Sat 31 July 2010 6:24am PST

Walking Through With Jesus

A Simple exploration of a chapter in The Desire of Ages

Larry Kirkpatrick

Originally published on lastgenerationtheology.org on 2006-01-20 07:28Z.

The witness of the Ellen G. White writings on the nature of Christ is that Jesus took the nature of Adam after the Fall—our nature. She also teaches that He never once sinned, thus never acquiring our propensities to sin. The overwhelming weight of her statements on this topic echo this teaching with one voice.

Ellen White’s thought tends to be better understood in larger units. She often appears to be thinking in chapter-length rather than paragraph-length units. Thus we here sample her thought concerning the Nature of Christ as it runs through a whole chapter: The Desire of Ages,’ “The Temptation” (pp. 114-123). Let us see what happens at this larger granularity.

The Connection of Fallen Man With God

As the chapter begins, a salient fact is pointed out:

No human being had come into the world and escaped the power of the deceiver (The Desire of Ages, p. 116).

Up until Christ’s incarnation, this statement was true. Even Christ’s heel was bruised (Genesis 3:15). This statement frames all the battle that will follow in this chapter. It puts the spiritual ground of the battle in context: a war at the level of fallen humanity.

Ever since Adam’s sin, the human race had been cut off from direct communion with God; the intercourse between heaven and earth had been through Christ; but now that Jesus had come ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh’ (Romans 8:3), the Father Himself spoke. He had before communicated with humanity through Christ; now He communicated with humanity in Christ” (p.Ê116, emphasis in original).

What kind of humanity had been cut-off? Fallen humanity. The communication between God and man had been modified by God on account of man’s sin. But when Jesus came, there was a change. When He came, not in the unlikeness of some synthetic, middle-form of flesh no one else has ever had, but in the likeness of sinful flesh; that is when God at last communicated with fallen man from within man’s own fallen flesh. Now a new circuit was made. Now the ladder was sent all the way down to us in our broken condition. Recall this quotation:

Christ is the ladder that Jacob saw, the base resting on the earth, and the topmost round reaching to the gate of heaven, to the very threshold of glory. If that ladder had failed by a single step of reaching the earth, we should have been lost. But Christ reaches us where we are. He took our nature and overcame, that we through taking His nature might overcome. Made ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh’ (Romans 8:3), He lived a sinless life. Now by His divinity He lays hold upon the throne of heaven, while by His humanity He reaches us. He bids us by faith in Him attain to the glory of the character of God. Therefore are we to be perfect, even as our ‘Father which is in heaven is perfect’ (pp. 311, 312).

That ladder did not fail—through Christ being made in the likeness of our sinful nature—by even a single step of reaching the earth. Had it so failed, we would be lost. As The Desire of Ages, p. 116 statement says, “He had before communicated with humanity through Christ; now He communicated with humanity in Christ.”

Enticements Resisted the Same as Ours

The enticements which Christ resisted were those that we find it so difficult to withstand (p. 116).

Now here we have the beginnings of an interesting revelation indeed. If Jesus’ brain were somehow different than ours, if He came here without having to face the clamors of the same fallen nature we do, then the enticements which Christ resisted were not those that we find it so difficult to withstand. But Mrs. White is plain. They were, in fact, “those that we” face—we with our fallen nature.

We are not talking about cultivated weakness, cultivated sin, sins which we have committed thus creating within ourselves propensities toward. What we are saying is very simple. Jesus’ fallen humanity pulled on Him in the same way that our fallen humanity pulls on us. Nothing differs in the pull, not one whit, not at all. Nor let us confuse how He responded to the pull with how we have responded. We are addressing the pull from within, from fallen humanity.

Notice this shocking statement: “With the terrible weight of the sins of the world upon Him, Christ withstood the test upon appetite, upon the love of the world, and upon that love of display which leads to presumption. These were the temptations that overcame Adam and Eve, and that so readily overcome us” (The Desire of Ages, pp. 116, 117). We think of Jesus bearing the weight of the sins of the world at Gethsemane and at the Cross. But according to Mrs. White, He bore them also in the wilderness. Indeed, He bore them from infancy to the Cross. She speaks here of just what she continues to in the next section—our damaged humanity, the same damaged humanity taken by Christ.

Christ’s Damaged Humanity

In our humanity, Christ was to redeem Adam’s failure. But when Adam was assailed by the tempter, none of the effects of sin were upon him. He stood in the strength of perfect manhood, possessing the full vigor of mind and body. He was surrounded with the glories of Eden, and was in daily communion with heavenly beings. It was not thus with Jesus when He entered the wilderness to cope with Satan. For four thousand years the race had been decreasing in physical strength, in mental power, and in moral worth; and Christ took upon Him the infirmities of degenerate humanity. Only thus could He rescue man from the lowest depths of his degradation.

Many claim that it was impossible for Christ to be overcome by temptation. Then He could not have been placed in Adam’s position; He could not have gained the victory that Adam failed to gain. If we have in any sense a more trying conflict than had Christ, then He would not be able to succor us. But our Saviour took humanity, with all its liabilities. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of yielding to temptation. We have nothing to bear which He has not endured (p. 117).

Even White contrasts Adam’s prefall situation with the post-fall situation our Jesus faced. From the above inspired paragraphs we may propose the following contrasts:

These contrasts require little comment. Notice that Jesus came with a humanity that, in comparison with Adam, had decreased moral worth. Of course, Jesus had the character of God, an infinitely more valuable character than Adam. But His human organism, all of it, was subject to the effects of the Fall, and of this feature of His experience, Mrs. White states that its effects included decreased moral worth and a humanity which, so far as its essence goes, is “degenerate” and “degraded.” Jesus came here and took to Himself all of that.

It is also clear from these paragraphs that Jesus being “placed in Adam’s position,” is where Jesus comes (in the after-the-Fall nature) to repair what Adam broke. He comes with the same damaged goods that we come with. Like Adam, He could be overcome by temptation. Pay close attention to the next two lines: “If we have in any sense a more trying conflict than had Christ, then He would not be able to succor us. But our Saviour took humanity, with all its liabilities.”

Nothing to Bear Which Jesus Has Not Endured

Do we have “in any sense a more trying conflict than had Christ?” If we are subject to tendencies arising from our humanity to which He was not subject by His, then certainly we have a more trying conflict than had Christ! Mrs. White’s statement says the opposite. How many human liabilities did Jesus take? All. Now consider the context; what kind of humanity have the previous paragraphs taken pains to explore and describe? Fallen humanity.

It is true that the next sentence does not especially point this out, rather reminding us of the possibility of yielding to temptation, and that that possibility was real, that it was alive for Jesus. But consider her following line as well: “We have nothing to bear which He has not endured.” This is a restatement of the same idea we had a moment ago. If Jesus, for His incarnation, took to Himself a humanity unlike our own in moral worth, degeneracy, and degradation—if the ladder was let down most of the way yet stopped just short of “reaching the earth” where fallen man dwells—then we do have something to bear that Christ has not endured. If the tendencies of our humanity are different than the tendencies of His humanity, then this is a misstatement by Mrs. White. But it is no misstatement.

It is argued that Jesus had stronger temptations than we do, but this is of no moment in terms of our own situation. Temptations are urged upon all of us in a magnitude that is commensurate with our character. That is, they are sieved by God who permits us to be tested only in proportion to our temptation-overcoming threshold, in a measure relative to our character. This is simply 1 Corinthians 10:13 in action:

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Look closely again at what inspiration says: “We have nothing to bear which He has not endured.” The crucial point is the “we” and the “He.” We bear, endure, the same humanity as Christ. We bear, endure the same fallen nature, the same decreased moral worth, the same clamors arising from within, the same cold fingers that would pull us down into the pit of sin and selfishness, the same built-in, post-fall damage, as Christ. If no other line settled this question, the above should. Oh, that we would let it sink in: “We have nothing to bear which He has not endured”!

His human nature shrank from the conflict that awaited Him (p. 118).

Was this His body or His mind? Inspiration says “His humanity” shrank from what was ahead. The trial was still shaping ahead, and He experienced real concern. It was not His left knee or right leg or his torso that were concerned; the intellectual and emotional aspects of His being shrank from the conflict.

Clamors of the Fallen Nature, Passing Over Same Ground

As the chapter moves to conclusion, Mrs. White expresses the situation more emphatically.

In our own strength it is impossible for us to deny the clamors of our fallen nature. Through this channel Satan will bring temptation upon us. Christ knew that the enemy would come to every human being, to take advantage of hereditary weakness, and by his false insinuations to ensnare all whose trust is not in God. And by passing over the ground which man must travel, our Lord has prepared the way for us to overcome (pp. 122, 123).

Jesus knew that Satan would come to fallen man “to take advantage of hereditary weakness,” that is, the undeniable “clamors of our fallen nature.” We cannot, in our own strength, deny these. Now, consider this carefully. If we cannot deny these clamors, these tendencies, in our own strength, and Jesus gets a free pass on these clamors by having a different humanity than us from the neck upwards, then where does that leave us? Are we left with any example at all of how to overcome?

And consider this: did not that damaged humanity that Jesus took (See chart above) sound as if it qualifies as “hereditary weakness”? So, Jesus knew Satan would come and take advantage of the fallen tendencies of man. Call it what you like—clamors of our fallen nature, hereditary weakness, decreased moral worth, degenerate humanity, degraded humanity, a humanity that has within itself a tendency to shrink from moral trial—Jesus knew that was what we faced. And so what did He do?

He passed “over the ground which man must travel.” This does not mean that He flew over the ground that man must travel, but remember, the ladder was let all the way down; it touched the earth. It did not fail of touch-down. The Bible picture is the stairway of angels ascending and descending via Christ (Genesis 28:12; John 1:51). When time for the incarnation had come, Heaven switched gears, it now communicated with man “in Christ.”

Jesus did not pass over the ground which man must travel in a balloon; He passed over step, by step, by step. Just as we do. Thus, the whole of that sentence becomes true: “By passing over the ground which man must travel, our Lord has prepared the way for us to overcome.” This is Romans 8:3, 4 in different words. Victory over sin in fallen flesh (Romans 8:4) is the plan for Christian experience and it is linked irrevocably to the humanity Christ assumed (Romans 8:3). That humanity is the one in which Jesus, knowing what we faced in the fallen nature, came down to earth and chose to experience at our side, not levitating but walking across the same ground of thorns and thistles travelled by our feet. My human nature was His human nature; His human nature was my human nature. I have a Savior who was tempted in all points like as I am tempted. O glorious gospel of God!

If all the built-in, desperate damage of the fallen nature was not faced by Christ, how could the last portion of the sentence be true: “our Lord has prepared the way for us to overcome”? The way was prepared for us to overcome? How? By Jesus coming and passing over the same ground which we must pass over and where we must overcome.

This is not hard to understand. But it is to those who pose a mysterious difference between Jesus’ humanity and our own so that none of these things touch Him. We dare not imagine a synthetic middle-form of humanity in which Jesus is weary and sweating and experiencing human physical pain, but mental anguish and the torment of the fallen nature are spared Him. So why would His humanity shrink from the wilderness temptation? Why would He request in the garden of Gethsemane, that if it is possible, His own will take precedence over His Father’s will? Was not this again, as in the wilderness, Jesus’ humanity shrinking from the ultimate trial? Yet He always offered, “But not My will.” He submitted to the will of the Father.

Jesus passed over the ground that we do; that has vast consequences!

The Crescendo

‘The prince of this world cometh,’ said Jesus, ‘and hath nothing in Me.’ John 14:30. There was in Him nothing that responded to Satan’s sophistry. He did not consent to sin. Not even by a thought did He yield to temptation. So it may be with us. Christ’s humanity was united with divinity; He was fitted for the conflict by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And He came to make us partakers of the divine nature. So long as we are united to Him by faith, sin has no more dominion over us. God reaches for the hand of faith in us to direct it to lay fast hold upon the divinity of Christ, that we may attain to perfection of character (pp. 122, 123).

Jesus never yielded to temptation. In spite of the clamors of our fallen nature, hereditary weakness, decreased moral worth, degenerate humanity, degraded humanity, a humanity that has within itself a tendency to shrink from moral trial, in spite of the tendencies to sin residing in our own humanity and thus in the same humanity that Jesus took, Jesus never sold one thought to Satan. And, thank God, “So it may be with us”! But the question is, how may it be so for us? And the answer is, “Christ’s humanity was united with divinity.”

But was there something different about His humanity compared to ours? Ellen White tells plainly how it is that humanity can unite with divinity: “Christ’s humanity was united with divinity; He was fitted for the conflict by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And He came to make us partakers of the divine nature.” This, my brothers and sisters, is the answer. We may unite our humanity with divinity by permitting the Holy Spirit to indwell us. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated here, no new light; only truth shining brightly from inspiration’s pen.

How was Jesus “fitted for the conflict”? “He [Jesus!] was fitted for the conflict by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.” His humanity could be no different than ours because His overcoming could be no different than ours.

And where does this all end? “God reaches for the hand of faith in us to direct it to lay fast hold upon the divinity of Christ, that we may attain to perfection of character.” What was divine? Jesus’ character. Philippians 2:7 tells us He had emptied Himself of His divine strength. He took that back to Himself at His resurrection. At any time He could have called for it and taken it to Himself, hence the temptation to use His divinity. But He didn’t. He lived by faith as we must live day-by-day, as we must pass over our ground, just by simple faith. Now He is risen. Now we may call upon His divinity. Now we may be united to Him in the same way He was united to the Father, by the Holy Spirit. The power of our fallen humanity, with all of its inclinations, with all of its tendencies, is intercepted by a power from above.

Hallelujah! LGT