First Quarter 2005 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
"His Wondrous Cross"
The Story of Our Redemption

Insights to Lesson 4:
A Body You Have Prepared for Me
January 15-21

(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)

“There is but one mediator between God and man. In heaven this great truth was announced. A voice from the throne was heard, saying, ‘Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me’” (Review and Herald, Nov. 11, 1890).

When Jesus left the throne, He left “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). The “body” which God “prepared” for Him, was one which would equip and qualify Him to be the Savior of the world. Any confusion or discrepancy in our understanding of that “body,” necessarily involves confusion and misunderstanding of the gospel of salvation. Those who are called to give the final gospel presentation to every “nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (Rev. 14:6) as a prerequisite to the second advent, must understand that “prepared body” clearly. “The Lord in His great mercy sent” us in 1888 a message to focus our attention on the humanity of Jesus, as well as on His divinity.

The book of Hebrews provides the most extensive and complete discussion of the preparation and qualifications of Christ as our Savior/High Priest. Since His ministry on earth and His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary are but two phases of one saving ministry, what Hebrews describes is the process by which Christ was qualified to be the Savior. What were these qualifications?

Hebrews opens with a discussion of the divinity of Christ. His condescension in becoming man, in taking that “prepared body,” can only be rightly appreciated when there is an understanding of where He was before He condescended. He was in the form and the nature of God. This is the message of Hebrews one.

Yet it should be noted that as God He could not save us. In order to be the Savior, He must undergo a change by taking on the form and the nature of man. This is the significance of the “prepared body” and this is the topic of Hebrews chapter two. Just as He is declared to be fully God in chapter one, He is then declared to be fully man in chapter two. His nature as God is defined in chapter one. His nature as man is defined in chapter two. There is an argument based upon parallelism here presented. To compromise the nature He assumed in chapter two, implicates and compromises His nature in chapter one. Just as He is God and there is no shadow of any distinction between Him and the divine nature, He became man with no shadow of any distinction between Him and human nature.

In chapter one He is the brightness of God’s glory and “the express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3). In chapter one He is “so much better than the angels” (vs. 4). In chapter one God the Father speaks to Him in the words, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever” (vs. 8). In chapter one the Father says, “Let all the angels of God worship Him” (vs. 6). Only God is worthy of worship. Christ is God, therefore He is worthy of worship. Thus we see in chapter one Christ presented as God in the highest sense, equal with the Father, sharing all the prerogatives of divinity from eternity past. Now as we turn to chapter two we see and begin to comprehend His condescension.

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9, NKJV). In chapter one He was “so much better than the angels.” “But we see Jesus” in chapter two, made “lower than the angels.” Adam was made lower than the angels (see Heb. 2:7), but he was not made “lower” “for the suffering of death.” In being made man, Jesus descended lower than the angels and lower than Adam as he was in the garden of Eden. He was made lower “for the suffering of death.” Here is clearly presented a difference in the nature of the unfallen Adam and nature which Christ assumed.

The description of His condescension continues in verse fourteen: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same.” “All the words that could be used to make this plain and positive are here put together in a single sentence” (A. T. Jones, one of the “1888” messengers, The Consecrated Way, p. 29, new ed.). Why? Because this is the most important single point to be made concerning the humanity of the Savior. It is so important that after using every possible word to make the point in a single sentence, it is reiterated again just three verses later. “Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren” (vs. 17). The term “behoved” means He “must,” He “ought,” He is “under moral obligation,” to be “made like His brethren.”

Why “must” He be made “in all things” “like His brethren”? The Bible gives plain answers. He must be made like them in order “that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14-15). And again He must be made like them “that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people” (vs. 17). Here we see two phases of His saving work, His work on earth where He would destroy Satan’s work through His death, and His work in the sanctuary, where He would “make reconciliation for the sins of the people.”

Thus we understand that according to the second chapter of Hebrews, the nature which Christ took in the incarnation is essential to both His work as Redeemer and His work as High Priest. To change His equipment, to modify that “prepared body,” is to disqualify Him from being the Savior and thus destroy the gospel. “For Him to be separated a single degree, or a shadow of a single degree, in any sense, from the nature of those whom He came to redeem would be only to miss everything” (The Consecrated Way, p. 40, new ed.). This is why Paul used every possible word to make the point abundantly clear, and then repeated the thought again. “For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham” (vs. 16). He took a nature like Abraham’s, which was a long way from Adam’s. “Think of Christ’s humiliation. He took upon Himself fallen, suffering human nature, degraded and defiled by sin” (SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 1147). Taking “fallen, suffering human nature” was essential to His qualifications both as the Lamb of God, and as our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary.

“Christ is the ladder that Jacob saw, the base resting on the earth, and the topmost round reaching to the gate of heaven, to the very threshold of glory. If that ladder had failed by a single step of reaching the earth, we would have been lost. But Christ reaches us where we are. He took our nature [not unfallen Adam’s] and overcame, that we through taking His nature might overcome. Made ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh’ (Rom. 8:3), He lived a sinless life” (The Desire of Ages, p. 311).

Why would we have been “lost,” had Christ assumed a nature that was not “in all things” identical with ours? Two major requirements had to be met in order to redeem mankind. Christ had to “fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15) in order to be “our righteousness” (Jer. 23:6). And He had to die in order to pay the penalty of our sin. Had He taken an unfallen nature He could not die. Had He taken an unfallen nature He could not be tempted “in all points” like we are and thus He could not provide a righteousness to substitute for our failures “in all points.”

We are tempted to commit ten categories of transgression (i.e., the ten points of the Decalogue) and these temptations come from three sources, the world, the flesh, and the devil. These “thirty temptations” constitute “all points.” If Christ was not tempted on all “thirty points,” then He did not get the victory “in all points” and thus He did not produce the righteousness that we need to substitute for our failure “in all points.”

It must be recognized that if He was not “in all things . . . made like unto His brethren,” He could not be tempted “in all points” like them. Yes. He could be tempted. Unfallen Adam was tempted, but not like us. He could only be tempted from without by the world and the devil. He could not be tempted from within by the flesh, for he had no sinful flesh with which to contend. While temptations do come from without, the strongest temptations always come from within. “The Christian is to realize that he is not his own, but that he has been bought with a price. His strongest temptations will come from within; for he must battle against the inclinations of the natural heart” (The Bible Echo, Dec. 1, 1892). Thus we see that if Christ only met temptations from without, He not only would have bypassed some temptations, He would have bypassed the strongest ones. This would be bad news indeed. His righteousness would be wholly inadequate. It would not cover our worst and most frequent failures. Thus He would have failed to be an adequate redeemer. And not only that, He also would have failed to qualify as an adequate High Priest.

Hebrews continues its description of the priestly qualifications in 2:18: “For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.” The sense given in the original Greek of this passage is that it is only in that He has suffered being tempted that He can aid those who are tempted. Thus we conclude that had Christ assumed a nature which was in any sense different from ours, He not only would have failed as redeemer, He also would have failed to qualify as our great High Priest.

Thankfully this is not the case. The Ellen G. White quotation cited above does not end there. The next words are “The Lord knows our weaknesses” (ibid.). He “knows” them because He took them. He lived with them for thirty-three years and He conquered all the temptations that arise because of them. And even now, although He arose with a glorified human nature, no longer subject to the temptations of the flesh, He still remembers and thus “knows” the nature of our struggle and He is still “touched with the feeling” (Heb. 4:15) of our infirmities. Therefore He is a great high priest, fully qualified “to make reconciliation for the sins of the people” (2:17).

—Kelvin (Mark) Duncan

Read the study notes for lesson 5