WAS THE HUMAN BODY OF JESUS CHRIST DIFFERENT?

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285 - WAS THE HUMAN BODY OF JESUS CHRIST DIFFERENT?

January 17, 1965, 
Pastor Henry F. Kulp

Romans 8: 1 - 4 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin an death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

We said that the judgement day for the believer was at the Cross of Calvary 2,000 years ago. The judgement for sin was upon Jesus Christ, and therefore the believer cannot be judged for sin, because his sins have already been judged.
1/ Than we told you there are two laws, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and the law of sin and death. The law of sin and death is in every individual born into this world. It started with Adam and has continued from that day. But when one is saved, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which is the Holy Spirit begins to work in the life of a believer, and the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of life gives life to us, He quickens us from the dead. So, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed us from the law of sin and death.

2/ What is the basis for no condemnation, for having the Spirit of life to free us from the law of sin and death? It is all wrapped up in the 3^rd vs. God has intervened, sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. The weakness of the flesh demands the intervention of God. The weakness of the flesh is an impossible barrier to all the efforts of mankind. But it is not a barrier to God’s grace.  Therefore, Romans 8: 3 is the most important text in the Bible.
 

3/ Years ago, when I first came to Altoona, the church that I then pastored was having part in a week of prayer with some of the other churches of the neighborhood. In one of the of the larger churches co-operating with that week of prayer, was a pastor, and we met in his study to discuss the week of prayer. There was to be a meeting in a different church each night. And while we were there, the matter Fundamentalism and Modernism came up. The pastor of this church, who was a rank liberal said, The Apostle Paul mentioned the Virgin Birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He said you give me one Scripture where Paul ever said that the Virgin Birth was necessary. This very Scripture we have today would be incomprehensible without one that he could assume that Christ was God the Son, come into the world without a human father. The truth of the matter is that Paul simple took it for granted. He may not have used the words, Virgin Birth--but definitely, his doctrine would be foolishness without the assumption that Christ was a virgin-born individual.

4/ First of all, it says that God sent His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.  It should be noticed that it does not say that He sent His Own Son in the flesh or the likeness of flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh. His body, indeed was a was a body of flesh before and after the His resurrection. This, of course, corresponds with John 1: 14. 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. 

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The flesh which the Lord Jesus Christ had was a physical body, and though it resembled our bodies in outward appearance, it was not made in the likeness of our sinful fleshly bodies. There was a difference so great between His body and ours that it is necessary for us to study the difference.

5/ So, let us look into the Bible and prove that the physical body of Jesus Christ differed from ours.  Acts 2: 23, 24 On the day of Pentecost, Peter introduced the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ by saying, Him, being delivered by the determined council and foreknowledge and knowledge of God, ye have been taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it.

Notice, it is not possible that He should be beholden of death. Can this be said of our physical bodies? Of course, not. Then He quotes a prophecy in which in which Christ speaks of the nature of His Body, for He said, vs 27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. What was this flesh that could not see corruption? Therefore, the Bible teaches that these forces of death which exist in all our bodies did not exist in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.        

6/ If you would have gone to the cross of Calvary and you would have been a medical examiner, you would have taken down the bodies of the two thieves and the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and seemingly, outwardly, they were both dying in the same fashion, and you were required to sign a certificate stating the cause of death, you would have to certify differently for the thieves and for Jesus Christ. These men who were dying beside the Lord Jesus, died from wounds and loss of blood. The Lord Jesus Christ, died because, when He was completely ready, His hour had come, He dismissed the Spirit.  John 10: 18 He declared flatly, No man taken my life from Me, I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. While the thieves were slowly dying, The Lord was in complete command of His life. Notice, He did not have His head rolling upon His breast in weakness--- He held it erect until the final moment when He bowed His head and gave up the Holy Spirit. He did not fade in weakness so that He could scarcely do more than whisper, for He cried out with a loud voice after six hours of that experience on the cross. His body did not die in the usual fashion. Notice, Luke 23: 46.  And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit, and having said thus, He gave up the Ghost. Then notice, John 19: 30 And when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished, and He bowed His head. His head had not been bowed, it had not been rolling upon chest as one in great weakness. No, He was in command of all His faculties until the moment He dismissed His Spirit.   

7/ This should be at the beginning of the message. As we have been talking about being free from one law by another law, we have a beautiful illustration of this. 

There on the ground is a little caterpillar crawling. It is something that hated and despised by most people.  But this caterpillar has freedom to crawl about. It has power to crawl, perhaps, up a tree, along the ground, but it doesn’t have power to rise above the ground, or above something to crawl upon.  It cannot lift itself above the ground, it cannot fly. And it has to stay on the ground because of the Law of Gravitation. But after a while it encases itself in what we call a cocoon, and after a certain period of time, that little caterpillar comes out and it is a beautiful butterfly.  It now has wings and it is able to defy the Law of Gravitation. No longer is it earth-bound, but now it can fly above the earth through the air. The Law of Gravitation is still there, but another law came in. This is the law of flying with wings. And the wing gives this insect the ability to rise and to fly.  This is exactly what has happened to us. The law of sin and death has been overcome by the Law of Life in Christ Jesus. We have been set free from the law of sin and death and therefore there is now no condemnation to us who are in Christ Jesus.   

8/ But now back to the thought of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, the flesh of Jesus Christ.  It says that He was apart from sin. Luke 1: 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over-shadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

Where it says wherefore also that the holy Thing--that was the little body that was born, and it was a holy thing--it was infinitely holy. His flesh had no taint of sin. There has been an argument down through the years by some theologians as to whether Jesus Christ could have sinned. Of course, not. He would have to have the law of sin and death in Him to sin. But the possibility was not there, because He did not have sin in Him.   

9/ Why are we so careful to show the body of Jesus Christ, the flesh of Jesus Christ did not have the law of sin and death in Him? Why do we say it was not sinful flesh?  Because I want you to notice, Romans 8: 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

For sin, condemned sin in the flesh. What does that mean? The word (for), or “in the place of”, means that He was made an offering for our sin. And He judged sin, He condemned sin--He condemned sin--where? In His flesh. He had flesh without sin--we have flesh with sin, and when God judges sin it is in the flesh. But if God judges sin in our flesh, we would be lost forever.  But what does God do to save us? God takes the sin that is in our flesh, and puts it in His flesh--His holy flesh--and He died to pay the wage of sin. 

10/ I Peter 2: 24 Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.  Notice, it isn’t the preposition “on” it is the preposition “in”. Who, His own self bare our sins in His own body. He took our sin that was in our flesh, God gave Him flesh--He had to have a body of flesh, but it had to be Holy flesh, and God put the flesh that was in our flesh in His flesh, to suffer for us.  

11/ Galatians 3: 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 

This is what Jesus Christ did for you and me, and this was His flesh.  To understand this portion of scripture in Galatians, we must go back to Deuteronomy 21: 22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon a tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

Jesus Christ was hanged upon a tree, accursed of God. And it says here, if a man hath committed a sin worthy of death, that means there is nothing else this man can suffer but death, his sin has to be paid for by death, he is to be hanged on a tree and buried the same day, less there be a curse from the Lord. This is exactly what Jesus Christ bore. All of us deserve to die in our flesh we are sinful, but Jesus Christ took our sin in His flesh and has set us free form the law of sin and death.  

12/ We cannot remove ourselves from the law of sin and death, only Jesus Christ is able to do that.  He, alone, is able to be made sin for us.

13/ Colossians 1: 21, 22.  Vs. 21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight: These verses tell us what we were, and it is a good thing, often, in our Christian lives to remember what the Lord saved us from. Sometimes we get the big idea in our daily work in Christian life that we are pretty good, we forget that God saved us from the pit, from the miry clay, from sin. He saved us and took our sins away. It is a good thing to remember that. 

14/ Notice vs. 22 In the body of His flesh through death. I want you to notice, there is no punctuation mark after reconciled of the 21^st vs. the last word of that verse, and it should read, (Yet, now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh). That at the cross we were reconciled in the body of His flesh through death. The only way that God and man could be brought together was for the Lord Jesus Christ into this world and take a human body, again stressing that Christ had to be human. He had to have a body of flesh. Scripture is clear, and Paul is clear.  It was in His flesh that He paid the price of our sin.

15/ Then notice, in the body of His flesh through death, to present you, how? Holy.  That’s what the Lord Jesus Christ is going to do for each believer, for each one who has believed in the death of His Son. By His death, He took sin away, and He is going to present you holy. The notice, the last words of this verse--in His sight. The Son is going to present us to the Father, and in the Father’s sight, we are holy, unblameable, unreprovable. My, what creatures we will be when the Lord Jesus Christ presents us to the Father. Not a stain of sin left, nothing to be reproached for. Every sin is gone. No judgement day for us.  Here again there is no judgement. Our judgement day is gone. When we are presented to the Father, and this is important, we will be HOLY, UNBLAMEABLE, UNREPROVABLE, and how can there be a judgement day for believers who are in this condition?    

16/ There isn’t another thing on God’s calendar until the Rapture. There is not another event scheduled. The work will go on, gathering sinners and making them saints, and of course, this is God’s work--all who believe on the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, will be made saints, but a day is coming--it is the day of presentation, when we will be presented to the Father. What a glorious day that will be.      

17/ Then notice, Colossians 2: 9 For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.  In the Lord Jesus is the fullness of all the Trinity. Notice, the word, bodily. I read a rendition, a translation, the other day I liked very much. ALL THE FULNESS OF THE GODHEAD DWELLETH IN HIM IN A BODY. That is true, for Christ at the right hand of the Father in the Heavens, now has a human body, a body which God prepared for Him.  A body which was given to him when He was born in Bethlehem.  All the fullness of the Godhead lives in a human body, and that is wonderful.  He still has that body at the present time, that flesh. The Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, is a man just as much as He is God.  He is a true man. Then notice, in vs. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: Ye are complete in Him.  To be complete means there is nothing left out, there is nothing lacking. 

What a wonderful thought. In this Christ, Who now lives in the Heavens, Who died in His flesh, and in His flesh took our sins. We are complete. What a marvelous, wonderful truth. 

Ref: 01/17/1965 / 285 - WAS THE HUMAN BODY OF JESUS DIFFERENT?/ 3/23/2020