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        Why was He born in the same flesh and nature we have? So that He could be understanding of our weaknesses and inclinations toward sin, and be a merciful High Priest for us. Do the words "in all things" really mean "in all things"? Of course.

        Paul declared that Jesus "was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." Romans 1:3. It would be contrary to reason for these words to be interpreted to mean that Christ inherited a holy, unfallen nature from Mary. Whatever David's seed was like after the flesh, our Lord partook of the same. All of those descendants of David, except one, yielded to their hereditary inclinations and committed personal sins. Jesus, like all others, inherited the nature of David after the flesh, but He did not yield to the  inherent weaknesses of that nature. Although tempted in all points like we are, He did not respond by a single degree of indulgence to any of those temptations. His life was a constant fortress of invincible spiritual power against the tempter.

        By relying wholly upon His Father's ever-present strength, He demonstrated the victory which is possible for all of David's seed after the flesh to experience.

        Again, we read, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same." Hebrews 2:14. Notice how the inspired writer emphasized the sameness of the body of Christ with man. HE - ALSO - HIMSELF - LIKEWISE. These four words are used consecutively even though they are repetitive and redundant. WHY? In order to impress us that Jesus really did enter into the SAME nature man possessed. Just like children partake of the same flesh and blood, HE ALSO HIMSELF LIKEWISE took the SAME! How can anyone be confused by this unambiguous language?

JESUS HAD HEREDITARY WEAKNESSES

       Incidentally, these inspired words definitely tell us that Christ took part of the same nature as the children who "are partakers of flesh and blood." Doesn't this tell us without question the kind of nature Christ possessed? Did Adam have any children born before he sinned? Not a one! The fact is that all the children who have ever been born in the world have inherited the same fallen nature of Adam, because they were all born after Adam sinned. The book of Hebrews declares that Jesus "himself likewise took part of the same." The same what? The same flesh and blood as children inherit from their parents. What kind of flesh do children inherit from their parents? Only sinful flesh. Has any other kind of flesh except sinful flesh ever been known among the descendants of Adam? None whatsoever. If Jesus partook of the same flesh and blood as the children, it had to be sinful flesh and blood. There is no other conclusion to be drawn. Yet, He Himself was sinless!

        One writer, recognizing this clear Bible position, described it very succinctly in these words:

        It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man's nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life.

        This statement described the working of hereditary laws and is in perfect support of Paul's declaration that Jesus partook of the same flesh and blood as children receive from their parents. That is referring to heredity also. If Christ had been born with Adam's unfallen nature, the very suggestion of hereditary influence would be ridiculous in the extreme. There could be no place for any kind of inherited tendencies in a holy Adamic nature which had never known either birth or ancestry. If He had no inherited weaknesses, why would the writer of Hebrews say that He partook of the same flesh and blood that children receive from parents? Certain it is that the Creator did not incorporate any inherent weaknesses into the original creation. Adam had no battles to fight against hereditary tendencies. He had the power in himself to choose always not to sin.

        Did Jesus as a man claim to have that kind of power? No. He said, "I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things." John 8:28. Repeatedly, Christ spoke of being dependent on His Father for what He said and what He did.

        Does this mean that He possessed no deity and omnipotence as the Son of God? On the contrary, He was truly and wholly divine, just as He was truly and wholly man. But those two natures apparently were not amalgamated into some hybrid personality which stood apart from either God or man. He was fully God and He was fully man. He could draw upon either of these distinct natures while living here in the flesh. But the really important thing for us to remember is that He did not exercise His divine power to save Himself from the weaknesses and temptations inherited from His human ancestry. He chose to live His life here as a man in the same way we have to live it. To save Himself from sin and the perils of the flesh, He depended constantly and solely upon the power of His Father. It was in this way that He overcame the devil, closed every avenue of temptation, and lived a life of perfect obedience. By never yielding to the inherent appeal of the flesh, He set an example of the kind of victory which may come to every child of Adam through dependence on the Father.

        Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness to use His divine power to satisfy His agonizing hunger. Satan knew that Jesus had the power of deity to work that miracle. His hope was that he could provoke Christ to draw upon His divinity for relief. Why would that have been such a triumph for Satan? He could have used that to sustain his charges that God required an obedience that no man in the flesh could produce. If Jesus had failed to overcome the tempter in the same nature we have and by the same means available to us, the devil would have proven that obedience is indeed an impossible requirement. Satan under-stood very well that Jesus could not use His divine power to save Himself and to save man at the same time. This is what made the test such a severe and agonizing experience for Christ.

        If Jesus actually inherited the compromised nature of Adam, then why didn't He sin like the rest of Adam's descendants? Because He was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb and possessed a fully surrendered will and sanctified human nature. May we partake of that same power to keep us from sinning? Yes. Jesus, in living His life of victory over sin, did not utilize His divinity but confined Himself to the same power available to us through conversion and sanctification.

CHRIST OVERCAME  IN OUR OWN NATURE

        Had He not won the victory over Satan in the same nature we have, what encouragement could we draw from His victory? I did not need to be shown that it was possible for Adam not to yield to sin. I already knew that. What I need to know is that I can overcome sin, my nature being what it is.

        Satan charged God with requiring something that couldn't be done. The reason fallen man could not produce obedience is clearly described in Romans 8:3, 4: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

        These verses are simplified when we ask a few questions: What could the law not do for us because we were too weak in the flesh to keep it? It could not save us.

        Because we could not keep it due to the weakness of the flesh, what did God do? He sent Jesus to obey the law perfectly in the flesh. He condemned sin in the flesh by total victory over it.

        What did His victory in the flesh make possible for us? "That the righteousness (just requirement) of the law might be fulfilled in us." It enabled us to obey.

        How did His victory in the flesh make it possible for us to obey? By the miracle of conversion which changes our walk from the flesh to the Spirit. Then Christ in us, through the Spirit, imparts victory over sin to our lives.

        These obvious truths point up one of the great problems in holding to the pre-fall human nature of Christ. If His victory over Satan, in the flesh, was for the purpose of enabling me to fulfill the requirements of the law, how could His victory help me at all if it was obtained in some other flesh than mine? Here is where this false doctrine strikes at the beautiful principle of righteousness by faith.

        Righteousness by faith is the imputing and imparting of the results of His sinless life and atoning death. It includes both justification and sanctification. He imputes, or credits, to us the merits of His sinless experience to deliver us from the penalty of sin. This is justification. To deliver us from the power of sin, He does not merely reckon us as righteous, but He actually imparts the strength to overcome sin. In either case, He can only bestow upon us what He attained through His own incarnate experience as the Saviour of the world.

        Some might claim that since justification only involves an imputing of Christ's sinless record to our account, it could be done in any kind of body. But is that true? The purpose of the incarnation was to redeem fallen man and not sinless man. To do so He had to "condemn sin in the flesh." Romans 8:3. Our sins which proceed from the flesh had to be condemned by Him, and the only way this could be done was to conquer that sinful flesh and submit it to the death of the cross.

        Jesus came to take away the sin of the world, as John declared. How could He take away sin that was not even there in the flesh He assumed?  To be more precise, how could he "condemn sin in the flesh" in a sinless flesh?

        Paul said, "I am crucified with Christ." Galatians 2:20. Why does he further state that we "were baptized into his death"? Romans 6:3. Every sinner must pass, by faith, through the crucifixion and resurrection experience with Christ. In order to pass from death to life, every one of us must identify with the One who represented us as the second Adam. Our sins were in Him. When He died, we died; and the penalty against our sins was satisfied and exhausted.

        Can't you see that He had to carry our own fallen nature to that cross in order to make it possible for our sinful nature to be put to death? Anything less would have failed to satisfy the justice of God. Christ had to surrender condemned humanity to the full wages of sin on that cross in order to make atonement possible for us. Otherwise, we could not identify with Him or be crucified with Him. Obviously, redemption requires that Jesus live and die with the nature of fallen man in order to provide the vital link of justification.