Jesus as the second Adam
‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. …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.’
(John 1:1-14, NKJ)
Paul wrote that the Word, ‘Christ Jesus’, divested Himself of heavenly glory in order to come in our likeness:
‘… who being in the form of God … made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men.’
(Philip.2:5-7, NKJ)
On being born of woman, Jesus possessed the same divine soul of steadfast integrity and righteousness as He had throughout all eternity. By contrast, the soul of Adam was newly formed at his creation. The soul of the incarnate Jesus was without such origin, being eternal. For these reasons, the integrity of Jesus could not have been anything other than perfect and complete from the very beginning of His incarnation. Moreover, because of this, although possessing human nature and tempted as all men, when able to exercise moral decisions in His humanity, He acted according to the integrity of His eternal divinity in perfect righteousness.
In Hebrews, we read of Him:
‘For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.’
(Heb.4:15, NKJ)
Although, when still an infant, Jesus was immature in His bodily growth and naturally limited in His humanity from taking moral decisions, when Immanuel (‘God-with-us’) began to exercise His freewill, He naturally acted according to the dictates of His immortal soul, in full concord with His eternal integrity.
God chooses to do what is right and good and He gives to man that same freewill to choose right from wrong, according to what is truly godly. The soul of Adam was immature in its integrity from the very beginning. The soul of the incarnate Jesus was not.
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