Q&A: Did Christ come in sinful flesh?

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="129a11c3.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welcome to the Heart4God Website!"><U><B><IMG SRC="4b55a500.png" border=0 width="90" height="80" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Writings of Joseph Herrin"><U><B>Writings by Date</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id212.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Writings of Joseph Herrin Organized "><U><B>Writings by Topic</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.heart4god.ws/Audio/index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.heart4god.ws/Audio/index.htm"><U><B>Audio Files</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id690.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Videos"><U><B>Videos</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id323.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writings of Others"><U><B>Other Authors</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id324.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id339.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Questions and Answers"><U><B>Q&A</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id328.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Heart4God Email List"><U><B>Heart4God E-mail List</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com"><U><B>Parables Blog</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id306.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="File Downloads"><U><B><IMG SRC="2b264140.png" border=0 width="100" height="20" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <div> <B>Q&A: Did Christ come in sinful flesh?</B></div> <div> <IMG SRC="c2827160.png" border=0 width="807" height="22" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Dear Saints, </div> <bR> <div> This is in response to a brother who wrote asking for me to evaluate some things he had written concerning the distinctions between body, soul and spirit, and he specifically was wondering if Yahshua was actually clothed in sinful flesh, as the rest of mankind. If you have ever had an interest in these matters I believe you will find some helpful things written here. Many saints do not realize that until Christ came that men were only two-part beings consisting of body and soul, and that Christ was the first of a new type of man (He was called the second, or last Adam - Adam being the Hebrew word for man.) Christ was the first tripartite man, who was body, soul and spirit, and those who are born again of the Spirit also become "new creations" in Christ. </div> <bR> <div> I invite you to read the following to see what the Scriptures say about these things. May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days, </div> <bR> <div> Joseph Herrin </div> <bR> <div> Dear L., </div> <bR> <div> I have read your letters here on the subject of the flesh and I will share some insights, and some corresponding Scriptures, that I believe might be helpful to you. As you have shared, man is a tripartite being consisting of body, soul and spirit. We see these three referred to in the following verse: </div> <bR> <div> I Thessalonians 5:23<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your <B>spirit </B>(pneuma) and <B>soul</B> (psuche) and <B>body</B> (soma) be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. </div> <bR> <div> The origins of each of these parts are given to us in Scripture. They are as follows: </div> <bR> <div> The Body: </div> <bR> <div> Genesis 2:7<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground...</div> <bR> <div> Genesis 3:19<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.</div> <bR> <div> The Soul: </div> <bR> <div> Genesis 2:7<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (nephesh - OT 5315). </div> <bR> <div> The Spirit: </div> <bR> <div> John 3:3-6, 8</div> <div> Yahshua answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Yahshua answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (pneuma). The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." </div> <bR> <div> John 1:12-13<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> Now, you may note something here. Man is never recorded as being a tri-part being until Christ comes into the world. Adam, and all those born of the flesh, were merely bi-part beings. They were body and soul, but they had not yet received the Spirit. We see this further in the following passage. </div> <bR> <div> I Corinthians 15:45-48<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living <B>soul</B> (psuche)." The last Adam became a life-giving <B>spirit</B> (pneuma). However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. </div> <bR> <div> This is why Yahshua told Nicodemus that which the Jews did not understand. The Jews, and even their teachers, thought that man could be like God apart from a new birth. They did not discern that man had to become a spiritual being, for up until that time man was earthy. Nicodemus, and all those before him, had become living souls, that is to say, they were body and soul. Yahshua told him, however, that if he would enter the kingdom of God, or even be able to see the kingdom of God (v. 3), he must experience a further birth, a spiritual birth. </div> <bR> <div> Yahshua did not explain how this spiritual birth took place. He only mentioned that you could tell it had taken place by observing signs of the Spirit's passing, even as you could tell the wind had passed by as you observed the sound of it. As we understand that there was no tri-part men before Yahshua, we can then understand Yahshua's following words to His disciples: </div> <bR> <div> Matthew 11:11<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> "Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> Let us examine Christ's words here. He states that "among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist." Those born of women are those who are body and soul. They are those whom Christ describes as being born of water. </div> <bR> <div> Yahshua answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is <B>born of water</B> and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is <B>born of the flesh is flesh</B>, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (pneuma) </div> <bR> <div> Notice the parallelism in the verses above. "Born of water" and "born of the flesh" are parallel statements that refer to the same birth, a natural birth. Likewise, the words "born of the Spirit" are also repeated twice. John the Baptist, like Nicodemus, had only been born of woman, which is the same as being born of water, or being born of the flesh. The result was that these men were living souls. </div> <bR> <div> Now look at Christ's words "the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." We just read in John that in order to enter, or even see, the kingdom of heaven, one must be born again of the Spirit. So we can now understand Christ's words to mean that the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist, for the least in the kingdom is a tri-part man, a new creature in Christ. No longer are they merely body and soul, but the least of those in the kingdom are body, soul and spirit. </div> <bR> <div> Some have failed to discern this critical distinction between those born of the first Adam, and those born of the second, or last Adam, who is Christ. Part of the difficulty has come in because there are numerous Scriptures that speak of men prior to Christ who have had the Spirit abiding with them, and some Scriptures even say "in them". Thus we read of John the Baptist: </div> <bR> <div> Luke 1:15<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> "For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb."<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> Yet the manner in which the Spirit abided with men before Christ was altogether different than His dwelling with those after Christ who have been born again of the Spirit. Yahshua spoke of this to His disciples. </div> <bR> <div> John 14:16-17<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; <I><B>for he abideth with you, and shall be in you.</B></I></div> <bR> <div> Up until this time the disciples knew the abiding of the Spirit with them, and by the Spirit they had been able to heal the sick and cast out demons and prophesy. Yet the Spirit was to be in them in an even greater way. In an analogy to natural birth and growth, those who belonged to Christ were to receive the seed of Christ and this seed was to grow up and take shape until mature sons should come forth who have attained to the fulness of the stature of Christ (Ephesians 4). </div> <bR> <div> Let us return now to the body of man and its description. The body without the soul is dead, being a mere shell with nothing to guide or animate it. The body of man was created without sin, but when Adam and Eve bowed to the beast nature and partook of the forbidden fruit, sin entered into their being, and with it came death. The flesh of man is therefore not a neutral entity. The flesh is corrupt through and through. No one has to teach a newborn baby to sin or to act selfishly, for sin is bound up in the flesh of man. Paul declares the following concerning the flesh of man. </div> <bR> <div> Romans 7:18<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh...<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> Galatians 5:19-21<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these... </div> <bR> <div> Paul says that we all were sold as slaves to the sinful flesh. Yet Christ came to condemn sin in the flesh. </div> <bR> <div> Romans 8:3<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice]...<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> (Amplified Bible)</div> <bR> <div> By condemning sin in the flesh, Christ made the way for us to be freed from sin's dominion, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Yet sin still dwells in our flesh, and the flesh of man will not be redeemed. instead the sinful flesh will be put off, and a new body that has not known sin will be put on in its place. </div> <bR> <div> I Corinthians 15:51-53<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. </div> <bR> <div> I John 3:2<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. </div> <bR> <div> The Scriptures then are very clear that our flesh is filled with corruption, and ever wars against the Spirit, even as Paul declares to the Galatian believers. </div> <bR> <div> Galatians 5:17<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another...</div> <bR> <div> But what of the flesh of Christ. Did sin dwell in His flesh as well? Paul uses an interesting phrase in describing the Savior's body. </div> <bR> <div> Romans 8:3<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the <I><B>likeness</B></I> of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh...<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> The word for likeness is the Greek "homoioma" which Strong's defines as "a form; abstractly, resemblance." So we are not told that Christ came in sinful flesh, but in a form, or similitude of sinful flesh. How was His body similar to the sinful flesh of man? One critical way in which it was the same is that it was subject to temptation, otherwise Christ could not be tempted in all ways as we are. </div> <bR> <div> Hebrews 4:15<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> From where do temptations arise? </div> <bR> <div> James 1:13-15<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. </div> <bR> <div> Yahshua's body was able to experience all the temptations of sin, yet He never allowed Himself to be "carried away and enticed" by this lust. He always ruled over the flesh, and therefore He never gave sin an opportunity to take up residence in His members. All the Scriptures that speak of the physical incarnation of Christ use terms that imply that He bore an image, or likeness to sinful flesh, but they never testify that He existed in actual sinful flesh. </div> <bR> <div> Philippians 2:7-8<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> But emptied Himself, taking the <B>form</B> of a bond-servant, and being made in the <B>likeness</B> of men. Being found in <B>appearance</B> as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. </div> <bR> <div> The Scriptures use types and analogies to portray spiritual truths, and one type that points to the body of man is the physical earth. The promised land is a spiritual type of which our bodies are the anti-types. We know that when Joshua (a type of Yahshua - same name in the Hebrew) was given authority to lead the people into the land of Canaan he was told that no enemy could stand before him and God would give him everywhere that he set his feet. Yet Joshua and the children of Israel had to manifest faith in order to achieve a perfect victory and to remove every enemy, tear down every stronghold, and destroy every giant in the land. This Israel failed to do because of a lack of faith and a failure to press forward to absolute victory. </div> <bR> <div> The body of Yahshua is typified in this same land of Canaan, yet where Joshua and the Israelites fell short, Yahshua exercised a perfect faith and complete dominion over the land of His body. He allowed no enemy to abide in the land, and as a declaration of this fact He proclaimed: </div> <bR> <div> John 14:30<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and <B>he has nothing in Me...</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> The enemy had no possession in the land which was Christ's body. Therefore there was no sin in Him. Yahshua was in the likeness of sinful flesh, but no sin dwelt in His body. This also is our goal, to rule over every enemy in the land of our bodies. As the apostle Paul declared: </div> <bR> <div> Romans 6:12-14<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. </div> <bR> <div> Let us move on now to the soul of man. The soul is commonly described in three parts; mind, will and emotion. This part of man is not physical in the same sense as man's body, but is more ethereal. Man became a living soul when God breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. We also often see depictions of men dying as they gasp out their last breath as if the breath of life that God had breathed into them is being exhaled from their bodies and returning to God. This is not far from the truth, and the words used to describe the soul of man have at their roots a meaning of "breath", and "wind". The words for man's spirit also come from similar root words, and for this reason it is more difficult to make distinctions between man's soul and man's spirit than it is between his flesh. The difficulty of this dividing is related in the following Scripture. </div> <bR> <div> Hebrews 4:12<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. </div> <bR> <div> Not many things can make a separation between the soul and spirit of man, for in many ways they function quite similarly. The book "SABBATH" spends much time revealing that there is an innate sense of right and wrong within man's soul that often is misidentified as being man's spirit. Many men and women who are born again saints often confer within themselves to determine right and wrong, and they mistakenly believe that they have heard from God when they have merely consulted with their own soul. This is why it takes something exceptionally sharp, even the living and active word of God, to make a division between these two entities that we might be found to be walking after the spirit, and not according to our own soulish sense of good and evil. Paul speaks further about this matter with the following words. </div> <bR> <div> Hebrews 5:14<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> It takes a spiritual maturity that is gained over time as one continues in a course of obedience to be able to make a proper division between good and evil, between what is of the natural man and what is of the spiritual man. This is why the Lord has appointed ministers to the body until it should come to maturity, for even as an infant cannot discern what is healthy and what is dangerous for it to consume, or what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable behavior, so those who are yet babes in Christ cannot yet make a clear distinction between what is soulish and what is spiritual. </div> <bR> <div> I Corinthians 2:11-15<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. </div> <bR> <div> Those who are born again of the Spirit have become tripartite beings, existing as body, soul and spirit. The spiritual part of our being is what communes with the Spirit of God, and through our spirit we receive the things freely given to us by God. Yet the immature and the carnal saints, who cling stubbornly to their earthiness, often fail to discern what the Spirit is speaking to them for the voice of the Spirit sounds like foolishness to them. The Spirit may be desiring to lead them to some step of faith, but because the saint has not exercised their spirit man, but has instead remained under the control of his lower nature found in the soul, he may discount the voice of the Spirit, writing it off as so much folly. The only way to grow in spiritual perception is to practice obedience to each leading of the Spirit. As we obey our spiritual perception grows and we are able to make a separation between the voice of our soul and the voice of our spirit. </div> <bR> <div> It is an incredible thing to consider that as a born again saint, you are an entirely different type of creation than the majority of those who dwell upon the earth. They are merely body and soul, while you are body, soul and spirit. Because of this you are able to appraise all things, for the spirit can discern things which the soul cannot. But those who are only soulish creatures cannot appraise you. They are unable to discern the spirit man within you, for they can neither enter, nor even see, into the kingdom of heaven. These are marvelous things. </div> <bR> <div> I pray that you find these words helpful. May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days, </div> <bR> <div> Joseph</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>