When Christ became a man, He actually became what He was not. The sinful nature He assumed was not His by native right, but something He took upon Himself, or was made to be in order to redeem it. As Ellen White says, “He took upon His sinless [divine] nature our sinful [human] nature, that He might know how to succor those that are tempted” (Medical Ministry, p. 181). The words “shared in” or “took part” [Hebrews 2:14] and the word “likeness” [Romans 8:3] carry the same connotation as the word “made.”

Scripture teaches that Christ actually did assume our condemned sinful human nature as we know it. But He totally defeated “the law of sin and death” [Romans 8:2] that resided in that sinful human nature and then executed it on the cross. Had Christ consented, even by a thought, to the sinful desires of that nature which He assumed, then He would have become a sinner in need of a savior Himself. That is why, in dealing with the human nature of Christ, we must be exceedingly careful not to drag His mind or His choice into sin or to say that He “had” a sinful nature.

When Christ, the second person of the Godhead, was made flesh and became the Son of Man, He “made himself nothing,” “humbled himself,” in order to represent the humanity He came to redeem [Philippians 2:6-8]. What did this actually involve? Clearly, in order to be our Saviour, Christ placed His entire being, along with every divine prerogative or power, entirely into the hands of the Father. He willingly, voluntarily made Himself a slave to the Father. The Father, in turn, took Christ and placed Him in the womb of Mary through the Holy Spirit [see Luke 1:26-35].

This meant that Christ still retained His divinity, but He gave up the independent use of that divinity while living on this earth as our representative and substitute. That is why the Scripture says that, as a child, Jesus grew in wisdom [see Luke 2:40, 52], something that would not have been possible had He retained His divine prerogatives. As a man, He declared that He could do nothing apart from the Father [see John 5:19, 30; 6:57]. He had to live on this earth as men have to live: totally dependent on God by faith alone.

Therefore, for Christ, as God, to become like us, He had to empty Himself completely of all His divine prerogatives. Only then could He be made in all points like as we are and qualify to be our Saviour and Substitute.

My view of what the Bible says is that Jesus was born with the same fallen nature as we are born with. The only difference is that Jesus was born full of the Holy Spirit so that he did not have to have a "new birth" or be converted. Nor did Jesus ever have to overcome bad habits. Jesus knows what it is like to struggle with temptations the same as we do. That could not be if he was never tempted from within, because that is where most of our really strong temptations come from.

Where some people go wrong is to think that it is a sin to be tempted. It is not. It is only a sin to disobey God. It is not a sin to be tempted to sin. Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, yet Jesus never sinned. Whenever sinful desires came to mind, he immediately cast them off and prayed for the Holy Spirit for strength. We may do the same. There is nothing he had available to him to overcome sin and temptation that we don't have.

Jesus came to demonstrate that man, empowered by the Holy Spirit, can obey God's law. He also came to show that Adam need not have sinned. Satan claims that God made a law that man cannot obey. Thus Satan accuses God of unfairness and injustice. Satan claims that people cannot obey God's law. Jesus proved otherwise. Jesus demonstrated that sinful man, when connected with God's power, can obey God. Adam had an advantage over Jesus because Jesus underwent much stronger temptations than Adam had to undergo, and Jesus underwent them when he was not only weak and hungry but after humans had been in a fallen state for thousands of years.

You mean that Jesus as God ASSUMED the same fallen nature?



In other words from birth His mind was controlled by the Spirit so that He didn't give into the desires of His assumed nature. However the humanity that He assumed, even though He never allowed to sin, was in and of itself sinful. Yes, in performance Jesus never sinned, but the nature He assumed was sinful and therefore that corporate life had to die.



That statement leads to legalism. Actually Jesus came to save mankind from the law!

Gal 4:4 But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 in order that He might redeem [save] those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Gal 3:23 Before the faith [Jesus] came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until the faith [Jesus] should be revealed. 24 So the law was put in charge until Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

Romans 7:6 But now we have been delivered from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound [see verse 4], so that we serve in newness of the Spirit [i.e., grow] and not in oldness of the letter.

-BC- 2SM
-TI- Selected Messages Book 2
-CN- 3
-CT- The Holy Flesh Doctrine
-PR- 03
-PG- 33

When human beings receive holy flesh [a life free from indwelling sin or what Paul calls "the law of sin"], they will not remain on the earth, but will be taken to heaven. While sin is forgiven in this life, its results are not now wholly removed. It is at His coming that Christ is to "change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body" (Phil. 3:21). . . .

Again, there's only one Jesus. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 10 verse 5:

Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, But a body Thou hast prepared for Me....

The "Me" refers to Jesus as the Son of God. "A body" refers to what the Son of God dwelt in through the incarnation. That body (our humanity) was prepared for Him in the womb of Mary. It wasn't His by native right.

Let's say you reached a point where you never sinned in deed, thought and action. Also let's discount your past sins. Would you be allowed to enter heaven with your fallen nature? Paul says no:

1 Cor 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep [remain dead], but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.....

If you can't take your sin nature to heaven with you then it in and of itself must be sin and under the curse of the law.

Checkmate! :)

Robert

That is what is taught by people who believe we no longer need to obey God's law. That is antinomianism, a teaching that is opposed to the Bible's teaching.

Jesus came in order to save us from, not in, our sins. He came to help us so that we need not continue to be enslaved to our sins.

Jesus came to demonstrate that sinful man, when in connection with God's Spirit, can live in perfect obedience to God's will. That is, that people can live in conformity to God's will. That is the same as saying that God gives people power to overcome sin. Remember that the Bible says that God's will is His law.

Obedience to God per se is not legalism. Was it legalism for Jesus to obey the Father? Legalism is the perversion of the law in order to earn one's way into God's favor. The New Testament is full of verses that call upon us to obey God and His laws. We take Jesus as our role model. Jesus, unlike Adam, always obeyed God. We are not to obey God in order to gain His favor but we obey God because we love Him as our Savior who delivered from slavery to sin unto the freedom of righteousness, or right-doing-ness, and holiness.

I think you must be misunderstanding what I am saying. What I am talking about with regards to Jesus has nothing whatever to do with holy flesh. I don't believe anyone has "holy flesh." I am almost constantly aware of sin in my flesh. That is why I need Jesus with me every moment of every day. The point is that Jesus keeps me from falling for those temptations. It is His power that does this, not my own. I submit my will to Him and ask him moment by moment to keep me. But I have to make the decision and I have to give God my permission for His Spirit to live in me. I live by Jude 24 and some similar promises such as 2 Peter 1 and 1 Cor. 6:9-11.

Let's see if I understand you and if we can come to some agreement on this: I agree that there's only one Jesus. But Jesus had two natures, a fallen human nature and a divine nature. I believe Jesus was 100% Deity and 100% human. Both natures were in the one man, Jesus Christ. When the divine nature of Jesus did something, it was all of Jesus doing it; when the human nature of Jesus did something, it was also all of Jesus doing it.

The human nature of Jesus Christ inherited the DNA of Mary and all of her ancestors, including Adam and Abraham, Rahab, David, and all the other sinners in his ancestoral line. That is one of the reasons for Jesus' geneoloy being given. If Jesus Christ's DNA had been tested, it would be seen that He was related to Mary, a righteous young woman who had a fallen nature the same as ours.