Did Jesus Have an Advantage over Pre-Fall Adam During the Incarnation?

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Cameron143

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Justice must not only be done, but must be SEEN TO BE DONE. No one can argue that they were unable to do right ,if Jesus was like us in every way and did right.
I understand your point, but God doesn't owe anyone an explanation. He doesn't answer to anyone. Just ask Job.
 

PaulThomson

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I understand your point, but God doesn't owe anyone an explanation. He doesn't answer to anyone. Just ask Job.
But we have the book of Job. Right? Personally, I think God will give everyone a very thorough explanation for His judgment of them.
 

PaulThomson

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1) On the contrary your salvation depends upon it.
2) Except the part of raising Himself from the dead. After He was dead. Because it would take an infinite and omnipotent God to resurrect an infinite and omnipotent God.

BTW........when Jesus says that no one knows the Father except the Son, Jesus is declaring Himself to be infinite God. Because only infinite God can fully and in totality know the infinite God.

Which is exactly what Jesus is saying there.
You seem very CERTAIN about EXACTLY what God is saying in scripture, even where to me much is obviously still unsettled on the basis the wording of scripture. I'm still exploring. I haven't arrived. I hope it's not too lonely for you, on your own at the perfect theology arrival terminus.
 
Mar 7, 2024
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Tell that to Moses and the prophets. They performed miracles on the same basis as Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Who do you think those men were empowered with? Who do you think came upon Jesus?

John 1:32
Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.
Moses was a weak and frightened goat herding peasant, he couldn't even speak without stuttering. Let alone perform miracles.

The Bible didn't specify that the Holy Spirit indwelt Moses and empowered him to perform miracles. It doesn't matter which of the Holy Three worked those miracles through Moses, all three are equally God and all three work as One to do Gods will.

Which Jesus received the Holy Spirit, when He descended from heaven like a dove. It couldn't have been The Lord God Jehovah Jesus as He already was as One with the Holy Spirit. What John witnessed, was Jesus's nature as a man receiving the Holy Spirt. Remember, Jesus used to switch and change between the two natures depending on the situation.
 

Cameron143

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But we have the book of Job. Right? Personally, I think God will give everyone a very thorough explanation for His judgment of them.
We have the book, but God never justified Himself to Job. I'll grant you that God has revealed alot more since that time, and in eternity we may have a fullness of understanding, but God will still be infinite and beyond finding out.
 
Mar 7, 2024
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Please read what I actually say and stop with your baseless accusations. I said He laid aside His right to act as God, I did NOT say he laid aside His Deity.
No, you position is contradictory., If I remember correctly you stated that Jesus laid aside His Divinity during His earthly incarnation. That suggests that He acted as a man, during His time on the earth. My argument against that is, that men can't walk on water.

I believe He was fully man and fully God during the entire time He spent on the earth. But He didn't always use His divine power, as that would be cheating. He had to suffer as a man to feel the pain of paying the penalty to atone for the sins of the elect of God. He didn't suffer for those He purposed to leave in their condemned state.
 
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If someone (Christ, Paul, Peter) obeys the Father, does that mean they are omnipotent? If someone (Christ, Paul, Peter) does a miracle, does that mean they must be omnipotent? If someone rises from the dead (Christ, Lazarus, the Nain widow's son) does that mean they must be omnipotent?
Yer, Nah. There's just a slight difference between Christs obedience to fulfill mission of atonement and the obedience those others showed.

They were given a temporal gift to perform miracles in order to prove that the God they serve is real and powerful. But Christ didn't need to receive that gift from an outside source, He already was the Almighty Lord God Jehovah the creator and sustainer of everything that exists.
 

sawdust

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you are equivalently saying that if anyone does not consider God their God, God is not God.

but divorce your husband - are you still his wife?

delete your account from this website - are you still a member of it?
Huh? I don't even get what you are trying to say here.

Philippians doesn't say God divested from Himself His deity. it says He humbled Himself. He set aside His glory, not His eternal attributes.
Which is exactly what I have been saying all along.
 

sawdust

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If I remember correctly you stated that Jesus laid aside His Divinity during His earthly incarnation
Don't rely on your memory. My post of #191

I appreciate Jesus is the One you say but during the Incarnation He laid aside His right to act as God so He could be as a man in all ways like us yet without sin.
 

sawdust

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Who is being God while God is not being God?
Again with the lack of differentiating between being and acting.

It's not hard to understand the difference with being something and acting as something. I dare say you are not a stupid person but you sure are acting like it with these stupid questions. ;)
 

sawdust

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Except when He is commanding the howling winds to cease, the raging waves to still, commanding trees to whither, raising to life formerly deceased people, creating massive amounts of food out of thin air, and healing the multitudes.

And let's not forget about Jesus resurrecting Himself. According to the plan He had formulated before the foundation of the world, before time was created.

And since God is One, all of the Trinity agreed upon doing all of these things.
Was Moses being God when he parted the Red Sea? Was Elijah being God when he raised the widow's son? Do you honestly think that if the only way a miracle can be performed, is if the person doing the performing has to be God?

It has been noted in many posts (and not just by me), that Jesus had been given all authority, He was given the Spirit without measure, He could do nothing on His own, He was one with the Father in whom the Father worked, He was like us in all respects except without sin.
 

PaulThomson

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No, you position is contradictory., If I remember correctly you stated that Jesus laid aside His Divinity during His earthly incarnation. That suggests that He acted as a man, during His time on the earth. My argument against that is, that men can't walk on water.
Peter was a man, but walked on water ... by someone else's power. Walking on water is no proof of deity. Even an iron axehead can float on water by someons else's power.
 

PaulThomson

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1) On the contrary your salvation depends upon it.
2) Except the part of raising Himself from the dead. After He was dead. Because it would take an infinite and omnipotent God to resurrect an infinite and omnipotent God.

BTW........when Jesus says that no one knows the Father except the Son, Jesus is declaring Himself to be infinite God. Because only infinite God can fully and in totality know the infinite God.

Which is exactly what Jesus is saying there.
Are we going to become infinite Gods when we start to know Him as we are known by Him?
 

PaulThomson

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Oct 29, 2023
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Yer, Nah. There's just a slight difference between Christs obedience to fulfill mission of atonement and the obedience those others showed.

They were given a temporal gift to perform miracles in order to prove that the God they serve is real and powerful. But Christ didn't need to receive that gift from an outside source, He already was the Almighty Lord God Jehovah the creator and sustainer of everything that exists.
Look up "special pleading". It's a logical fallacy ... and you're using it to try to make your case..
 

posthuman

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Jul 31, 2013
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Do you believe one ever-existing omnipotent Person among three ever-existing omnipotent Persons is incapable of surrendering the exercise of His own omnipotence, in order to become human and rely on the omnipotence of the other two Persons; and in the understanding that after dying as a human, the other two omnipotent Persons will resurrect Him and reinvest Him with His previously surrendered omnipotence?

If you do, on what basis do you presume to tell God He can't do that?
He can create an object so massive He cannot move it,
and He can also move it.

He could with a word, at any time, erase all of creation. the fact that He didn't doesn't mean He rendered Himself incapable of doing so.

my opinion is that Philippians 2 is being misrepresented by the kenosis position - consider the preface to the verses being so often cited here:

Philippians 2:3-5​
[Let] nothing [be done] through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

this is the context of the description of His having stopped to pitch His tent among us: as an example for us how we ought to live.
we aren't being instructed to rid ourselves of the capability to act, or to disown ourselves from our inherent virtues. we're being instructed to be meek.
 

cv5

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Was Moses being God when he parted the Red Sea? Was Elijah being God when he raised the widow's son? Do you honestly think that if the only way a miracle can be performed, is if the person doing the performing has to be God?

It has been noted in many posts (and not just by me), that Jesus had been given all authority, He was given the Spirit without measure, He could do nothing on His own, He was one with the Father in whom the Father worked, He was like us in all respects except without sin.
If you think that the incarnation stripped Jesus of all of His power, glory and authority.......think again. PLEASE think again.
And anybody reading this thread......don't fall for the heresy that Jesus was only a mere mortal man.

The First Coming is a phenomenon agreed upon by the Trinity in eternity past of course. But this has zero bearing on Jesus Godhood during his tabernacling with us then. Furthermore, God is One, and the Trinity are in perfect harmony as to how this was to occur.

Jhn 2:19
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

Jhn 10:18
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I HAVE (Verb - Present Active Indicative - 1st Person Singular) power to lay it down, and I HAVE (Verb - Present Active Indicative - 1st Person Singular) power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Jesus HAD......THEN AND THERE (during His incarnation)......all the power to resurrect HIMSELF.
HIMSELF being infinite, eternal almighty God, YHVH, the I AM.
 

sawdust

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of His having stopped to pitch His tent among us: as an example for us how we ought to live.
But herein lies the problem. If He acted on the basis of His own power and authority as God, then we can't follow and He cannot be our example.
 

cv5

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Nov 20, 2018
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Was Moses being God when he parted the Red Sea? Was Elijah being God when he raised the widow's son? Do you honestly think that if the only way a miracle can be performed, is if the person doing the performing has to be God?

It has been noted in many posts (and not just by me), that Jesus had been given all authority, He was given the Spirit without measure, He could do nothing on His own, He was one with the Father in whom the Father worked, He was like us in all respects except without sin.
Of course the Trinity does nothing as an individual. All is done with informed consent.
Which is what any reference to "doing nothing on His own", and "command of the Father" is all about.

Has nothing whatsoever to do with a stripping of Jesus' power, authority or Godhood, or some kind of junior lesser position.
On the contrary, His Oneness with the Trinity CONFIRMS His divine Godhood during the incarnation.
 
Dec 18, 2023
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No, you position is contradictory., If I remember correctly you stated that Jesus laid aside His Divinity during His earthly incarnation. That suggests that He acted as a man, during His time on the earth. My argument against that is, that men can't walk on water.

I believe He was fully man and fully God during the entire time He spent on the earth. But He didn't always use His divine power, as that would be cheating. He had to suffer as a man to feel the pain of paying the penalty to atone for the sins of the elect of God. He didn't suffer for those He purposed to leave in their condemned state.
It depends on on how you see the walking on water scripture.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”


So the question is here how did Peter walk on water was it in bodily form in the flesh or was it in spirit.

Then the question you have to ask is was the whole chain of events spiritual, had Jesus taken all the disciples spirits out of their bodies whilst they were sleeping in land,

Ie left the earthly bodies on land and took their spiritual body into the boat whilst they where sleeping
 

sawdust

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If you think that the incarnation stripped Jesus of all of His power, glory and authority.......think again. PLEASE think again.
I'm beginning to get a little tired of repeating myself in this thread. Jesus never stopped being God at anytime nor did He lose, divest Himself or be stripped of all that it is to be God.

He denied Himself the right to act as God and instead relied on the power and authority of God the Father and Spirit for all that He said and did.

I can't say it any plainer.