| 2. In the incarnation
our Lord had but one nature, not two natures, as Christians
have always held. (Series I, pp. 179, 180, 184)
We quote: "Neither was
Jesus a combination of the two natures, human and spiritual.
The blending of two natures produces neither the one nor
the other, but an imperfect, hybrid thing, which is obnoxious
to the divine arrangement. When Jesus was in the flesh
He was a perfect human being; previous to that He was perfect
spiritual being; and since His resurrection He is a perfect
spiritual being of the highest or Divine order…. Thus
we see that in Jesus there was no mixture of natures, but
that twice He experienced a change of nature; first, from
spiritual to human; afterward, from human to the highest
order of spiritual nature, the Divine; and in each case
the one was given up for the other." … "We
have no record of any being, either spiritual or human,
ever having been changed from one nature to another, except
the Son of God; and this was an exceptional case, for an
exceptional purpose….. Thus we find that the Scriptures
regard the spiritual and human natures as separate and
distinct, and furnish no evidence that the one will evolve
or develop into the other"…. Here again there
is no mistaking the teaching of Millennial Sawn.
Before Christ appeared in human
form among men He was a spirit being of a very high rank,
but a creature. When He became a man His spirit nature
was somehow dropped; it was not united with the human,
it was not even merged into the human, it was "changed" into
the purely and distinctively human nature, so that while
on earth and during the whole period of His earthly life
He was a man, only a man, perfect indeed, but a man with
nothing superhuman or super natural in Him or about Him.
The spirit being ceased to be.
The book asserts with a positiveness
that error always assumes, that in Jesus Christ "there
was no mixture of natures".
The vital doctrine of the incarnation
of the son of God, the second person of the Trinity, is
denied, and Christ is degraded to the level of Adam before
his sin and fall.
In short, the book virtually
affirms that there was no incarnation whatever.
It appears needless to point
out how completely and thoroughly the word of God contradicts
this false and degrading view of our lord’s blessed
Person. Let but a few texts be cited as evidence that Christ
did actually assume our human nature, sinless of course,
but true and genuine human nature.
John 1:14: "And the Word
was made (became, R.V.) flesh and dwelt among us, (and
we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father) full of grace and truth". Mark the
prominent features of this great Scripture:
A) The Word, Christ,
became flesh; He did not cease to be the Word in doing
so; His incarnation was neither self-extinction, nor
was He changed into a mere man.
B) He still remained
the Word after He had assumed the human nature, for
we are assured that "He dwelt among us",
obviously the Word dwelt among us, for the pronoun
He has the Word for its antecedent.
C) The term "dwelt" literally
is "tabernacled" , an allusion to the tabernacle
of the wilderness. God said, "And let them make
me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them". And
He symbolically did dwell in the Most holy Place where
the Shechinah appeared. So John affirms, "We beheld
His glory", as at the Transfiguration. What was
anciently seen in the tabernacle was witnessed in a
far more vivid way on the Mount when Moses with Elijah
appeared in glory and talked with the incarnate son
of God. Compare with this the further revelation of
the same Apostle, 1 John 1:1-3, where three of the
most trustworthy of our senses, hearing, sight, touch,
are summoned to bear witness to the reality of the
presence and glory of the Word of Life as He sojourned
among men.
D) "Only begotten" - Unigenitus.
As used in Scripture this term always designates a
single person in the household. As applied to Christ
it occurs only in Johns’ writings; here. 1:18;
3:16, 18; 1 Jn. 4:9. It marks off is Sonship as unique,
unshared by any others, even from those who are called
the sons of God.
John 16:28: "I came forth
from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave
the world, and go to the Father". From god, into the
world, from the world back to God. Eternal Sonship with
the Father (Greek, came out from); incarnation; exaltation;
oneness with the Father; redemption completed. He is the
God-man uniting two natures in one, distinct yet mysteriously
constituting but one personality.
1 Tim. 3:16: "God was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the sprit, seen of angels, preached
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up
in to glory. " Even if we substitute the revised reading
of this great rhythmical verse it still testifies to the
anthropic person of our Lord: "He who was manifested
in the flesh", etc. The plain and emphatic teaching
is, that Christ, the Son of God, was manifested, i.e.,
the invisible eternal Son who dwelt in the bosom of the
Father, has been made visible and is brought nigh to us
in that He has taken into union with Himself human flesh.
He was justified in the Spirit i.e., He was proved to be
what He claimed to be, the son of God: He was seen and
served by angels; was preached unto the Gentiles as a Divine
Saviour, and believed on as such; and finally was received
up into glory. There we have the inspired history of the
incarnation, the earthly life and ministry, and the exaltation
of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God.
One other scripture must give
its solemn warning against any and all who deny that Jesus
Christ assumed our nature and was incarnated in human flesh: "Every
spirit that confesseth the Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh is of God; and every spirit the confesseth not Jesus
is not of God; and this is that spirit of the antichrist,
whereof ye have heard that it cometh, and now it is in
the world". (1 John 4:2,3). |
