The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum The impeccability of Christ

Misquote Speartus, may it never be! You are your own master at that… Sparing you the embarrassment by not addressing all your errors is more like it

However, if you desire to push the proverbial button, there is ONE person and TWO distinct natures, NOT TWO PERSONS, as you state above….

Pilgrim no where TMK states there are TWO persons, but he does describe TWO distinct natures in ONE person. Pilgrim agrees with the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter VIII Of Christ the Mediator, which IMHO states the issue correctly … Pilgrim even highlighted Christ’s TWO natures for you in The Creed of Chalcedon, the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union , but I guess you had your eyes wide-shut!

The natural consequence of Pilgrim’s assertion is that for Christ to be truly man He had to be able to be truly tempted and capable of sinning, otherwise He is not a true man. He had to be “as” the First Man Adam—capable of sin, yet, "as" the Last Man Adam (1 Cor 15:45), He did not sin. Christ had to be man—fully man--in order to accomplish the atonement for His elect.

Do you understand that there are two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation? This is basic to the issue at hand. Do you understand that Jesus had hands and feet and a tongue and a mouth? Do you understand that Jesus was REAL MAN? Let me be a little crude—Jesus could fart! (I mean here no offense to the Trinity, however the shock value will hopefully reveal your lack of faith in Christ's humanity ...)

Jesus' humanity is displayed in the fact that He was born as a baby from a human mother (Luke 2:7; Gal 4:4), that He became weary (John 4:6), thirsty (John 19:28), and hungry (Matt 4:2), and that He experienced the full range of human emotions such as marvel (Matt. 8:10), weeping, and sorrow (John 11:35). The fact that Jesus is truly and fully human is clear from the fact that He has a human body (Luke 24:39), a human mind/soul (Luke 2:52; Matt 26:38). Jesus does not just look like a man; He does not just have some aspects of what is essential for true humanity but not others, but possessed full humanity. His humanity, a "true body" and a "reasonable soul," was subject to all the infirmities of the flesh, but He never sinned….

However, Christ had a human nature capable of sin and was tempted to sin--yet He did not. As Hebrews 4:15 states: “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." So when Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, these were real temptations! However how real would they be if He was not capable of failing? What did Jesus overcome in the wilderness, if He could not sin? Again, as the Scripture states,

Only ONE who had been tempted like we are could be our High Priest (Heb 4:15). Only ONE who responded to every test without sin could be our faithful High Priest (Heb 7:26-28; 5:7-9) and thus offer himself as the atonement for the sins of His elect (Heb 9:14).

Virtue is the resistance and overcoming of temptation, whereas, sin is the yielding and capitulation. Christ overcame real sin as a real person. As our High Priest He experienced temptation which corresponds to us in every respect—yet with greater magnitude than ours will ever be… He was tempted with self-concern, popular acclaim, and ambition when directly assailed by Satan in the wilderness (Matt 4), by temptation in the Garden (Matt 26:38), and by the words spit at Him on the Cross (Matt 27:40)—if you be the Son of God …, -- He could have called on 12 legions of angels—could have, but did not (a genuine choice was made), for He came to do His Father’s will and guarantee the salvation of His elect… (Matt 26:51f). Christ’s whole life on earth was one of genuine testing and proving. To have succumbed to these temptations would have been the sabotage of our salvation and a failure of trust and obedience on Christ’s part. What did Christ say to His closest followers, “But ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations,” (Luke 22:28). Not only did Christ win for us the victory through temptation, but in doing so He also has gained the profoundest “fellow-feeling” for our weaknesses at the same time demonstrating that our human frailties are the opportunity for the power of God and for the triumph of His grace (2 Cor 12:9). To have this “fellow-feeling” He must be fellow-man and as such tempted in the same way as we are tempted. Peter Lombard comments,

That Christ in Hebrews 4:15 did not merely survive the severe testing through which He literally passed, but was in fact completely victorious over every single temptation is made very plain by the addition of the phrase yet without sinning. Jesus’ lived life was an actual victory and not some scam that God was running on the world. Christ’s sinless lived life was a prerequisite for the accomplishment of our redemption by His sacrifice of himself on the Cross. Hering remarks, “the sinlessness of Jesus does not consist in an absence of human weakness, but in an ever renewed victory over temptations.” Christ's victory over sin was not something merely passive, a mere state of being, but the achievement of Christ’s active conquest of temptation. Indeed, it is entirely synonymous with the complete obedience learned by Him through all He endured, and which fitted Him to become the source of our eternal salvation (Heb 2:10; 5:10; 7:26; 1 Pet 3:18; 1 John 2:1; 3:3-5). Read A Commentary on the Epistle of Hebrews, by Philip Edgeumbe Hughes for more.

Your view denies the very humanity of Christ and thus the very atonement, and thus you have no Redeemer! You only believe in a half-Christ, who is not fully man!

If you understood more of what the WCF stated about the person of Christ, your questions on the peccability of Christ would be answered. Re-read the WCF, again! If you do not understand the very person of Christ, you will not understand the work of Christ.

Ad Fontes