by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project
“This is filled with so many errors it would be hard to untangle the heresy…”
Over the years, I have written about the full humanity of Jesus Christ during his time in the flesh; writing that Jesus was fully God; begotten into flesh to somehow be fully human; and then exalted by the Father to be fully God. I have suggested, as Paul did, that Jesus laid down his divine nature to be less than God while in the flesh. I have asked the questions, Can God die? and “Can God sin?” and “If God cannot sin, how can God be tempted to sin?”
God is never tempted to do wrong. James 1:13 (NLT)
The most objectionable thing I have written is that for Jesus to be grace as our Lord and Savior, he had to pay the full price for our sin and experience the full impact of sin in his body, in his mind, and in his soul. This is something amazing that Jesus did willingly from a deep deep love that I will never begin to comprehend.
Fully God, Jesus…
“gave up his divine privileges…”
“made himself nothing…”
“emptied Himself…”
“made himself of no reputation…”
He was made in the likeness of men.
“I know that’s what it says, but that’s not what it’s really saying.”
Or is it exactly what it’s really saying?
No matter the translation of Scripture, the message is consistent concerning the human condition of Jesus and the purpose of why he came to us… to lose everything in order to win it all.
NLT: Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
NIV: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
NASB: Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
KJV: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
I have received some favorable feedback but have also received the following:
”Jesus fell out of grace”??????? What kind of twisted theology is THAT?!? My Bible says that it was “by the Grace of God that Jesus tasted death for every man”! Come on, Church, don’t make statements about Jesus unless it agrees with the Word of God, and not humanistic reasoning.”
“This is filled with so many errors it would be hard to untangle the heresy taught or implied throughout the article. These are recycled errors that have been around for centuries. I suggest you look at other sources on the Gospel when researching your next project.”
Please, allow me to clarify as we enter this advent season. Jesus was fully God, then for thirty-three years or so he was fully human until he died, and then he was raised from the dead and exalted as King of kings and Lord of lords; and is fully God.
Jesus declared his death would be experienced in the heart of the earth three days and nights liking it to Jonah’s experience, which Jonah described as a kind of hell. One huge difference is that Jonah experienced the presence of God. Jesus forsook the presence of God having taken on our sin, paying our debt. Paul is clear in Romans 8:3 that Jesus, in the likeness of sinful flesh, was condemned for three days prior to His resurrection as the necessary sacrifice so that grace would be extended to you and me. By the grace of God to you and me, God gave up His Son. Had Jesus not been forsaken in our sin, having in that sense “fallen from grace” as the substitute for us, we would not experience redemption from disgrace, never reconciled, and never restored into grace. I believe that this is the farthest thing from “humanistic reasoning” and absolutely consistent with the Word of God. For Jesus to be grace for you and for me he had to pay our debt. The price? Condemnation… necessary to condemn the sin and redeem the sinner.
Jesus prayed three times to The Father for another plan for redemption. I believe it’s safe to conclude that in the moment Jesus prayed for grace. Three times Jesus humbly surrendered to God, “Your will be done.” And each time that Jesus realized in his spirit that the will and plan of God was separation from fellowship by crucifixion and three days in the heart of the earth.
For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us… Romans 8:3-4 (NIV)
The loss experienced by the three persons of God I cannot begin to imagine from the garden to the grave to the condemnation of sinful flesh in the heart of the earth. It was the plan before creation that there would require a sacrifice for sin. Adam had yet to appear and yet, since the plan for humanity was absolute free will for beings not God, the Son would willfully humble himself to the point of dying to his divine nature as God; then to the point of dying in his human nature as a man; then dying to his innocence as pure and holy; and finally dying into condemnation that should have been mine, and should have been yours.
I cannot for a moment begin to comprehend or imagine how deeply moving and troubling that was for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit from conceiving the plan to realizing by experience the plan suffered in the person of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine the burden? If God cannot be any less God through the experience of sheer torture and pain, then Jesus, making himself less than God to be a human sacrifice, fully understood by personal experience the full weight of such a burden—a burden carried with compassion and grace from the deepest place of love that again transcends comprehension.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2 (NIV)
Jesus is grace for us and sitting at the throne of grace because of what He suffered, obedient to death and even condemnation of our sin in His soul to remove it from ours for eternity as far as east is from west. What I have written was never intended to be radical, or shocking, or even to be controversial. My blogs don’t get the kind of attention that I would risk being heretical just to be edgy. Paul wrote that he wanted to know Jesus in the fellowship of His suffering; immense HUMAN suffering. I really do pray these things through and carefully examine Scripture while also running it by scholarly types and folks in the pulpit that I respect. Please pray for me that I will write with discernment, and that it is of God, consistent with His Word, and not merely from human reasoning.
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… Philippians 2:9-10 (NIV)
Having reconciled us back into right relationship with God, which would include himself, Jesus resurrected, still entirely human, was exalted from his human condition into rightful divine standing, fully and all God.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:7-12 (NIV)
