peculiar type of human nature which the rest of us who are not parents do not possess. The Spirit of Prophecy was merely describing in so many words the characteristics of our fallen human nature and what that nature would naturally lead to if allowed to be expressed as a result of falling to temptation i.e. selfish nature => selfishness, depraved nature => depravity etc. Some folk might manifest one trait more so than others.
5. “…a selfish nature.” -- R. & H., May 16, 1882. {CS 139.2}
6. “…the depraved nature of man.” {PP 688.2}
7. “…evil nature…” {ST, March 30, 1891 par. 2}
8. “…jealous nature…” {YI, October 19, 1899 par. 4}
9. “…our degenerate nature.” {ST, June 2, 1887 par. 2}
10. “…evil traits of the carnal nature”. {HP 312.3}
It is the expression of that fallen human nature in selfishness, depravity, evil, jealousy etc, in the life resulting in sin that is the issue. Something Jesus never allowed as a result of the total surrender of His will to the father.
It appears that folk find it more appealing to say that Jesus took our HUMAN NATURE rather than to say that He took our SINFUL HUMAN NATURE or they might prefer to say that He took our HUMANITY rather than to say He took our selfish, depraved, evil, jealous, degenerate FALLEN human nature because folk cannot conceive of such words being associated with Christ but we fail to understand that He never exercised that fallen evil human nature to do evil. Our fallen, sinful human nature is exactly as described by Sister White – it is selfish, jealous, depraved, evil etc, else what do the words “sinful human nature” mean?
There is nothing good about the fallen human nature but as long as it is controlled daily by the Holy Spirit, it will not manifest evil, depravity, jealousy etc.
“The sinful nature is to be kept under the control of the Spirit of God. …”. …. {GCDB, February 6, 1893 par. 15}
If we are to believe to the contrary that He never took some part of human nature then Jesus never became one of us, was never really human. He came to demonstrate that fallen human nature connected with the Spirit of God can keep the law of God, can “cease from sin”, can “cease to sin”.
“Christ's humanity was united with divinity, and in this strength He would bear all the temptations that Satan could bring against Him, and yet keep His soul untainted by sin. And this power to overcome He would give to every son and daughter of Adam who would accept by faith the righteous attributes of His character.” {FLB 49.8} Note: “Christ's humanity was united with divinity, and in this strength..."
What strength? The strength of the union of the human and the divine natures. That union, that mysteriously blended union is what was victorious over Satan's temptations. Not the human nature alone because it would easily succumb to Satan's temptations, not the divine nature alone because one cannot tempt God but the union of the human with the divine nature is the key to victory over sin and death.
The adjectives she uses are merely describing the characteristics of the fallen nature? What that nature would naturally express if left unchecked by the Holy Spirit. But the descriptive “thing” itself in the individual is not sin. Was Jesus selfish? No! He took our sinful selfish human nature without ever expressing selfishness on His part. Similarly, sinful human nature is depraved but did Jesus manifest the depravity? Obviously not! Human nature is described as jealous but did Jesus manifest jealousy? No. And so on and so forth.
There is no other type of fallen human nature which can be described by words other than those used. Remember His human nature is said to be “perfectly identical” with our own.
The mere possession of a fallen nature is not in itself a sin because Jesus was incarnated with the same fallen nature. It would be ridiculous to say that baby Jesus was in a lost condition for being born with a fallen human nature.
"It was in the order of God that Christ should take upon himself the form and nature of fallen man, that he might be made perfect through suffering, and himself endure the strength of Satan’s fierce temptations, that he might understand how to succor those who should be tempted." {RH December 31, 1872, par. 19}
He was born not only with our fallen nature but with the Spirit of God – he had a divine nature as well but the latter is not the consideration. It is this thing called fallen human NATURE and the mere possession of it by Jesus at birth does not constitute a sin or a lost condition. That His fallen human nature, was under the control of the Spirit of God from His incarnation is a mystery in itself.
Remember, “His human nature was created; it did not even possess the angelic powers. It was human, identical with our own. …He would redeem Adam’s disgraceful failure and fall, in our own humanity.” {CTr 213.4}
Can we see the difference between POSSESSING a fallen human nature and the expression or MANIFESTATION of that nature in the thing it naturally leads to, called SIN – the transgression of the law? Sin and nature are entirely different things.
The above descriptions (selfish, depraved, degenerate etc) of our human nature is simply referred to as the fallen nature, the carnal nature or the sinful nature. It is the dying daily to that [selfish] nature, the daily crucifying of that selfish nature, the daily overcoming of that selfish nature, the keeping under of that selfish nature which is all important. Jesus did just that on a daily basis under the most trying circumstances so that there is no excuse for us to sin. His carnal nature was so controlled by the Spirit of God, the divine nature, that he did not sin.
THE NATURE OF CHRIST IS THE KEY TO OVERCOMING SIN.
The union of the divine nature with the fallen human nature resulted in His complete victory over sin. This is what it means to walk in the Spirit and not after the flesh. To walk in the Spirit is to so connect our fallen nature with the divine nature so that it will naturally result in keeping the carnal nature under control and daily victory over sin, to manifest unselfishness, no evil, no jealousy, no depravity while serving “….. Him in human nature which we now have. ….” {OHC 48.4}
“...It is Satan's act to tempt you, but your own act to yield. It is not in the power of all the host of Satan to force the tempted to transgress. There is no excuse for sin.” {Mar 82.3}
Such is the mystery of the incarnation that Divinity can connect sinful, fallen human nature with itself. It was the only way to rescue man – to lift man up and connect him with divine power, nature wise, by faith in Jesus, the Son of God and the SON OF MAN. James 1:14,15. He is the SON of MAN. He is truly one of us in nature and has left us an example that we should follow in His steps who did no sin neither was guile found in His mouth.
We need to be careful because we can turn from righteousness to wickedness in a flash if this fallen nature is not kept under the control of God’s Spirit moment by moment.
"Again, When a righteous [man] doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand." Ezekiel3:20
The fallen nature must be surrendered to God every moment, every day. Christ had two natures the human and the Divine which were mysteriously blended. They were both “complete” and both retained their special properties.
“We want to comprehend so far as possible the truly human nature of our Lord. The divine and human were linked in Christ, and both were complete.” {3SM 135.3}
"Two Natures Blended in Christ.--Through being partakers of the divine nature we may stand pure and holy and undefiled. The Godhead was not made human, and the human was not deified by the blending together of the two natures. Christ did not possess the same sinful, corrupt, fallen disloyalty we possess, for then He could not be a perfect offering.--Manuscript 94, 1893. {3SM 131.1}
Christ did not possess the same fallen disloyalty we possess,. While He accepted the great law of heredity thereby possessing the passion of fallen humanity, He never once yielded to temptation and sin like we have and hence did not possess the same DISLOYALTY and cultivated passions which we possess as a result of our having transgressed God’s law.
CHRIST WAS A REAL MAN & NOT SOMEONE REMOVED FROM HUMANITY WHO WAS BORN WITH A SINLESS HUMAN NATURE
Sometimes the meaning one takes from the English language can get in the way of the proper understanding of a passage. To put the above heading in another way, Christ was a real man who was born with a sinless fallen nature, in other words he did no sin in that fallen nature and maintained that even to the cross. He did not taint the fallen nature he inherited from Adam with sin on his part.
The same individual alluded to earlier said this:
“Even though Jesus had a sinful and fallen human physical and mental nature, He did not have our fallen spiritual nature.”
I believe we need to stay with inspired definitions regarding the word NATURE. The Human nature we inherit from Adam is fallen human nature. Christ did not pick and choose which parts of fallen human nature He was to take. Christ was a real man with a fallen human nature.
Inspiration says “He was human, as you are.” That Christ was “…a real man”, “…a true human being” Am I to interpret these words as saying that He was a sinner just like you and I? Obviously not but the words mean something. Am I to understand that He did not possess the type of human nature which I possess? I do not think so. He was either a real man, a true human being with a fallen human nature identical to mine or He wasn’t. She also says: “It was not a make-believe humanity that Christ took upon Himself.” So Christ took something upon Himself that was not make-believe, it was a fallen humanity that was really human just as you are. And it is also stated that “His human nature was created;..”, and that “……It was human, identical with our own. …” He is, therefore, human “as you are” as far as His human NATURE is concerned. Notice she says that His human nature was identical with our own. She not only says it was identical with our own but that it was “….PERFECTLY IDENTICAL with our own nature, except without the taint of sin. . . .” In other words the fallen nature he inherited, he did not taint with sin.
Now the suggestion that there is some kind or part of human NATURE which He did not take flies in the face of the above testimonies. If He did not possess fallen human nature then He was never fully man and His NATURE cannot be described as “perfectly identical” with ours.
THE ANTICHRIST DENIES THAT CHRIST IS COME IN THE FLESH
The only qualification regarding His human nature was in reference to sin, It was “….PERFECTLY IDENTICAL with our own nature, except without the taint of sin. . . .” The phrase “without the taint of sin” refers to Him never tainting that fallen human nature with sin on His part - John 14:30
Christ took the fallen nature of Adam. Why is the human nature of Adam described as fallen, sinful, carnal? Because Adam sinned and through His sin, tainted the original unfallen human nature he was created with. God made only one type of human nature. So the human nature tainted by Adam’s sin has been bequeathed to you and I and Christ through the great law of heredity. It is simply called a sinful nature. You and I had no part to play in the tainting of this thing (NATURE) we inherited from Adam. It was his transgression that tainted human nature. God does not condemn us for possessing it because nowhere in inspiration does He condemn Jesus for possessing the identical human nature. In fact it was in God’s order that Christ should take the form and nature of fallen Adam. He is “the son of Adam” after all.
That we have demonstrated the ease with which this inherited human nature lends itself to sin is clear from the scriptures (Rom 3:23) and from our own experience. We, ourselves have tainted that fallen human nature with our own sin, something Jesus never did.
Therefore, unlike us, He never sinned while possessing a fallen human nature. I would like to think this is what you meant by “…..He did not have our fallen spiritual nature.” You will agree that Jesus did not take make-believe human nature. He did not take only one half or one third of our human nature, He was fully man just as you are. If sin is nature for which one is condemned and lost, then it goes to follow that Jesus could not possibly have taken any part of our nature, not even a small portion of it including the fallen physical body. You see the problems we start getting into when we redefine sin as nature?
The “Sin is NATURE” believers cannot accept Jesus partaking of our fallen nature. SN Haskell and the brethren who went to Indiana to check out the Holy Flesh movement met with the same sentiments. SN Haskell reported back to Ellen White:
“When we stated that we believed that Christ was born in fallen humanity, they would represent us as believing that Christ sinned.” (Letter, #2, to Ellen G. White, dated at Battle Creek, Michigan, September 25, 1900).
Sister White stated that the "Holy Flesh" folk were leading people astray by their teachings.
If being “born in fallen humanity” means “Christ sinned” because Sin is nature, then obviously He could not have been born with a fallen nature. Can you see the difficulty one would have with the line “…..He did not have our fallen spiritual nature.”? Unless you precisely define what is meant by a “fallen spiritual nature.” folk will be confused and will naturally align you with the SIN is NATURE camp despite your admission that “…Jesus had a sinful and fallen human physical and mental nature,….” If we promote the view that Jesus did not possess the type of human nature which we possess, then we are in the camp of Antichrist. The SOP clearly defines what constitutes [fallen] Human nature and I believe we need to stay with those definitions else we will venture into areas like “….our fallen spiritual nature.” and confuse NATURE. There are 140 hits on the EGW CD on “spiritual nature” and none on “..our fallen spiritual nature”
I tried to comprehend what you were trying to say and the closest I could get is the following:
“The human nature of Christ was like unto ours. And suffering was really more keenly felt by Him, for His spiritual nature was free from every taint of sin.. . . . {CTr 268.6}.
There is no other type of human nature but fallen human nature which was blended with His divine nature. We are told that Christ has “two natures”, the Divine and the human and that these natures were “mysteriously blended”, that the two natures were "complete" and each retained its “essential properties”.
“We want to comprehend so far as possible the truly human nature of our Lord. The divine and human were linked in Christ, and both were complete.” {3SM 135.3}
Both were complete, hence the human nature of Christ was a complete one and must retain His identity as a human. Man’s identity is not only in the physical appearance but also in the Spirit of man – who He or she is. The spirit is something intangible in contrast the to the tangible aspect of man’s nature, his physical body.
The nature of man, we are told, is threefold and encompasses the physical, mental (or intellectual) and moral powers. The latter two are the non-tangible aspects of man’s nature – his spirit, his identity. Is the latter what you claim Jesus did not take? If that is the case then you’ve still got this hang up that nature is sin. The sinful fallen human nature in its totality includes both the sinful fallen physical body (his outward physical appearance) and the sinful fallen identity of man, his spirit
(inward identity, who the man or woman is, the person that you are.) Christ’s human nature was “complete”. If one removes the inward spirit of man from His nature, then His humanity is incomplete and cannot be said to be perfectly identical with ours.
Furthermore, temptation and the victory over it or the succumbing to it and sin must be confronted by His fallen HUMAN NATURE, the spirit of man which includes his human mind with its properties of conscience, reason and intellect and not by His DIVINE nature.
The fallen human nature He took met every temptation and was victorious – hence His Spiritual nature is a victorious fallen human nature because that is the only type of nature which can be tempted or can respond to temptation and this human nature was connected with His divine nature. This combination of His fallen human nature and the Spirit of God which is what He was incarnated with is the new nature which all must possess in order to be victorious Christians. One cannot remove a part of His fallen human nature making it non-existent and at the same time say He took our fallen nature.
Note she says the Human nature of Christ “was like unto ours” – i.e. sinful, fallen nature, but then she mentions that “His spiritual nature was free from every taint of sin.” In other words He possessed our fallen nature which He never tainted with sin and this is what she refers to as His Spiritual nature. Of the Divine nature and the fallen human nature, the latter is the only one which can be tainted by sin.
One cannot speak of a Divine nature free from every taint of sin because it is impossible to taint such a nature with sin. Hence the fallen human nature under the control of the Spirit or divine nature is a different nature from the fallen one abiding alone as in the natural man. It is a nature in which Christ is dwelling in the heart of man by faith through His Word and we are strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. You will agree that the only thing that needs strengthening is a weak fallen human nature which has to face temptation on a daily basis.
Note the SOP: “In their fallen nature people can do the very things God expects them to do through the help provided for them. They can walk and work and live by faith in the Son of God. God is not pleased with those who are satisfied with a mere animal life. He has formed human beings after the divine similitude. He designs that they shall possess the character of God by obeying His law, the expression of His divine character. The Lord has given them mind, intellect, and affections. These gifts are entrusted to them to be exercised and improved. God has given them a conscience that must be carefully cherished and appreciated. He has given them knowledge and virtue. These entrusted capabilities are to hold the supremacy that God has assigned to them. {CTr 53.4}
Some folk seem to think that the fallen human nature disappears at conversion but this is not the case. Did Jesus’ sinful human nature somehow disappear during His life on earth? If it did, then what does this mean: “He took upon His sinless nature our sinful nature, that He might know how to succor those that are tempted.” {MM 181.3}
MAN'S HUMAN NATURE AND SIN
1. ORIGINAL MAN (ADAM) => despite SINLESS NATURE => SIN
2. FALLEN ADAM => FALLEN HUMAN NATURE => SIN
3. ADAM’S CHILDREN => FALLEN HUMAN NATURE => SIN
4. JESUS => FALLEN NATURE + HOLY SPIRIT / DIVINE NATURE => NO SIN.
5. NEW MAN = FALLEN NATURE + HOLY SPIRIT / DIVINE NATURE => NO SIN.
“Our fallen nature must be purified, ennobled, consecrated by obedience to the truth…..” {5T 235.3}
The sinful nature is to be kept under the control of the Spirit of God. The transforming grace of Christ will bring the will into harmony with the will of Christ. …. {GCDB, February 6, 1893 par. 15}
The fallen nature is controlled by the Spirit and this same man is now walking in the Spirit with a “new nature”, the fallen nature connected with the divine nature, different from that of the natural man who was bereft of the Divine but beware as quoted from Ezekiel 3, this same man can manifest the worst of his fallen human nature at any time if not under the control of the Holy Spirit. It is still there and the Spirit keeps it under control, crucifies it from manifesting itself, controls it etc. etc.
The following quotes demonstrate how human Jesus was. Sister White expressed it best in point 2 below:
1. “Jesus speaks to us, "Learn of Me"; "Be like Me." He was human, as you are.” {14MR 334.2}
2. He had not taken on Him even the nature of the angels, but humanity, perfectly identical with our own nature, except without the taint of sin. . . . {CTr 208.6}
"Christ, the Redeemer of the world, was not situated where the influences surrounding him were the best calculated to preserve a life of purity and untainted morals, yet he was not contaminated. He was not free from temptation. Satan was earnest and persevering in his efforts to deceive and overcome the Son of God by his devices. Christ was the only one who walked the earth upon whom there rested no taint of sin. He was pure, spotless, and undefiled. That there should be One without the defilement of sin upon the earth, greatly disturbed the author of sin, and he left no means untried to overcome Christ with his wily, deceptive power. But our Saviour relied upon his Heavenly Father for wisdom and strength to resist and overcome the tempter. The Spirit of his Heavenly Father animated and regulated his life. He was sinless. Virtue and purity characterized his life. {YI, February 1, 1873 par. 2}
Can we now understand the significance of the incarnation? That Divinity so connected with sinful humanity, it lifted fallen humanity from the mire of sin and death, that sinful fallen humanity may so connect with divinity on a daily basis and be victorious and so attain to the resurrection of life that is in Christ Jesus.
3. “It was not a make-believe humanity that Christ took upon Himself. He took human nature and lived human nature. ….” {5BC 1124.1}.
4. “His human nature was created; ……It was human, identical with our own. …He would redeem Adam’s disgraceful failure and fall, in our own humanity.” {CTr 213.4}
5. “He was made like unto his brethren, with the same susceptibilities, mental and physical.” {RH, February 10, 1885 par. 7}
6. “Christ did in reality unite the offending nature of man with his own sinless nature, …. …” {RH, July 17, 1900 par. 8}
7. "A human body and a human mind were His." {CTr 213.5}
8. Christ was a real man; He gave proof of His humility in becoming a man. ….”. {1SM 244.1}
9. “Bear in mind that Christ's overcoming and obedience is that of a true human being.. ….” {3SM 139.4}
10. “Christ had two natures, the nature of a man and the nature of God. In him divinity and humanity were combined. ……He exhibited a perfect humanity, combined with deity; and by preserving each nature distinct, he has given to the world a representation of the character of God and the character of a perfect man. He shows us what God is, and what man may become--godlike in character.” {GCB, October 1, 1899 par. 20}
11. “Our Lord was tempted as man is tempted. He was capable of yielding to temptations, as are human beings. His finite nature was pure and spotless, but the divine nature that led Him to say to Philip, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" also, was not humanized; neither was humanity deified by the blending or union of the two natures; each retained its essential character and properties.” {16MR 182.1}
There is a difference between NATURE & SIN.
1. Lucifer, Eve and Adam were created with perfect sinless natures.
2. They all did something called SIN, they transgressed the law of God.
3. Sin never existed in their natures prior to their transgression.
4. SIN, therefore, in its definition has nothing whatsoever to do with angelic or human NATURES.
5. God gave a perfect and complete definition of SIN on two tablets of stone. It is as “broad and as tall as eternity”.
6. Whether one possesses a SINLESS nature or a SINFUL nature is IRELEVANT to the definition of SIN – 1John 3:4
7. Therefore, the [sinful] NATURE is not sin as SIN is defined in 1John 3:4
8. Hence even baby Jesus could partake of our SINFUL, FALLEN humanity and not be classified a SINNER – as SN Haskell & Co and Ellen White believed.
The sinless NATURED angels in heaven and the sinless NATURED beings of the unfallen worlds are still governed by a law which states that the wages of the transgression of that law (sin) is death. Has nothing to do with their NATURE.
THE MIND OF CHRIST - WAS IT ONLY HUMAN, ONLY DIVINE OR BOTH?
There is one more point which needs to be addressed and it is the idea that some folk hold regarding the mind of Christ. These folk openly admit they believe Christ took our sinful, fallen nature. They cannot deny the fact the testimonies makes this point over and over again. BUT having said they believe Christ took our sinful, fallen nature, they then go on to teach that he did not have a human mind. They do not believe that Christ inherited from Adam, Adam’s fallen human mind which is a part of Adam's human nature in the first place. In essence without admitting to it they do not believe Christ was one of us. The totality of man’s nature includes man’s mind with its intellectual and moral powers.
There is no sinful, fallen human nature which does not include MIND. A complete human being is made of the physical form and the intellectual and moral powers of the mind!
The nature of man is threefold and comprises the physical, intellectual and moral powers.The latter two have everything to do with the mind of man. All three are necessary for the completeness of one’s human nature. But these folk teach Christ did not have a human mind which is contrary to inspiration. Christ then was not human at all but inspiration tells us – “A human body and a human mind were his.” 3SM 129.4
But what sort of human mind did he possess? Note how the Spirit of prophecy makes it very clear in contrasting Adam with Christ in the following:
“Satan had pointed to Adam’s sin as proof that God’s law was unjust, and could not be obeyed. In our humanity, Christ was to redeem Adam’s failure. But when Adam was assailed by the tempter, none of the effects of sin were upon him.He stood in the strength of perfect manhood, possessing the full vigor of mind and body.He was surrounded with the glories of Eden, and was in daily communion with heavenly beings. It was not thus with Jesuswhen He entered the wilderness to cope with Satan.For four thousand years the race had been decreasing in physical strength, in mental power, and in moral worth;and Christ took upon Him the infirmities of degenerate humanity. Only thus could He rescue man from the lowest depths of his degradation. { DA 117.1}”
Did you get that? Christ took on our sinful fallen nature in its completeness – the physical, mental and moral powers of fallen man. Note the difference between Adam and Jesus:
Unfallen Adam had the “full vigor of mind and body.”when he met the tempter. It was not thus with Jesus when He entered the wilderness to cope with Satan. Hence Christ did not have the full vigor of mind and body. As part of the fallen human nature Christ inherited from Adam He possessed a human mind that was tainted by Adam’s sin.
Notice: For four thousand years the race had been decreasing in physical strength, in mental power, and in moral worth;and Christ took upon Him the infirmities of degenerate humanity. Only thus could He rescue man from the lowest depths of his degradation. You see friend what she is referring to when mentioning the“physical strength, in mental power, and in moral worth;” in the above quote. Why she is referring to the nature of man which is threefold in its makeup as mentioned earlier. But what sort of nature? Fallen nature, nature tainted by Adam’s sin. Physical strength that was weak and a human mind with its mental and moral powers that was fallen and as degenerate as four thousand years of sin.
So what sort of mind did Christ inherit as part of His fallen human nature?
A human mind, a fallen human mind, a carnal human mind. And therein is the great risk He took. A human mind so weakened by Adam's sin and so susceptible to sin that he could have easily fallen and be lost but thank God He connected that fallen human mind with the Spirit of God / divine nature and controlled it daily so that He did not sin.
“ This is the mystery o f godliness. The two expressions human and divine were, in Christ ,
closely and INSEPARABLY ONE, and yet they had a distinct individuality.” (Signs of the Times, 10th May,1899)
A human body, a human mind, with all the peculiar properties, He was bone, brain, and muscle. A man of our flesh, He was compassed with the weakness of humanity. ……He trod our earth as man. He had reason, conscience, memory, will, and affections of the human soul which was united with His divine nature.—Manuscript Releases 16:181, 182. { TA 157.1}
This is painful to those who unwittingly have become catholic sympathisers among us but it is the truth. They misinterpret Philippians 2:5 failing to realise that Christ had a divine mind and a human mind. The human mind on its own cannot do the things suggested in Phil 2:6 onwards. And it is God’s purpose to bring the human mind under the control of the divine mind so says the SOP. Now that is the MIND that is to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus. The human and the divine nature although “distinct”were “inseparably one” so it was with the mind of Christ both human and divine. The bottom line is, the devil attacks the human nature and the divine nature comes to the aid of the human.
“Christ in the weakness of humanity was to meet the temptations of one possessing the powers of the higher nature that God had bestowed on the angelic family. But Christ’s humanity was united with divinity, and in this strength He would bear all the temptations that Satan could bring against Him, and yet keep His soul untainted by sin. And this power to overcome He would give to every son and daughter of Adam who would accept by faith the righteous attributes of His character.”
{1SM 223.3}
His HUMANITY was UNITED with DIVINITY and in THIS strength, in other words in this NATURE, the DIVINE united with the HUMAN was he able to bear all the temptations that Satan could bring against him and remain free from sin. And to remain free from sin is to LIVE... forever. As we saw earlier the divine comes to us through the word, through our connection with the word when we eat the word, through our assimilating the word. Christ the word dwells in our hearts by faith, by hearing, and hearing by the word. And so it says, "It is written..." man shall not LIVE on bread alone but by every WORD which proceeded out of the mouth of God.
May God bless you as you study into these things.
Elias
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