What I believe about sinful nature & the nature of Christ

I believe that God reveals to us what we need to know about sinful nature in scripture. Sinful nature’s origin, transmission, and character are described in the Bible: 

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” Isaiah 14:12-14. 

“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” Genesis 3:4-6. 

“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalm 51:5.

“Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers…the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores….” Isaiah 1:4-6. 

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9. 

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9.

“Ye shall know them by their fruits…every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” Matthew 7:16-18. 

“For to be carnally minded is death…Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:6-7. 

“…there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Romans 3:12. 

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing….” Romans 7:18. 

“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:” Revelation 3:17. 

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6. 

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” Jeremiah 13:23. 

“Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant [slave] of sin.” John 8:34. 

When Adam and Eve fell, I do not believe that there was an immediate change in the chemical makeup of their body. I believe there was a change in their thoughts and perceptions. I do not believe that sin or sinful nature comes from the body. I believe it comes from the mind. Sinful nature came as the result of a lie believed, not as the result of a change in the physical body. But I do believe that sin affects the body, because the mind was created to control the body, and if the mind is affected by sin, it will result in the dysfunction of the body. 

I believe that sinful nature is a delusional state or condition of the mind where you believe error as if it is the truth. As a result, you think, speak, and act according to the error, rather than the truth. This is deeper than a mere intellectual understanding of the difference between truth and error, for one can intellectually be informed of the truth but continue to act according to error.  

When I worked in the emergency department, it was a common occurrence for a person to be brought in by family, EMS, or police in a delusional state. Some people were cussing, screaming, and fighting everyone with every ounce of their strength. Others were hiding in a corner, looking warily at the walls around them. Others came in with self-inflicted wounds. Whatever the case was, the person’s behaviors did not seem to match reality. Their behavior didn’t make sense until I could interview them and find out what they were seeing or believing. 

When the person screaming and fighting everyone finally confessed that he thought everyone was there to cut his skull open and implant a “chip” in his brain to control his thoughts, then his actions made sense. When the person sitting in the corner looking warily at the walls confessed that they were seeing giant insects coming out of the walls looking for a little human to eat, then their actions made sense. When the person who cut their arm open confessed that they were seeing and feeling bugs crawling around under their skin, then their self-harm made sense. 

Why do we self-harm? Why do we corrupt relationships? Why do we destroy our health? Why do we sin, choosing our own will rather than God’s will? What is it that causes us to do what we do? What is at the very root of the sinful nature? You will find the answer in the description of the fall of Lucifer in Isaiah 14 and the fall of mankind in Genesis 3. The problem of sinful nature is a delusional state or condition of the mind that causes me to believe error is truth and truth is error. At its very root, the delusion is this: I, a creature, believe I am a god. From this delusion—this false identity—come all the problems we experience in our lives. The effects of believing we are gods is explained above in the section “What I believe about loss.” 

If I am god, then I rely upon myself. I trust in myself. I put more credit in what I perceive than in what God perceives. I think I know better than God, so I choose differently than He would choose. I go in my way rather than in His way. Why? Because I perceive my way to be more of a gain than God’s way. Sin is only possible in the context of this delusion, because I see myself as greater to or equal with God, therefore I see my perspective or choices as of greater or equal validity as God’s and can now choose my own way when it is different from God’s way. 

Humanity was created to accept and live by truth. Humanity was created to pursue gain. Humanity was created to do good. Humanity was created with the identity that we are a child of God. But when we are in the delusion of sinful nature, we think we are gods, not children of God. We live by error, thinking that we are living by truth. We pursue loss, thinking that we are pursuing gain. And we do evil, thinking we are doing good. In our mind, we are still pursuing everything we were created to pursue (truth, good, gain), but in reality we are pursuing the opposite (error, evil, loss). 

This delusion of the mind occurred mysteriously, unexplainably, without a reason in Lucifer’s mind. Its occurrence is, and always will be, a mystery. But once the delusion was in Lucifer’s mind, he went about spreading his false perspective among the angels, and 1/3 of the angels fell with him. Then he shared his false perspective with Eve, and Eve shared it with Adam, and humanity fell. And every child of Adam and Eve have been born with this fallen nature—with this innate, delusional condition of the mind. Children are not born untainted and then must be educated how to sin. If left to themselves, they will inevitably commit sin. Without the grace of God—without His divine intervention, we would have no capacity to understand our condition or correct it. We would be hopelessly lost. 

Jesus speaks to our condition when He mentioned the heart and the eye in the sermon on the mount (See Matthew 6:19-23). Ellen White states that the eye Jesus was referring to is the conscience (see 1MCP 323) and that the conscience is enlightened by the truth before the heart is (see 1MCP 324). When the conscience is enlightened by the truth, then the conscience sees good as good and evil as evil, rather than seeing good as evil and evil as good (which is the condition of the unenlightened conscience). 

But the conscience is not enlightened completely at one time. As the truth is accepted in the conscience, it displaces the lie that was the opposite of that truth, but that truth does not displace all other lies at the same time. For example, if you accept the truth that murder is evil, that does not necessarily mean that you also believe that stealing food from a store so you can feed your hungry child is wrong. One truth accepted opens the way for more truth to be accepted, and each piece of truth accepted displaces the lie that is the opposite of it. In this way, the conscience grows in its sensitivity to sin. 

As Ellen White notes in 1MCP 324, the truth can be “held as the truth only by the conscience,” while “the heart is not stimulated and made receptive.” She says that when this is the case, “the truth only agitates the mind.” She also notes that the truth must pass through the conscience before it is received by the heart, and that “it is placed in the heart by the Holy Spirit.” Jesus also said of the heart, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:21. 

The heart is the capacity of the mind to evaluate gain and loss, while the conscience is the capacity of the mind to evaluate good and evil. From observation, we see that the conscience is conscious to us, but the heart is unconscious to us. When the conscience and the heart are in darkness, the conscience sees evil as good, and the heart sees evil as gain, so you do the evil (naturally, without any reservation). Also, in this darkened state, the conscience sees good as evil, and the heart sees good as loss, so you don’t do the good (naturally, without any reservation). 

This is not to say that an individual in this darkened state can never do acts that appear to be good. There are many “righteousnesses,” or righteous-appearing acts, that can be done. But they can never do a good act for a truly unselfish reason, for the sinful nature is only motivated by selfishness. This is the Romans 1 experience. 

The Holy Spirit, however, is working with everyone, regardless of whether they claim to have a religion or not. Someone can respond to the working of the Holy Spirit in their lives (which is unconscious to them) and do things for truly unselfish reasons in that moment, for they are taking unselfishness from the Holy Spirit and are now able to give unselfishness to others (able to do unselfish things unselfishly in the moment). But in anything where they are not taking from the Holy Spirit in the moment, everything they do is motivated by selfishness. 

When the conscience is enlightened by the truth, but the heart remains in darkness, the conscience sees good as good, but the heart sees good as loss. Where there is a disagreement between the conscience and the heart, the heart wins. Now, you don’t do the good, even though you know it is good, because unconsciously you evaluate it as loss in the heart. In this state, the conscience sees evil as evil, but the heart sees evil as gain. Now, you do the evil, even though you know it is evil, because unconsciously you evaluate it as gain in the heart. This is the Romans 7 experience. 

However, when the conscience AND the heart are both enlightened by the truth, through the working of the Holy Spriit and the cooperation of the individual, the conscience sees the good as good, and the heart sees good as gain, so you do the good (naturally, without any reservation). In this enlightened state, the conscience sees evil as evil, and the heart sees evil as loss, so you don’t do the evil (naturally, without any reservation). This is the Romans 8 experience. This is the condition referred to in DA 668, “All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses.” 

Just as the conscience is enlightened truth by truth, but not all at once, so the heart is enlightened truth by truth not all at once. It is a progressive experience of replacing the error with the truth in the conscience first, and then in the heart, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the cooperation of the individual. True obedience will never be our experience when only the conscience is enlightened but the heart still remains in the darkness of error. We will be frustrated, living in the Romans 7 struggle. It is only as the heart is enlightened with the truth that we will enter into the true experience of obedience, like Christ.

Now, every one of us, since the fall of Adam and Eve, have been born with this innate delusion of the mind. The Bible describes our situation with these words: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalm 51:5. “For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb.” Isaiah 48:8. What is the nature of this inheritance? What are its implications? We will discuss this next. But first, I would like to say that I do not believe that we are born sinners. I believe we are born with a nature (fallen, “sinful,” with propensities to sin) that will inevitably lead us to commit sin. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. 

Unfortunately, we have only understood inheritance in an evolutionary context. From an evolutionary perspective, all we have to inherit is physical information in the form of genetic material (namely DNA), which determines our physical characteristics and spiritual propensities. It is true that the genetic material (made only of chemicals) contains the information that is used to form the cells and the products the cells produce. But the DNA has nothing to do with our spiritual qualities and capacities. It is not the body (chemicals) that gives us our spiritual qualities. It is our spirit. 

Genesis 2:7 tells us that we are composed of two things: dust and breath. And the combination of these two things makes the soul. We do not have a soul. We are a soul. The dust, which is a relatively simple composition of chemicals, became a very complex body. The breath, which appears to be relatively simple in composition, became a very complex spirit. And the combination of both is the soul, or the individual. There can be no life or function without both components. Separated, there is no life or function of either. 

While information can be put into, transmitted by, and extracted from something physical, (for example, words on paper), information never originates in something physical. Information always has a spiritual origin. God is the originator of all information, and Jesus said, “God is spirit.” John 4:24. Satan has rearranged God’s information into error, and angels are “ministering spirits” (Hebrews 1:14). And you and I can think. Why? Because we have a complex arrangement of chemicals called a brain? Or because we have a spirit, which in combination with the brain makes the mind? It is because we have a mind, which includes our spirit. There is not only physical information, but there is spiritual information. 

We do not inherit our spiritual propensities, weaknesses, and strengths from the physical information of DNA. We inherit it through spiritual information. Just as there is a mechanism to transmit physical information from parents to child in the form of genetics, so there is a mechanism to transmit spiritual information from parents to child. The inheritance from parents to child is not just of physical information, but also of spiritual information. The physical information passed from one generation to the next determines the physical characteristics of the child. And the spiritual information passed from one generation to the next determines the spiritual characteristics of the child. 

We all share the same life—the life of Adam. God created Adam, then from Adam’s rib, He created Eve. He created Adam and Eve with the ability to procreate. Procreation is not creation. God does not create a new body each time a child is conceived. And God does not create a new spirit each time a child is conceived. God created the mechanisms needed for unnumbered individuals to be able to come from one life. We all share the life of Adam, but we are each individual. Each time a child is conceived, the physical and spiritual information is combined from father and mother to develop the new body and spirit of the child, such that there is no child exactly alike. This is a wonderful manifestation of the creative mind of God. 

Looking back to the fallen nature, it does not have its origin in the body. It has its origin in the spirit—the mind. It is not passed from one generation to the next through the DNA. It is passed from one generation to the next through spiritual inheritance. And each of us have received the fallen nature, sinful nature, carnal mind, or whatever you wish to call it, by inheritance. What issues we overcome, by God’s grace, before we have children can give them an advantage. And what issues we do not overcome before we have children can give them a disadvantage. But whatever our or their inheritance, “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Romans 5:20. 

This sinful nature, at its very core, views everything from a selfish perspective. It evaluates everything as it relates to and impacts self. It is always motivated by self-preservation. It enjoys self-exaltation. It is naturally proud and selfish, and that perspective taints everything it does. This fallen nature cannot generate a good motive. This fallen nature cannot fix itself. It can do many things that appear good on the outside, but it can never clean itself up on the inside. If it could, there would be no need for a Savior.  If it could, Jesus’ words would be false, “Ye shall know them by their fruits…every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” Matthew 7:16-18. 

The idea that we can use our mind to correct the defects of our mind is similar to thinking that you can use a corrupted, virus-infected computer operating system to fix itself. That is impossible. The only way you can fix the corrupted, virus-infected operating system is to connect the computer with another computer that has an uncorrupted, operating system free from viruses, and use the uncorrupted operating system to overwrite the corrupted one. This is a rough analogy of what is needed for us. Our problem is not a hardware problem. It is a software problem. And no self-help method or psychological approach can fix the problem. For these only attempt to use the corrupted system to fix itself. It will never work. It can never work. There must be a connection to an uncorrupted system first. Then what is uncorrupted can overwrite what is corrupted, and the system can work again as it was supposed to. 

I do not believe that Jesus had a nature just (or only) like ours. Otherwise, He could not be our Savior. If He had a nature just like ours, and only like ours, with nothing other than a nature like ours, He would have been a bad tree that could only produce bad fruit. Let me explain.

The sinful, or fallen, nature is the bad tree. This is the nature of Adam after the fall. The sinless, or unfallen, nature is the good tree. This is the nature of Adam before the fall. Before the fall, Adam only had God for his inheritance, and God is a good tree. Nothing bad comes from Him. So, Adam had nothing bad in himself. But after He mysteriously deceived himself, distrusted God, and trusted Satan as his source, his nature immediately changed from the good tree to the bad tree—not partially, but totally. So did Eve’s. Now, all Adam and Eve could pass on to their children was the fallen nature. And all their children could do was pass on to their children the fallen nature. And this continued generation after generation. That is why scripture describes humanity as “shapen in iniquity” and conceived in sin (Psalm 51:5). 

But scripture’s description of Jesus was different. “But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God.” Psalm 22:9-10. “The Lord has called Me from the womb; from the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name…And now the Lord says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel is gathered to Him (For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and My God shall be My strength), indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’” Isaiah 49:1-6. “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Luke 1:35. These descriptions belong to no one other than Jesus Christ. And these show us that He was not entirely like us at His birth. The record of His life in the gospels clearly shows that He was not like us after His birth. 

Ellen White has much to say regarding how Jesus was different than us: 

“He humbled Himself in taking the nature of man in his fallen condition, but He did not take the taint of sin. As the second Adam He must pass over the ground where Adam fell, meet the wily foe who caused Adam’s and Eve’s fall, and be tempted in all points as man will be tempted, and overcome every temptation in behalf of man.” 8LtMs, Ms 93, 1893, par. 7.

“God…sent from heaven a Sinless Being to manifest to this world of sin what those who are saved must be in character—pure, holy, and undefiled….” Letter 58, 1906. . 3SM 132.5.

“Do not set him before the people as a man with the propensities of sin. He is the second Adam. The first Adam was created a pure, sinless being, without a taint of sin upon him; he was in the image of God. He could fall, and he did fall through transgressing. Because of sin, his posterity was born with inherent propensities of disobedience. But Jesus Christ was the only begotten Son of God. He took upon Himself human nature, and was tempted in all points as human nature is tempted. He could have sinned; He could have fallen, but not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity… His birth was a miracle of God…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…let every human being be warned from the ground of making Christ altogether human, such an one as ourselves, for it cannot be… His faith in His Father’s goodness, mercy, and love did not waver for one moment…On not one occasion was there a response to his manifold temptations. Not once did Christ step on Satan’s ground, to give him any advantage.” 10LtMs, Lt 8, 1895, par. 14-19. 

“He was the Son of the living God. His personality did not begin with His incarnation in the flesh.” 9LtMs, Lt 77, 1894, par. 9.

“Christ did not possess the same sinful, corrupt, fallen disloyalty we possess, for then He could not be a perfect offering.” Manuscript 94, 1893. . 3SM 131.1.

“He was a mighty petitioner, possessing not the passions of our human fallen natures but compassed with like infirmities, tempted in all points even as we are. Jesus endured agony which required help and support from His Father.” 1LtMs, Ms 20, 1868, par. 8.

“By taking upon Himself man’s nature in its fallen condition, Christ did not in the least participate in its sin…There should not be the faintest misgivings in regard to the perfect freedom from sinfulness in the human nature of Christ.” 12LtMs, Ms 143, 1897, par. 8.

“He was subject to temptation, but he yielded not to sin. No taint of sin was upon Him.” 3SM 141.5.

“He is a brother in our infirmities, but not in possessing like passions. As the sinless One, His nature recoiled from evil. He endured struggles and torture of soul in a world of sin.” 2T 201.2.

“While in the world, He was not of the world. It was a continual pain to Him to be brought in contact with the enmity, depravity, and impurity which Satan had brought in; but He had a work to do to bring man into harmony with the divine plan, and earth in connection with heaven, and He counted no sacrifice too great for the accomplishment of the object…the prince of darkness found nothing in Him; not a single thought or feeling responded to temptation… Never before had there walked among men one so noble, so pure, so benevolent, so conscious of His godlike nature; yet so simple, so full of plans and purposes to do good to humanity. While abhorring sin, He wept with compassion over the sinner. He pleased not Himself. The Majesty of heaven clothed Himself with the humility of a child. This is the character of Christ.” 5T 421.2-5T 422.1.

“The enmity put between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman was supernatural. With Christ the enmity was in one sense natural; in another sense it was supernatural, as humanity and divinity were combined. And never was the enmity developed to such a marked degree as when Christ became an inhabitant of this earth. Never before had there been a being upon the earth who hated sin with so perfect a hatred as did Christ. He had seen its deceiving, infatuating power upon the holy angels, and all His powers were enlisted against it.” 1SM 254.2.

“Christ recognized Satan [in the wilderness of temptation] from the beginning, and it required strong self-control to listen to the propositions of this insulting deceiver, and not rebuke his bold assumption. But the Saviour of the world was neither provoked to give him evidence of his divine power, nor to enter into controversy with one who had been expelled from Heaven for leading a rebellion against the supreme Ruler of the universe, and whose very crime had been a refusal to recognize the dignity of the Son of God.” 2SP 93.1.

“Jesus was free from all sin and error; there was not a trace of imperfection in His life or character. He maintained spotless purity under circumstances most trying… Jesus speaks of Himself as well as the Father as God and claims for Himself perfect righteousness. In Christ dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily. This is why, although He was tempted in all points like as we are, He stood before the world, from His first entrance into it, untainted by corruption, though surrounded by it.” 6LtMs, Ms 16, 1890, par. 85-87.

“The heart is the citadel of the whole man. Until the heart shall be wholly on the Lord’s side, Satan will find in man a strong agent, a medium through whom he can work, and no power on earth can dislodge him…if the fruit, in words and deeds is bad, it is because the heart is not given to God. Truth is not dwelling in the soul. Jesus said of Himself shortly before His death, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” [John 14:30.] Not a thought or feeling responded to Satan’s temptations. Christ came to the world sinless, He lived for years in a world of sin, but His soul was like the sunbeam, it shone upon the moral darkness, but was uncontaminated. He ascended into heaven as pure and unspotted as when He left the bosom of His Father. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.” 7LtMs, Lt 8b, 1891, par. 21-22.

While it is true that Jesus was unlike us in these ways, it is also true that He was like us: 

“For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren” Hebrews 2:16-17.

“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.

“He was not only made flesh, but He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. His divine attributes were withheld from relieving His soul anguish or His bodily pains.” 5BC 1124.2.

“In His humanity He had the same free will that Adam had in Eden. He could have yielded to temptation as Adam yielded. And Adam, by believing God and being a doer of His word, could have resisted temptation as Christ resisted it.” 14LtMs, Ms 48, 1899, par. 3. 

“He humbled Himself in taking the nature of man in his fallen condition….” 8LtMs, Ms 93, 1893, par. 7. 

“His human nature was created; it did not even possess the angelic powers. It was human, identical with our own.” 3SM 129.3. 

“Christ, who knew not the least taint of sin or defilement, took our nature in its deteriorated condition.” 1SM 253.1. 

“Adam had the advantage over Christ, in that when he was assailed by the tempter, none of the effects of sin were upon him. He stood in the strength of perfect manhood, possessing the full vigor of mind and body. He was surrounded with the glories of Eden and was in daily communion with heavenly beings. It was not thus with Jesus when He entered the wilderness to cope with Satan. For four thousand years the race had been decreasing in physical strength, in mental power, in moral worth; and Christ took upon Him the infirmities of degenerate humanity. Only thus could He rescue man from the lowest depths of degradation.”  17LtMs, Ms 113, 1902, par. 9.

“He was subject to inconveniences that human nature is subjected to. He breathed the air of the same world we breathe. He stood and traveled in the same world we inhabit.” 3SM 129.4-3SM 130.1.

“Since the Fall the race had been decreasing in size and physical strength, and sinking lower in the scale of moral worth, up to the period of Christ’s advent to the earth. And in order to elevate fallen man, Christ must reach him where he was. He took human nature, and bore the infirmities and degeneracy of the race.” 1SM 268.2.

“There was not a drop of our bitter woe which He did not taste, not a part of our curse which He did not endure….” 1SM 253.2.

“When Christ was upon earth His feelings were often wounded.” 19LtMs, Ms 157, 1904, par. 22. 

“Behold Him making the wants, the trials, the griefs and sufferings of sinful men His own.” 1SM 253.3. 

“He knows by experience what are the weaknesses of humanity, what are our wants, and where lies the strength of our temptations….” DA 329.1. 

“All the suffering which is the result of sin was poured into the bosom of the sinless Son of God…but every pang endured by Christ, every grief, every disquietude, was fulfilling the great plan of man’s redemption.” 3SM 129.1.

“He came as a man, and rendered the obedience of human nature to the only true God. He came not to show us what God could do, but what God did do, and what man, a partaker of the divine nature can do. It was the human nature of Christ that endured the temptations in the wilderness, not His divine nature. In His human nature He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself. He lived a perfect human life…In His humanity, He suffered physical weariness and weakness, hunger, thirst, and sadness. As He saw how obdurate were the hearts of men, He was filled with sorrow.” 11LtMs, Lt 128, 1896, par. 26-27.

“He suffered rejection, coldness, contempt of those He came to bless and humiliated Himself to save them. He suffered weariness, persecution, buffeting, loneliness, anguish, betrayal, and crucifixion. The whole flood tide of human woe was gathered to His soul.” 4LtMs, Lt 7, 1885, par. 21.

“Had He not stood as our representative, Christ’s innocence would have exempted Him from all this anguish, but it was because of His innocence that He felt so keenly the assaults of Satan.” 3SM 129.1.

“Satan stood ready to assail Him at every step, hurling at Him his fiercest temptations….” 5T 421.2. 

“Christ was tempted in all points like as we are. At the thought of the suffering before him, he was filled with conflicting emotions. He said, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause same I unto this hour.” 12LtMs, Ms 77, 1897, par. 7. 

“His trial involved the fierce temptation of thinking that He was forsaken by God. His soul was tortured by the pressure of a horror of great darkness lest He should swerve from His uprightness during the terrible ordeal. He could not have been tempted in all points like as man is tempted had there been no possibility of His failing. He was a free agent, placed on probation, as was Adam and as is man…Unless there is a possibility of yielding, temptation is no temptation. Temptation comes and is resisted when man is powerfully influenced to do a wrong action and, knowing that he can do it, resists by faith, with a firm hold upon divine power. This was the ordeal through which Christ passed. In His closing hours, while hanging upon the cross, He experienced to the fullest extent what man must experience when striving against sin. He realized how bad man may become by yielding to sin. He realized the terrible consequence of the transgression of God’s law, for the iniquity of the whole world was upon Him.” 14LtMs, Ms 29, 1899, par. 10-11.

“If we had to bear anything which Jesus did not endure, then upon this point Satan would represent the power of God as insufficient for us. Therefore Jesus was “in all points tempted like as we are.” Hebrews 4:15. He endured every trial to which we are subject. And He exercised in His own behalf no power that is not freely offered to us. As man, He met temptation, and overcame in the strength given Him from God.” DA 24.2.

“Our Saviour identified Himself with our needs and weakness, in that He became a suppliant, a petitioner, seeking from His Father fresh supplies of strength, that He might come forth braced for duty and trial….His humanity made prayer a necessity and a privilege. He found comfort and joy in communion with His Father.” SC 93.4.

“Satan…declared that no man could keep the law of God after the disobedience of Adam…The Son of God placed Himself in the sinner’s stead, and passed over the ground where Adam fell….He redeemed Adam’s disgraceful failure and fall, and was conqueror, thus testifying to all the unfallen worlds and to fallen humanity that man could keep the commandments of God through the divine power granted to him of heaven.” 3SM 136.1-136.3.

“As God He could not be tempted: but as a man He could be tempted, and that strongly, and could yield to the temptations. His human nature must pass through the same test and trial Adam and Eve passed through. His human nature was created; it did not even possess the angelic powers. It was human, identical with our own.” 3SM 129.3.

“The temptations to which Christ was subjected were a terrible reality. As a free agent He was placed on probation, with liberty to pass under Satan’s jurisdiction, to work at cross-purposes with God. If this were not so, if there was no possibility of His falling, He could not be tempted in all points as the human family is tempted. If it were impossible for Him to yield to temptation, it was no temptation to Him. And the temptations of Christ, and His suffering under them, were proportionate to His exalted, sinless character.” 14LtMs, Ms 93, 1899, par. 19.

“If He withstood temptation in His divine power, then He could not be tempted in all points like man, for it [would] be He was tempted as a God rather than as a man.” 5LtMs, Ms 29, 1887, par. 25.

“We need not place the obedience of Christ by itself as something for which He was particularly adapted, by His particular divine nature, for He stood before God as man’s representative and tempted as man’s substitute and surety. If Christ had a special power which it is not the privilege of man to have, Satan would have made capital of this matter. The work of Christ was to take from the claims of Satan his control of man, and He could do this only in the way that He came—a man, tempted as a man, rendering the obedience of a man…Christ’s overcoming and obedience is that of a true human being…When we give to His human nature a power that it is not possible for man to have in His conflicts with Satan, we destroy the completeness of His humanity. Man cannot overcome Satan’s temptations without divine power to combine with His instrumentality. So with Jesus Christ, He could lay hold of divine power. He came not to our world to give the obedience of a lesser God to a greater, but as a man to obey God’s Holy Law, and in this way He is our example.” 3SM 139.3-3SM 140.1. 

“The conflict was long and earnest, and His divine soul was wrung with anguish, but He yielded not in thought, in word, or in deed. Temptation is not sin; but it is the yielding to temptation that brings bondage and condemnation.” 6LtMs, Lt 9a, 1889, par. 7.

We see that there are many statements showing that Jesus was not exactly like us, and many other statements showing that He was like us. How do we resolve these apparent contradictions? Let us go back to the issue of inheritance. In Desire of Ages, page 48, we are told, “Like every child of Adam [Jesus] 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.”

Remember, inheritance is not just physical. It is also spiritual. Each child receives both physical and spiritual information from father and mother, which combines to develop the body and spirit of the child. The physical characteristics of the child reflect the physical information received from father and mother. And the spiritual characteristics of the child reflect the spiritual information received from father and mother. Who was Jesus’ father? And who was Jesus’ mother? 

Mary was Jesus’ mother. She, like all humanity, had a fallen nature. All she had to pass on to Jesus by inheritance was spiritual information that would develop a fallen nature. Physically, she passed on to Him half of her genome, which never contained a Y chromosome but did have the accumulated defects of 4,000 years of sin. So, for Him to be male, He would need to receive a Y chromosome (as well as the other half of His genome) from His father. And who was His father?

God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, was Jesus’ Father. And the Father is a good tree. Nothing evil, tainted, or degraded comes from Him. He gave to Jesus what was given to Adam at his creation—spiritual information that would develop an unfallen nature. Not only that, but the Father created for Him the Y chromosome and the other half of His genome (untainted and undegraded by sin). 

Thus, by inheritance, Jesus received both the fallen and the unfallen natures. In addition to this, He was also the self-existent, ever-living God, with life in Himself, unborrowed and underived. Yet He never used His divinity to assist His humanity. 

The basis of the fallen nature is that I, the creature, believe I am a god. The basis of the unfallen nature is that I, the creature, believe that I am a creature—a child of God. From His mother, Jesus received the I am god delusion. But from His Father, He received the I am a Child of God reality. When I, a creature, believe I am a god, I separate myself from God as a source and bind (by trust) to others (Satan, humans, animals) as my source. When I believe that I am a child of God, I bind myself by trust to God as my source. 

As long as I am bound to God by trust as my source, I take from Him by faith what I need spiritually, and I operate according to His standard (His law written in my heart and mind), naturally doing His will. But when I am bound to Satan and others by trust as my source, I take from them by faith, and I operate according to a different standard (the law of sin), naturally doing Satan’s will. 

At conversion, or the new birth, by faith I have access to the nature of Christ. Yes, the old man of sin, the fallen nature, is still there, but I, by faith, can live by the nature and power of Christ. I can, by grace through faith, bind myself to God by trust, take from Him what I need by faith, and He begins, with my cooperation, to write His law in my heart and mind through the work of the Holy Spirit. Now, I have access to two natures—one by natural birth, and one by a spiritual rebirth. Now, I don’t only have to live by the old nature. It doesn’t have to rule my life. I can, by the grace of God and through faith, connect with God as my source and remain connected with Him (although the actual experience in our lives is one of connecting and disconnecting, and connecting and disconnecting, but by grace connecting faster, staying connected longer, and disconnecting less often, until we can come to the experience of being connected and not disconnecting). 

This dual nature, which we have access to by faith (in the new birth), was the experience of Jesus from His conception. By His heavenly inheritance, with the true identity that He was a child of God, He bound Himself by trust to His Father, took from His Father what He needed by faith, and had the law written in His heart and mind. As long as He remained connected to His Father this way, though He also had the fallen nature, He would not sin. To cause Him to sin, Satan would have had to convince Jesus to distrust His Father and to trust Satan (or others). This would have resulted in Jesus having Satan, not His Father, as His source. If He did this, Jesus would have fallen just as Adam fell. 

He could have fallen. He could be tempted. But He never fell. And He never had the sinful propensities that we have, because He was connected with His Father from conception. Throughout His entire life, Satan was always trying to get Him to doubt His identity (the Son of God), to trust anything other than His Father, and thus separate from His Father, take another source, and fall. Praise God, He never did!

And by the faith of Christ, and faith in Christ, you and I can overcome as He overcame. No, we don’t begin like Jesus began. We begin with sinful nature from our father AND mother. We have no choice for this. With only sinful nature, all we can do is sin (Sin is not only what you do, but also why you do it. If you do good for a selfish reason, it is still sin.) The bad tree cannot produce good fruit. What we need is a good tree, and that is found in Christ alone. Only by Christ can we have access to the good tree, by faith. And when we, by faith, take ahold of the good tree, now good fruit can be produced. Now we can do good for the right reason. Now our righteousnesses are not filthy rags. Now obedience is true obedience—by faith in the righteousness of Christ. This is the gospel, and it is really good news!

Mark Sandoval