Posted on 07/29/2013 7:55:48 AM PDT by Gamecock
Question:
A non-Christian asked if we teach that Jesus was sinless because he did not have a human father, wasn't his human mother, Mary, sinful? Why wasn't her sin passed on to her son, Jesus?
Answer:
You ask an important question about the sinlessness and perfection of Jesus Christ.
As you suggest, if there is any way in which Christ partakes of sin, he is disqualified from being the only redeemer of God’s elect (Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 21). The testimony of Scripture about this is clear. Hebrews says that Christ was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sinning (Heb. 4:15). Christ challenged his adversaries to prove that he had sinned and they could not (John 8:46). As the apostle Paul put it, “For our sake he made him [Christ] to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21, cf. 1 Pet. 2:22, 1 John 3:5). He is a high priest unlike any other who is “holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens” (Heb. 7:26). His title as the Lamb of God (John 1:29) also draws our attention to his innocence.
The early church thought deeply about this as it formulated clear statements about Jesus Christ having two natures, a divine nature and a human nature, yet being one person. Christ unites in himself uniquely and in an unrepeatable way, this union (called the hypostatic union) of the human and the divine. This is the mystery of the Incarnation that the creeds of the church confess.
The way in which God answers your question is in the mystery of the virgin birth. The Scriptures begin from, what one theologian terms, “above” (Donald Macleod). John 1 or Philippians 2 show this movement from the eternal Son of God to the incarnate Son of God. This is how the Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes it:
Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin. (Q. 22)
As Matthew described it, Mary was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit (1:18), and then the angel explained it to Joseph: “that which is conceived in her [Mary] is from the Holy Spirit” (1:20). The explanation to Mary herself, in response to her “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34), leaves any human agency out of the incarnation in the normal way of conception, for the angel tells Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the child to be born will be called ‘holy’—the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Without further description of how this would occur, the Bible testifies that the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary (the same idea as the cloud which overshadowed the Mount of Transfiguration) in such a way that she indeed became the bearer of the Holy One of God (Gal. 4:4); and her offspring, Jesus Christ, remained without sin. God does not specify in greater detail than this how the conception of Jesus by-passed Mary’s own sinfulness to preserve Christ’s sinlessness, but the rest of Scripture, as I indicated above, affirms that Christ did not inherit our sin nature. He came to be the Second Adam (Rom. 5) who could forgive sins because he himself was both the One offended and himself sinless.
The glory of the grace found in Jesus Christ is that though he was without sin, yet he had pity upon sinners so as to die in their place while we were enemies, ungodly, and sinful (Rom. 5:6, 8, 10). We need a Savior who is fully human to bear patiently with us, yet is able to atone for our sin as the final and perfect sacrifice. The sinlessness of Christ makes a passage like Isaiah 53:9–11 so marvelous in that Christ had no deceit in his mouth and by his death he made many to be accounted righteous.
I hope this is of some help.
What the Holy Spirit placed in Mary’s womb was not a DNA gamete result of Mary’s genes and God genes. Jesus was a unique DNA. Since Science now knows that the gestating baby builds their own body, umbilicus, and placenta, Mary willingly provided the sustenance for the gestating Jesus, but He was not carrying Mary genes and God genes, He IS a unique DNA, fashioned by God and placed in Mary’s womb. When implantation occurred in Mary’s womb, she was ‘with child’. Her child was not ‘of her DNA so He inherited none of the sin in Mary’s nature inherited from Adam. Jesus inherited his nature from God alone. How God accomplished this is all that remains for speculation. There are several possible ways God could do it, but none include DNA from the descendants of fallen Adam.
;-\
From the category of “words mean things” - the expression “highly favored” does not equal “full of”.
Luke 1:28 - And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
“Highly favored” - charito (khar-ee-to’-o)
highly favored From G5485; to grace, that is, indue with special honor: - make accepted, be highly favoured.
John 1:14 - And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
full - pleres (play’-race)
From G4130; replete, or covered over; by analogy complete: - full.
Mary was MADE acceptable by God’s grace. Christ IS the fullness of God’s grace (see the memo found at: Col. 1)
As to the angels understanding “the memo”, the scriptures bears out this record:
Rev 7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
Rev 7:10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
Rev 7:11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 7:12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
Looks like the got they memo, all right.
the Cruz-birther thread is up to 202 replies. It appears that the birther religion is the fastest growing religion in America.
Yet, they qualify for News/Activism status and have been loosed from the moorings of the Religion subforum where the rest of y’all are kept secured and fastened.
Very good. There is no doubt that God favored and protected Mary because her Unborn Child would be under constant attack from Satan. Any worship (adoration or any other word) towards Mary is unwarranted. Our true focus should be on Jesus and His sacrifice.
Please provide a link to this medical fact. I never heard of it.
Child and father can have different blood types.
Fetal cells can enter the maternal circulation and live in the mother, and maternal cells can enter the fetal circulation and live in the baby, but there are no paternal cells that enter the fetus, barring the one sperm cell joining with the ovum at conception.
I don’t think the Bible gives us any grounds as to the actual mechanism of the Incarnation anyway.
Yes. Mary was used to fulfill a miracle. Lazareth participated in a miracle as well and no one claims he was sinless. All of this detracts from the focus which should be on Jesus Christ.
But she can “intercede” for us, with The Big Guy (apparently he has an ‘in’ with him)
Mary as the New Eve? Eve was sinless until she sinned, disobeyed God’s only command. Mary was born in sin as all of the children of Eve have been and ever will be.
Mary was selected to be the earthly mother of Jesus the Man, he was in no need of a spiritual mother, as he is God incarnate. He and God the Father are One.
Mary was a virtuous girl, who was chosen by God out of His grace (free gift), not hers and He bestowed upon Mary a blessing (to bear the Christ). She never had/has and never will have merit of her own, she is made righteous, as are all believers, by simple faith in the acceptance of Jesus’ propitiatory sacrifice on the cross. He took upon Himself MY sin and punishment thereof, and gave ME His righteousness; the only task I have is to count it as the priceless, invaluable gift it is; and live accordingly. I am forgiven of all sin, past present and future!!!!!!! Amen.
Stop reading men’s words and focus on the standard of God’s Holy and perfect Word, as expressed in the Bible.
Let Bible interpret Bible, seek it out, get a few study aids (Hebrew/Chaldee and Greek dictionaries (Strong’s and Vines perhaps)) and find out for yourself.
God is not so distant that He needs Learned men to reveal Himself, just a seeking heart and a bit of wisdom to divide between revealed truth and man’s thoughts.....
I always get a bit concerned when a source cites a bunch of religious scholars etc as support for what otherwise should be easily upheld by scripture, alas, often their words do not align with scripture, even if they are well meaning.
Really; how do you think they determine “paternity” .. it’s from the blood.
Sorry, but I’m not your research assistant. Look it up for yourself.
Why pray directly to God? The middlemen need their "cut" too.
/sarc
File your prayers in triplicate and it will be forwarded to God eventually
The sin nature is passed from the father only.
The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17 NKJV)
1 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
God our Father did not condemn mankind when Eve sinned. It came when Adam sinned.
There was no need for Mary to be anything other than a virgin to prove she had not been with a man. All the commentary of her being the second Eve, born sinless, living a sinless life, remaining a virgin and all the other things attributed to her shows just how good a deceiver the god of this world, Satan, is.
I fined it interesting God explains how the sin nature is passed while telling us not to have any carved images that some claim they don’t bow down to.
Only One lived a sinless life and died for our sins, our Lord, Christ Jesus. He is the only one God our Father will allow us to bow down to.
May God our Father lead us to His truth, BVB
Gee, and I thought that was God the Son's job: "Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them."(Hebrews 7:25)
Be sure to keep the canary copy for your own records.
For years (almost 2000), theologians struggled with this. They made up some incredible teachings to explain how the blood of Jesus could be perfect, yet have come from an imperfect mother. Some changed the mother to be perfect to explain it away.
Then, a couple thousand years later, science catches up with God. The blood of the child does not mix with the mothers blood. Sometimes the blood of the 2 can actually be toxic to the other.
We had no need for fancy teachings and such, just trust God and wait for science to explain to us that the blood of the child is ‘different’ than the mothers - and in this case, His blood was fit for the ‘perfect sacrifice’.
But we have our traditions, and hang onto them in the face of (now) simple explanations.
I wonder if God has any other secrets He hasn’t let us in on yet...
Because the sin nature comes through the father.
Which grace is on all believers according to Ephesians 1:6. The word *grace in Eph 1:6 is the same word used in Luke 1:28 when the angel addressed Mary.
Ephesians 1:3-10 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Very interesting. Do you have a source so that I might read more?
No, men pass sin nature on to the child.
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