Historical Teachings on the
Human Nature Christ Took
in the Incarnation

by Jerry Finneman

Appendix A

A change concerning the human nature Christ took was made in Bible Readings in 1949.

NOTE.—In His humanity Christ partook of our sinful, fallen nature. If not, then He was not "made like unto His brethren," was not "in all points tempted like as we are," did not over come as we have to overcome, and is not, therefore, the complete and perfect Saviour man needs and must have to be saved. The idea that Christ was born of an immaculate or sinless mother, inherited no tendencies to sin, and for this reason did not sin, removes Him from the realm of a fallen world, and from the very place where help is needed. On His human side, Christ inherited just what every child of Adam inherits,—a sinful nature. On the divine side, from His very conception He was begotten and born of the Spirit. And all this was done to place mankind on vantage-ground, and to demonstrate that in the same way every one who is "born of the Spirit" may gain like victories over sin in his own sinful flesh. Thus each one is to overcome as Christ overcame. Rev. 3:21. Without this birth there can be no victory over temptation, and no salvation from sin. John 3:3-7. Bible Readings for the Home Circle, pp. 115, 116, 1914 edition.

NOTE.—Jesus Christ is both Son of God and Son of man. As a member of the human family "it behaved Him to be made like unto His brethren"—"in the likeness of sinful flesh." Just how far that "likeness" goes is a mystery of the incarnation which men have never been able to solve. The Bible clearly teaches that Christ was tempted just as other men are tempted—"in all points . . . like as we are." Such temptation must necessarily include the possibility of sinning, but Christ was without sin. There is no Bible support for the teaching that the mother of Christ, by an immaculate conception, was cut off from he sinful inheritance of the race, and therefore her divine Son was incapable of sinning. Concerning this false doctrine Dean F. W. Farrar has well said:

"Some, in a zeal at once intemperate and ignorant, have claimed for Him not only an actual sinlessness but a nature to which sin was divinely and miraculously impossible. What then? If His great conflict were a mere deceptive phantasmagoria, how can the narrative of it profit us? If we have to fight the battle clad in that armour of human free-will . . . what comfort is it to us if our great Captain fought not only victoriously, but without real danger; not only uninjured, but without even the possibility of a wound. . . . Let us beware of contradicting the express teaching of the Scriptures, . . . by a supposition that He was not liable to real temptation."—The Life of Christ (1883 ed.), vol. 1, p. 57. Bible Readings for the Home Circle, pp. 143, 144, 1949 edition.

Appendix B—Thoughts Concerning The Baker Letter

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