There are many who deny that Jesus was born in our sinful flesh. This is believed because God is perfect, His divinity sinless. Consequently, He could only be joined with sinless humanity. This belief is what led to the doctrine known as Docetism. Docetism comes from a Greek word that means “it seems.” Docetists taught that Jesus wasn’t actually a man. He only appeared to be human. His human form was an illusion.
This doctrine has been rejected by most Christian churches since the second century A.D. Even the Catholic Church regarded the doctrine as heretical and stated so in its First Council of Nicaea in the year 325.
Strangely enough, though, in a round-about way, the Catholic Church maintained the idea that Jesus didn’t come in our flesh. To pull it off, the Roman Church developed a doctrine about Mary’s conception. It’s called the Immaculate Conception. The doctrine states that in order to keep Jesus free from original sin; to keep Him from inheriting a sinful nature; Mary, His mother, was immaculately born with a sinless nature. Incidentally, they say she remained sinless, never having committed a sin her whole life.
This, of course, flies in the face of the Bible. It says that the only human never to have committed a sin was Jesus. All others have, falling short of God’s glory (character). Romans 3: 23; 2 Corinthians 5: 21.
The Bible also clearly states that Jesus shared in the same flesh and blood that we have. Our flesh is of a fallen, sinful nature. That’s what Jesus came to redeem. It was the price of sin He came to pay. Therefore, His flesh had to have been of a sinful nature in order for His death to be legitimate (Hebrews 2: 14, 15).
To be our Example and Conduit for overcoming sin, Jesus had to have actually had the real challenge of the law of sin operating in His flesh. Otherwise, His victory over sin, if lived in a sinless nature, would have been an easy, false victory. We wouldn’t have proof that sin can be defeated with a sinful nature.
I understand how some want to exempt Jesus from the true nature of humanity. It’s their well-meaning way of protecting His reputation. But it is even more impressive that He lived by limiting and imposing upon Himself a real human experience; with all of its struggles, peer pressures, and temptations (Hebrews 2: 17, 18). Yet, He didn’t sin once, not even in thought. As such, He remains the spotless Lamb of God by virtue of His character. (It’s our characters, also, that will ascend to heaven in immortal, incorruptible bodies.)
To deny that Jesus came in fallen flesh, be it from Catholics or anybody else, is a denial that He came in the flesh at all. Whether the denial is intentional or not, the apostle John has something to say about that. “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.” 2 John 1: 7.
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Read Jesus’ Two Natures Explained. Click here.