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“What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin he condemns sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3)

Do not get a wrong idea of that word “likeness.” It is not the shape; it is not the photograph, it is not the likeness in the sense of an image; but it is likeness in the sense of being like indeed. It is likeness in nature, likeness to the flesh. And in order to just like sinful flesh, it would have to be sinful flesh; in order to be made flesh at all, as it is in this world, He would have to be just such flesh as it is in this world; just such as we have. That is what is said in the words “likeness of sinful flesh.”

He took not the nature of angels, but the nature of Abraham. “It was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10.” It was the proper thing for Him to do. It was appropriate. Who are His brethren? The human race. Because we're all of one, He is not ashamed to call you and me brethren.29

How is it that Christ could be thus “subject to weakness” (Heb. 5:2), and still know no sin? Some may have thought, while reading thus far, that we were depreciating the character of Jesus by bringing Him down to the level of sinful man. On the contrary we are simply exalting our blessed Savior, who Himself voluntarily descended to the level of sinful man, in order that He might exalt man to His own spotless purity, which He retained under the most adverse circumstances.30

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, pp. 218,219

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“All these things happened to them as examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (2 Cor. 10:11,12)

The one who is relying upon God to hold him up does not depend upon his own efforts. He who constantly bears in mind that God is holding him up, and that he must be held up, is not going to be boasting of his ability to stand. If I had to be carried in here this evening, perfectly helpless, and two or three of the brethren should have to stand here and hold me up, it would not be very becoming of me to say, “See how I stand.” It is so with the Christian.

The word of God says, “To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand” (Rom. 14:4). The one who is trusting in God to hold him up, who knows it is God alone who makes him stand,- it is impossible for him to begin to say, “I am standing now, and therefore there is no danger of my falling.” When he takes himself out of the Lord’s hand and begins to try to hold himself up and then boasts that he can stand, it is then that there is not only danger, but he has already fallen. He takes himself out of God’s hand, and he is bound to fall. 22

If I can measure myself to the satisfaction of myself and pronounce the balance settled-when it is set alongside of Christ’s estimate, my own estimate is so far short that it condemns me utterly. The blood of Christ, the reconciliation of peace brought by Jesus, is in order that He might present you and me “holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight.” 23
Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp. 126,127.

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“In all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17)

What kind of flesh is it that this world knows? Just such flesh as you and I have. The world does not know any other flesh of man, and has not known any other since the necessity for Christ’s coming. When ‘the Word was made flesh” He was made just such flesh as ours is. It cannot be otherwise.

The argument nowadays is that the law could not do what was intended, and so God sent His Son to weaken law, so that the flesh could answer the demands of the law. But if I am weak and you are strong, and I need help, it does not help me any to make you as weak as I am; I am as weak and helpless as before. But when I am weak and you are strong, and you can bring me to your strength, that helps me. The law was strong enough; but its purpose could not be accomplished through the weakness of the flesh. Therefore God must bring strength to weak flesh. He sent Christ to supply the need. So it is written: “God [sent] His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3).

Man was sinless when God made him a little lower than the angels. That was sinless flesh. But man fell from that place and condition, and became sinful flesh. Now we see Jesus, not as man was when He was first made lower than the angels but as man is since he sinned, and became still lower than the angels. That is where we see Jesus.
Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, p.218

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“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:13)”

He carries all things, holds them up by His powerful word. The world? Yes. The sun? Yes. All the starry heavens? Yes. Can we be numbered among the all things? Will He hold you up by His powerful word?

Were you ever uneasy in your life, when you arose in the morning with the sun, for fear that the sun would drop out of place before noon, or before sundown? Oh, no. Were you ever uneasy when you arose with the sun for fear that you yourself as a Christian would slip out of place before sundown? You know you have been. Why were you not as uneasy as to whether the sun would drop out of place before sundown, fearing that that might slip out of place and fall, as you were that you yourself would fall?

It is perfectly fair for the Christian to ask, why is it that the sun does not slip out of place? The answer is the “powerful word” of Jesus Christ holds the sun there. And that same power is going to hold up the believer in Jesus. And the believer in Jesus is to expect it to do so, as certainly as it holds up the sun or the moon. You will simply go about your work, with your mind upon the work, and leave the holding up of the sun altogether to God, to whom it belongs. Also, you will go about your work and let God attend to that which belongs to Him. Give your mind to that which He has given you to do. And thus, you will serve God “with all the mind.” We cannot keep ourselves from falling; we cannot hold ourselves up. He has not given us that task to do.”

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp. 124,126

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“Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb.2:14).

One man (Adam) is the source and head of all our human nature. And the genealogy of Christ, as one of us, runs to Adam. We are the sons of the first man, and so is Christ according to the flesh. The first chapter of Hebrews is Christ and His divine nature. The second chapter is Christ in human nature.

You may have something in the form of man that would not be of the nature of man. You can have a piece of stone in the form of man, but it is not the nature of man. Jesus took the form of man, that is true; but He did more, He took the nature of man.

Christ took flesh and blood in a way like we take it. But how do we take flesh and blood? By birth, and from Adam. Christ took flesh and blood by birth also; and from Adam, too. He is “of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Romans 1:3). While David calls Him Lord, [He] was also David's son (Matthew 22:42-45). His genealogy is traced to David, but it does not stop there. It goes to Abraham. Nor does it stop with Abraham, it goes to Adam (Luke 3:38). Thus on the human side, Christ’s nature is precisely our nature.

There is salvation in just that one thing. No, it is not enough to say [it] that way: the salvation of God for human beings lies in just that one thing. We’re not to be timid about it at all. There is the point where we meet Him-the living Savior against the power of temptation. 27
“’The virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel’ which is translated, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 12:3).
Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1893, p.404

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“I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever…The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin” (John 14:16, 26; 16:8)

When sin is pointed out to you, say, “ I would rather have Christ than that.” [Congregation: “Amen.”] Then where is the opportunity for any of us to get discouraged over our sins? Now some of the brethren here have done that very thing. They cam here free; but the Spirit of God brought up something they never saw before, went deeper than ever before, and revealed things they never saw before. And then, instead of thanking the Lord and letting the whole wicked business go, and thanking the Lord that they had ever so much more of Him than before, they began to get discouraged.

If the Lord has brought up sins to us that we never thought of before, that only shows that He is going down to the depths, and He will reach the bottom at last. And when He finds the last thing that is unclean, out of harmony with His will, and shows that to us, and we say, “ I would rather have the Lord than that”- then the work is complete, and the seal of the living God can be fixed upon that character.

Which would you rather have, the completeness, the perfect fullness of Jesus Christ, or have less than that with some of your sins covered up that you never knew of? So He has to dig down to the deep places we never dreamed of, because we cannot understand our hearts. Let Him go; let Him keep on His searching work.

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1893, p. 404

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“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)

In the other contrast we saw Jesus higher than the angels; here we see Him lower than the angels. Why? Because man was made lower than the angels, and then by sin went even still lower. We see Jesus where man is since man sinned and became subject to death. So certainly as it is true that Jesus was where God is, so certainly He has come to where man is.

He who was with God where God is, is with man where man is. And He who was with God as God is, is with man as man is. And He who was one with God as God is, is one with man as man is. And so, as certainly as His was the nature of God, so certainly His is the nature of man here.

“For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one” (verse 11). It was Christ and God in heaven-one in nature. How is He with man on earth? “All of one.” He is not ashamed to call us “brethren,” and “in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to you,” He says (verse 12). That time is coming soon, when Christ in the midst of the church will lead the singing. He who was one with God has become one of man. We will follow the thought further tomorrow.

“We have not a 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” (Heb. 4:15) KJV.

Jones, The Consecrated Way, pp. 81-84

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“The tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls…And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God” (Lev. 23:27,28)

In the “copies of the true” in the sanctuary service made visible, the round of service was completed annually. The cleansing of the sanctuary was the finishing of that figurative, annual service. This was the taking away from the sanctuary all “uncleanness of the children of Israel…because of their transgressions, for all their sins” (Lev. 16:16)

In that day, which was the Day of Atonement, whosoever of the people did not take part in the cleansing of the sanctuary by searching of heart, confession, and putting away of sin, was cut off forever. Thus the cleansing of the sanctuary extended to the people as truly as it did the sanctuary.

And this was all “symbolic for the present time” (Heb. 9:9), or “the time then present” (KJV). That sanctuary was a figure of the true, which is the sanctuary and ministry of Christ. And the time of this cleansing of the true is declared in the words of the Wonderful Numberer to be “ for two thousand and three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed” (Dan. 8:14), which is the sanctuary of Christ.

Indeed, the sanctuary of which Christ is the High Priest is the only one that could be cleansed because it is the only sanctuary of which Christ is the High Priest and Minister, the true tabernacle “which the Lord erected, and not man” (Heb. 8:2)

The finishing of the mystery of God is the ending of the work of the gospel, first, the taking away of all sin and bringing in of everlasting righteousness-Christ fully formed- within each believer; and secondly, the destruction of all who shall not have received the gospel, for it is not the way of the Lord to continue men in life when the only possible use they will make of life is to heap up more misery for themselves.

Jones, The Consecrated Way, pp. 81-84

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“When He has by Himself purged our sins, [He] sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they” (Heb. 1:3,4)

When did He sit down on the right hand of God? Long ago- when He arose from the dead and went to heaven, nineteen hundred years ago. But notice, He had purged our sins before He sat down there. Are you glad that He purged your sins so long ago as that? In him it is. In him we find it. Let us thank Him it is so.

There is the contrast between Christ and the angels. Where is Christ? Where God is, with the angels worshipping Him. The Father calls Him God. “He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name” than the angels. You and I have a name that we have by inheritance. That is our father's name. We have that name just as soon as we exist. It belongs to us by nature. The Lord Jesus has “by inheritance” obtained His name, “God.” That name belongs to Him by nature. He was not something else, and then named that to make him that; but He was that, and was called God because He is God. 24

The Father was pleased that His son should be the express image of His Person, the brightness of His glory, and filled with all the fullness of the Godhead. So He has “life in Himself.” He possesses immortality in His own right, and can confer immortality upon others. 25

“Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25)

Jones, The Consecrated Way, pp. 84,85