This compilation on "The Human Nature of Christ" is continued from the preceding tract in this series [FF — 303].

"Exact obedience is required, and those who say that it is not possible to live a perfect life throw upon God the imputation of injustice and untruth."  —  Review, February 7, 1957. (E.G.W.)

"Some few in every generation from Adam resisted his [Satan's] every artifice and stood forth as noble representatives of what it was in the power of man to do and be — Christ working with human efforts, helping man in overcoming the power of Satan. Enoch and Elijah are the correct representatives of what the race might be through faith in Jesus Christ if they chose to be. Satan was greatly disturbed because these noble, holy men stood untainted amid the moral pollution surrounding them, perfected righteous characters, and were accounted worthy of translation to Heaven. As they stood forth in moral power, in noble uprightness, overcoming Satan*s temptations, he could not bring them under the dominion of death."   —  Review, March 3, 1874.

"Enoch*s life and character . . represent the lives and characters of all who will be translated when Christ comes."  —  Signs, November 11, 1886.

"In order for man to retain justification, there must be continual obedience, through active faith that works by love and purifies the soul." — 1 Selected Messages, 366.

"After Christ had taken the necessary steps in repentance, conversion, and faith in behalf of the human race, He went to John to be baptized of him in Jordan." — General Conference Bulletin, 1901, 36.

"Christ came not confessing His own sins; but guilt was imputed to Him as the sinner's substitute. He came not to repent on His own account; but in behalf of the sinner. He takes upon Himself their sins numbering Himself with the transgressors, taking the steps the sinner is required to take; and doing the work the sinner must do." — Review, January 21, 1873.

"I present before you the great Exemplar . . As really did He meet and resist the temptations of Satan as any of the children of humanity. In this sense alone could He be a perfect example for man. He subjected Himself to become acquainted with all the temptations wherewith man is beset. He took the infirmities and bore the sorrows of the sons of Adam."He was ‘made like unto His brethren. Hebrews 2:17. He felt both joy and grief as they feel. His body was susceptible to weariness, as yours. His mind, like yours, could be harassed and perplexed. If you could have hardships, so did He. Satan could tempt Him. His enemies could annoy Him. The ruling powers could torture His body; the soldiers could crucify Him; and they can do no more to us. Jesus was exposed to hardships, to conflict and temptation, as a man.. Your circumstances, your cogitations at this period of your life, Jesus has had . . He sees your dangers. He is acquainted with your temptations. He invites you to follow His example." — Our High Calling, 57.

"Among the heathen are those who worship God ignorantly, those to whom the light is never brought by human instrumentality, yet they will not perish. Though ignorant of the written law of God, they have heard His voice speaking to them in nature, and have done those things that the law required. Their works are evidence that the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts, and they are recognized as the children of God." — Desire of Ages, 638.

"There are many who in their hearts murmur against God. They say, ‘We inherit the fallen nature of Adam, and are not responsible for our natural imperfections.  They find fault with God's requirements, and complain that He demands what they have no power to give. Satan made the same complaint in heaven, but such thoughts dishonor God." — Signs, August 29, 1892.

"Let no one say I cannot remedy my defects of character. If you come to this decision, you will certainly fail of obtaining everlasting life." — Christ's Object Lessons, 331.

"The righteousness of God is absolute. This righteousness characterizes all His works, all His laws. As He is, so must His people be." — 1 Selected Messages, 198.

"Christ could not have come to this earth with the glory that He had in the heavenly courts. Sinful human beings could not have borne the sight. He veiled His divinity with the garb of humanity, but He did not part with His divinity. A divine-human Saviour, He came to stand at the head of the race, to share in their experience from childhood to manhood." — 5 Bible Commentary, 1128.

"He did not cease to be God when He became a man. . The two expressions ‘human* and ‘divine* were, in Christ, closely and inseparably one, and yet they had a distinct individuality" — Signs May 10, 1899.

"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." — Hebrews 4.45.

"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 1:14.

"For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham." — Hebrews 2.16.

"And if ye be Christ*s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise ." — Galatians 3:29.

"For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." — 2 Corinthians 5:21.

"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins." — Matthew 1:21.

"I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star." — Revelation 22:16.

"The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it; of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne." — Psalm 132:11

"And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots." — Isaiah 11:1.

"And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the seed of David?" — Matthew 12:23.

"Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth." — Jeremiah 23:5.

"And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ." — Matthew 1:16.

"For every high priest taken from among men is ordained of men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity . . And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an high priest; but He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, today have I begotten Thee . . Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death , and was heard in that He feared; Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered ." — Hebrews 5:1-8.

"For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." — 2 Corinthians 5:21.

"But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law." — Galatians 4:4.

"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." — Romans 8:3.

"And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh." — 1 Timothy 3:16.

"And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is the spirit of antichrist." — 1 John 4:3.

"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels." — Hebrews 2:9.

But you will also want to read IC — 3-6, entitled "In Christ We Conquer" Part 1-4 for additional Spirit of Prophecy passages that reveal that we may overcome as Christ overcame — because of the human and the divine nature of Christ. Another important study is DH — 1: "The Change in the Doctrine of the Human Nature of Christ" which explains the way in which the change took place and when. In addition, you will also value FF — 26, entitled "Documentary Fraud," which will provide you with further explanatory material in defense of the correct position on the human nature of Christ. It was a transcription of most of a sermon by Ralph Larson, senior pastor of the Loma Linda Campus Hills Church.

But there was an appendix to that sermon that we did not have room to include. Entitled, "Ellen White Corrects Two Christological Errors", this study is an analysis of the Baker Letter.

The present tract you are now reading is that appendixed material by Larson.

The "Baker Letter" (Letter 8, 1895) was written by Ellen

White to Elder W. L. H. Baker, at that time an Adventist pastor in Tasmania, an island off the southeast coast of Australia. This minister, as a result of extensive reading in the "church fathers" (religious writers who lived a hundred and more years after the time of Christ), had accepted and was teaching one of their errors, an ancient heresy taken over from paganism that was called "Adoptionism." This error teaches that Christ was not the Son of God at His birth and throughout His childhood. But that, at the time of His baptism, He was "adopted" by God as His Son, and God came down into Him. This strange error is accepted by few people in our day. (The "Adoptionists," both the earlier (second-third century, A.D.) and later (eighth century) versions, taught that Jesus was only human and was later adopted by Heaven into the Deity, and that for centuries God had been waiting for one man good enough to bestow this favor upon. But the truth is that God sent His Son to save mankind. The Bible teaching is that God became man; not that man became God.)

Baker was urging this peculiar error upon the people. In her letter to him, Ellen White warned him to be very careful how he spoke of the earthly life of Christ, and he was cautioned against his statements that Christ was "exactly like us." But this concern on her part was understandable, for "Adoptionism" teaches that prior to His baptism Christ was only a human being, a sinful one, and nothing more, and that after the baptism, He was "adopted" into the Godhead because of His struggles for victory over His various sins.

All this, of course, reminds one of the gods of the Greek myths, which many of the early "fathers" carefully studied and copied. (Read BS — 4-5: "The Story of the Change of the Sabbath — Part 1-2" for more information on these early and later church fathers and some of the pagan errors (including Sunday worship) that they tried to bring into the church.)

But this letter (the "Baker Letter, "which is Letter 8, 1895) is now being used by advocates of the error coming into our Church in the mid-twentieth century that Christ had an immaculate inheritance. They try to use words and phrases from it to prove their error.

Therefore we are reprinting this analysis of the Baker Letter by Ralph Larson in this tract. It is an important study, for it helps to clarify some Ellen White passages that are puzzling to some people.  —   —vf

It is common knowledge that the pioneers of the Adventist church came from a wide variety of religious and theological backgrounds, and that after the great disappointment of 1844 they devoted much time and study to the development of a platform of Bible truth upon which they could unite. In their early Bible conferences they reached a common understanding of the nature of God, the nature of man, the Sabbath, justification by faith, etc. They did not, however, successfully resolve all of their different understandings of the nature of Christ.

ARYANISM

As late as the turn of the century there were still a few voices among us which were advocating, in various ways, limited views of the divinity of Christ. (Leroy Edwin Froom, "Movement of Destiny" (Washington, D.C., 1971), pp. 148-166.) These views, generally speaking, fell within the category of what theologians have called Aryanism, after a certain Arius who strongly advocated similar opinions in the great Christological controversies of the fourth century. (Phillip Schaff, "History of the Christian Church" (Grand Rapids, 1953), Vol. III, pp. 618-621.)

According to Arius and those who followed his thinking Christ had not co-existed with the Father throughout all eternity, but had been created by the Father at some point in time before the history of the world. Christ is seen as the greatest and highest of God’s created beings. Thus He was not "Very God of Very God," but a lower and lesser form of deity.

In the light of this clear testimony the Arian Christological errors gradually faded away, and it is doubtful that there are any Seventh-day Adventist Bible students who now believe that Christ was a created being.

ADOPTIONISM

In like manner, without identifying the Christological error by its specific technical name, Ellen White found occasion to refute the principles of Adoptionism. This was a view that Christ was not the Son of God at birth, nor during the first phase of His earthly life, but became the Son of God by adoption. This idea was taught in Rome during the years 189-199 by a leather merchant from Byzantium named Theodotus. (Phillip Carrington, ‘The Early Christian Church" (Cambridge, 1957), Vol. II, p. 415. It was developed and amplified by Paul of Samosata who served as bishop of Antioch from 260 to 269. Because of Paul’s strong influence, the opinion became quite popular in the eastern churches and in the Armenian churches, where it was held for centuries. (Albert Henry Newman, "A Manual of Church History (Philadelphia, 1933), Vol. II, pp. 379-380.) In the eighth century it was advocated among the western churches by Elipandus of Spain. (H. R. Mackintosh, "The Person of Jesus Christ" (New York, 1962), p. 223 ff.)

Although there were nuances of difference in the views of individual Adoptionists, there were three basic opinions that were generally shared. Ellen White’s response to and refutation of these opinions is found not only in the "Desire of Ages" but also in a personal testimony to W. L. H. Baker, a pastor who was laboring in the Tasmanian district while Sr. White was living in Australia and working on the manuscript for "Desire of Ages." (Ellen G. White, "Letter No. 8," 1895, unpublished, Heritage Room of Loma Linda, California. A portion appears in "The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary" (Washington, D.C., 1953), Vol. V. pp. 1128-1129.)

II-Adoptionist view:

Jesus was not the Son of God during the first phase of His earthly existence. He was a normal human being with exalted concepts of purity and holiness, toward which He strove heroically, but He was in no sense divine. During this phase of His existence, since He was altogether and exclusively human, He would have had the same propensities of sin, inclinations to, and taints of corruption that all humans have. He could have even been overcome by temptation and actually sinned. None of these things, in view of His continuing heroic struggle to achieve holiness, would have disqualified Him to become the adopted Son of God at the climax of His spiritual progress. Paul of Samosata expressed it like this:

"..let every human being be warned from the ground of making Christ altogether human, such an one as ourselves, for it cannot be."

"Never, in any way, leave the slightest impression upon human minds that a taint of, or inclination to, corruption rested upon Christ, or that He in any way yielded to corruption."

"Do not set Him before the people as a man with the propensities of sin."

"He could have fallen, but not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity" (Ibid.)

This interesting expression, "not for one moment" would seem to indicate that Ellen White was recoiling in horror from the above stated view of the Adoptionists. Perhaps they could contemplate with equanimity the possibility of evil propensities, corruption, or even sin in Christ’s early life, but she could not. This appears to be her chief concern in the letter to Pastor Baker. In it she affirms repeatedly that Christ did not sin, mentioning it a total of ten times, and carefully ruling out the possibility of even a single yielding to temptation on His part.

"On not one occasion was there a response to his (Satan’s) manifold temptations." (Ibid.)

III-Adoptionist view:

As a result of His heroic struggles to achieve holiness, Jesus was eventually adopted to be the Son of God. There were different opinions as to when this happened. Some saw it as a gradual process, others felt that it happened at the baptism of Jesus, and still others at His resurrection. After His adoption, humanity was blended with divinity.

Ellen White wrote to Baker: "The exact time when humanity blended with divinity, it is not necessary for us to know." (Ibid.)

In addition to this precise and specific rejection of the errors of Adoptionism in her letter to Pastor Baker, Ellen White expanded on the themes of the divinity and pre-existence of Christ as well as His complete sinlessness throughout His entire life in the "Desire of Ages."

Some have studied the letter from Ellen White to Pastor Baker, and perhaps because of a lack of familiarity with the specific Christological errors of Adoptionism that she was so forcefully rejecting, have had difficulty with the expression: not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity."

Some have seen in this an evidence that she believed that Christ assumed in His incarnation the nature of Adam before his fall. Others, comparing it with her comments on that subject in the "Desire of Ages," have drawn the unfortunate conclusion that she talked on both sides of that particular question. Neither conclusion is required by the evidence. Once it is recognized that the Baker letter is a point-by-point refutation of Adoptionism, which Pastor Baker had apparently become involved in through his reading of the church Fathers, her line of reasoning in that letter becomes crystal clear. And we are certainly not required to use a fragment from a personal letter to a Tasmanian pastor to offset her statements about the human nature of Christ as found in the "Desire of Ages," which is clearly her conscious and deliberate Christological position paper addressed to the whole world. To do this would be questionable hermeneutics, to say the least.

As to the human nature of Christ, Ellen White, consciously departing from Reformation Christology, takes the same position that the Swiss theologian Karl Barth does, and for the same reason. Compare:

Karl Barth:

"Flesh (which the Word became) is the concrete form of human nature marked by Adam’s fall. .

". .Jesus did not run away from the state and situation of fallen man, but He took it upon Himself, lived it and bore it Himself as the Eternal Son of God." (Karl Barth, "Church Dogmatics" (Edinburgh, 1963), pp. 151-158.)

"It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man’s nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin." (White, "op. cit.", Vol. K, p. 199.)

"In taking upon Himself man’s nature in its fallen condition, Christ did not in the least participate in its sin. (White, "Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary" (Washington, D.C.), Vol. V, p. 1131.)

It is this writer’s conclusion that a careful use of correct hermeneutical principles would make it impossible to use the Baker letter to offset the book "Desire of Ages." A comparison of the human nature of Christ with the nature of Adam before the fall as distinct from the nature of man after the fall simply was not the purpose and intent of the writer. She was apparently responding to the needs of an entirely different problem, Pastor Baker’s unfortunate involvement with the Christological errors of

Adoptionism.

And the evidence certainly does not require that we accuse Ellen White of talking on both sides of the question about the human nature of Christ. When proper hermeneutical principles are applied, her writings on that subject are clear, consistent, and unequivocal. Any and all attempts to draw a line of demarcation between Christ’s human nature and our human nature must be shattered by this simple yet profoundly meaningful statement:

(White, "Letter No. 106," 1896.) The above concludes Elder Larson’s excellent study. The entire "Baker Letter" (Letter 8, 1895) has never been released, but part of it has. It can be found in 5 Bible Commentary, pages 1128-1129. The early Christian form of this strange heresy is spelled "Adoptionism, "and represented the error of the Jewish Christian Ebionites, Paul of Samosata, Theodore of Mopsuestia and the "Antiochene School" of theology, and was primarily to be found in the second and third century, A.D. Later in the eighth century the error reappeared in Spain. This form is usually spelled "Adoptianism." It has reappeared in modern theological thought and can be found today in the writings of several Biblical scholars and university doctors of theology.

Last fall, the present writer set aside two months and wrote "The Biblical Sanctuary," vindicating our historic Adventist beliefs from the Bible. Composed of 205 Studies, and 140 pages, it is available from Pilgrims’ Rest in a 35-tract set [BH —  1-35].

Because many people will not have this set, we have taken four studies from it that deal with the present topic and are including them in the present study on the "Human Nature of Christ."

Study 15 [from BH — 2-3] is a Biblical analysis of this doctrine. Study 16 [from BH — 3] provides additional clarification on Hebrews 2:16. Study 118 [from BH — 21] provides quotations from the book of Hebrews that will enable you to better understand Paul’s presentation of this subject in that epistle. Study 113 [from BH — 21] contains thirteen points; point two of which being on the present topic. However, since there is space for it, we have included the entire 113th study.

THE HUMAN NATURE OF CHRIST

On this earth, Jesus fully became a man — fully became like us in our inherited weaknesses. One with us, He became fully our brother in the flesh. For He inherited the nature of Abraham’s descendants.

Hebrews Two is a dramatic statement on the Nature of Christ. The first chapter of the book forcefully shows by a variety of proofs that Christ is fully God. Chapter two with equal clarity and vividness maintains the fullness of Christ’s humanity.

It must be understood that to deny either of these is to weaken the entire plan of salvation and to lessen the glory of what God has done for us — and the fullness of what He is to us. Don’t be tempted of Satan to do it. Flee to the Word of God. It is clear and persuasive. Jesus fully and in every respect is God. And just as fully He took a human nature exactly like ours.

Consider now the message of Hebrews Two: In Christ, God visited humanity (2:6). Jesus entered fully into our sufferings and weaknesses (2:9-10). Both He and we are one (2:11). Fully of the same flesh and nature — we are fully one. For this reason He is not ashamed to call us "brethren" (2:11). Why is He not ashamed to call us equals with Himself in His humanity? Because He is fully like us, yet without having indulged in sin. His identity with our nature enables Him the more fully to reveal God to us,  — and thus He declares the name of God unto His brethren (2:12). Forasmuch as we are partakers of flesh and blood, He also partook of the same — in the fullest sense, — for only by so doing could He by His sacrificial death lay the basis by which the actual death of Satan could later take place (2:14). He fully took our nature, and then died for us. Only in this way could Satan’s rule over us be broken. "And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" 2:15. He fully entered the domain of weakness and fear and death — for only in this way could He obtain a full and complete victory. There are those who will agree that Jesus took man’s nature, — but only to the extent that Adam partook of it before his fall: A nature nestled in perfection, bereft of suffering and hardship and weaknesses and temptations. They base this on certain passages that indicate that Christ was the "Second Adam" (Rom 5:14, I Cor 15:22, 45). But the teaching of Paul is that by a single man (Adam) we were hopelessly separated from God. For Adam was the federal head of our race. In this sense, Christ is the Second Adam, for through His total identity with our fallen nature, and His suffering and temptations, (without ever having yielded to sin), and then a shameless death on our behalf, — He brings salvation and immortality to light and within the reach of everyone who is willing to enter eternal life in God’s appointed way — the way of humility and suffering and obedience and submission to the will of God.

It may be mentioned here that a careful analysis of Spirit of Prophecy passages on this theme reveals a minority of statements that tell us that Christ took Adam’s nature. The context of these passages reveals that the point being presented is that Christ took human nature, rather than merely angelic nature. But the vast majority of Spirit of Prophecy passages referring to the human nature of Christ, specifically tell us — and in a surprising variety of ways — that He took our fallen nature, a nature that had been corrupted by four thousand years of sin. The first group, or minority of statements, is telling us that Christ took human nature. But this second group, the majority of Spirit of Prophecy statements is speaking of the kind of human nature that He took — not the unfallen nature of Adam, but the fallen nature of men in the time at which He, Christ, was born into this world. These Biblical Heritage studies are not Spirit of Prophecy studies, but as an example, read Desire of Ages, 49:0-3; 117:1-2. Separate compilations of Spirit of Prophecy quotations on this topic are from Pilgrims’ Rest.