The Forum
Correspondence
Dear Sir,
Have enjoyed reading, through the kindness of others, recent copies of Food for the Flock. The most recent issue, December, was the best I have seen. Its emphasis on the personality of Christ appealed much in this day of Modernism.
The statement of the doctrine of the Incarnation was both concise and comprehensive, but am wondering what S. O. M. means by his closing remarks that Jesus Christ is the greatest miracle. Does he suggest that it is miraculous that when Jesus was surrounded with corruption He resisted it and refused to sin?
There are some who hold that, but did not think that your Committee would subscribe to it.
Very truly,
C. C. J.
Dear C. C. J.
Many thanks for your letter. We are pleased that you have found Food for the Flock interesting and pleasant reading. Should you become a monthly subscriber you would enjoy its excellent spiritual ministry regularly. Moreover, you would learn exactly the doctrinal status of this Committee and magazine. We believe in teaching the whole Word of God as the Holy Spirit illuminates and as He enables.
Being well acquainted with S. O. M. I assure you that he does not hold the erroneous teaching that the Lord Jesus could have sinned, but did not. A careful re-reading of his doctrinal statement would, I believe, clarify this point.
The miracle of Christ is not that He exhibited infinite resistance to sin, and therefore refused to commit; but, rather, that when in an environment of sin, corruption, and death, those had no effect upon Him for He was impervious to them, that such was His intrinsic holiness He was immune to sin.
The Epistle to the Hebrews places special emphasis upon the holy, sinless nature of Christ, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15) Sin was not a temptation to Christ, but He was tested during life by the sinless effects of sin; as for example, weariness (John 4:6), poverty (Matt. 22:18), thirst (John 4:7), anguish (Mark 14:32-34), and, of course, pain.
As the High Priest of His people Christ is declared to be “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens” (Heb. 7:26). These give us a progressive revelation of Christ’s intrinsic holiness, His absolute immunity to sin. He was holy in His birth, harmless in His life, undefiled in His death, separate from sinners in His burial, and made higher than the heavens in His exaltation.
There is an excellent statement, copied from whom I cannot recall, with which I must close: “Christ was not merely undefiled. He was undefilable; and, yet, such is the mystery of His person, such the perfection of His manhood in company with the Godhead in Him. that the temptation was as real in Him as was the undefilableness.”
“In Him was no sin” (1 John 3:5), He was without the principle of sin; “Who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21), without the experiential knowledge of sin; “Who did no sin” (1 Pet. 2:22), without the practice of sin.
Sincerely,
J. G.