Statements emphasizing Christ’s full identity with humanity
By Rod Dreher
Rawlings School of Divinity
CLED 800: Biblical & Theological Foundations of Education
Genevieve Hamer
July 3, 2022
Statements emphasizing Christ’s full identity with humanity
Leaving the royal courts of heaven Christ came to our world to represent the character of
His Father, and thus help humanity to return to their loyalty. The image of Satan was upon men,
and Christ came that He might bring to them moral power and efficiency. He came as a helpless
babe, bearing the humanity we bear. "As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also
himself likewise took part of the same." He could not come in the form of an angel; for unless
He met man as man, and testified by His connection with God that divine power was not given
to Him in a different way to what it will be given to us, He could not be a perfect example for
us. He came in humility, in order that the humblest being upon the face of the earth could have
no excuse because of his poverty, or ignorance, and say, Because of these things, I cannot obey
the law of Jehovah. Christ clothed His divinity with humanity, that humanity might touch
humanity; that He might live with humanity and bear all the trials and afflictions of man. He was
tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. In His humanity He understood all the
temptations that will come to man (Ms 21, 1895). {7BC 925}
In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be
broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us. "God so loved the world, that He gave
His only-begotten Son." John 3:16. He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our
sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God
gave His only-begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human
nature. {DA 25}
Christ ascended to heaven, bearing a sanctified, holy humanity. He took this humanity with
Him into the heavenly courts, and through the eternal ages He will bear it, as the One who has
redeemed every human being in the city of God (RH March 9, 1905). {6BC 1054}
The humanity of the Son of God is everything to us. It is the golden chain that binds our
souls to Christ, and through Christ to God. This is to be our study. Christ was a real man; He
gave proof of His humility in becoming a man. Yet He was God in the flesh. When we approach
this subject, we would do well to heed the words spoken by Christ to Moses at the burning
bush, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground"
(Ex. 3:5). {1SM 244}
When Jesus took human nature, and became in fashion as a man, He possessed all the
human organism. His necessities were the necessities of a man. He had bodily wants to be
supplied, bodily weariness to be relieved. By prayer to the Father He was braced for duty and
for trial (Letter 32, 1899). {5BC 1130}
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. Like every child of Adam He accepted the
results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the
history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and
temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life.
He took upon His sinless nature our sinful nature, that He might know how to succor those
that are tempted. It was in the order of God that Christ should take upon himself the form and
nature of fallen man, that he might be made perfect through suffering, and himself endure the
strength of Satan's fierce temptations, that he might understand how to succor those who
should be tempted.
Through his humiliation and poverty Christ would identify himself with the weaknesses of
the fallen race, and by firm obedience show man how to redeem Adam's disgraceful failure,
that man by humble obedience might regain lost Eden. The great work of redemption could be
carried out only by the Redeemer taking the place of fallen Adam. With the sins of the world
laid upon him, he would go over the ground where Adam stumbled. He would bear the test
which Adam failed to endure, and which would be almost infinitely more severe than that
brought to bear upon Adam. He would overcome on man's account, and conquer the tempter,
that through his obedience, his purity of character and steadfast integrity, his righteousness
might be imputed to man, that through his name man might overcome the foe on his own
account. What love! What amazing condescension! The King of glory proposed to humble
himself to fallen humanity! He would place his feet in Adam's steps. He would take man's fallen
nature and engage to cope with the strong foe who triumphed over Adam. He would overcome
Satan, and in thus doing he would open the way for the redemption of those who would
believe on him from the disgrace of Adam's failure and fall. {RH, February 24, 1874}
Christ was not in as favorable a position in the desolate wilderness to endure the
temptations of Satan as was Adam when he was tempted in Eden. The Son of God humbled
himself and took man's nature after the race had wandered four thousand years from Eden,
and from their original state of purity and uprightness. Sin had been making its terrible marks
upon the race for ages; and physical, mental, and moral degeneracy prevailed throughout the
human family. When Adam was assailed by the tempter in Eden he was without the taint of sin.
He stood in the strength of his perfection before God. All the organs and faculties of his being
were equally developed, and harmoniously balanced. Christ, in the wilderness of temptation,
stood in Adam's place to bear the test he failed to endure. Here Christ overcame in the sinner's
behalf, four thousand years after Adam turned his back upon the light of his home. Separated
from the presence of God, the human family had been departing every successive generation,
farther from the original purity, wisdom, and knowledge which Adam possessed in Eden. Christ
bore the sins and infirmities of the race as they existed when he came to the earth to help man.
In behalf of the race, with the weaknesses of fallen man upon him, he was to stand the
temptations of Satan upon all points wherewith man would be assailed. {RH, July 28, 1874}
I had freedom and power in presenting Jesus, who took upon himself the infirmities and
bore the griefs and sorrows of humanity, and conquered in our behalf. He was made like unto
his brethren, with the same susceptibilities, mental and physical. He was tempted in all points
like as we are, yet without sin; and he knows how to succor those who are tempted. Are you
harassed and perplexed? So was Jesus. Do you feel the need of encouragement? So did Jesus.
As Satan tempts you, so he tempted the Majesty of heaven. {RH February 10, 1885}
