How Jesus Was Like Us © 2013 by James Rafferty Published by Red Frame Publishing a division of Light Bearers 37457 Jasper Lowell Rd, Jasper, OR 97438 redframepublishing.org | www.lightbearers.org Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version. Scripture quotations attributed to NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations attributed to NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
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his book is written in the hope that the reader may find a unity of understanding concerning the human nature of Christ. It seeks to address, with simplicity and clarity, one of the most unsettled issues concerning Christ’s nature. Controversy Over the Nature of Christ
This chapter identifies the controversy over the nature of Christ that has developed within Adventism over the last 50 years. It gives a brief outline of the reasoning of honest, sincere, conscientious Christians on both sides of this issue. Some History
This chapter outlines a brief history of this controversy as it developed from the late 1950s to our day. Here the reader will become acquainted with a number of books written on both sides of the issue and their basic concerns. A Missing Link That Unites
This chapter will highlight two points concerning Christ’s human nature, upon which all agree. It will then show that the 4
Chapter Title
logical conclusion in relation to these two points is that Christ is very different from us in certain areas of His humanity. The Three Leading Temptations
If Christ is different from us, how, then, can He sympathize with us in temptation? In addition, many of our present day temptations surface in forms not in existence in Christ’s time. This chapter identifies the three leading temptations found in 1 John 2:15-17, explaining that Christ was qualified as our Savior by being tempted in these three principle areas. Christ and Inclinations to Sin
For many the all-important question is whether Christ had our same tendencies, propensities and inclinations to sin? The temptation of Christ in the wilderness indicates that the devil came to Him tempting Him to turn stones into bread, which begs a question: “When was the last time you were tempted to do that?” This chapter explains how our temptations and Christ’s are similar, yet different. Christ’s Connection with Our Fallen Nature
This is a key chapter explaining how Christ connects with fallen humanity on the level of the will. This chapter will challenge and satisfy those who are truly looking for answers.
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How Jesus Was Like Us
Jones and White Unite on the Nature of Christ
This chapter offers some key statements from Ellen White and A.T. Jones. These thoughts lend significant insight to the connection Christ makes with fallen humanity by affirming that His divine self was the central issue in His temptations. Selfishness—the Root of All Sin
This chapter looks at the final temptation of Christ as He hung upon the cross. It affirms that Christ was tempted to rely on His own divine power—He was tempted to be self-reliant and to save Himself. The Testimony of Jesus
Christ in no way allowed the slightest inclination of self to rest upon Himself. In all things He did the will of His Father. This final chapter looks at the inspired record of His testimony. In Conclusion
Jesus came face to face with the root of our problem. Jesus fought the battle against self-will every day and He won in our behalf. He is, therefore, our sympathetic yet sinless Savior.
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t was the 2012 ARISE Cornerstone class (a four-month discipleship training course of Light Bearers). About fifty students were sitting intently focused on the teacher, me. I had taught many classes on Bible subjects, but this was the first on the nature of Christ (as I now understood it). I wondered if they would “get it.” I hoped I could explain it. We had four hours with much to cover, so I dove in believing God would bless. He did. One young lady emailed me an outline of the class that lends itself well as an introduction to this book. She wrote: “Awesome insights poured into my mind and created a fountain into my heart, as the beautiful truth of Christ as our High Priest who can ultimately ‘sympathize with our weaknesses,’ and was in ‘all points tempted as we are, yet without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15), became clear for the first time (along with Romans 8:3 which says God sent His Son ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh’). After being informed on the controversy over the subject and the two extreme views, we learned that truth is found in the tension between two 7
How Jesus Was Like Us
extremes—like having a string on an instrument perfectly tuned by finding just the right tension (not too tight, not too loose). “First, we studied Jesus in the wilderness and discovered that He was tempted in the three leading temptations found in 1 John 2:15-17: lust of the flesh, pride of life, and lust of the eyes. (All other forms of temptation come from these three leading temptations.) Not only that, but He was tempted to the most ultimate extreme at His weakest and loneliest moment, facing temptations a hundred times greater than anything we will ever have to face. “This surely was eye-opening, but before we could move on we had to overcome the hurdle in our minds that Jesus was not exactly the same as we are. He was God. He actually hated sin and sinful things and recoiled from it. We love and run to sin and sinful things. However, when tempted, His human will longed to do something good (like turning stones into bread) both to satisfy His hunger (lust of the flesh), and to answer the devil’s ‘If you are the Son of God’ challenge. If He did this, He would have relied on His own divine power, and this was not His Father’s will; thus, it would have been sin, because anything that is not God’s will is sin.”
In summary this student wrote: “Christ’s human will helps define His human nature, which is the same as our human will and nature. Our human will is inclined to rely on our human self; Jesus’ human will was 8
Introduction
inclined to rely on His divine self. Thus He meets us at the ROOT of our fallen human nature: SELF. “Then, He took that fallen human will/nature to the cross and submitted it to be crushed through the second death—rising only with His glorified human body and divine nature. And in Christ, we can have the same experience. ‘Christ took our fallen human nature so that He could overcome in our nature in our behalf, and give us perfect obedience as a gift’ (James Rafferty, our instructor today). Nothing we do can add to what Christ did in our behalf. This is the true message of righteousness by faith, clearly seen in the truth about the human nature of Christ! And now I understand both truths more clearly. Today’s class was truly life-changing, paradigm-shifting and heart-filling. This was the best class ever.”
This young lady nailed the thesis, aim, and hope of this book— to bring us a life-changing understanding of Jesus. The subject of the nature of Christ is a broad and lively topic. Many books have been set forth concerning it. This is not meant to be another book on the subject, but is rather the addition of information, a possible missing link between two opposing sides now strongly formed within our church. The purpose of this booklet is not to refute other views or to compile a total of all the references to be found on the topic so as to push one position against another by sheer weight of evidence. Instead, its intent is to find truth in the tension between the two extremes—to see and understand Jesus more clearly as our sinless yet sympathetic Savior. Let’s begin by going back in time just a few years. 9
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e were all deeply embroiled in yet another hot theological debate over the nature of Christ. In attendance were various theologians, pastors, teachers and a few laymen. Our focus was “propensities” and whether or not Christ possessed them. At the time my position was neutral, truly neutral. I had once taken a strong stand on this subject, but after considering the evidence on both sides I felt the need for more light and understanding. A few of the attendees, like myself, had their laptops open, searching the E.G. White CD for supporting statements and checking the context of the many references flying around the room. We were slowly getting nowhere, which was not so very different from many such engagements on this topic, when it happened. “It,” being the question which, upon careful consideration, redirected my understanding of Christ’s human nature. It was not really the question, but the response that got me to rethink this whole issue. The question? “Did Jesus in His human nature experience the same pulls or propensities that we do? For example, was Christ drawn to selfabuse?” “Of course He was,” was the immediate response from my 10
Controversy Over the Nature of Christ
right, “otherwise He was not a red-blooded male and could never have been my example in the battle with sin!” Cogitate on the question and on this particular response for just a minute. Much of the controversy concerning Christ’s human nature centers in the books of Hebrews and Romans and the following passages: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted” (Hebrews 2:14-18). “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3).
The major issue springing out of these verses is the matter of our natural propensities to sin. The two key, and somewhat, controversial words are, “like” and “likeness.” If Christ was in all things made like us, in sinful flesh, then He must have had propensities to sin, urges 11
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side A. “Not so,” says side B (A and B are fictitious names to protect the identity of “After the fall” and “Before the fall” advocates). Side B maintains that, like and likeness mean similar but not the same, arguing that giving Christ propensities to sin would constitute Him a sinner and therefore He would need a Savior Himself. Now let’s throw in a statement for both A and B from the Spirit of Prophecy. First for A: “Clad in the vestments of humanity, the Son of God came down to the level of those he wished to save. In him was no guile or sinfulness; He was ever pure and undefiled; yet He took upon Him our sinful nature” (Review and Herald, August 22, 1907).
Now for side B: “Be careful, exceedingly careful as to how you dwell upon the human nature of Christ. Do not set Him before the people as a man with the propensities of sin” (SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 1128).
So there we have it, the point of contention—the great divide on the nature of Christ. Side A insists that Christ must have had propensities to sin because He took our fallen sinful nature. They may consider that last statement from the Spirit of Prophecy as obscure, lacking authority due to its original content in a letter rather then a published book. And the fact that there are so few statements like it and so many like the first, also adds credibility to their argument. 12
Controversy Over the Nature of Christ
Side B refuses to dismiss this or any other statement that clearly establishes a marked difference between Christ’s human nature and ours, no matter how outnumbered their favored references may be. Both sides reveal honest, sincere, conscientious Christians who love the Lord and His truth. It seems inconceivable to either A or B that both A and B could be correct. And so, the contention continues, dividing families, churches and friends.
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n the 1950s, Walter Martin, an evangelical minister, Christian apologist and founder of the Christian Research Institute engaged in a series of interviews with various leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Martin had initially accepted the prevailing Protestant opinion that the Seventh-day Adventists were either an extreme sect or a heretical cult. He indicated his opposition to Adventist teachings in a brief paragraph in the inaugural edition of his book, The Rise of the Cults, published in 1955. Yet, through interviews and his own research Martin reversed his position and reported his initial findings to Donald Barnhouse, a Presbyterian Bible teacher and personal mentor of Martin. Between 1955 and 1956, a series of small conferences were held, with Barnhouse and Martin meeting Adventist leaders like T. E. Unruh and LeRoy Froom. Barnhouse and Martin then published some of their findings in a series of articles that appeared in Eternity Magazine (now Christianity Today) between September and November 1956. The standpoint taken by Barnhouse and Martin was that Adventists were largely orthodox on central doctrines, but heterodox (not in agreement with accepted religious beliefs) on 14
Some History
lesser doctrines, and so could be classified as belonging in the evangelical camp. Martin later expanded his position in his 1960 book-length treatment, The Truth About Seventh-day Adventism. Martin’s book carried an explanatory foreword by Barnhouse and a statement from H.W. Lowe, who was the chairman of the Biblical Study and Research Group of the General Conference of Seventhday Adventists. While Lowe did not agree with Martin’s criticism of the church’s distinctive doctrines, he nonetheless commended the book for providing a “fair and accurate statement of Adventist teachings.” A committee of Adventist leaders themselves wrote and published a companion book, Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine, in 1957. While many Adventists welcomed the overtures of Barnhouse and Martin, there were other Adventists who questioned the position taken by church leaders in the volume Questions on Doctrine. The controversy over the book centered on the nature of Christ and the atonement. M.L. Andreasen, a leading Adventist scholar, argued extensively with church leaders against the publishing of Questions on Doctrine (QOD). After its printing, Andreasen went public with his book, Letters to the Churches, printed in 1959. One of the main concerns with QOD was with the subheading set forth on page 650: “Took Sinless Human Nature” Andreasen passed to rest in 1962, but the controversy did not. By the mid-1980s the nature of Christ was still a major issue in the church. One of Adventism’s most successful evangelists, Joe Crews, 15
How Jesus Was Like Us
founder of Amazing Facts, published a booklet in 1984 titled, Christ’s Human Nature, that stood solidly with Andreasen’s position. Two years later (1986), an exhaustive study on the nature of Christ was published by Ralph Larsen titled, The Word Was Made Flesh. Larsen described his book as a collection of “one hundred years of Seventh-day Adventist Christology” (1852-1952). It was clearly an ongoing response to QOD and opened with the following statement: “… our real position is not to be cloaked in order to please the world’s great men” (Selected Messages, Book 2, p. 371).
While both of these men were closely connected with the Seventh-day Adventist church, neither of these publications expressed the official position of the church. That position was officially expressed by the publication of Seventh-day Adventists Believe…27, printed two years later in 1988. In this publication the heading, “Took Sinless Human Nature,” was non-existent much to the relief of many church members and leaders. The publication of four more books by our church in the following years did, however, reveal that this issue had not been fully cleared up. Savior of the World, published by Pacific Press in 1996, and Touched with Our Feelings, published by Review and Herald (RH) in 1999, both landed on the post-fall view. While The Nature of Christ, published by RH in 1994, and Ellen White on the Humanity of Christ, published by RH in 1997, came down on the side of the pre-fall view. 16
Some History
This history is neither comprehensive nor detailed but it is hoped that it gives the reader a basic understanding of the development of this issue to the present time. To this day, both the post-fall view and the pre-fall view of Christ’s human nature hold prominence in the theology of many Seventh-day Adventists and still influences relationships among our members.
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