Part II — The Pattern

Two Adams — two heads of the race — 1 Cor. 15:45-47; Rom. 5:19:

• 1 Cor. 15:45. "The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit" — two representative men set over against each other; where the first head of the race fell, a second stands to reverse the ruin.
  • the second Adam = Christ as the new head and representative of the human race, standing where the first Adam fell — but in FALLEN flesh rather than unfallen, rendering unbroken obedience where the first man disobeyed: a real re-run of Adam's probation in the actual condition of Adam's ruined descendants, so that His obedience can be reckoned to the many just as Adam's disobedience was (1 Cor. 15:45, 47; Rom. 5:19, obedience against disobedience as the only contrast between the two heads; Heb. 2:16-17, the seed of Abraham, "made like unto his brethren" — His stand is inside fallen humanity, not above it).
• 1 Cor. 15:46. "Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual" — the order is fixed: the natural man first, then the spiritual; the second Adam enters the natural man's arena to bring forth the spiritual.
• 1 Cor. 15:47. "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven" — the Lord from heaven enters the arena as "the second MAN": a real man of flesh, contesting the same field the first man lost.
• Rom. 5:19. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" — the two heads are contrasted by obedience versus disobedience, not by two different natures; the whole weight of the figure falls on the LIFE each lived in the flesh he had.

Made of a woman, of the seed of David — the lineage He entered — Gal. 4:4-5; Rom. 1:3; Luke 1:35; John 1:14; Phil. 2:7-8:

• Gal. 4:4. "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law" — He entered the human line through a fallen daughter of Adam, and took His stand under the law's curse where guilty man stood.
• Gal. 4:5. "To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" — the reason for the placement: only One standing where we stand can redeem us out of where we stand.
• Rom. 1:3. "made of the seed of David according to the flesh" — not a body new-made as Adam's was in Eden, but David's actual lineage — David, who wrote "in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:5); the flesh He took was that hereditary stream, four thousand years down from Eden.
• WitnessCHR 26.2. Waggoner: "the flesh which He assumed had all the weaknesses and sinful tendencies to which fallen human nature is subject, is shown by the statement that He 'was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.' David had all the passions of human nature." — the pioneer reads Rom. 1:3 exactly so: David's seed, not a sinless being's, and Ps. 51:5 supplied as the receipt.
• Luke 1:35. "that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" — descended from a fallen woman, the hereditary line truly Mary's, yet the child is HOLY: the nature ours by descent, the character sinless from conception, both truths spoken by the angel in one breath (how that life was lived is walked in "Born of Water and of the Spirit — How He Lived, How We Begin").
• John 1:14. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" — MADE flesh, not clothed in the appearance of it; real, present, dwelling flesh, and in it the Father's glory beheld.
• Phil. 2:7. "made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men" — He emptied Himself all the way down into real, humbled humanity.
• Phil. 2:8. "being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" — and in that humanity the triumph is one word: OBEDIENT — obedience unto death.

In the likeness of sinful flesh — real flesh, and sin condemned in it — Rom. 8:3-4:

• Rom. 8:3. "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" — the law was "weak through the flesh," so God met sin on its own ground: the Son came in the likeness of SINFUL flesh — not the likeness of sinless flesh — and there, IN the flesh, condemned sin by never once yielding to it.
  • sinful flesh = the fallen, hereditary, degenerate human nature — weakened by four thousand years of sin, subject to infirmity and tempted from within and without — which Christ actually took ("likeness of sinful flesh" is real fallen flesh, not a mere appearance of it), and in which He never once consented to sin; it names the nature He bore, never any sin He committed, for nature is not sin and His consent never came (Rom. 8:3, sin condemned IN the flesh, not committed by Him; Rom. 1:3, the seed of David; Heb. 2:14, "took part of the same"; Heb. 4:15, "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin"; 2 Cor. 5:21, "made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin").
• WitnessWOR 126.6. Waggoner: "There is a common idea that this means that Christ simulated sinful flesh; that he did not take upon himself actual sinful flesh, but only what appeared to be such. But the Scriptures do not teach such a thing... He took the same flesh that all have who are born of woman." — the phantom-flesh escape hatch closed; "likeness" is not pretence.
• Rom. 8:4. "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" — the purpose of v. 3: because sin was met and mastered in the very flesh we wear, the law's righteousness can now be fulfilled IN US; His victory in fallen flesh is the pledge of ours.
• WitnessWOR 127.2. Waggoner: "Even so Christ came in the same sinful flesh, yet he was without sin, because he was always led by the Spirit." — both truths in one sentence, and the reason named: the LIFE ("always led by the Spirit"), not a different nature.

The same flesh and blood — in all things like unto His brethren — Heb. 2:14-18:

• Heb. 2:14. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same" — THE SAME: the same flesh and blood the children have, taken "that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil."
• Heb. 2:15. "And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" — He entered the bondage to break it from inside.
• Heb. 2:16. "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham" — not an unfallen angel-nature; a son of Abraham's fallen line.
• Heb. 2:17. "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest" — IN ALL THINGS: "the same" and "in all things" bar every escape hatch that would hand Him a different, unfallen humanity.
• Heb. 2:18. "For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted" — the temptation was real SUFFERING, not a staged demonstration; only one tempted in our flesh can succour the tempted.
• WitnessCWCP 27.1-2. Jones: "He was made in the likeness of men, as men are, just where they are. 'The Word was made flesh.' He 'took part of the same' flesh and blood as that of which the children of men are partakers, as they are since man has fallen into sin." — Phil. 2, John 1:14, Heb. 2:14, and Gal. 4:4 walked as one thread: the flesh as it is SINCE the fall.
• Witness3SM 197.3. White: "But many say that Jesus was not like us... But Paul writes, '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...'" — she answers the very objection this section confronts by driving straight to Heb. 2:16-17.

Humanity at its weakest — four thousand years down from Eden — Isa. 53:2-3:

• Isa. 53:2. "he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness" — prophecy fixed the condition beforehand: a root out of DRY ground, humanity with no advantage of soil and no reserves.
• Isa. 53:3. "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief... he was despised, and we esteemed him not" — He wore humanity at its weakest and most unlovely; degenerate flesh, not glorified Adam-flesh.
• WitnessDA 48.6. White: "It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man's nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity." — the pre-fall theory settled: not Eden's flesh, but the line as heredity had left it.
• WitnessDA 117.1-2. White: "Christ took upon Him the infirmities of degenerate humanity... He took the nature of man, with the possibility of yielding to temptation." — degenerate humanity, all its liabilities, a real possibility of failure — or He could not have been placed in Adam's position at all.

Tempted in all points — yet without sin — the double guard — Heb. 4:15; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:22:

• Heb. 4:15. "we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" — both guards in one verse: IN ALL POINTS TEMPTED LIKE AS WE ARE (full identity of nature and temptation), YET WITHOUT SIN (absolute sinlessness). Hold both with equal force; drop either and the High Priest is lost.
• 2 Cor. 5:21. "he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin" — the strongest pairing in Scripture: MADE to be sin (the full weight of fallen flesh and the sinner's condemnation laid on Him) — who KNEW NO SIN (consent never came). Nature and character held apart in six words.
• 1 Pet. 2:22. "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" — in the fallen flesh He bore, the record is spotless: not once.
• Witness1SM 253.1. White: "Christ, who knew not the least taint of sin or defilement, took our nature in its deteriorated condition." — both truths in one line: the deteriorated nature ours, the defilement never His.
• Witness1SM 256.1. White: "In taking upon Himself man's nature in its fallen condition, Christ did not in the least participate in its sin... He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and was in all points tempted like as we are. And yet He knew no sin." — from the chapter titled "Sinlessness of Christ's Human Nature": fallen nature, zero participation in its sin.
• WitnessFLB 49.4. White: "He could have sinned; He could have fallen, but not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity." — quoted honestly: the risk was real ("He could have fallen") and the sinlessness total; the guard is about consent and character — no evil cherished — not a retraction of the fallen nature He took, for nature is not sin (see “What Sin Is — Transgression, Not Inheritance”).

The difference is the life, not the flesh — Heb. 5:8-9:

• Heb. 5:8. "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered" — a real moral warfare, really fought: obedience LEARNED in suffering, not exempted from it.
• Heb. 5:9. "And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him" — perfected through that warfare, He is author of salvation to all who by the same surrender obey.
• WitnessCWCP 84.1. Jones: "Christ attained it in human flesh in this world and thus made and consecrated a way by which, in Him, every believer can attain it." — perfection of character attained IN human flesh opens the same road to the believer (walked out in "Complete Victory — Overcoming as He Overcame").
• WitnessDA 664.4. White: "Jesus revealed no qualities, and exercised no powers, that men may not have through faith in Him. His perfect humanity is that which all His followers may possess, if they will be in subjection to God as He was." — the closing conviction: the difference is the life lived, and that life is offered to us.
• WitnessLOF_ATJ 60.2. Jones: "There is a mystery in how God can be manifest in such sinful flesh as yours." — the doctrine pressed home personally: the flesh He took is YOUR flesh, and that is the ground of your hope.

Conceived of the Holy Ghost — the life begins in the Spirit — Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35:

• Matt. 1:20. "fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost" — His human life begins IN the Spirit; before a word is spoken or a work done, the Son enters our flesh already inside the Spirit-filled, God-surrendered existence — He never knew any other.
• Luke 1:35. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" — mark the two agents of His birth: the Holy Ghost, and the power of the Highest; this exact vocabulary returns upon the church (Acts 1:8).
• Witness1SM 226.2. White: "In His humanity He was a partaker of the divine nature. In His incarnation He gained in a new sense the title of the Son of God" — in OUR nature (see “The Second Adam — The Nature Christ Took”) He was Himself "a partaker of the divine nature" — the very phrase afterward written over the believer (2 Pet. 1:4).
• WitnessMWM 302.1. Millerite conference report (Memoirs of William Miller): the first advent "took place in the days of Herod, when He was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary" — a settled first-advent fact: the Spirit-filled life this section traces starts at His conception.

From childhood the Father's will was His life — Luke 2:49; Ps. 40:8:

• Luke 2:49. "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" — twelve years old, and the Father's will is already the "must" of His existence; the surrendered life did not begin at Jordan — it was His from the first.
• Ps. 40:8. "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart" — the Messianic key: the law WITHIN the heart, obedience by delight and not constraint — the very thing the new birth writes in us (Eze. 36:26-27).

How He lived — the Son can do nothing of Himself — John 5:19, 30; 14:10; Heb. 5:8-9; John 6:57; Gal. 2:20:

• John 5:19. "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do" — the astonishing disclaimer: in the flesh He took, Christ renounces independent power; He lived as man must live — by dependence.
• John 5:30. "I can of mine own self do nothing... I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me" — the confession restated: not His own will but the Father's; the surrendered will is the mechanism of the sinless life.
• John 14:10. "the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works" — the works were the Father's, wrought through an indwelt, surrendered man — the very arrangement offered to us.
• WitnessDA 208.2. White: "So utterly was Christ emptied of self that He made no plans for Himself. He accepted God's plans for Him... So should we depend upon God, that our lives may be the simple outworking of His will" — His "can do nothing of Himself" means total surrender and total dependence — and the sentence ends on us: "so should we."
• WitnessSC 75.2. White: "The Saviour has said of Himself, 'The Son can do nothing of Himself;' 'the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.'... We shall work as He worked; we shall manifest the same spirit" — John 5:19 and 14:10 read as one truth and handed straight to the believer.
• WitnessDA 363.1. White: "As a man He supplicated the throne of God till His humanity was charged with a heavenly current that should connect humanity with divinity... His experience is to be ours" — the channel named: AS A MAN He drew from God; power came by dependence, prayed for and received — and the paragraph closes by handing that experience over.
• Heb. 5:8-9. "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him" — obedience LEARNED, in suffering flesh: the sinless life was a lived acquisition, not an exercised advantage — and its fruit is salvation "unto all them that obey him."
• WitnessCHR 27.3. Waggoner: "not only counted as a sinner but actually taking upon Himself sinful nature... 'in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin'" — the nature was ours (see “The Second Adam — The Nature Christ Took”); the sinlessness was in never consenting — for sin is in the consent, not the flesh (see “What Sin Is — Transgression, Not Inheritance”).
• WitnessDA 117.2. White: "our Saviour took humanity, with all its liabilities. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of yielding to temptation. We have nothing to bear which He has not endured" — therefore His victory was won by no advantage withheld from us; what He used, we may use.
• John 6:57. "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me" — Christ names His own life-principle and hands it over in the same breath: the dependence He lived by becomes the dependence we live by.
• Gal. 2:20. "the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God" — the mechanism made explicit: the indwelt, surrendered life is lived BY FAITH — and not a faith we manufacture, but "the faith of the Son of God," His own faith imparted.

What He was by birth, we become by the new birth — John 3:3-7:

• John 3:3. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" — not reform, not resolve: a BIRTH; nothing less can even see the kingdom.
• John 3:4. "How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" — Nicodemus's bewilderment measures the demand: the change required is as total as beginning life over.
• John 3:5. "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" — the charter of the second birth: water AND Spirit, together, or no entrance.
  • the new birth (born again / born of water and of the Spirit) = the Spirit re-creating the whole man — "an entire change of the entire man" (TDG 48.4), a new heart and new spirit given (Eze. 36:26-27), making a "new creature" (2 Cor. 5:17) able to see and enter the kingdom — the second birth that puts a man where Christ stood from His first: inside the Spirit-filled, God-surrendered life (John 3:5-7; Titus 3:5; 2 Pet. 1:4).
• John 3:6. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" — the flesh reproduces only itself (see “What Sin Is — Transgression, Not Inheritance”); only a second parentage produces a second kind of man.
• John 3:7. "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again" — His "must" was the Father's business (Luke 2:49); ours is the birth that brings us into it.
• WitnessDA 171.5. White: "Nicodemus knew that Christ here referred to water baptism and the renewing of the heart by the Spirit of God" — water = baptism; Spirit = the renewed heart; the two are one requirement, not two.
• WitnessTDG 48.4. White: "Transformation of heart means an entire change of the entire man... it is an inward work, and yet, it is seen, because it works outward from within" — the new birth is total, and it shows.

The washing — the laver of regeneration — cleansing joined to power — Titus 3:5; Eph. 5:26; Eze. 36:25-27:

• Titus 3:5. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" — the two clauses are one act: washing (cleansing) joined to renewing (power), and neither is by works.
  • the washing / the laver of regeneration (regeneration by water, word, and Spirit) = the cleansing of regeneration in which washing and power are inseparable — the clean water (Eze. 36:25), the word (Eph. 5:26), and the renewing Spirit (Titus 3:5) are one act, which both removes the filthiness AND puts the Spirit within to cause the cleansed one to walk in God's statutes (Eze. 36:27; Zech. 4:6).
• Eph. 5:26. "That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word" — the washing water is the word: the cleansing is wrought by water and word and Spirit together (John 3:5; Titus 3:5).
• Eze. 36:25. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you" — the OT washing-promise: God does the sprinkling and God does the cleansing.
• Eze. 36:26. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh" — the washing is joined to a transplant: stony heart out, heart of flesh in — the new birth in prophecy.
• Eze. 36:27. "And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them" — cleansing (v. 25) is joined to power (v. 27): the indwelling Spirit CAUSES the walk — the delight-obedience Christ had from birth (Ps. 40:8) now promised to us.
• WitnessSD 105.3. White: "All true reformation begins with soul-cleansing. It is by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the mind through the power of the Holy Spirit, that a change is wrought in the life" — washing and power never separated; a cleansing without the Spirit's renewing is no regeneration.

Not by might — the power named and offered — Zech. 4:6; Acts 1:8:

• Zech. 4:6. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts" — the power-source of the whole re-creation named once for all: human might is expressly ruled out — the Spirit-not-flesh principle by which Christ lived and by which we are re-made.
• WitnessCOL 66.1. White: "As the plant receives the sunshine, the dew, and the rain, we are to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit. The work is to be done 'not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts'" — after the birth, growth runs by the same law: receiving, not achieving.
• Acts 1:8. "ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me" — hear Luke 1:35 again: the Holy Ghost "come upon," the power of the Highest — the overshadowing of His birth becomes the endowment of ours.

The result — a new creature, partaker of the divine nature — 2 Cor. 5:17; 2 Pet. 1:4:

• 2 Cor. 5:17. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" — the finished result: not the old man improved but a new creation, living from the same source Christ lived from.
• 2 Pet. 1:4. "that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" — the very phrase 1SM 226.2 used of Christ's humanity is now written over the believer: what He was, we are made.
• WitnessCWCP 43.4. Jones: "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh... condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit... for to make in Himself of twain [God and man] one new man" — the purpose of the incarnation lands here: righteousness fulfilled IN US who walk after the Spirit; the "one new man" is the new creature of 2 Cor. 5:17 — the ground of "Complete Victory — Overcoming as He Overcame."