God's Plan To Do Away With Death: Part Two

Bernard Pyron

Christ Took On the Flesh and Blood of Mankind

Christ voluntarily as immortal God took on the nature of the flesh and blood of mortal man. Because he did not intend to become the savior of the fallen angels, he did not assume the nature of angels.

Hebrews 2: 9 says that "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownest him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands."

"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 behoved 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 his people. (Hebrews 2: 16-17)."

Christ became fully human in part because as God he could not die. Death is not in the nature of God. Jesus Christ had a human body which was the same as all humans have. By his suffering and death in that body of flesh and blood, he bore the penalty of death, both physical death, and the Second Death or eternal death for all his people.

John 1: 14 teaches that "...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)."

As God, Christ existed with the Father and knew the world before he became flesh. As God, he was born on earth as a human, which is a mystery. Christ's people are all flesh and blood for a while. In order to pardon us from the death sentence and take away the wrath of God from us, Christ as our head, gave himself human flesh. He was really a man, subject to the miseries of humans.

Paul in Romans 1: 3 says "Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." Christ was born of the virgin Mary who was a descendant of David (Luke 1: 27). According to his human nature, Christ was the seed of David. He was put to death in his human flesh and as was made alive again by the Holy Spirit (I Peter 3: 18).

In Galatians 4: 4 Paul writes that "...when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law."

Christ in human form and as God suffered and died to pardon us from sin and to free us from the ministration of death, that is, from the condemnation brought upon us by the moral law. He came to make us the sons of God.

Philippians 2:8 notes that "...being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

He was in all things like us (Hebrews 2: 17). Because he was God some might think that Christ would of had to be a highly respected person with much power, like a king. But instead, he humbled himself and was a servant come to minister to fallen people. Paul ends this verse in saying that Christ was obedient to death, even the death on the cross. Death on the cross was thought to be very shameful; it was a very painful death.

I Timothy 3: 16 says "Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."

The faithful angels witnessed his birth as a human (Luke 2: 13-15), his temptation by Satan (Matthew 4: 11), his agony in the Garden (Luke 22: 43), and at the time of his resurrection (John 20: 12).

As flesh, Christ might have become corrupted by sin. But he was sinless, and was made sin for us (II Corinthians 5: 2). Since Christ was sinless, there was no death sentence upon him or any judgment against him. He was totally innocent, and so his suffering and death took the place of that punishment due to be enacted upon all of us - the people in Christ - for our sins.

When Adam sinned, God told him "...for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return (Genesis 3: 20). Adam was reduced to being more fleshly than before. he became more fleshly and earthly and went back to dust, whereas had he not disobeyed God he and his descendants would have lived forever in happiness.

In order to pardon his people from the disobedience of Adam and their own sin, Christ humbled himself in becoming human flesh. God the Son - who created everything (Colossians 1: 16) - made himself mere flesh, which goes back to being dust. As man, God the Son lived in this corrupt, sinful and lower world, which is dominated by the devil, though God has complete power over Satan.

But when Christ became flesh, he did not stop being God, and this is a mystery. For John 3: 13 says that "...no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." At the time he spoke these words, Christ is the Son of man in flesh who came down from heaven - and yet as God he was in heaven.

In human flesh, Christ took the sins of all his people - those who would seek and accept him - to the cross and pardoned us from the death sentence. Then he was raised by the Holy Spirit from the dead. His work of suffering before and on the cross was acceptable and he rose for our justification and glory.

In the Old Testament, God spoke from heaven (Nehemiah 9: 13). But the New Testament Gospels tell us that God came down from heaven and assumed the form of a man to pardon his people.

John 3: 13 shows us a mystery. God the Son, the creator, did not bring his human body from heaven. His human body was created on earth. He is on earth in this body, but also in heaven as God. How can we understand that mystery?

By being fully God, Christ was everywhere, including in heaven. But as the Son of man he was not in heaven until his ascension. God could not die on a cross and yet the Son of man in human form did die for our sins.

John counts it a serious error, indicating an antichrist spirit, when a person denys that Christ came in the flesh.

"Hereby know ye the Spirit of god: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is the spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is in the world (I John 4: 2-3)."

Those who are inspired by the Holy Spirit to teach that Christ was in human flesh and died in that flesh meet the test laid down by John here. Anti-Christian spirits will deny that Christ came in the flesh, John says.

There are many lesser antichrists, and one major antichrist, who is yet to appear. Lesser antichrists who oppose or subvert some part of the authentic Gospel have paved the way by the Big Antichrist. He will complete the false doctrines, as well as the beliefs and practices that negate the Gospel and promote another Jesus, which the 501c3 churches have been teaching. Casting doubt in some way upon the truth that Christ came in the flesh is just one of several false teachings of the antichrist spirit..