You've heard since your earliest memories of religion why Jesus came. Did you know that what little you heard that wasn't wrong, wasn't half the story? Yes, Jesus came to die for our sins, yes He came to shed innocent blood that we might live, yes He came to save the world; but those things, stupefying though they may be, were almost an afterthought to the REAL purpose of Jesus coming. The purpose you never heard. Did you ever think of how unfair it is? Unfair I said. Unfair that God should expect us to obey an arbitrary set of rules; submit ourselves to Him; live by His code? Think about this! Jesus came to Earth; lived a perfect life, didn't sin, then died and went back to heaven. Now He expects us to walk in His tremendous footsteps. Who could do that?
Who could do that, when we have a nature that LOVES to do evil; when we are trained from so early in life to embrace the lies of the world. Who could possibly do what God asks? This problem has led most of the world to believe that the ten commandments are done away, and that we shouldn't even TRY to obey God, since we're doomed to fail anyway.
Romans 8:3 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:
This verse answers the question fully - if you really understand ALL of the connotations of what it says. It says that Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh. And condemned sin in the flesh.
What does that REALLY mean? What does it mean to CONDEMN sin? One way is to say "sin is bad!" - that condemns sin. But does it really? Think about it - does it condemn sin if you say "sin is bad", but you yourself sin?
Romans 2:1 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; FOR THOU THAT JUDGEST DOEST THE SAME THINGS.
When you do the very things you condemn, you truly condemn yourself, not those things.
Titus 3:11 Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.
Jesus came to condemn sin, so to do that He had to not sin. We knew that already. But there is something else that is required to truly condemn something. When you're working with people, say building a house as part of a crew, and you look over someone's shoulder telling them that they're driving that nail wrong... what is one of the first things you always hear? "Well let's see YOU do better!", they say, as they slap the hammer in your hand.
Realistically, unless you really know what you're doing, it often happens that you can't do any better than they can - so you look sheepish and next time keep your mouth shut. Well, smart people keep their mouth shut next time.
So if someone is sinning and you say "stop sinning", they're going to say "well, if you had MY problems, and lived MY life, you'd be sinning too!" - or "Oh yeah? So you think YOU could do better?" - now if you have to say "Well, uh, no I can't... but... but... you should still stop!"... you lost the argument and sin was not condemned. But if you can say "As a matter of fact, yes... I was in a situation even worse than that once and I..." - the sin is condemned. The man may still walk away stubbornly refusing to change, but YOU won the argument, and the act is condemned. You PROVED that the same sin this man was committing CAN be overcome. Noah did this.
Hebrews 11:7 (Weymouth) Through faith Noah, being divinely taught about things as yet unseen, reverently gave heed and built an ark for the safety of his family, and BY THIS ACT he CONDEMNED THE WORLD, and became an heir of the righteousness which depends on faith.
Noah CONDEMNED the world by PREPARING THE ARK! Did you ever work on an assembly line, or in a union? And you were all fired up the first day ready to put out a good day's work, only to be yelled at by your co-workers "Hey, slow down there, you're making us look bad!" or "if you keep working like that, my boss will yell at me!" By DOING what you SHOULD be doing, you CONDEMN all those who don't! You make it OBVIOUS that they are simply lazy, and that they COULD be productive BUT THEY DON'T WANT TO BE!
Now it would have been absolutely MEANINGLESS had Noah been "special". If Noah had been different somehow - born with a better nature than them, let's say. Then it wouldn't have condemned the world at all - Noah cheated! Of COURSE he was able to do a better job! If a man on the assembly line is twice as strong as anyone else there, OF COURSE he can do more work! No big deal! That doesn't condemn those who are half his size at all!
If someone is born with a gift of music, and writes beautiful sonatas, SO WHAT? Yes, they're beautiful, but why should that condemn me who had no such gift? If someone has a gift for juggling and can juggle 6 balls when I can't, so what? He had a gift - something special I didn't have! It would be unfair to compare us, because if this were a contest - he cheated!
But if a man who had a broken arm which wound up being practically useless learned to juggle six balls when I couldn't - wow! That condemns me! That means this man is BETTER than me! I had EVERY advantage over him, and he STILL beat me! That means this man has proved that ANYONE can overcome the things I didn't overcome and juggle that well!
I should say almost anyone, because he hasn't proved that a paraplegic can; he hasn't proved that someone who is blind can juggle six balls; but he has proved that I HAVE NO EXCUSE for not being able to juggle that well! By doing better than me, HE REMOVED MY EXCUSE! And by doing that, he condemned me!
And in exactly that way, Noah proved that men COULD have obeyed God, it was well within His mental and spiritual power to HAVE faith, and DO what God said! Because Noah was JUST LIKE THE REST OF THEM, and succeeded were they failed.
But Noah left the job partially done. Noah left man an excuse. Because Noah only proved that it was possible to obey God starting at a certain point. Noah did not prove that it was possible to NEVER sin. Noah had sinned, at least once (probably a lot more than that). Every man since Adam had.
Romans 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
This offense of Adam's - this first sin - made man fall under judgment, which would lead to his condemnation. The judgment by God was, thou hast sinned. The penalty - thou must die. But God, to be a perfect God, must be fair. And Man's excuse to God was simple; "how can you expect ME not to sin? No man has EVER not sinned! You make up these rules just to have an excuse to kill me, you sick God, you!"
God could not answer it. He knew He was right, of course - but how could He prove it? How could he remove every excuse from every man who ever sinned? Noah didn't do it - Noah didn't prove that man could get through life without EVER sinning and therefore NEVER fall under the penalty of death. No man ever had. And God couldn't do it.
James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God CANNOT BE TEMPTED with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
God has never sinned. So? What does that prove? It proves that GOD can make up rules that GOD can follow! Well, I can make up rules that I can follow, so what! I can make up a rule: "I will never take the short end of the stick on purpose" - that's an easy rule to follow, since that's what I want to do anyway! I can say "I will eat ice cream once a week for the rest of my life" - who would have trouble obeying that rule? Not me! But other people who don't like ice cream would. And so if God makes up a set of ten arbitrary rules, with tons of tedious and tiresome fine print around them, rules that He WANTS to obey anyway, OF COURSE IF HE CAN OBEY THEM PERFECTLY! It proves NOTHING!
Because God CANNOT be TEMPTED to do evil. God does not WANT to do evil! Nothing in His nature thinks that evil sounds "fun" or "exciting" or "cool". He simply isn't interested in it. And so because He has never been interested in it, He has never REALLY had to CHOOSE NOT to do evil! And so HOW DARE HE get mad at ME for choosing to do evil! How DARE He hold ME responsible for following MY nature just as He follows His! How DARE He judge me for doing something that HE HAS NEVER DONE!
What hasn't He done? He's obeyed His laws, yes, but NEVER HAD TO RESIST TEMPTATION to do so! He NEVER had to FIGHT the carnal nature that you and I were born with! He never had a nature that WANTS to sin, like you and I do!
James 4:5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
We have a spirit in us. Every man ever born has a spirit. One that is uniquely his, that defines who you are. Giving up this spirit means you are dead.
Luke 23:46 (Weymouth) and Jesus cried out in a loud voice, and said, "Father, to Thy hands I entrust my spirit." And after uttering these words He yielded up His spirit.
This is not the spirit of Satan, or some other spirit. You have your own spirit - it's part of how you're made. It's the special essence of life that still eludes science. Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, and many people in the Bible, both good and bad, are said to have "given up the ghost (spirit)" as they died.
Job 14:10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
But this nature, like the nature of everything that draws breath on this earth from bacteria to whale is carnal - fleshly. That is to say, it is obsessed with concerns about what makes the flesh feel good. It is not really evil or good, per se, at first - it is just selfish.
Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
It's not subject to God's law, nor initially does it know anything about it. It simply wants what it wants when it wants it, which is usually NOW. A newborn babe cries until it gets what it wants. This isn't evil - not yet. It is just carnal. A baby bluejay squawks until it gets fed. All life revolves around getting what it wants. Thats the whole point of "wants".
But that's not a sin. A child saying "mommy I'm hungry, feed me!" is not wrong. A baby tripping it's siblings so that it can be the first at the dinner table IS wrong. That want - desire - lust - call it what you will, is NOT wrong. It IS wrong however if you let that desire goad you into hurting others to get what you want.
That is how your nature is, from the moment the spirit enters the first few cells of the embryo. Our spirit - also called our heart in the Bible - is "is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked ..." (Jeremiah 17:9). In the garden of Eden, God made man upright (Ecclesiastes 7:29); He said that man was "very good" (Genesis 1:31). God trained man, giving him laws to obey, rules to live by (Genesis 2:16), and penalties for breaking those rules (Verse 17). And then God allowed Satan into the garden of Eden to tempt man.
Satan isn't bigger or stronger than God (Job 1). And Satan wasn't stronger than Adam - physically He was, since we're made "a little below the angels" (Hebrews 2:7), but Adam had DOMINION "over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." (Genesis 1:26). Adam was in CHARGE over creeping things, including serpents, and he had God's power to back that up. All Adam had to say was "get thee behind me, Satan" and Satan was bound to leave - or face the power of God.
But Adam didn't. Adam had heard God's side of the story first, and we know that "He that is first in his own cause seemeth just" (Proverbs 18:17) - but Adam and Eve both CHOSE to follow Satan!
This was a choice; yes, Satan lied to them but Adam had to CHOOSE to follow that lie! Eve may have been duped by the slick-talking silver-tongued devil, but Adam KNEW better (at least to some extent)!
1 Timothy 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
So this nature of Adam's was such that it CHOSE to serve Satan. That means the nature of Adam was not neutral, not ambivalent, but actually WANTED to try life Satan's way. That's because Satan's way promises faster satisfaction for our wants and desires and that's what makes our nature tick! Because "The spirit that dwells in us lusteth to envy!"
This is true of ALL men and women - every single one ever born:
James 1:14 But EVERY MAN is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Your biggest temptation comes not from the devil or your mother or the hooker on the streetcorner, but from YOUR MIND! Your SPIRIT is carnal! It WANTS to satisfy it's desires! And since sin is the fastest way to do that, IT WANTS to sin! And that nature DRAGS us, TUGS at us, LEADS us towards sin at every thought!
But that's not sin. That is a DESIRE to sin. It is a sign of a nature that cannot be trusted implicitly, but it is not a sin. James continues to say
Verse 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Lust (in this definition) is not sin. But WHEN lust conceives the desire unites with a willingness in your mind; willingness to sin means little if there is no desire to sin. That's why Adam and Eve didn't sin in the garden before Satan showed up. They were willing, as events clearly showed - but they had no reason to sin. Satan showed them a REASON, showed them something to DESIRE about the tree, and then Eve DESIRED it, LUSTED after it, and that desire united with the egg of willingness in her mind and together they conceived the first human sinful thought!
That sinful thought then grew and grew and finally became an action when the thought "gave birth" to eating the fruit. And that sin, when the sin matured and the ramifications were through reverberating around the world, has caused the death of every living thing ever to die. It starts with a desire, which we all have. It unites with willingness, which we shouldn't have. Together they grow in the womb of your mind and hatch into an act, which grows up and yields death.
So here's the point of all this. If Jesus didn't have a desire to sin, His obedience to the law was meaningless! Again I say, SO WHAT - GOD came down, all dressed up in a man-suit, pretended to be one of us, sort-of felt some of the things we do (pain, disappointment, etc), but NEVER REALLY WENT THROUGH WHAT I GO THROUGH!
If Jesus had a "special nature" that was somehow "different", somehow "better", that "remembered being God", that "knew the full effects of sin"... one that didn't HAVE a nature that "lusted to envy", that WASN'T "selfish at heart", THEN HE CHEATED!
It would be like beating a quadriplegic in a triathlon! Woo-hoo, go me I beat the little crippled boy! It means NOTHING unless Jesus was EXACTLY like us! If He had an edge; if He was different in any way; if He was inherently BETTER, with any built in advantages over ANY MAN WHO EVER LIVED, THAT MAN HAS AN EXCUSE TO DISOBEY GOD! And Jesus who came to CONDEMN SIN, FAILED to do so by CHEATING on the exam and OBEYING God only because He didn't have the very NATURE that leads us to sin!
Romans 8:3 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:
The commandment could not condemn sin; it could only say what it was. It couldn't give us an example, a PROOF that it COULD be obeyed. So Jesus became LIKE US, so that He could CONDEMN SIN... IN THE FLESH.
Now it's that last part that is most important. Very few people today can accept what you've read here about the nature of Jesus, and there are even better proofs coming that they cannot accept. But that's because the world is filled with the nature of antichrist. And I will prove that shortly.
1 John 4:1-2 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits... Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
This scripture always troubled me, because I knew many heretics, pagans, and outright ATHEISTS that believe that Jesus came in the flesh. If that's what it means, this test is MEANINGLESS! But of course, it isn't - you and I just misunderstood what it says. The prevailing opinion today among everyone, no matter what religion or even if they completely hate the Bible and God, STILL believe that Jesus existed and that He was "in the flesh".
2 John 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
I can't find hardly ANY who "deceive" and say that "Jesus did not come in the flesh"! - and there is a reason for that. The scripture doesn't mean that these spirits confess that Jesus came with a physical BODY - it MEANS that NO SPIRIT THAT IS NOT FROM GOD CAN ADMIT THAT JESUS CAME WITH A CARNAL NATURE!
I shall now prove that, and then tell you WHY no spirit can admit that. The words "in the flesh" are translated from a single Greek word, "sarx". This is translated usually as "in the flesh", "fleshly", "carnal", etc. It's used well over a hundred times in the New Testament; it refers to two things primarily; the human body, and in an easy metaphorical sense, a human mind led by the impulses of that body. Strong's defines this word as, among other things "(by implication) human nature (with its frailties [physically or morally] and passions)"
If you're paying attention, you already know where this is going. This word, sarx, means both the frail human body, and the morally frail human spirit - the one the Bible says lusts to envy, is desperately wicked, and so on. Now people who live "in the flesh", FOLLOW this fleshly-driven, carnal spirit.
1 Peter 4:2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time IN THE FLESH to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
When you live "in the flesh", it means that you follow the flesh; you obey it; and when you do that, you are fulfilling HUMAN lusts, you are following your will, not God's. We all have this same basic nature; each unique, but all of which share the basic philosophy of ME ME ME. This is the first thought every mind has - how can I make MYSELF happier; how can I make MY stuff better. How can I turn this deal around so that I come out ahead.
2 Peter 2:18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the LUSTS OF THE FLESH
These lusts OF the FLESH are the lusts your own carnal nature prompts you with! They are the "lusts" that every man is tempted with, that LEAD to, but ARE NOT, sin. They are the natural desires of a carnal, unconverted, mind. It's just who we are. As another dictionary says about the Greek word "sarx": "the flesh, denotes mere human nature, the earthly nature of man apart from divine influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God"
But just because you have such thoughts doesn't mean you follow them. Just because your nature tempts you down a path of sinful bliss doesn't mean you do it, or even allow your conscious mind to permit the idea to flourish. It just means that your nature pops up a thought opposed to God, and you smack it down; like a jack-in-the-box it will be back soon with another carnal idea, and you smack that down too.
We who have the spirit of God have two spirits in our mind; our own, and the spirit of God. In the briefest definition, our spirit tells us to take care of "ME ME ME", and God's spirit tells us to love other men LIKE our spirit loves itself. This causes strife in the mind of every true Christian.
Romans 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
The law of Paul's mind, in context, is the law laid down by the spirit of God which is now residing in his mind; warring against the other "law" laid down by his own lusts. These spirits are mutually and completely incompatible, as they are. And since God's spirit isn't about to change, either Paul has to change his spirit or God's spirit will leave. The process of changing this spirit of Paul's and patterning it after the example of the spirit of God is the purpose of this life, but that's another article.
Suffice it to say that we are created into what we will be by changing our spirit with it's unique nuances and fashioning it into a spirit like the Being that created us; and that when the process is done, our spirit will be infinitely trustworthy, and like God's in every important aspect of law, but still uniquely us in every aspect of individuality.
Now if Jesus lacked such a fundamental characteristic we all have - a human, carnal spirit - then Jesus was not really like us at all. And if He was not like us, then we have an excuse for sinning, the same one we always had - "it's impossible to obey God". But we don't have that excuse. Yes, the spirit of God cannot be tempted to sin. God's spirit doesn't even slightly WANT to sin. And the entire purpose of Jesus coming to Earth was to put that spirit to the test in a mind that had a CARNAL spirit at war with it!
We have a CARNAL spirit at WAR with the spirit of God, 24/7/365 for our LIFETIMES! It ALWAYS wants dominance, always restless, always seeking an edge! And for Jesus' life and death to mean anything, SO MUST HE! And the Bible backs that up, word for word!
Luke 18:18-19 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
The young nobleman addressed Jesus and said "Good master", and Jesus stopped him and said "Why do you call me good? There is NONE GOOD BUT ONE, that is, God". This was clearly the Father. Jesus said I AM NOT GOOD, but the FATHER is. What could He mean? Clearly He didn't sin. We know that. Clearly He never even thought a sin. Yet Jesus said "don't call me good; only the father is good".
Most explain it away by saying "oh, He was being humble", and what they mean is "oh, He was just being humble, He really WAS good, of course!"
If that's true, then Jesus lied, which IS a sin. If Jesus said that there was only ONE good being in the universe, when there were in fact two, HE LIED. And lest any resort to the idea of "I and my father are one", remember Jesus said that HE, HIMSELF should not be called good, saying He was NOT that good person!
So we have two options, and only two. Jesus was good, or He wasn't. If He was, then He lied about being good ... and by lying, became not good. Meaning either way, He wasn't good. And if He WASN'T good, what was it about Him that wasn't?
The ONLY possibility that fits the Bible, that fits EVERY SINGLE VERSE you've heard today, is that He was not good by His own definition because of His human nature that warred with the spirit of God; the same fight Paul had!
Jesus was saying, exactly as Paul later said, that "in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:18)! Because in Jesus' flesh (His "sarx") there was nothing GOOD! That is exactly what He said, and you must modify your beliefs to fit that, not modify the sacred words of Jesus to fit your beliefs!
Jesus had a FIGHT between those two natures! A fight Jesus ALWAYS won right out of the gate; but nonetheless a lifetime of battles that He had to FIGHT! And the presence of that human nature made Him "not good" - He said so!
Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh
We are partakers of flesh and blood. What does that mean? That we can have a physical body and live and die, as mortals. But not only that. We are equipped with a carnal spirit; a "sarx", that is morally corrupt and prefers to sin. And that nature that Paul complained about was not unique to Paul; Abraham had it too, as do we all.
Hebrews 2:16 (Phillips) For he did not assume a nature from angels, but he assumed a nature from the seed of Abraham.
So why would Jesus assume a nature like Abraham's? Why take on that carnal nature in Him? Because God cannot be tempted to sin. He doesn't want to sin at all. God in heaven is completely impervious to temptations to sin. But the point of coming was to partake of the same nature that WE must fight. To fight the battle we fight, so He can appreciate our sufferings as we battle this monster of Romans 7 within ourselves. So that when we fail, He understands WHY and can judge us accordingly!
Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was IN ALL POINTS TEMPTED like as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus had a nature in Him that was just like Abraham's; one that was tempted in EVERY SINGLE POINT LIKE US! And James says that our temptations come from within, from our carnal nature that is led away by its lusts! And therefore Jesus had to have that same nature in Him!
Before His human birth, Jesus was unable to be tempted with sin. But He humbled himself; He became like men so that He could experience those things and overcome them to show us it IS possible.
Philippians 2:7-8 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself...
Like any good leader, Jesus would not put us through something He was unable or afraid to go through Himself! His coming and walking the same life we do - not a different life, a life immune to temptation, immune to all "badness" because "God kept Satan from possessing His mind from the womb", but the SAME life we walk - and He showed us it IS possible. That gives us unbelievable, realistic hope!
It proves that Jesus WAS a man. It proves that it was possible for Him to choose to obey the holy spirit over his own spirit, the one He inherited from Abraham - which means IT IS POSSIBLE FOR US AS WELL! It means it was POSSIBLE for Him to obey God when placed ON A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD WITH US! And by doing that Jesus condemned the world!
Most people, nearly the entire Christian world believes that God demanded of us something He wouldn't, couldn't, or at the very least DIDN'T do - He demands that we live with a carnal nature, and OVERCOME it. Most believe that Jesus DIDN'T NEED to overcome anything, because He was "God"!
And so they believe that the two cells that would be the child in the womb of Mary must have remembered the second before when they were God, and all of past eternity as that God. And as that child grew, knowing everything about everything as it grew, it had no true temptations, no lusts, nothing to really battle; it was rather like God's version of a video game - no real emotional involvement, no risk, no big deal if you die (you're God, you don't really fear death or care at all).
Most believe that Jesus wasn't really interested in sinning; it just didn't appeal to Him; But for Jesus to be TEMPTED in all points like WE are, for Him to walk the Earth with a carnal nature inside Him WARRING with the spirit of God, He had to be TEMPTED by the lusts of that carnal spirit to sin! That spirit had to URGE Him to sin, GOAD Him to sin, JUST LIKE YOURS DOES!
Luke 4:6-7 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
This was a TEMPTATION, according to the Bible; the same temptation that Adam failed 4,000 years before. For it to BE a temptation, Jesus, the second Adam made like the first (1 Corinthians 15), had to be TEMPTED! Jesus had to find the offer APPEALING! His nature reacted the same way YOURS would have, with an instinctive "WOW, I could be KING!" - but that thought was not sin. Had Jesus' mind CHOSEN to pursue that thought, and give into the lusts, it would have been - but it wasn't. That lust did not meet a willingness to obey in Jesus mind, and so the unborn egg of sin was aborted before it was conceived.
But make no mistake, it was tempting! In fact, the three temptations on the mount were no doubt the most tempting offers man had ever undergone! No man in history had ever been able to resist those offers, with the violent tuggings of his own mind leading Him while the devil's coaxings attempted to manipulate Him! No temptation you have EVER undergone from your carnal spirit compares with what Jesus must have felt - AND OVERCOME - at that instant.
That way Jesus KNOWS what it is like to be Human. He KNOWS how our weaknesses feel. He KNOWS WHY we sin - and He knows that we CAN resist, and His actions condemn those who don't.
My detractors say I trying to drag Jesus down to my level. But think about it: my doctrine exalts Jesus many times more than theirs does, and yet keeps Him approachable; with their doctrine, He had no real interest in sin and wasn't genuinely tempted to sin. To put it one way, he was basically bored by the thoughts of sinning. He just didn't care. That doctrine means you can NEVER be like Jesus because Jesus wasn't ever tempted to sin in the first place!
It means that Jesus as a man had almost nothing in common with us, except the outward shell of flesh; He wasn't tempted and He doesn't understand us! He just lived with us, He doesn't know WHY we want to sin, He doesn't FEEL our weaknesses, He just heard about them! The exact OPPOSITE of having a high priest tempted as like we are; the opposite of one who FEELS our infirmities because HE felt them, and LEARNED through the things that He suffered!
The way the world believes, Jesus had it MUCH easier than we do; He had the holy spirit from birth; He was God; He knew everything about everything from Mary's womb. He had no real temptation to sin; bottom line, if that's true, Jesus CHEATED!
My way, the way the BIBLE shows, Jesus had EVERY hurdle we do, and STILL overcame! STILL managed to stay without sin, having a much harder road than you believe! That makes His sacrifice hundreds of times more valuable!
Most people reading this article HATE this! They call me a blasphemer, ridicule this belief that exalts Jesus to a whole new level! And they hate this because THEY HAVE EMBRACED THE DOCTRINE OF ANTICHRIST!
Antichrist says that Jesus did NOT have a carnal nature! It says that because Satan STILL won't admit that Jesus faced the same trials Satan did, and the same ones we face today. By living a sinless life, despite starting with a sinful nature, JESUS CONDEMNED SIN and EVERYONE who commits it! And Jesus is QUALIFIED to judge the world now, because He KNOWS what the temptation to sin is like!
John 16:11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
Jesus' actions had judged the devil and all those who believe that man cannot obey God. See, it's as simple as this. If Jesus was just like me, and obeyed God, then there is no excuse for my failing to do it. So if I fail to do it, then I either have to CHANGE and do it right, or say that it COULDN'T be done. To do that, I have to change Jesus - change the way I think about Him. In the name of exalting Him, I have to cheapen His sacrifice by saying He was "divine", "special", "different"; this makes me feel better about myself even though I failed, because "I only failed because I didn't have the advantages Jesus had (He cheated)". Learn this axiom and you will instantly recognize antichrist:
The more we can distance Jesus from ourselves, the more we can feel good about not living up to His example.
Demons are no dummies. Neither is Satan. They know that God is fair and that God won't judge someone who has an excuse, any excuse. That's why Adam and Eve stayed alive in Genesis 3, after eating the forbidden fruit - because they had an excuse. And so Satan has concocted this excuse, one that he might almost believe; and he has spread it to his henchmen and their followers around the globe, wherever they may be. And that excuse is that God only succeeded because He did NOT have a carnal nature.
Their defense rests on one point; that man (or angels) cannot obey God. That no being with a carnal nature can ever hope to please God. And if any devil EVER admits that God DID have a carnal nature, and OVERCAME it, it will destroy the entire case. No unclean spirit can or will admit that.
1 John 4:3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
This test is infallible. If any person admits that Jesus came with a carnal nature, and overcame sin "in the flesh", the same "flesh" that governs our mind, they have at the very least not sided with Satan yet. On the other hand, if someone reads this article and walks away frothing at the mouth, shouting "Blasphemer!" and "Heretic!", and pronounces me anathema maranatha, it's because his spirit or the one he serves cannot turn loose of that most basic of all defenses: that God's test is not fair.
Jesus came to prove that it was fair, and at the trial you will see the conviction of all those who believe otherwise.
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