[Biblemat] A) DID JESUS HAVE A HUMAN SPIRIT?

[J5827Sasser at wmconnect.com]

Brethren and Friends, Jim Sasser here.  A very good Monday
morning to each and everyone.  May God bless you and yours.
Here is an article from my files:

DID JESUS HAVE A HUMAN SPIRIT?

     There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus had a human body while He lived 
on earth.  Like all human beings, He was
born of a woman (Gal. 4:4) and grew like other little boys (Lk.
2:52).  With a fleshly body, He knew what it is to be weary
(Jno. 4:6), thirsty (Jno. 4:6; 19:28) and hungry (Matt. 4:2).
Likewise, He could agonize over the baptism of suffering, knowing that He, 
too, must experience it (Lk. 12:50; 22:42).

     In His fleshly body, He was subject to the temptations of
the devil (Matt. 4:1-11), and because of that, He knows how
difficult it is to resist them.  Satan tried the same three aven-
ues that he used on Mother Eve -- the lust of the eye, the lust
of the flesh and the pride of life (Gen. 3:6; 1 Jno. 2:15,16).  Be-
cause of His suffering, "we do not have a High Priest who can-
not sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points
tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 2:18).

     Yes, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jno.
1:14), but did the Son of God have a human spirit?  Some
writers have maintained that He did have a human spirit and,
since He overcame temptations, He demonstrated that human
beings can live above sin.  It seems to me that such a prem-
ise ignores a couple of notable facts.

     1. Human spirits are created.  Man was created in the image and likeness 
of God (Gen. 1:27; 1 Cor. 11:70.  Since
God is not composed of flesh and bones {He is a spirit, Jno. 
4:24}, it was not man's body, but his spirit, that was made in
the image of God.  The Bible teaches that God "forms the
spirit of man within him" (Zech. 12:1).  He is the "Father of
our spirits" (Heb. 12:9).  Some "scholars" among us need to
be careful, lest they back themselves into the Jehovah's Witn-
ess position -- that Jesus was a created being!

     2. The Word that "became flesh and dwelt among us" is,
was, and always will be, God -- Deity (Jno. 1:1-4,14).  Of what-
ever Jesus "emptied Himself," as per Phil. 2:5-8, it cannot be
His Deity, for He cannot deny His essential nature: "He cann-
ot deny Himself" (2 Tim. 2:13).

     Perhaps it would be best to accept the NKJV rendering
"but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-
servant, and coming in the likeness of men..."

     He did not have a human spirit!   ---- James E. Cooper in
Biblical Insights, Vol. 6, No. 11, 2006.

(Did Jesus have a spirit?  We are told that He groaned in His
spirit.  We are also told that He gave up His spirit.  And if we
argue that Jesus was fully man and fully God while upon the
earth, how could this be if He did not have a spirit as man
does while upon the earth?  The spirit that we have within us
while upon the earth was given by God and it is that which
will return to God upon our death.  God will either banish the
spirit to an everlasting hell or He will receive it unto Himself for an 
everlasting peace with Him in heaven.  We are told that
God created for Jesus a body, (Heb. 10:5).  Upon creating
this body, what kind of spirit was placed within it?  If man's
spirit is eternal, made in the image of God, why could the
body that God created for His Son, not have an everlasting
spirit within it?  It would still return to God who gave it would
it not?  How much God would that take away from Jesus if
he did have an everlasting spirit such as God placed within
man when He created Him?  I think that Jesus had a spirit
within Him while He was upon the earth and that that spirit
was everlasting like the spirit that was placed in man.  But, in
no way would that do away with His Godhood.  It is true that
God is a Spirit and that those who worship Him must worship
Him in spirit and truth.  But while Jesus was upon the earth
He was encased in the body of a man and denied that He was
a Spirit as God in heaven is a Spirit.  He told His disciples to
touch Him even after His death, saying that a spirit hath not
flesh and bones as you see me having.  So, while in the flesh,
Jesus had a spirit, but He Himself denied that He was Spirit.
We can accept Jesus as being fully man, having an everlast-
ing spirit, and not deny His being fully God.  For the body that God created 
for Immanuel, came into this earth as seed
of woman, a fleshly body, and had a spirit within that body.
How can we argue that He was fully man and leave out the
spirit that the fleshly body encases while upon this earth?
JWS).
   </HTML>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.biblematters.net/pipermail/biblemat/attachments/20070430/d474da14/attachment-0001.html