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Pastor Lud Golz
Pastor Lud Golz

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  Home | Transcript Archive | May | May 12, 2011

Thursday, May 12, 2011

“We have a great high priest…who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:14-15). 

Let’s continue our study of Romans 8 by addressing the question: What does it teach us about God the Son? 
 
Romans 8:3 explains that God sent “his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.”
 
 In trying to understand what ‘in the likeness of sinful man” means I found a helpful explanation in the book, Answering Islam, by Norman Geisler and Abdul Saleeb. “Since Christ is one…(person) with two…(natures), whenever one question is asked about him it must be separated into two questions, one applying to each nature. For example, did he get tired? Answer: as God, no; as man, yes. Did Christ get hungry? In his divine nature, no; in his human nature, yes…Could Jesus sin? The answer is the same: as God he could not have sinned; as man he could have sinned (but he didn’t). God cannot sin. For example, the Bible says ‘it is impossible for God to lie’ (Hebrews 6:18; cf. Titus 1:2). Yet Jesus was ‘in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15). That is to say, while he never sinned (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 1:19; 1 John 3:3), he was really tempted and therefore it was possible for him to sin. Otherwise, his temptation would have been a charade. Jesus possessed the power of free choice, which means that whatever moral choice he made, he could have done otherwise. This means that when he chose not to sin (which was always), he could have sinned (but did not) as man.” 
 
Taking on the likeness of sinful man He was able to become our Savior and fully pay the penalty of our sins so that we could be forgiven and accepted by God.
 
“Since we have a great high priest…who is (able) to sympathize with our weaknesses…Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need”  (Hebrews 4:14-16).
 

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