| Questions College Students Ask, Part 5 |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, February 04 2008 00:00 |
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Question: “If men are sinful at birth, how then is Jesus (a man) able to live a perfect life?” Answer: This is a good question that is frequently asked. Jesus was indeed a man, completely man, as the early church councils defined him. Also, Jesus did live a perfect life without sin. The Scriptures attest to this fact undeniably: “yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15), “Lamb without blemish” (1 Pet. 1:11), “righteous [dying] for the unrighteous” (1 Pet. 3:18), “who had no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21). Second, Holy Scripture clearly teaches that “we have all sinned” (Rom. 3:23), that “there is no one who does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:12), that “every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood” (Gen. 8:21), that “surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5), and that “through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners” (Rom. 5:19). How do we reconcile the universal sinfulness of man with the one exception in Jesus Christ? Paul seems to hint at that in saying that Jesus was “made in human likeness” and was “found in appearance as a man” (Phil. 2:7-8). This passage has given rise to the misconceptions of docetic and Monophysite heresies that deny the humanity of Jesus. Paul does not mean to do that here, for he affirms Jesus’ humanity in 1 Tim. 2:5. However, he seems to be saying that when Jesus who was in very nature God and equal with God (Phil. 2:6) assumed humanity there was something different. The only difference Scripture indicates is that Jesus was not a sinner. In every other way he was man (Heb. 4:15 – “tempted in every way, just as we are”). Jesus was preserved from original sin and did not have a sinful nature; therefore, He did not sin. Another possible helpful piece of the solution might be the fact that although Jesus was born of woman, thus making himself fully man (recall He spoke of “those born of woman” among whom none was greater than John the Baptist), He was not born of a human father, for Mary was a virgin. Sin is reckoned through the male line, as Scripture illustrates, and Jesus had no human male lineage. Whatever the explanation may be, we are sinners and we have a great Savior who never did; for, if He had, we would have no Savior at all! |
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