Human, Not Carnal

Soteriology is a theological term that covers the many aspects of the great doctrine of salvation. But it is often easier to express a word than explain its meaning. That is certainly true when we come to the study of redeeming grace. To reduce the great doctrine of God and the incarnation to human language is impos­sible, for when we have done our best it all sounds so meager in comparison with the immensity of God's revelation in Christ.

In contemplating the incarnation of Christ in humanity, we stand baffled before an unfathomable mystery, that the human mind cannot comprehend. The more we reflect upon it, the more amazing does it appear.—ELLEN G. 'WHITE in The Signs of the Times, July 30, 1896.

The all-absorbing theme of the apostle Paul was "the mystery of godliness." He sought to explain it in many ways; but he once summed it up in a series of expres­sions: "God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (1 Tim. 3:16). Some claim this was a stanza from one of the apostolic hymns. It might well have been, but whatever the origin of this poem it certainly expresses the salient features of the gospel of salva­tion. When God became flesh, that was the greatest mystery of the ages. How Deity could clothe Himself with humanity, and at the same time retain His deity—that will challenge the thinking of men and angels throughout eternity. The deepest theologians during nineteen centuries have tried to explain this truth, but it is beyond human comprehension and expres­sion.

This issue of THE MINISTRY carries in the Counsel section as full a coverage of this subject as can be found in the writings of Ellen G. White (turn to pages 17-24). The gathering together and classifying of these quotations represent the combined efforts of your editors, certain General Con­ference officers, and the Ellen G. White Publications staff. As far as we have been able to discover, this compilation fully rep­resents the thinking of the messenger of the Lord on this question. A few other statements have been found, but these are either repetitions or mere verbal variations, and add no new thought. This editorial is written to urge all our readers to take time to carefully and prayerfully study these illuminating paragraphs.

Throughout our denominational history we have not always had as clear an under­standing of this subject as would have been helpful. In fact, this particular point in Adventist theology has drawn severe censure from many outstanding Biblical scholars both inside and outside our ranks. Through the years statements have been made in sermons, and occasionally some have appeared in print, that, taken at their face value, have disparaged the person and work of Christ Jesus our Lord. We have been charged with making Him altogether human.

Such opinions have been molded in the main by two or three expressions in The Desire of Ages. And coming from such a source, these have naturally been regarded as final authority. However, these are but a fraction of the published statements by the same writer, all of which, taken together, throw much light on this theme. Unfor­tunately this larger group of statements has been overlooked. One reason is that most of these key statements have been published in articles in our leading periodi­cals, appearing frequently from 1888 on­ward, and files of these periodicals have not been readily accessible to our workers in general.

A hasty reading of the two or three state­ments from The Desire of Ages without the repeated counterbalancing statements found in so many other places has led some to conclude our official position to be that Christ, during His incarnation, par­took of our corrupt, carnal nature, and therefore was no different from any other human being. In fact, a few have declared that such would have to be the case in order for Him to be "in all points tempted like as we are"; that He would have to share our corrupt, sinful nature in order to understand our needs and sympathize with lost mankind. On the surface such reasoning sounds somewhat plausible; but when we begin to think it through more carefully, when we sink the shaft of truth deeper into the mine of God's revelation, a new and glorious vista opens to our view.

The Scriptures state clearly that through Adam's transgression death passed upon all men, for "by the offence of one judg­ment came upon all men to condemna­tion," and "there is none that doeth good, no, not one." The only sinless One who ever lived on earth was our Lord Jesus Christ—"holy, harmless, undefiled, sepa­rate from sinners." He was born holy and He lived on a plane separate from sinners. He was sinless not only in His outward conduct but also in His very nature.

Had this not been the case, He could never have redeemed us. If He had been born with a carnal nature, with all its pro­pensities to evil, as is the case with every natural son and daughter of Adam, then He Himself would have needed a Saviour, and under no circumstances could He have been our Redeemer. His nature must of necessity be holy in order to atone for ours, which is unholy. His mother, Mary, highly favored of the Lord, recognized her need of salvation, for in the Magnificat she sang of "God my Saviour." While she recognized her need of a Saviour, she also realized that Jesus, her Son in the flesh, was the Lamb of God, who had come to take away the sin of the world. Yet she could not com­prehend this mystery any more than can we. In fact, it was doubtless more diffi­cult for her to grasp this truth than for those who have lived since the events of the crucifixion and resurrection. As the Son of God, Jesus stood in contrast with all other members of the human family, for He was God manifest in the flesh.

Among the many important paragraphs already referred to, it is emphasized that our Lord partook of our limited human nature, but not our corrupt, carnal nature with all its propensities to sin and lust. In Him was no sin, either inherited or cultivated, as is common to all the natural descendants of Adam. We grant that this is a mystery. But the Lord through His mes­senger has warned us to exercise extreme care how we present this subject lest we give the impression that Christ was alto­gether human and simply one like ourselves. Note carefully these timely cautions:

Be careful, exceedingly careful as to how you dwell upon the human nature of Christ. Do not set Him before the people as a man with the propensities of sin. He is the second Adam. The first Adam was created a pure, sinless being, with­out a taint of sin upon him; he was in the image of God.---Ellen G. White letter 8, 1895, quoted in The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, pp. 1128, 1129.

In treating upon the humanity of Christ, you need to guard strenuously every assertion, lest your words be taken to mean more than they imply, and thus you lose or dim the clear perceptions of His humanity as combined with divinity. . . These words do not refer to any human being, except to the Son of the infinite God. Never, in any way, leave the slightest impression upon human minds that a taint of, or inclination to, corruption rested upon Christ, or that He in any way yielded to corruption. . . . But let every human being be warned from the ground of making Christ alto­gether human, such an one as ourselves; for it cannot be.—Ibid., pp. 1128, 1129.

Other quotations from this letter appear in the Counsel section, pages 17-24, as well as in volume 5 of the Commentary.

In only three or four places in all these inspired counsels have we found such ex­pressions as "fallen nature" and "sinful nature." But these are strongly counter­balanced and clearly explained by many other statements that reveal the thought of the writer. Christ did indeed partake of our nature, our human nature with all its physical limitations, but not of our carnal nature with all its lustful corruptions. When He entered the human family it was after the race had been greatly weakened by degeneracy. For thousands of years mankind had been physically deteriorating. Compared with Adam and his immediate posterity, humanity, when God appeared in human flesh, was stunted in stature, longevity, and vitality.

These conditions were in marked con­trast with those of Adam in his Edenic environment. He knew nothing of infirmi­ties or degeneracy in his physical or mental being, for he came fresh from the hand of his Creator. But when the Creator Him­self became man in order to take Adam's place He faced hazards the like of which Adam in Eden could never have imagined. Our Saviour met the archfoe time and again when physical limitations had weak­ened Him. He was hungry and emaciated when He met the tempter in the wilderness. But while He suffered physical hunger, His was not a corrupt, carnal nature. When He took upon Him sinless human nature, He did not cease to be God, for He was God manifest in the flesh. True, we cannot un­derstand it, but we can accept it by faith.

Many years ago a statement appeared in Bible Readings for the Home Circle (1915 edition) which declared that Christ came "in sinful flesh." Just how this expression slipped into the book is difficult to know. It has been quoted many times by critics, and all around the world, as being typical of Adventist Christology. But when that book was revised in 1946 this expression was eliminated, since it was recognized as being out of harmony with our true posi­tion.

The very purity of His holy nature made His suffering the more intense. The proph­et's expression of grief and suffering was surely that of our Lord when he said: "Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow" (Lam. 1:12).

The suffering of Christ was in correspondence with His spotless purity; His depth of agony, pro­portionate to the dignity and grandeur of His char­acter. Never can we comprehend the intense anguish of the spotless Lamb of God, until we realize how deep is the pit from which we have been rescued, how grievous is the sin of which mankind is guilty, and by faith grasp the full and entire pardon.—ELLEN G. WHITE in The Review and Herald, Sept. 21, 1886.

Proportionate to the perfection of His holiness was the strength of the temptation.—Ellen G. White, Notebook leaflets, vol. 1, No. 39, p. 1.

When God became man He partook of the same moral nature that Adam possessed before the Fall. Adam was created holy, and so was Christ, for He became the second Adam.

Christ is called the second Adam. In purity and holiness, connected with God and beloved by God, He began where the first Adam began.—The Youth's Instructor, June 2, 1898. (Italics supplied.)

He vanquished Satan in the same nature over which in Eden Satan obtained the victory.—The Youth's Instructor, April 25, 1901.

He [Christ] was a mighty petitioner, not pos­sessing the passions of our human, fallen natures, but compassed with like infirmities, tempted in all points even as we are.—Testimonies, vol. 2, p. 509. (Italics supplied.)

While the Scripture says that our Lord was "tempted in all points like as we are," it obviously cannot mean that He was tempted in the identical manner or in the actual duplication of our environment today. For example, Jesus was never tempted to steal an automobile or to plant a bomb in an airplane. In fact, it has been suggested that He could not really under­stand or fully sympathize with certain ones because, for instance, He had never been a woman, nor had He known the feelings of old age. But in point of principle Jesus met every temptation common to mankind. The Scripture classifies the temptations of the world under three headings: "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life."

In the wilderness of temptation Christ met the great leading temptations that would assail man. There He encountered, single-handed, the wily, subtle foe, and overcame him. The first great temp­tation was upon appetite; the second, presumption; the third, love of the world.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 151.

In setting forth the wonders of the in­carnation we dare not overlook this fact, that Christ Jesus became man that He might in human flesh conquer the devil and reveal to the whole universe the power of a God-filled life. This was the secret of His victory over sin, and it can be ours by His grace. He dispenses to us the fullness of His Spirit that we like Him might be victorious. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me," exclaims the apostle (Phil. 4:13).

The experience that was our Lord's can, through the power of His indwelling pres­ence, be ours by faith, for His promise is, "I will come to you," and "shall be in you."

"Verily, verily, I say unto you," said Jesus, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father" (John 14:12).

The Saviour was deeply anxious for His dis­ciples to understand for what purpose His divinity was united to humanity. He came to the world to display the glory of God, that man might be up­lifted by its restoring power. God was manifested in Him that He might be manifested in them. Jesus revealed no qualities, and exercised no pow­ers, that men may not have through faith in Him. His perfect humanity is that which all His follow­ers may possess, if they will be in subjection to God as He was.—The Desire of Ages (1940), p. 664.

How wonderful that infinite love can so lay hold of weak human beings that through them can flow the power of the Almighty. But we must never for a moment think that because these "greater works" can be accomplished through us it follows that Christ Himself must perforce have been only man just as we are. No! A thou­sand times No! For even while in the flesh, He was still the Eternal One, omnipotent and omniscient—"very God, being of the same nature and essence as the Eternal Fa­ther," as is so well stated in our Funda­mental Beliefs.