The Christadelphian October 1907, C.C. Walker

“Current Controversies”

Brother J. Y., strongly condemning the attitude of the Christadelphian on the subjects of Adam, Mortality, Condemnation, The Nature and Sacrifice of Christ, specifies what he calls our “heresies” as follows:—

(1) That Adam was not created mortal but became mortal as the result of transgression. That God punished him by implanting sin in his physical constitution as a law of his being inherent in his flesh and all his posterity, rendering them, from their birth unclean, filthy, condemned sinful flesh, being thus condemned, cursed, for original sin, as all were in Adam’s loins when he sinned.

(2) More a Christadelphian heresy of many years growth. . . . That Jesus, because he was identically the nature of the race, he also was condemned sinful flesh, defiled, unclean, needing justification, therefore, if considered alone apart from the race, must die, and that for himself, be cut off for himself as well as for the people. That God condemned him with the Eden and Mosaic curses. That He forced the crucifixion, using those who put him to death as His instruments, or executioners, to satisfy all the claims of the law, saying this is a declaration of the righteousness of God in condemning sinful flesh in the person of Christ its representative, the head of the serpent bruised, the body of sin destroyed. That Christ was not holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners in his mortal lifetime. Putting this all together, we cannot but regard it as a damnable heresy, even denying the Lord that bought us (2 Peter 2:1).

Answer.—We give brother J. Y. credit for perfect sincerity in his outspoken criticism, and acquit him of all suspicion of malevolence. And we assure him that we are not given to despising “the poor man’s wisdom,” though we are naturally careful to make sure that what any “poor man” may present is “wisdom” before accepting it. We regard this case as an illustration of the evil wrought by men who begin to speculate in print on things too high for them.

As to Adam and mortality, Paul says: “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” If Adam did not “become mortal as the result of transgression,” then is not “death by sin.” We use the word mortal in the Bible sense—subject to death—having the sentence of death in oneself (2 Cor. 1:9), or the law of sin and death in one’s members (Rom. 7:28). Those who teach that Adam was created “mortal” have foisted another meaning on to the term, namely, “capable of dying,” but not necessarily “subject to death.” We have nothing to do with this. It is not Bible doctrine, and we repudiate it.

As to God “implanting sin in (Adam’s) physical constitution as a law of his being,” brother J. Y. and others entirely misrepresent the Christadelphian and its late and present editor over this matter. They put it as if we believed and said that God personally and individually inserted some physical element into Adam after transgression. Nothing of the kind has ever been said or meant. As to the chemistry of the subject, if we may so speak, we are not called upon to speculate upon it. But as to Bible definition, we point to the form of sound words of the apostles. Could you say that Adam had a law of sin and death “in his members” before transgression? You could not. Could you help saying that he had such a law in his members afterwards? You could not if you followed Paul and inspiration. So here was a change in physical constitution consequent upon sin, which at last resulted in death. No man understands the balance of life even in mortality. We cannot hope, therefore, this side the Kingdom of God to understand the precise interference with the balance of life that was Adam’s before sin entered the world. All we know (because we are told it by God through an apostle) is that death in relation to man is “by sin.”

Brother J. Y. repudiates some scriptural terms as “heresy.” Such as “unclean,” “condemned,” “sinful flesh.” “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one” (Job. 14:4). “Judgment came upon all to condemnation” (Rom. 5:18). Christ sent in the likeness of “sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3). These things are written of Adam’s posterity in general, and it is a serious matter to brand them as “heresy.”

With regard to J. Y.’s second schedule, it must be remarked that we cannot and must not attempt to “consider Christ alone apart from the race.” The Bible does not present him “alone, apart from the race.” The Bible presents him as “the Son of Man made strong by the Father for himself,” and the Lord Jesus was always insisting on the fact that he was “the Son of Man.” Great confusion has arisen from the earliest days of Christianity through speculations over Christ considered “alone, apart from the race.” No Christadelphian ought even to look at such considerations. They are outside the divine philosophy.

It is scripturally declared that God sent forth His Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3); that is as being a partaker of flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14), which flesh and blood is under condemnation to death because of sin (Rom 5.). It is testified that God “gave him for a covenant,” commanding him to lay down his life that he might take it again (Jno. 10:17) that thus through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil (Heb. 2:14), or in other words put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Heb. 9:26) and so obtain eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12) for himself first and then for “his people.”

We do not say that “God condemned Jesus,” for that would imply moral reprobation, which is unthinkable; but we do say that God raised him up in the already condemned line of Adam and David “to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” God certainly used the Jews and Romans as His instruments in the Crucifixion, which was a pre-determined necessity, as Jesus so often declared, saying, “The Son of Man must be lifted up.” “They shall crucify him.” “He must be slain . . . and rise from the dead the third day.” We showed this clearly in an answer in the August issue on “Given for a Covenant,” and cannot well understand a “poor man” professing “wisdom” even calling it in question for a moment, let alone branding it as “heresy.”

J. Y. and others ought not to say that the Christadelphian holds and teaches “that Christ was not holy, harmless and undefiled, and separate from sinners in his mortal lifetime.” He ought to know, for he says he has read all sides, that the Shield quoted Heb. 7:26 to attempt to prove that Jesus was “undefiled in every sense,” i.e., in nature as well as character! It is true that this particular expression has since been dropped; but the idea remains, or at any rate is not repudiated. We believe and teach that the Lord Jesus, in the days of his flesh, was holy, harmless, and undefiled in character, though burdened with the sin-nature from which he was to be delivered “through death.” “The flesh” is a “vile body,” or, if the expression be preferred “a body of humiliation” (Phil. 3:21). We can assure J. Y. that we shall never give place to the teaching that it is a clean and honourable thing. We know better, both from the Scriptures and our own distressed experience, internal and external. The present controversy in certain parts of the world is only a recrudescence of the old Renunciationist ideas slightly modified. These things are repeated in every generation. We advise all to cleave to the scriptures, and those standard Christadelphian writings as Elpis Israel, Eureka, Christendom Astray, &c., by which the scriptures have been opened up to them. Attention is directed to a series of scripturally attested propositions on the Nature of Man and the Sacrifice of Christ appearing on another page of this issue.

“The Nature of Man and the Sacrifice of Christ”

THE following propositions were drawn up in Melbourne by the late editor of the Christadelphian when combatting error in that place in 1896. They appear in the Christadelphian for September, 1896, page 339, and are here reproduced as bearing upon the present position. They state simply and directly the truth that the present Editor of the Christadelphian is fully determined to uphold. If any repudiate this doctrine as “heresy” we do not desire their company any longer. The world is wide; they should seek society elsewhere. Christ is coming and will settle all things with divine authority.

1.—That death entered the World of mankind by Adam’s disobedience. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Rom. 5:12). “In (by or through) Adam all die” (1 Cor. 15:22). “Through the offence of one many are dead” (Rom. 5:15).

2.—That death came by decree extraneously to the nature bestowed upon Adam in Eden, and was not inherent in him before sentence. “God made man in his own image . . . a living soul (a body of life) . . . very good” (Gen. 1:27: 2:7: 1:31). “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife . . . unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen. 3:17, 19).

3.—Since that time, death has been a bodily law.—“The body is dead because of sin” (Rom. 8:10). “The law of sin in my members . . . the body of this death” (Rom. 7:23, 24). “This mortal . . . we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened” (1 Cor. 15:53; 2 Cor. 5:4). “Having the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9).

4.—The human body is therefore a body of death requiring redemption.—“Waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23). “He shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his own glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24). “This mortal (body) must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:53).

5.—That the flesh resulting from the condemnation of human nature to death because of sin, has no good in itself, but requires to be illuminated from the outside.—“In me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:18). “Sin dwelleth in me” (Ib. 20). “The law of sin which is in my members” (Ib. 23). “Every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights” (James 1:17). “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts” (Matt. 15:19). “He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption” (Gal. 6:8). “Put off the old man which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts” (Eph. 4:22).

6.—That God’s method for the return of sinful man to favour required and appointed the putting to death of man’s condemned and evil nature in a representative man of spotless character, whom he should provide, to declare and uphold the righteousness of God, as the first condition of restoration, that he might be just while justifying the unjust, who should believingly approach through him in humility, confession, and reformation.—“God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3). “Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the same, that through death he might destroy that having the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14), “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body to the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). “Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed” (Rom. 6:6). “He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the World” (Jno. 16:33). “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).

7.—That the death of Christ was by God’s own appointment, and not by human accident, though brought about by human instrumentality. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32). “Him being delivered by the determinate council and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:23). “Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:27). “No man taketh it—my life—from me, but I lay it down of myself; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (Jno. 10:18).

8.—That the death of Christ was not a mere martyrdom, but an element in the process of reconciliation.—“You that sometimes were alienated in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death”—(Col. 1:21). “When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:10). “He was wounded for our transgressions: He was bruised for our iniquity: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). “I lay down my life for my sheep” (Jno. 10:15). “Having, therefore, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, let us draw near” (Heb. 10:20).

9.—That the shedding of his blood was essential for our salvation. “Being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Rom. 5:9). “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even for the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:14). “Without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb. 9:22). “This is the new covenant in my blood, shed for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28). “The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” (Jno. 1:29). “Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Rev. 1:5). “Have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14).

10.—That Christ was himself saved in the Redemption he wrought out for us. “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 obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Heb. 5:7–9). “Joint heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). “By his own blood he entered once unto the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12). “Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect, &c.” (Heb. 13:20).

11.—That as the anti-typical High Priest, it was necessary that he should offer for himself as well as for those whom he represented—“And by reason hereof, he ought as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he that said unto him, &c.” (Heb. 5:3). “Wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer” (Heb. 8:3). “Through the Eternal Spirit, he offered himself without spot unto God” (Heb. 9:14). “Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people’s: for this he did once when he offered up himself” (Heb. 7:27). “It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens (that is, the symbols employed under the law), should be purified with these (Mosaic sacrifices), but the heavenly things themselves (that is, Christ who is the substance prefigured in the law), with better sacrifices than these” (that is, the sacrifice of Christ—Heb. 9:23).