5/11/2020

As we continue to study Romans 8 let’s ask: What does it teach us about God the Son?  It says God sent “his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.”  

I found help to understand this in the book, Answering Islam, by Norman Geisler and Abdul Saleeb: “Since Christ is one (person) with two (natures), whenever one question is asked about him it must be separated into two, one applying to each nature.  For example, did he get tired?  Answer: as God, no; as man, yes.  Did Christ get hungry?  In his divine nature, no; in his human nature, yes. Could Jesus sin?…as God he could not have sinned; as man he could have sinned (but he didn’t).  God cannot sin.  For example, the Bible says ‘it is impossible for God to lie’ (Hebrews 6:18; cf. Titus 1:2).  Yet Jesus was ‘in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15).  That is to say, while he never sinned (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 1:19; 1 John 3:3), he was really tempted and therefore it was possible for him to sin.  Otherwise, his temptation would have been a charade.  Jesus possessed the power of free choice, which means that whatever moral choice he made, he could have done otherwise.  This means that when he chose not to sin (which was always), he could have sinned (but did not) as man.”  

Praise God, “Since we have a great high priest…who is (able) to sympathize with our weaknesses… Let us…approach the throne of grace with confidence, so…we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4).