Thursday, July 31, 2014

"Took upon him the seed of Abraham."

"Took upon him the seed of Abraham." Divinity took humanity upon itself in Christ. These are the most amazing words ever written.



The words of Christ that state.."God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son" now take on their full meaning. Many read John 3 :16 in merely a pardon focused sense. They know that God gave His Son's payment for sin to man, and this is as far as they wish to understand it. But in Hebrews we get the fuller intent. God gave His Son's Nature to the aid of humanity because He gave His Son to humanity. Divinity embraced the disinherited race and an inheritance was reestablished by great sacrifice. We are not made divine but we a brought within reach of its saving embrace. This is why the angels sang for joy! The means for a way would now be made for man to receive pardon and restoration to the image of God.
Notice the words... "he took on him..." (Heb 2:16)  "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham." We have here the yoking of His sinless living nature with our weakened and dying nature. The last text follows the statement that makes its intent clear (Heb 2:9)  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
Again in Philippians 2 we read this same deliberate construction...(Php 2:6)  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: (Php 2:7)  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Divinity took humanity upon itself in Christ. Do not miss the love in these words! Divinity yoked itself, in a life line, to the dying race. It is of utmost importance that we read every part of the statement here. It does not say that Jesus took on Him the nature of man in its unfallen state before it had been desperately weakened. It does not say he left off one nature and took another either. Both errors fail to read the living oracle in all its sense. It emphatically and irrevocably states that Jesus took the seed of Abraham on Himself. Romans 1:3 and 4 mentions that Jesus took the seed of David but was proven yet to be the Son of God by the resurrection. Philippians says He took the likeness of men upon Himself for the purpose of dying its death, and Romans 8:3 states further that the Son was sent in likeness of sinful flesh. All of these texts leave not a single allowance for any concept that Jesus took a special humanity. He took our flesh and so He took our weakness and became subject to our inheritance of a disadvantaged nature. The purpose is clear..it was necessary fin order to effect a legal redemption to rescue man from where he was and not from where he had been before his entrance into the dilemma of a condemned broken humanity.
All of this however would avail nothing if that weak humanity is all He became, and this is just where many destroy the beauty of the gospel and exalt the creature over the creator. If Jesus had only become altogether human we could have no hope. He did not come to prove that man could effect his own redemption in the slightest sense. To do so would be to join forces with the central theme of paganism. apostasy and satanic revolt.
Christ laid aside His royal privileges to become a servant and in that sense laid aside divinity. But let us not think that for an instant that He laid aside His divine nature itself. The Word was made flesh so we have the Word in flesh. In His nature is the fountain of righteousness. Had He not yoked that life giving water with the needy flesh we would have nothing in Him to cling to for life. We are not to teach a religion of human potential but of divine redemption. That well of  divine Life continually held the power of sin from possessing His pure mind. His quickened humanity chose moment by moment to deny the desires of the flesh when such would have led Him against the ways of God. As long as His weak humanity laid hold on that strength then the current of His own divinity flowed through to mankind like a mighty cascade of waters. Thus He could say even before His crucifixion. (John 11:25)  ... "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live". Human mortality could not keep this life down. The power of resurrection lived in Christ every day and every moment because He took the dead flesh upon the Life of His own nature. This is a mystery to grand for the human intellect to fully fathom, but not to fully embrace. One writer, a prophet of God in our latter times, writes of this un-hailed truth.... "By His obedience to all the commandments of God, Christ wrought out a redemption for men. This was not done by going out of Himself to another, but by taking humanity into Himself. Thus Christ gave to humanity an existence out of Himself. To bring humanity into Christ, to bring the fallen race into oneness with divinity, is the work of redemption. Christ took human nature that men might be one with Him as He is one with the Father, that God may love man as He loves His only-begotten Son, that men may be partakers of the divine nature, and be complete in Him.  {1SM 250.3}  
     The Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the only-begotten Son of God, binds the human agent, body, soul, and spirit, to the perfect, divine-human nature of Christ. This union is represented by the union of the vine and the branches. Finite man is united to the manhood of Christ. Through faith human nature is assimilated with Christ's nature. We are made one with God in Christ."  {1SM 251.1}


No comments:

Post a Comment