Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Jesus Was/Is Fully Human (1 John 4:2)

1 John 4:2
“This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God."
Another translation says:
"How can you recognize God’s spirit? Every spirit who confesses Jesus Messiah as the one coming as a fully human being…”  (The One God, the Father, One Man Messiah Translation.)
So what’s the big deal?  Everyone has come in the flesh (Greek word “sarx”).  We are all fleshly human beings, even animals are flesh. 

One person said, “What John is getting at when he says 'they deny that Jesus is come in the flesh' is that they deny Christ has ANY POWER over their flesh.  They preach that Christ has ONLY come "in their spirit" and their flesh remains the same until the day they die (or until Christ's return and he changes their flesh).”

That explanation is not found in the text.  This is not to mention that Jesus the Messiah has no power over any flesh (humans).  It is without a doubt that Christ had power over his own flesh, i.e., he overcame the temptations of the flesh. We all have a free choice to reject or give into temptation (1 Cor. 10:13).

 But the word for “flesh” in that verse means “flesh,” i.e, a “human being” just like all of us. Being in the flesh (according to context)  is a human being, and Trinitarians deny this by saying he was fully human and fully God.  Jesus didn’t  come “into flesh” as though he pre-existed in some other form and ‘transferred’ himself from heaven into a woman’s womb.  If Jesus preexisted he could not be fully human but simply dressed up to appear as a human being.  

Jesus was and is a full human being.  He is still a man.  (1 Tim. 2:5)