How was Christ like us in the flesh?

How was Christ like us in the flesh?
(Heb 2:17)  Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren...

We saw that Christ had to be made perfect in His humanity. Divinity was already perfect. He had to accomplish what Adam failed to accomplish in humanity by taking what was left of humanity after the fall.
Adam was created perfect with the opportunity to hold to it.To be created perfect is not the same as choosing the way of perfection. Adam failed to choose the way of perfection and as a result we inherit his then broken nature. If Adam and Eve had succeeded in the task of overcoming Satan they would have passed on a nature invested with moral strength. The temptation could have been removed from the offspring of Adam. But the result of Adam's failure results in our inheriting a spiritually handicapped nature which is the natural prostitute of Satan.
God cannot legally prevent us from inheriting that weakness which is quickly controlled by the prince of the power of the air. Ephesians 2:1-3. But He can send the Son to our rescue and in Christ our weakness is combined with the well spring of divine strength. Christ Himself took our weakness, the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3) and was made, or took upon His unmade divine nature, a made-ness that was in all points our own weakened humanity. Through suffering He had to forge out a new and living way for the human family. Christ literally had to train the human will to bow to the will of the Father. In the Gethsemane trial the struggle was so intense that His humanity could have expired, but an angel strengthened Him so that He could offer up His life on the cross.
We obey by the power of His life. He obeyed by complying to the divine life within Himself. There had to be a cooperation of the humanity of Jesus with the divinity of the Godhead which fullness was in Him (Collosians 2:9). This translates to us as obeying the will of the Father but it does not exclude the divinity of Jesus itself. A cooperation had to happen between Jesus' two natures for the Word who had a nature was made flesh and took on flesh. The divine will of Christ was already one with His Father's will. But Christ became human and therefore must contend with the will of the flesh.This involved great suffering for Him in His human experience. Christ knew the instinctive will of the flesh to avoid suffering and embrace pleasure. This instinctive and impulsive will had been strengthened over generations. As man indulges this will then propensities to sin are developed in the mind. Christ had to continually choose to crucify this impulse without a single failure. Therefore He had no propensity to sin, but many assume this to mean that Christ did not inherit any tendency of the flesh. If that were the case Christ could never have crucified the flesh for us. He could not be our atonement. Thus Satan targets this truth to cause man to doubt it. If we doubt it we shall doubt that complete crucifixion of the will of the flesh is a condition for us. Thus the Antichrist spirit denies that Christ came in our flesh. Apostate Christianity has for centuries denied that Christ took sinful flesh and looks for other means for man to be made acceptable to God. This lie takes two forms. Salvation by works (human merit) and salvation without law (salvation in sin).
But Christ perfected that way that Satan denies.This was the price of our redemption and the work of our uplifting. An enduring link had to be forged between the humanity and divinity of Jesus, all the way to the extreme temptation of the Gethsemane and into death itself. That was the only perfection that could be offered up as our atonement for it not only provided perfect payment, rather it was a perfect payment for it provided a perfect restoration for the race in Christ alone. Nothing else could suffice.
The enemy of souls exhausted every energy of his evil force upon the Savior but he failed to even once cause a single yielding of the humanity of Jesus to his suggestions. Jesus could say..."which of you convinceth me of sin" John 8:46. Brothers and sisters...because of this we may receive this power of Christ's perfect life, but can you see the great cost of your redemption? Can you see how we must never boast that man alone can do as Christ, rather we must acknowledge that we may only receive what Christ alone can impart to our otherwise helpless state. The Captain of our Salvation was made perfect through suffering for our sake. This was love incarnate.

Christ...made perfect through suffering! How?

Christ...Made Perfect Through Suffering. How?

In the last thought we looked at why the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering and I asserted that fallen man, without Christ, cannot be made perfect through suffering. That is because the dying nature of man cannot bring life out of death. The just shall live by faith. Works cannot make them live. As one ancient fellow Celt wrote.....

Going to Rome

Going to Rome

Perchance you might find Christ there!

But you will not find Him there

Unless He go in your heart! 

But this must never be taken to mean that when one receives the free gift of divine nature that suffering has no value. Suffering, as God permits it to come, has value to the child of faith. Where God is there is a new creature. Then all aspects have changed. All things have become new because of a new principle in the soul... Then suffering can reveal perfection's work just as fire reveals the gold in a gold rich ore. 

 (1Pe 4:12)  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: (1Pe 4:13)  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 

The trial of faith is for the purpose of revealing the qualities of Christ in us. Faith is strengthened with the exercise. The suffering itself has no magic in it.Without the gift of Christ's divine nature there is nothing to be refined. The dead human agent must receive the gold of Christ into the heart first by faith in order for suffering to work out anything of value at all. Suffering does not make gold...it only reveals the gold if it is present.

But the thought that suffering cannot perfect the natural man is accepted by another class to support a religion of the lovers of pleasure. They think that indulgence and avoidance of self control exalts their faith in the righteousness of Christ. They miss the argument of Paul.."shall we therefore sin that grace may abound? God forbid!"

But how did Christ perfect a salvation for us through suffering, since we cannot, of ourselves, perfect anything but sin through suffering?  This has to do with the yoking of two natures in Christ. It was to be seen that our humanity in the hand of divinity could abound in righteousness were heretofore it abounded in sin. The Captain could sail the ship of humanity through the storm that no other sailor had weathered without failure. We must keep this in mind when we seek to attain the perfection of Christ. If any man manifest this perfection  it is only as an outgrowth of what Christ alone attained. "I no longer live....Christ liveth in me" says Paul. It must be Christ's gold that is refined for we have no gold at all. From righteous Able to the last believing souls on earth....none attained the spotlessness life that Christ alone did ..they only became conduits for the manifestation of His perfection. "I am the vine"...says Christ...."ye are the branches." The branch cannot bear fruit of itself. Hang a  pruned off branch on a string and see what it will do. But the pruned vine with its root is another story. Let this remind us of our comparison to Christ lest we exalt ourselves. Oh the glory of Jesus our Deliverer! He is the man that is made more precious than the gold of Ophir and His gold overlays the heavenly temple, for He is all of the tabernacle of Life to the helpless human agent.

(Heb 2:10) ....To make...the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

(Heb 2:10)  For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Chapter 2 of Hebrews opens with the assertion that we ought to give more earnest heed to the things revealed in Christ and by Christ. Later we shall see that the whole description of our High Priest culminates in chapter 7 with the words...."We have such and high priest"... That is to say the the whole of the 7 chapters is dedicated to giving more earnest heed to the revelation of God concerning the nature or qualities of our High Priest and how that affects us. Therefore when someone says that such a subject as looking into the nature of Christ's humanity and divinity is not necessary, they are perhaps in ignorance, saying that the word of God is not entirely necessary and that we ought not to bother giving more earnest heed. There is only one being from whom such a suggestion would originate and that is the enemy of souls. His greatest fear is that we give more earnest heed to the word of God concerning what the scripture reveals. It is to reveal this fowl spirit that the apostle John writes when he says that it is the spirit of Antichrist to deny that Christ is come in the flesh and in the context of Romans 8:3 that is our fallen flesh. We can see then that the thing that Satan and sin stands the most to lose by, is that the followers of Jesus consider and apply what is revealed regarding the humanity and divinity of Christ. The enemy will heap reproach on the subject through the mouths of Laodicean professors who are in their stupor unable to discern the gold from the dross.

It is with this warning in mind that we consider the curious words concerning Christ incarnate in our flesh.."that he was made perfect through sufferings." To the children of this world these words would merely mean that man can be made perfect..that is acceptable to God...by works of penance or self inflicted hardship. That is because they know nothing of the context of the statement and the real depravity of the natural man. The words just before have asserted (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.

If mankind could perfect itself then why would the Son of God have to take our humanity and die in it for all of us? Notice also that it was the captain of our salvation that was made perfect. This reveals that man, by himself, is in need of a Savior. To undertake works of denial and ritual piety in order to make ourselves perfect would mean that the whole of what we have just read concerning Jesus was either denied or misunderstood. It is an insult to God for man to think that he can approach God by his own works of self purification. The proclamation of this cutting truth however undermines every false religion of the planet including the one that sits in the temple of God endeavoring to show itself that it is god. That is why all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Their testimony condemns the pride of every false religion and all "Christian" apostasy. With this sobering thought in mind we will continue tomorrow with the question of why and how Christ was made perfect through suffering in terms of what type of High Priest we need.

"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}

(Heb 2:17) Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren.

In yesterday's blog we looked at the translation of Psalm 8 in Hebrews 2. We asked the question as to why it is important that Christ was made lower than the angels when He took humanity. That we will discuss after this short recap.

Some render the text "lower than God." But we need only look at Hebrews 2 to see the Old Testament text quoted by the inspired writer as "lower than the angels". We also see that the writer refers the point to Jesus who took a made or created nature that was lower than the angels, and yet will be set above all principalities and powers. In other words Psalm 8 was looking forward to the unfolding of the mystery of the gospel in Christ. What is man? What was God's intent in making him? The old testament writer sees a glimpse. He made us lower than the angels but in the end we are exalted and seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus who attains a name for mankind, in Himself, above every name. We are called by His name, counted as His line, included in His royalty. This is the great love of God. The first shall be last and the last first... forever establishing that it is God who works the majesty and not the creature. If the highest creature attained that glory then we might praise his creature attributes. But when God accomplishes it in the lowly earthen vessel of Adam our illusions can be forever banished...."for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do His good pleasure."..."not of works that man should boast"....and God rested from all His works because He saw that they were perfect. The Sabbath has encapsulated this truth for millennia. God rested...Jesus bids us to enter this rest. It cannot be added to by the creature because it has perfection in it working out perfection in us.

This answers the former question and all its derivatives...Why translate the text.."lower than the angels?" But it opens up an even greater revelation of the gospel of God. God had in the beginning made man to be perfected in the image of God. He was made to be a sanctuary for the glory of God. His beginning was to be lower..Adam...of the clay and his ending Higher....celestial glory in Christ....one with Christ.
But this means the unfolding of a great mystery. How would God effect this? The fall did not defeat the plan of God, it simply showed that God would not be defeated in His perfection of love. But how?. Ah!..here the story grabs our hearts. God, was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Hebrews states (Heb 2:17)  "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren..."
"Jesus did not make believe take humanity. He really did "unite the offending nature of man with his own sinless nature, because by this act of condescension he would be enabled to pour out his blessings in behalf of the fallen race. Thus he has made it possible for us to partake of his nature. By making himself an offering for sin, he opened a way whereby human beings might be made one with him. He placed himself in man's position, becoming capable of suffering. The whole of his earthly life was a preparation for the altar.  {RH, July 17, 1900 par. 8}  More on this taking of our nature next time for the truth stands amid two great errors which we must overcome.

Thou madest him a little lower than the angels...Hebrews 2:7

Many today think this should be translated....you made him a little lower than God. This would be a fitting translation for spiritualists...but not for Christians. We shall see why. The word translated angels in the old King James version can be translated as God rather than angles and more often is. It can also mean magistrate or Lord. It is dependence on human scholarship however that renders the newer version to say "lower than God." It is dependence on divine inspiration to render it lower than the angles. The epistle to the Hebrews renders it in the same way that the Septuagint (ancient Greek translation by Hebrew scribes) renders it. That is "lower than the angels". More over it is used in Hebrews 2 in a way that could only make sense as "lower than the angels." The writer of Hebrews, likely Paul, refers the statement to the incarnate Christ.... "Thou ( the Father) madest him (The Son) a little lower than the angels." Psalm 8, from which Paul quotes the text, is in His explanation, a Messianic prophecy. Whom shall we believe..the scholastic linguist of the inspired writer? 

Paul states that it is Christ, as man, who will finally have all things put under His feet in Hebrews Chapter 2. Now we know that the divine Son was not made at all in His original nature. He just was.  Neither was He, in His pre-incarnate form, a little lower than God. Chapter 1 has forever ended that possibility. But for the obstinate we can also refer to Philipians 2 where Paul mentions that Jesus did not seek to retain His equality with God the Father, but chose to lower Himself to man's lower estate for our sake. That also establishes the fact that Jesus laid aside, not inferiority, but an equality with God which He had possessed. 

But how does that infer that when He took humanity He took a nature lower than the angels? How does it say that mankind was made lower than the angels?...and how does it fit into the essential definition of what type of  high priest we need in Christ? 

That we will continue in the next blog. Let us however consider our High Priest who, for our sakes, suffered the attacks of Satan in a nature lower than Satan's and yet overcame. Would it not be important to us to know such an High Priest for evidently that would mean hope for us who are now, after the fall, even weaker than the fallen angels by nature, according to Ephesians 2. We shall continue this next time. Blessing of God to you dear reader and to our Great High Priest and our Father.

But to which of the angels.....?

But to which of the angels said he (The Father) at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Hebrews 1:13

The writer of Hebrews, likely Paul the Hebrew of Hebrews, uses the Old Testament to reveal the mystery of who Jesus was before His incarnation. He shows plainly the the Hebrews had not fully understood the Testament in all its aspects. There is a vital reason why Paul must now reveal this to them, for to remain in ignorance now is no longer without guilt. Jesus is not from the line of creatures. He is of the Divine family and is addressed by His Father as Elohim (Ps 45:6). In Greek it is translated O theos....God. God is One and Christ is of that Oneness. This is the foundation stone of the revelation of the love of the Father for us in the gospel, for He sent His very best to rescue us. Redemption was undertaken by the Divine Family itself. Thus a value has been placed upon you and I that is higher than any other. God so loved..that is God has loved the rebellious race so much...as to undertake the redemption Himself, at great cost to Himself. But here we now come to the great transition. By the wise laws of God He could not save us unless He was somehow able to fix our dilemma and satisfy the just law against sin..."the soul that sinneth it shall die." It is in light of this truth, that God must reverse the work of Adam in humanity that the explanation continues. Chapter two will then begin to explain how this has been accomplished. There are two great errors of the apostasy of truth. One majors on how Christ was not like us in His humanity, the other on how He was just like us in every way. Both fail to define the balance that Christ was just like us after the flesh, but entirely unlike us according to the Spirit. Christ was of two natures. Paul has set the stage to counteract both errors in the union of Chapter one and two. We will begin to unfold this in the next blog.