In seeking us, Christ came all the way to where we are, taking upon Himself "the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Thus He is a Savior "nigh at hand, not afar off." He "is the Savior of all men," even "the chief of sinners." But sinners have the freedom to refuse Him and reject Him.
The Bible Teaching
(a) His names is "Immanuel, … God with us" (Matthew 1:23).(b) Though He was "in the form of God," He was "made a little lower than the angels," "made of woman, made under the law," "in all things … made like unto His brethren," "made to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (Philippians 2:5; Hebrews 2:9, 14; Galatians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
(c) "As the children are partakers of flesh [sarx, Greek] and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same" (Hebrews 2:17).
(d) He was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).
(e) To deny this reality that He "is come in the flesh [sarx]" is "that spirit of antichrist," the essence of the Roman Catholic counterfeit of the gospel. (1 John 4:1-3).
Waggoner Sees Christ as "Nigh at Hand"
"Christ took upon Himself man's nature, and as a consequence He was subject to death. He came into the world on purpose to die; and so from the beginning of His earthly life He was in the same condition that the men are in, whom He died to save."Don't start in horrified astonishment; I am not implying that Christ was a sinner. One of the most encouraging things in the Bible is the knowledge that Christ took on Him the nature of man, to know that His ancestors according to the flesh were sinners. They had all the weaknesses and passions that we have. No man has any right to excuse his sinful acts on the ground of heredity. If Christ had not been made in all things like unto His brethren, then His sinless life would be no encouragement to us. We might look at it with admiration, but it would be the admiration that would cause hopeless despair.
"From the earliest childhood the cross was ever before Him" (The Gospel in Galatians, pp. 60-62, condensed).
"His humanity only veiled His Divine nature, by which He was inseparably connected with the invisible God, and which was more than able successfully to resist the weaknesses of the flesh. There was in His whole life a struggle. The flesh, moved upon by the enemy of all righteousness, would tend to sin, yet His Divine nature never for a moment harbored an evil desire, nor did His Divine power for a moment waver" (Christ and His Righteousness, pp. 28, 29).
Jones Sees the Love of God in the Incarnation as a Powerful Truth to Motivate the Heart
"The choice to glorify God is the choice that self shall be emptied and lost, and God alone shall be seen, through Jesus Christ. It is that the whole universe and everything in it shall reflect God. That is the privilege that God has set before every human being. What did it cost to bring that privilege to you and me? It cost the infinite price of the Son of God."Did Jesus come to this world and then go back as He was before, and thus His sacrifice be for only 33 years? The answer is that it was for all eternity. The Father gave up His Son to us, and Christ gave up Himself for all eternity. Never again will He be in all respects as He was before.
"'He who was one with God has linked Himself with the children of men by ties that are never to be broken.' Wherein did He link Himself with us?-In our flesh; in our nature. That is the sacrifice that wins the hearts of men. Many look upon it, that the sacrifice of Christ was for only 33 years, then He died the death on the cross and went back as He was before. In view of eternity before and after, 33 years is not an infinite sacrifice at all. But when we consider that He sank his nature in our human nature to all eternity,-that is a sacrifice. That is the love of God. And no heart can reason against it. Whether the man believes it or not, there is a subduing power in it, and the heart must stand in silence in the presence of that awful truth. I will say it over: ever since that blessed fact came to me that the sacrifice of the Son of God is an eternal sacrifice, and all for me, the word has been upon my mind almost hourly: 'I will go softly before the Lord all my days'" (General Conference Bulletin, 1895, pp. 381, 382, condensed).
Waggoner Sees Practical Godliness in This Truth
"There were two questions handed me, and I might read them now. One is this: 'Was that holy thing which was born of the virgin Mary born in sinful flesh, and did that flesh have the same evil tendencies to contend with that ours does?' I do not know anything about this except what I read in the Bible. I have had my time of discouragement and despondency. That which for years had me discouraged was the knowledge to some extent of the weakness of my own self, and the thought that those who in my estimation were doing right and those holy men of old in the Bible, were differently constituted from me. I found that I could not do anything but evil. …"If Jesus, who came here to show me the way of salvation, in whom alone there is hope-if His life here on earth was a sham, then where is the hope? 'But,' you say, 'this question presupposes the opposite, that He was perfectly holy, so holy that He never had any evil to contend with.'
"That's what I am referring to. I read, He 'was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.' I read of His praying all night, in such agony the drops of sweat like blood fell from his face. But if that were all make-believe, if He were not really tempted, of what use is it all to me? I am left worse off than I was before.
"But O, if there is One-and I do not use this "if" with any thought of doubt; I will say since there is One who went through all that I ever can be called upon to go through, who resisted more than I can ever be called upon to resist, who was constituted in every respect as I am, only in even worse circumstances than I have been, who met all the power that the devil could exercise through human flesh and yet who knew no sin-then I can rejoice. That which He did 1900 years ago He is still able to do to all who believe in Him.
The Immaculate Conception denies the Bible view of the nature of Christ. "We need to settle, every one of us, whether we are out of the church of Rome or not. Many have the marks yet. Do you not see that the idea that the flesh of Jesus was not like ours (because we know ours is sinful) necessarily involves the idea of the immaculate conception of the virgin Mary?
"Suppose we start with the idea that Jesus was so separate from us, so different that He did not have in His flesh anything to contend with-sinless flesh. Then you see how the Roman Catholic dogma of the immaculate conception necessarily follows. But why stop there? You must go back to her mother, and so back to Adam; and the result?-There never was a fall. Thus you see the essential identity of Roman Catholicism and Spiritualism.
"Christ was tempted in the flesh. He suffered in the flesh, but He had a mind which never consented to sin. He established the will of God in the flesh, and established that God's will may be done in any human, sinful flesh" (General Conference Bulletin, 1901, pp. 403-405, condensed).
Jones Agrees
"In these days of the general acceptance of Catholicism on the part of 'Protestants,' we should know for ourselves the doctrine of Christ and the consequences in those who accept the dogma [of the Immaculate Conception]."We have the following statements of Catholic fathers and saints; 'Because [Mary] being very different from the rest of mankind, human nature, but not sin, communicated itself to her.' 'She was created in a condition more sublime and glorious than that of all natures.' This puts the nature of Mary infinitely beyond any real likeness or relationship to mankind. In the words of Cardinal Gibbons: 'We affirm that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, was begotten of the virgin, thus taking to Himself from her maternal womb, a human nature of the same substance as hers.'
"It follows, as two and two make four, that in His human nature the Lord Jesus is 'very different' from mankind, infinitely beyond any real likeness or relationship to us as we are in this world. The truth is that the Lord Jesus in His human nature took our flesh and blood just as it is, with all its infirmities. It will be well to know how near He really is.
"Jesus, that He might bring man back to the glory of God, in His love followed him down even here, partakes of his nature as it is, suffers with him and even dies with him as well as for him in his sinful human nature. For 'He was numbered with the transgressors.' This is love. He comes to us where we are, that He may lift us up from ourselves unto God. 'Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same' (Hebrews 2:14).
"All the words that could be used to make this plain and positive are here put together in a single sentence. Instead of its being true that Jesus in His human nature is so far away that He has no real likeness nor relationship to us, it is true that He is in very deed our kin in flesh and blood relation. This great truth of the blood-relationship between our Redeemer and ourselves is clearly taught in the gospel in Leviticus. When any one had lost his inheritance, the right of redemption fell to his nearest of kin in blood-relationship. It fell not merely to one who was near of kin, but to the one who was nearest (Leviticus 25:24-28; Ruth 2:20; 3:12, 13: 4; 1-12). Therefore Christ took our very flesh and blood, and so became our nearest of kin. He is the nearest to us of all persons in the universe.
This is Christianity. "To deny that Jesus Christ came not simply in flesh, but in the flesh, the only flesh that there is in this world, sinful flesh,-to deny this is to deny Christ. For 'every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God.' Confess to Him your sins; He will never take advantage of you. Tell Him your griefs. He has felt the same and can relieve you. Pour out to Him your sorrows: 'He hath carried our sorrows,' He was 'a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,' He will comfort you with the comfort of God" (The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, 1894, condensed).
"If He were not of the same flesh as are those whom He came to redeem, then there is no sort of use of His being made flesh at all. More than this: Since the only flesh that that there is in this world which He came to redeem, is just the poor, sinful, lost, human flesh that all mankind have; if this is not the flesh that He was made, then He never really came to the world which needs to be redeemed. For if He came in a human nature different from that which human nature in this world actually is, then, even though He were in the world, yet for any practical purpose in reaching man and helping him, He was as far from him as if He never had come. …
"The faith of Rome springs from that idea of the natural mind that God is too pure and too holy to dwell with us and in us in our sinful human nature; that sinful as we are, we are too far off for Him in His purity and holiness to come to us just as we are.
"The true faith-the faith of Jesus, is that He has come to us where we are; that, infinitely pure and holy as He is, and sinful, degraded and lost as we are, by His Holy Spirit [He] will willingly dwell with us and in us, to save us, to purify us, and to make us holy.
"The faith of Rome is that we must be pure and holy in order that God shall dwell with us.
"The faith of Jesus is that God must dwell with us, and in us, in order that we shall be holy or pure at all" (The Consecrated Way, pp. 35, 39, condensed).
Ellen White was Not Only Supportive, But Enthusiastic
"On Sabbath afternoon [at South Lancaster] many hearts were touched, and many souls were fed on the bread that cometh down from heaven. … We [Jones, Waggoner, and Ellen White] felt the necessity of presenting Christ as a Saviour who was not afar off, but nigh at hand. … There were many, even among the ministers, who saw the truth as it is in Jesus in a light in which they had never before viewed it" (Review and Herald, March 5, 1889)."Many say that Jesus was not like us, that He was not as we are in the world, that He was divine, and therefore we cannot overcome as He overcame. But this is not true; 'for verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. … For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.' Christ knows the sinner's trials; He knows his temptations. He took upon Himself our nature. … The Christian's … strongest temptations will come from within; for he must battle against the inclinations of the natural heart. The Lord knows our weaknesses. … Every struggle against sin, every effort to conform to the law of God, is Christ working through His appointed agencies upon the human heart. Oh, if we could comprehend what Jesus is to us!" (Christ Tempted As We Are, pp. 3, 4, 11; 1894).
"It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man's nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam he accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life" (The Desire of Ages, p. 49).
"[Christ] took on His sinless nature our sinful nature, that He might know how to succor them that are tempted" (Medical Ministry, p. 189).