Christianity Oasis Forum

[Netchaplain]

During His incarnation the Lord Jesus was “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” This involved the sufferings all endure from being in the body (His being the greatest), but with Him it was “yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). He partook of human infirmities but never of human sinful nature, for only His human nature was and yet is sinless (also ours eventually – 1John 3:2). What closeness the Father desires of us to subject the Son to such great “griefs” and “sorrows” (Isa 53:4)—in order that He may be with us; and in so doing “condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom 8:3)—in order that He may be in us.

Scripture is clear that sin had no point of contact with the Lord Jesus until the Cross, which solely involved sin being “laid on Him” (Isa 53:6), for “in Him is no sin” (1John 3:5), otherwise He could not have qualified for sin’s atonement. The two greatest evidences of Christ’s humanity where when he asked the Father that “if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me” (Mat 26:39), and His feeling of abandonment when He thought the Father forsook Him. These were a show of how great He had desired to display His love for us, which was the same love the Father has for us, evidenced in sending Him.

Myself, I do not believe God abandoned His Son when He asked why He had forsaken Him. I believe that it was the severity of the present infirmity culminating on the Cross, which was the most physical difficulty added to the prior sufferings, that revealed His humanity.

To assume the Father forsook the Son here would present the conception that God did not know the greatness of sin’s affect in this situation, which is not possible when considering His omniscience. Also, conceiving that He cannot look on all the sin in the world is unsupported when considering He sees everything: “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Prov 15:3).

A passage which seems (but doesn’t) to conflict with this is, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity” (Hab 1:13). The intention of the phrases “behold evil” and “look on iniquity” are in the sense that God cannot regard or see any pleasure in sin, as Gill shows: “The Lord with His eyes of omniscience beholds all things good and evil, and all men good and bad, with all their actions; but then He does not look upon the sins of men with pleasure and approbation; since they are contrary to His nature, repugnant to His will, and breaches of His righteousness.”

Chiefly, lack of support concerning the abandonment concept is most evident in Their deity of being omnipresent, for the Lord Jesus was still in heaven while He was on earth: “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven (John 3:13).

This is also shown in the Father’s omnipresence: “And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him” (John 8:29). The presence of the Father’s person in His spirit was not with Christ but in still in heaven, but the Father’s presence of His essence was, which is inseparable, same for the believer in Them.

Just realize the desire of Christ to relate to us to the extreme of becoming incarnate. The body in which He was raised is the body in which He ascended; and the body in which He ascended is the body which He retains, which is the same type of body we will retain. Jesus is the only individual presently in heaven with a physical body, thus we and the Son will be the sole possessors in heaven of an incorruptible body—forever.

- NC

[Netchaplain]

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” (1Cor 15:50). “There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (1Cor 15:44).

Just as we do, Christ had a “natural body” which was not indestructible, but He was resurrected with a “spiritual body” which is indestructible. “A” resurrection involves the returning of a spirit to a natural body (Tabitha – Acts 9:40; Lazarus, “saints which slept” – Mat 27:52, et al.); “the” resurrection involves a spirit, not returning but inheriting a spiritual body, same as the Lord’s spiritual body (Phl 3:21) which contained incorruptible “flesh and bone”; and “a spirit does not have flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39).

The manner concerning the birth of Christ disallowed Him the sinful nature, which answers to His immaculate conception, which resulted from being conceived by the Spirit of God; and which also clarifies Him being “the only begotten of the Father,” for we were begotten of man, and Adam and Eve were not begotten but created.

Resurrection is all about the physical body, primarily that of the incorruptible physical body, and those who are “dead” are not in a body but in spirit only. A good example is in Revelation 20:5; “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” These are all who will inherit (Mat 25:34) “the resurrection of life,” as all at the last resurrection (Rev 20:12, 13) will inherit “the resurrection of damnation (John 5:29).