It is an amazing story. "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15). God sent Him into the world not "to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:17). God sent His Son into this rebellious world that was ready to kill Him, ready to dethrone the Most High (Ps. 2:2, 3), and He well knew the kind of treatment He would receive at the hands of His creatures. Yet God did not send His Son here to condemn these rebels against His government, but to show to them His love, and so save them. Yes, it is an amazing story. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them" (2 Cor. 5:19). He knew men's weaknesses, and He sympathized with them at great cost to Himself. He could assess properly the power of the enemy over them, and He did not despise them (Job 36:5) but longed to save them. "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" was the cry of His heart (Hosea 11:8).
When Jesus came into the world to save sinners He "was made of the seed of David according to the flesh" (Rom. 1:3). He was "made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Gal. 4:4, 5). God sent His Son "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. 8:3); and He willingly partook of "flesh and blood," "that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death," and thus "deliver" all who would from the bondage of Satan (Heb. 2:14, 15). "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people" (Heb. 2:17).
The plan was that "as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one [man] shall many be made righteous" (Rom. 5:19). Jesus lived in the flesh a life of perfect obedience: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10). He perfected in humanity that righteous character which is imputed to sinners who, through faith, are born again of Him. "Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in [the first] Adam all die, even so in Christ [the last Adam], shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:21, 22, 45). From the very first the promise was that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15). Victory over the enemy would come to the lost race through a human being.
On the other hand, Isaiah laid great stress on the fact that the Lord, the Creator, is the only Saviour. "I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded." "There is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (Isa. 45:12, 21, 22). "I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour" (Isa. 43:11). "Thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called" (Isa. 54:5).
These two differing aspects of the Redeemer—that He is man and that He is God—imply and require for their fulfillment the incarnation of God. This also was foretold by Isaiah: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given . . . : and his name shall be called . . . The mighty God"
(Isa. 9:6). John has set it forth beautifully in the introduction of his Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "And the Word was made flesh" (John 1:1, 14). He is the Creator (John 1:3) and "in him was life; and the life was the light of men" (verse 4).
The testimony of the Scriptures to the sinlessness of the Man Jesus, who came "in the likeness of sinful flesh" to save sinners, is clear and full. He "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). In Him dwelt "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9); and concerning this fullness, it is testified "that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (I John 1:5). Jesus manifested in His life on earth the perfection of God's character, for He said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). "Such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Heb. 7:26).
Jesus therefore had no inclinations, no propensities, to sin. Propensities to sin are sin, and they are described by the apostle Paul as "sin that dwelleth in me"; "the law of sin which is in my members" (Rom. 7: 17, 23). And those who possess them are "by nature the children of wrath" (Eph. 2:3). But in Jesus "is no darkness [sin] at all" (1 John 1:5). Jesus was born of God (Luke 1:31-35), and while making "this body of our humiliation" His own (Phil. 5:21, Weymouth), He retained that spotless moral nature which was also His own, and which He imparts to those who are sanctified. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death," said Paul (Rom. 8: 2), which means it had made him free from the propensities to sin that were natural to him.
Inclinations to sin must not be confused with temptations to sin. Temptation is often an attempt to create in the tempted an inclination to wrongdoing. Jesus "was in all points tempted like as we are" (Heb. 4:15). We are given three examples of His temptations, and of how He met them, and they must have been oft repeated with variations. (1) He was tempted to use creative power to satisfy ordinary human needs, but He preferred hunger, with trust in God, to a selfish use of power that would have made Him no example to men. For others He could turn water into wine and feed five thousand with five loaves, with much left over, but He would not make stones into bread to satisfy His own hunger. His hunger was no evidence that He was not the Son of God. (2) He was tempted to test the truth of God's promises by endangering Himself, to persuade the Jews to accept Him as the Messiah, but He refused to presume on God's protection by going into danger. And (3) He was tempted to gain the world by compromise rather than by death, which He dreaded (Matt. 26:39, 42, 44), but He preferred the way of the cross to associating others with God in worship, which was forbidden. Therefore His obedience was perfect regardless of the cost.
All that Satan pretended to offer Jesus was legitimate. It was not wrong to satisfy hunger. Does God want His Son to go hungry? Surely not. It would not be wrong to persuade the Jews that He was the Messiah and to gain the world which was His whole purpose in coming to earth. Why not accept it without that dreaded death? Satan's motives were, however, false. He had no desire to satisfy the Saviour's hunger; no wish to have Him accepted by the Jews; and no purpose to let Him have the world. His plan was just the opposite to what he pretended, and Jesus, with no inclinations to evil to blind FIim, immediately discerned his purpose, and by strict obedience He escaped the snares laid for Him. Thank God it was so.
The apostle Paul again speaks of the natural propensities to evil and calls them "the carnal mind" (Rom. 8:7). Paul claimed to have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16), and he urged the believers to have this mind (Phil. 2:5-9). The mind needs to be renewed (Rom. 12:2). Could anyone who knows anything of the gospel suppose for a moment that Jesus was carnally minded, that He had any inclination to sin? It is utterly impossible.
There is, I think, a close relationship between the tendency to misunderstand the statement that Jesus came "in the likeness of sinful flesh" as implying that He had all the propensities of the sinner to sin and the common belief that men may enter the kingdom of God through the blood of Jesus while still cherishing inclinations to evil. They forget that "every man that hath this hope in him"—the hope of seeing Jesus as He is—"purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:3), and that "whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin" (1 John 3:9). Therefore they are asking too little of God, and too seldom. To all such I would commend the following from The Great Controversy, page 623:
Now, while our great High Priest is making the atonement for us, we should seek to become perfect in Christ. Not even by a thought could our Saviour be brought to yield to the power of temptation. Satan finds in human hearts some point where he can gain a foothold; some sinful desire is cherished, by means of which his temptations assert their power. But Christ declared of Himself, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me" (John 14:30). Satan could find nothing in the Son of God that would enable him to gain the victory. He had kept His Father's commandments, and there was no sin in Him that Satan could use to his advantage. This is the condition in which those must be found who shall stand in the time of trouble.
"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" must set us "free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2). This Jesus can do for us because He Himself was free from propensities to evil. He did not commit our sins, but He bore them in His life on earth and on Calvary, and He is not willing to leave a single sin with us, for He has taken them all. Why should we hold on to death?
