The Incarnate God - II
Now in this part I want us to see the fallacy of some of the assumptions we’ve been taught as truth. I have heard many teachers quote the verse that says Jesus was touched by all our infirmities as a proof that Jesus was fully human. Think about that, they are saying (as did I also) that in order for Jesus to identify and understand us He had to become a human. So were we saying that the Creator of all humanity, He that knows all from beginning to end, couldn’t understand us until He became us? Did He lust after women? Oh no we say, then how could He identify with we who have lusted?
It’s because HE WAS GOD. Jesus didn’t have to become human to know everything about us, He knew all before we were created. It is we who have humanized our Lord, not the Scriptures. He was Emmanuel, God with us, not God and man with us. If indeed Jesus had a human nature then He was a man, a perfect man, who would die and go to heaven. So in heaven you would have Jesus the Lord of Lords and Jesus the saint singing praises to His counterpart. Do you see how incongruous this is? We have been made partakers of the divine nature, not the sinless human nature. Can you not see how we have maligned the Lord Jesus in the past. The body was contolled by the divine.
Which human body walked on water? Peter needed His power, but Jesus' body was controlled by Jesus, the Son of God. How could His body walk through a crowd invisible if it was just like yours and mine? That sacred, sinless body was at the mercy and direction of the Creator God who inhabited it, but there never was a human competitor within that chosen vessel.
I have only scratched the surface of this subject and I will be posting all the verses that deal with it. I have so much more to share but as you an see this is deep waters. Maybe this will enlighten the Lord Jesus in the truthful light of His earthly majesty. I hope this encourages all of us to run the Word with hunger to find more about our Lord and Savior. I believe this will elevate the Lord Jesus more than we dreamed possible. Let all the angels worship Him, God of God, very God of very God, and the King of Kings forever.
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.
Who dwelt among us? A sinless man? A super human? No, the Word, the divine Son of the Living God wrapped in a sinless body.
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5 comments:
God the Son is God. Before His incarnation as Jesus He was known to Man as YHWH. He was the creator of all things. At His incarnation, He gave up His rightful place in Heaven to become a man. He was completely man, however, there was a difference between him and Post-Fall man.
Pre-Fall Man was both able to sin and able to not sin.
Post-Fall Man is able to sin, but unable to not sin.
Reborn Man is able to sin and able to not sin.
Glorified Man is able to not sin and unable to sin.
Which was Jesus? He most certainly was not equivalent to a Post-Fall Man since He was able to not sin. So we know that Jesus' spiritual state was equivalent to that of pre-fall Adam, Reborn Man, or Glorified Man. Pre-Fall Man and Reborn Man are the same. However, Glorified Man is unable to sin. I am convinced that Jesus was completely Human in a Pre-Fall state or Reborn State. He was able to sin, but He didn't. He was tempted in every way that we are yet without sin.
His obedience to God, His active Righteousness, even when tempted made HIm worthy to stand in our place to be Lamb of God. If He was unable to sin then wouldn't that make His testing irrelevant?
I believe Jesus had a human nature, but no sin nature. Therefore, He could chose to sin, but also choose not to.
Post-fall Man is unable to to not sin in that he is unable to to any good works that would do him any redemptive good, apart from the grace of God.
Jesus most certainly was not that. :-)
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
Mike - thanks for your thoughts. If Jesus could sin then that part was not God, it was human and therefore part of Jesus was created just like God created Adam. I do not believe that, only His body was made, not He Himself.
God cannot sin so any capacity to sin came from a created nature.
Mike's explanation is clearer, yet I must stongly disagree where he said "I believe Jesus had a human nature, but no sin nature. Therefore, He could chose to sin, but also choose not to."
If He "COULD" choose to sin, how would you know if He didn't? That's like the argument that the Scriptures had flaws and He kept them from us, these things are not possible with Jesus because He as you say correctly, "God the Son is God", He could in no way choose sin. That would put Him on the same level as "Pre-fall" man, who is only a created being.
Hebrews 13:8 "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."
I'll believe that the Man Jesus Christ in Whom I trust and believe is "I Am" much more than my limited understanding will ever let me know just how this all fits togther.
Hebrews 6:18 says it impossible for God to lie, this also closes your argument that He could choose to sin. He may have stepped out of His majesty and visable glory, yet He remained perfect in all respects or His work on the cross was of no effect.
I am convinced that Jesus was completely Human in a Pre-Fall state or Reborn State. He was able to sin, but He didn't. He was tempted in every way that we are yet without sin.
How was Jesus able to sin? He is God and God is unable to sin.
He certainly was tempted in the same way we are, in that temptations were put before Him by Satan, yet remained sinless because God is incapable of sinning. It is against His very nature
Now we are thinking. It is the conventional thinking that Christ had a human nature, which would be a created person since He had no human nature before Bethlehem. Keep digging, this is how we are supposed to devour the Word to seek the Word.
Mike said He gave up His rightful place in heaven. Maybe in a geagraphical way, but not in authority. Even the Father declared "This my beloved Son" even while His human face shone with the chikinah glory which resided within.
When asked about Abraham Jesus said "Before Abraham I AM" declaring Who He was.
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