Our Comfort from Christ’s Human Nature

A great premise concerns us about this topic. Human nature became guilty of sin; thus, human nature must pay the debt of sin!
When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Galatians 4:4–5). Why did Christ not decide to take human nature to Himself as in the case of Adam, from dust, or Eve, from bone? He instead chose to endure all things which pertain to conception and birth in order that He might make amends for our conception and birth, which were corrupted by the sin passed down to us from Adam. He made these key parts of our lives holy and clean. What about the sins of my old age or middle age or youth? Christ substituted under God’s Law for these, too.
This flesh I have, the sinful being, needed reconciliation with God, not some different kind of flesh. And so this Bible verse is of the greatest meaning and comfort: The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). We miss out on a great deal of comfort unless we are able to answer the following question for ourselves or others: What was Christ’s active obedience?
When we remember that the Divine Nature is above temptation, yet that the Person of Christ faced temptation, we should find great reassurance in His obedience. His human nature faced down the Old Evil Foe on our behalf. Christ’s response to Satan was not a mere machine-like reaction. Because His flesh was never dulled by sin, He felt temptation even more sharply than you and I do. Evil allurements were fired at Him by Satan in wave after wave. Devilish machination lurked in every attraction. The list of temptations is not short if one includes both temptations explicitly mentioned and those which are implied (Matthew 4:1–11). All other temptations are lumped together by the writer of the Book of Hebrews, which says, “He [Christ] was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Of the greatest importance here was that it was my humanity which was involved. Christ’s human nature was my nature. We should fix in our minds the picture of Christ defending us poor sinners who struggle so much. In fact, when this or that particular sin comes to mind and the memory of it wants to take an icy grip around our hearts, then we do well if we ask ourselves, How was Christ my Substitute for this sin? Our answer can truly be the following: He was tempted just as I was but said NO to the temptation. Now Christ’s obedience to the Law, God regards as my own obedience (Romans 10:4; Philippians 3:9–10).
Human nature bore our sin, human nature paid the debt of sin for us, and the divine nature joined perfectly to the human in Christ gave eternal value to the payment. The elders in heaven sang to our Lord and our joy is like theirs: “You redeemed us to God by your blood” (Revelation 5:9).
James Olsen is an ELS pastor emeritus living in Ontario, Wisconsin.