Subject: Must Christ have had a human nature? |
Bible Note: Hi Emmaus, I perceive that you are one who does not need a lot of sleep. I hope you get a nap in if you need it.:) 1) Please remember that my viewpoints will reflect my interest in capitalization. So may I first of all point out that I did not say that Christ was a perfect "man" but rather I see Him as the perfect "Man". When one considers that He was fully God, then he/she must think of Him as the Man Jesus Christ. That is, the Son of God. When one considers that He is fully man, then he/she must realize that the witness of two men is true, for He came in the likeness of men. But He is still the Son of Man, the Son of God, in the form of God but in the likeness of men. 2) When you say that there was "human cleanness before the Fall" I must disagree and ask for your Scripture reference that speaks of "human" things before the verses in Leviticus. The nature of the Son of God is a spiritual one. Man (Adam and Eve) was made in His image and His likeness. It is true that he was also flesh as Genesis 2:23 says, "And the man said, 'This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.'" It is because man was also flesh that the Lord said, "My *spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." See Genesis 6:3. So you see, I believe that before the Fall they had more of a spiritual nature although they were flesh. After the Fall, we can regard them in the view of your Latin "humus" with its decay of plant and animal matter. 3) When I think of God and man, I have to think of Jesus as being the God/Man. [Not God/man, you see?] Genesis 1:26, "Then (God) said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;..." Here I see the triune Man in whose likeness God made us. But there has to be a difference shown between the Man and the man that I am. This difference for me is shown in capitalization of pronouns of Deity. 4) Genesis 3:21, "And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. 22 Then the Lord (God) said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil;..." The man [Adam and Eve] had become like the Man, knowing good and evil. But they were not like the Lord God and they were not to live forever--they were from the ground and were going back to the ground. Genesis 3:23, "therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken." I hope that we will talk more later. From the heart, Ray |