Subject: Must Christ have had a human nature? |
Bible Note: Ray, You are correct to say that Christ was the perfect man. But his flesh was subject to same weaknesses, except a natural tendency toward sin, as fallen man, though He was not fallen. His flesh was subject to weakness, pain and suffering and death due to the sin in the world because of Adam's fall. In his resurrection, Jesus restored and even glorified his flesh and promises to do the same for ours. The wonder and beauty of our Redeemer, the new Adam is that He could take on flesh and raise it up, whereas the first Adam could at best have only maintained his unfallen state if he had remained obedient, but he failed even in that and lowered it by the Fall. On your point about human uncleaness in Leviticus, I think we have to remember that there was human cleanessness before the Fall. Adam was the human before the Fall, but still in his pristine "good" stae as God had created him. After the Fall he was still human but fallen and therefore made "unclean" by his sin. Humanity and sin are not one and the same since God created man and declared all his creation "good." Sin is a self inflicted wound to a creation that in its essence was good by virtue of its creation by God. Adam was no longer all he was meant to be and could have remained had he been obedient. But he could not lift himself back up to that pristine state. Only God Incarnate could do that. Emmaus |