Transcript of Lesson 7
Welcome back to our study on The Doctrine of Salvation - How “Righteousness by Faith” Really Works
We are still in Section B: How did Christ Live? and this now is Lesson 7: No Sinful Habits
We are still in Section B: How did Christ Live? and this now is Lesson 7: No Sinful Habits
As important and comforting as it is to understand that Jesus took our fallen nature in His Incarnation, there is another aspect that we must study, if we are to correctly understand how He lived.
Jesus really was different from us in several ways, and we must understand these differences if we are to have a balanced picture of His Incarnation. Modern errors in the study of the Incarnation have usually been the result of overemphasizing either the ways in which Christ was like us, or the ways in which He was different from us.
Let’s first ask the question: Where did Jesus, the Son of God, come from? John 17:3-5 says: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent...And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
This text tells us that Jesus pre-existed His Incarnation long before the creation of Earth, and that God the Father sent His only begotten Son from Heaven on a mission to Earth to make known God’s love for fallen man.
So, if Jesus pre-existed his birth: Was anything pre-determined before Jesus was born as a human? Hebrews 10:5-7 tells us: “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:...Then said I, Lo, I come...to do thy will, O God.
This text says 2 things were pre-determined:
This text is quoted from Psalm 40:8, which is a prophecy of Jesus becoming part of the human family. Before Jesus began His life on earth as a human, He chose to be obedient to God the Father.
We, of course, cannot make this decision until after we have been born and have matured enough to understand the gospel and choose to be converted or “born again,” but Jesus made this decision before He was born as a human. There’s more:
Who did God choose to be Jesus’ mother? Luke 1:31 says: “Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.”
Before He was conceived, Jesus knew who His mother was going to be. An angel was sent to let Mary know that she would be the earthly mother of Jesus. Since this happened before Jesus was conceived in her womb, it is obvious that Jesus was part of the planning in heaven regarding His birth by the virgin Mary. Jesus had the remarkable privilege of choosing His earthly parents! Let’s continue:
Who took the place of an earthly father for Jesus? Luke 1:35a tells us: “And the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.” The Spirit of God took the place of an earthy father for Jesus. No human being has ever been conceived by God’s Holy Spirit.
The truth of the virgin birth is one of the most amazing facts stated in Scripture, which we can believe by faith. Although we can never fully comprehend it, we must ask how this might have affected things. So:
What was the result of this unique conception? Luke 1:35b explains: “Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Jesus was born holy. This is the most remarkable difference between Jesus and human beings -- His holy birth.
Adam was created holy – created of God, but after man’s fall, no human being, except Jesus in His Incarnation, has ever been born holy – born of God. Although we are born innocent of guilt, we are not born holy (sanctified).
Did Jesus ever sin? 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Jesus never sinned, even though He was born with our same fallen “sinful” nature.
Since we know that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23), this is another obvious difference between Jesus and all other human beings. From His birth to His death, Jesus never yielded once to the temptations of Satan or to the promptings of His fallen human nature.
Jesus was born as a human with our fallen nature and lived a sinless life.
Thanks to what Jesus did for us, we have the privilege of receiving His Holy Spirit and becoming Christlike, which is the subject of our study in Sections C and D. For now, it is important to know that Jesus as a human, but as the only human, was holy at His conception and remained holy throughout His life.
Only because of what Jesus did for us could He, the spotless Lamb of God, take away the sin of the world through His sinless life and sacrificial death.
So, what can we conclude from this? While we will never be able to fully explain the workings of the Incarnation, we are able to ascertain some basic facts.
Jesus' birth was clearly different from all others born into this world. Perhaps the most significant difference for the purposes of our study is that:
The practical result of this difference for Christ was that He did not develop any sinful habits as a young child. Despite His inherited fallen nature, God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in Him kept His character holy. His character never warped toward rebellion and disobedience, which naturally occurs in us by our sinful choices and gets reinforced by our sinful habits.
For us, this process of sinfulness develops from a very young age, but for Christ, this process was never initiated because He remained sinless by choice, by surrendering His will to God and submitting to the power of His Holy Spirit.
Although Christ’s nature was the same as our nature, with all the same potential for disobedience which is in our nature, His character was pure and holy from birth. Once He was able to choose for Himself, He always chose to surrender His will to God -- keeping His character perfectly innocent.
Does all of this give Jesus an unfair advantage over us? Not really. We can have the same controlling power of God’s Holy Spirit and the same victory over sin when we choose to surrender our life and will to God.
We can have Jesus' connection with God and develop a perfected, Christlike character through the process of the New Birth. This is what God wants us to do.
We are not asked to live a sinless life from birth to death, as Jesus did. We are only asked to believe in Jesus, who He was, what He did, and what He can do for us. If we truly believe, we will demonstrate that faith by being born again of the Holy Spirit and allowing Jesus to be the Lord of our life in all that we do.
However, if Jesus did not inherit the same nature that we inherited, that would give Jesus an unfair advantage over us in being obedient to God, because no matter how fully we surrender to God, we cannot change our fallen nature.
If Jesus' perfect obedience was based on the fact that He had an unfallen nature, then He had an advantage which we can never have. If perfect obedience is restricted to those with unfallen natures, then we can never obey God perfectly.
This understanding of the nature of Christ and His ability to live a sinless life by faith in God and through the power of His Holy Spirit is critically important because one of Satan's major arguments is that God is unfair in that fallen human beings are unable to keep His law. The only way Jesus could disprove Satan’s lie was to take our fallen nature and obey God's law in that fallen nature.
As a result of our study thus far, we can conclude that since Jesus' obedience to God was because he chose to have the Holy Spirit control His life, then we can also choose to have the Holy Spirit control our lives, which means we can come to live in total obedience to God. We can have the same “advantage” that Jesus had!
Jesus really was different from us in several ways, and we must understand these differences if we are to have a balanced picture of His Incarnation. Modern errors in the study of the Incarnation have usually been the result of overemphasizing either the ways in which Christ was like us, or the ways in which He was different from us.
Let’s first ask the question: Where did Jesus, the Son of God, come from? John 17:3-5 says: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent...And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
This text tells us that Jesus pre-existed His Incarnation long before the creation of Earth, and that God the Father sent His only begotten Son from Heaven on a mission to Earth to make known God’s love for fallen man.
So, if Jesus pre-existed his birth: Was anything pre-determined before Jesus was born as a human? Hebrews 10:5-7 tells us: “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:...Then said I, Lo, I come...to do thy will, O God.
This text says 2 things were pre-determined:
- Jesus would be born in a human body, and
- Jesus would do God's will.
This text is quoted from Psalm 40:8, which is a prophecy of Jesus becoming part of the human family. Before Jesus began His life on earth as a human, He chose to be obedient to God the Father.
We, of course, cannot make this decision until after we have been born and have matured enough to understand the gospel and choose to be converted or “born again,” but Jesus made this decision before He was born as a human. There’s more:
Who did God choose to be Jesus’ mother? Luke 1:31 says: “Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.”
Before He was conceived, Jesus knew who His mother was going to be. An angel was sent to let Mary know that she would be the earthly mother of Jesus. Since this happened before Jesus was conceived in her womb, it is obvious that Jesus was part of the planning in heaven regarding His birth by the virgin Mary. Jesus had the remarkable privilege of choosing His earthly parents! Let’s continue:
Who took the place of an earthly father for Jesus? Luke 1:35a tells us: “And the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.” The Spirit of God took the place of an earthy father for Jesus. No human being has ever been conceived by God’s Holy Spirit.
The truth of the virgin birth is one of the most amazing facts stated in Scripture, which we can believe by faith. Although we can never fully comprehend it, we must ask how this might have affected things. So:
What was the result of this unique conception? Luke 1:35b explains: “Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Jesus was born holy. This is the most remarkable difference between Jesus and human beings -- His holy birth.
Adam was created holy – created of God, but after man’s fall, no human being, except Jesus in His Incarnation, has ever been born holy – born of God. Although we are born innocent of guilt, we are not born holy (sanctified).
Did Jesus ever sin? 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Jesus never sinned, even though He was born with our same fallen “sinful” nature.
Since we know that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23), this is another obvious difference between Jesus and all other human beings. From His birth to His death, Jesus never yielded once to the temptations of Satan or to the promptings of His fallen human nature.
Jesus was born as a human with our fallen nature and lived a sinless life.
Thanks to what Jesus did for us, we have the privilege of receiving His Holy Spirit and becoming Christlike, which is the subject of our study in Sections C and D. For now, it is important to know that Jesus as a human, but as the only human, was holy at His conception and remained holy throughout His life.
Only because of what Jesus did for us could He, the spotless Lamb of God, take away the sin of the world through His sinless life and sacrificial death.
So, what can we conclude from this? While we will never be able to fully explain the workings of the Incarnation, we are able to ascertain some basic facts.
Jesus' birth was clearly different from all others born into this world. Perhaps the most significant difference for the purposes of our study is that:
- Jesus chose obedience to God before He was born.
- Jesus was born with the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit.
The practical result of this difference for Christ was that He did not develop any sinful habits as a young child. Despite His inherited fallen nature, God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in Him kept His character holy. His character never warped toward rebellion and disobedience, which naturally occurs in us by our sinful choices and gets reinforced by our sinful habits.
For us, this process of sinfulness develops from a very young age, but for Christ, this process was never initiated because He remained sinless by choice, by surrendering His will to God and submitting to the power of His Holy Spirit.
Although Christ’s nature was the same as our nature, with all the same potential for disobedience which is in our nature, His character was pure and holy from birth. Once He was able to choose for Himself, He always chose to surrender His will to God -- keeping His character perfectly innocent.
Does all of this give Jesus an unfair advantage over us? Not really. We can have the same controlling power of God’s Holy Spirit and the same victory over sin when we choose to surrender our life and will to God.
We can have Jesus' connection with God and develop a perfected, Christlike character through the process of the New Birth. This is what God wants us to do.
We are not asked to live a sinless life from birth to death, as Jesus did. We are only asked to believe in Jesus, who He was, what He did, and what He can do for us. If we truly believe, we will demonstrate that faith by being born again of the Holy Spirit and allowing Jesus to be the Lord of our life in all that we do.
However, if Jesus did not inherit the same nature that we inherited, that would give Jesus an unfair advantage over us in being obedient to God, because no matter how fully we surrender to God, we cannot change our fallen nature.
If Jesus' perfect obedience was based on the fact that He had an unfallen nature, then He had an advantage which we can never have. If perfect obedience is restricted to those with unfallen natures, then we can never obey God perfectly.
This understanding of the nature of Christ and His ability to live a sinless life by faith in God and through the power of His Holy Spirit is critically important because one of Satan's major arguments is that God is unfair in that fallen human beings are unable to keep His law. The only way Jesus could disprove Satan’s lie was to take our fallen nature and obey God's law in that fallen nature.
As a result of our study thus far, we can conclude that since Jesus' obedience to God was because he chose to have the Holy Spirit control His life, then we can also choose to have the Holy Spirit control our lives, which means we can come to live in total obedience to God. We can have the same “advantage” that Jesus had!