sawdust said:
Actually it might be me that needs an interpreter.
I think what I was trying to get at in my last post is understanding whether it's correct to say if the humanity of Christ is created. (?)
What I've been hearing you say (at least what I think you've been saying) is that Christ's humanity didn't pre-exist but was created. Also in the back of my mind is another thread in which you posted regarding the giving of the soul at birth and that, as the soul is created by God we become human beings at birth. Indeed I got the impression from that thread that it is our soul that makes us distinct from all other life forms on this planet. And because each soul is God's creation it is why we can call ourselves human as distinct from being just another animal. (as the evolutionists want us to believe)
So therefore to say Christ is fully human leads me to think that His humanity must also have been created just like ours. (except His creation being unique in the forming of His body due to the work of the Holy Spirit at conceptipn)
I am most probably confusing you because I tend to think of many concepts at once trying to link them all together. At the moment I'm trying to see the whole picture of Christ's Deity and humanity, what it means to be human (for both Him and us), how human is distinct from animal, being created, being uncreated. Sometimes for me trying to understand one single thought is like trying to pick out a single drop of water in a river. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense until I can identify every drop, then I can sit back and say .... Ahah! It's a river!
Plus it's late at night right now and my brain is drained. No rivers running, more like a sludge pool.
I have a cousin who is Israeli. He speaks fluent Hebrew. Just recently I asked him about Psalm 22:10...
The NIV, reads...
"From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother's womb you have been my God."
He wrote:
Ill translate every word separately and the try to translate the whole sentence:
עליך = On you
השלכתי = I Projected
מרחם = From the womb
מבטן אמי = From my mothers womb
אלי אתה = You are my God
Now the whole sentence:
עליך השלכתי מרחם מבטן אמי אלי אתה = On you I projected From the womb from my mothers womb you are my God.
It was only from the womb that the soul of Jesus had God as his God. From that, I would have to assume that the soul of Jesus did not pre-exist. For if his soul did, it would have to read more like, "before the womb" you were my God.
I do not claim to be an expert here, but from what I can see in the Scriptures it appears that way. It means that Jesus did not become a living soul until he was "from the womb." Now, do not confuse that with his Deity! His Deity always existed. Never was a time that He did not exist. He was never created, and through him all things were created. Just the same, in knowing all things, his Deity always knew what it would be like to totally identify with humanity. At any moment prior to the birth of Christ, God already knew what it was like to become a man. It was for our sakes that Jesus was made manifest, not God's. For, God knows all things. He never learns. He is always knowing the past, present, and future simultaneously.
Jesus' humanity was created. Matter of fact, Paul warned that we are no longer to know him after that creation!
"Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer." 2 Corinthians 5:16
Jesus Christ is the same, today, yesterday, and tomorrow. Yet, his humanity has changed. We are to no longer know him after the flesh. That is because his humanity of flesh was not Deity, but only a means by which Deity communicates with creation... and is in total identification with men.
1 Corinthians 15:39-40 niv
"All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another."
We were citizens of this earth... our bodies are made of the elements of the earth. When in Heaven, our bodies will be of the elements of Heaven. We will have a body just like our Lord's glorious body. (we will feel great!)
Deity never changes. The body Christ Jesus now has is no longer the same body he had being born of Mary. It has been transformed into a body higher than that of angels. Just like we will become
transformed at the rapture.
1 Corinthians 15:52 niv
"..in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed."
Yet, the Lord's soul remains the same! The same type of soul we have (humanity). Yet, through his new glorious Heavenly body, his soul is experiencing a greater capacity to know God and the creation. The fullness of Deity now manifests in bodily form! No creature can know God more than what Christ Jesus now contains in his human soul! Man was created in God's image , and now is experiencing that full potential in Christ. Yet, Christ is uniquely begotten by the Father. No one else will ever be his equal. He is the highest manifestation of God. All we could ever know about God is contained in Him. He is the way to knowing God. To hear the Lord speak is to hear God speaking. To see the Lord walk, is to see God walking. You can not separate the two.
His body will become our body in the resurrection. Right now we are not even to know each other after the flesh. The flesh was co-crucified with Christ on the Cross, which is doomed to perish. We are now to know each other after our souls, that is, if we are walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. If we see a believer living according to the power of the flesh we are looking not at the real person as God sees him, but at a dead man.
Therfore, we are to no longer know each other after the flesh. We are to know each other according to God's Word. We know each other by faith and in love. Without faith, love is squelched. Without faith the Holy Spirit is held prisoner in our body. He can be grieved. He can be squelched.
Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. The greater our faith, the greater our capacity for love. The greater the opportunity the Holy Spirit has to glorify Christ in us! Which is to love the Lord... Whom is the Word! (John 1:1)
Grace and peace, GeneZ