What do you think it means, Mike?

First of all, does this comment seem a bit flippant to you Arnold?

The comment demonstrates a confusion in regards to what the real issue is. Of course Christ's mind was sinless!

This is from A. T. Jones:



That Christ took our sinful nature is made clear by such statements as the following:



That He was tempted as we are is made clear by statements like the following:



This includes temptations from within, given that this is something which we have to endure, lest, as she points out, Satan would represent the power of God as insufficient for us.

That Christ's heredity was like our is made clear by the following:



Of note is that He took such a heredity as we have to share in our temptations. Therefore our heredity plays a part in our temptations.

That her views regarding Christ's human nature were the same as Jones, Waggoner and Prescott's is made clear by her endorsements of them, including the following (an endorsement of a sermon of Prescott's whose title and theme was that Christ had sinful flesh identical to ours):



Just the fact alone that the church believed one way until the 1950's when a second option came into play is exceedingly strong evidence that this second option was not one which the SOP held. When we take into account the above, it's impossible.

thank God!! what a miserable existence, otherwise!!

as i understand it, we will always be susceptible to temptation but if we are in constant surrender/submission less and less sin appeals to us. something like that anyway. maybe someone else can explain it better.

its also my experience.

nah, the brother has a sense of humor. hes had me on the floor a few times. laughing i mean. him whereever he is and me far, far away.

Glad you cleared that up!

Something I ran across today:

Rosangela, to me it means when a person experiences the miracle of rebith they no longer desire things that are unlike Jesus. However, their fallen flesh nature continues to tempt them from within to be unlike Jesus. In Christ, and like Christ, the unholy thoughts and feelings that come to mind (via their fallen flesh nature) are repulsive to them.

What does it mean to you?

Jesus was tempted in all points like we are in spite of the fact sin was totally unappealing to Him. Aapparently, whether or not we are able to be tempted is not related to whehter or not sin is appealing to us.

The quote "to take away their inclination to sin, that they might not desire to transgress" seems not to be addressing whether or not we can reach a point where our fallen flesh nature can no longer tempt us from within to be unlike Jesus.

BTW, at what point in the "process of conversion" does Jesus "take away their inclination to sin, that they might not desire to transgress"? Is this something He does gradually over the course of a lifetime of sinning and repenting less and less often until they cease sinning altogether? Or, is it something He does the moment they are born again?

"sin was totally unappealing" = "to take away their inclination to sin, that they might not desire to transgress"


Right. The inclination to sin is not required in order to be tempted to sin, as proved by Adam and Lucifer.

It appears to me there may be some confusion in relation to "inclination to sin." The word "inclination" can be used differently, either in connection with the mind or not.

That which involves the mind is simply saying what has been suggested, which is to have no desire to sin in one's mind. This is the mind of Christ.

The other involves the flesh. That is, the flesh is inclined to sin, or, the flesh tempts us to sin.

With reference to Christ, we should never say that He was "inclined to sin." This would imply that that He somehow acceded to temptation, by some thought word or deed. But Christ always said "no" to temptation.

However, Christ's flesh, as affirmed by W. W. Prescott, for example, in his sermon "The Word Became Flesh" (endorsed by Ellen White) was exactly the same as ours, and the same as any child of Adam. That is, Christ had sinful flesh, with all its inclinations to sin.

Here is a typical expression of the idea:



An inclination to sin is certainly not necessary to be tempted, or else no one would have ever sinned, since God didn't create anyone with an inclination to sin. However, it was necessary for Christ to have the same sinful flesh as we have, with its inclinations, to be tempted as we are tempted.