"Righteousness and true holiness" is the "same" in the sense it is not sinful. The fact the one requires additions and the other does not is different.

You have yet to post a quote which says Jesus came in the likeness of sinless flesh. Both the Bible and the SOP make it clear Jesus came "in the likeness of sinful flesh." See my post 164777.

But it's God who requires the additions. IOW, it's the "same" from a certain point of view, but when it comes to God's point of view, they're different. When God looks at the good works of true believers, they're different from the good works of Jesus. Do you agree?

I accept the fact that many aspects are the same, though I dont agree that our righteousnes and holiness are equal to Christ's. Nevertheless, we can agree that many things are the same.

But when God looks at the entire package, He does not see them as the same. He looks at Jesus and says, "That's great. Everything is fine." But when He looks at true believers, He says, "That's unacceptable. Something necessary is missing."

Regardless of all the "sameness" we might find, the bottom line is God doesn't judge them thus. Don't you agree?

The "same" in that they are without the taint of sin, but different in that one is like sunlight and the other like candlelight, different in that one requires additions and the other does not.


He is a perfect and holy example, given for us to imitate. We cannot equal the pattern; but we shall not be approved of God if we do not copy it and, according to the ability which God has given, resemble it. {2T 549.1}

Christ's character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned. More than this, Christ changes the heart. He abides in your heart by faith. {SC 62}

The law requires righteousness,--a righteous life, a perfect character; and this man has not to give. He cannot meet the claims of God's holy law. But Christ, coming to the earth as man, lived a holy life, and developed a perfect character. These He offers as a free gift to all who will receive them. His life stands for the life of men. Thus they have remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. More than this, Christ imbues men with the attributes of God. He builds up the human character after the similitude of the divine character, a goodly fabric of spiritual strength and beauty. Thus the very righteousness of the law is fulfilled in the believer in Christ. God can "be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Romans 3:26. {DA 762.2}

I see we have to get back to the basics because someone here does not seem to grasp what the Bible interpretation of "sinful flesh" is. Here is the big question; did Jesus come in sinful flesh or righteous flesh? The bible says He came "in the LIKENESS" of sinful flesh. Which means He looked like us.

Mt Man, you say that Jesus walked in sinful flesh, but at the same time say He lived as a born again Christian. According to scripture that is a contradiction. You cannot walk in sinful flesh and walk in the Spirit, "for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Cor 6:14)

This is such a prevalent and fundamentally basic premise in scripture that I cannot see any way a man who is walking in the Spirit could contradict it. I will take just one chapter from Colossians and sufficiently prove the point. (Colossians 3)

A Born again Christian is "risen with Christ" and they set their "affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God".

According to you Jesus walked like a born again Christian. It is true that Born again Christians full of the Holy Spirit are dead to the earth. But Jesus set His affections on heaven from birth. His mother instructed Him in righteousness every day of His childhood and He knew at the earliest age the Love of God, never once committing a sin in either ignorance or willfully.

A born again Christian is told to "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

Jesus never sinned, so He was never a child of disobedience. He did mortify the flesh from birth.

"But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds"

Jesus didn't have to put off anything because He had never sinned so He did not have the old man to put off. And since these statements are directed to people who have been baptized and they are being admonished to not walk in the flesh any more it should be obvious that you can be a born again Christian and still have problems in the flesh.

Born again Christians have "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him"

Jesus IS the NEW MAN, He is the one who created us, so He IS THE EXAMPLE.

"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

Again pointing us to Christ as the example as the NEW MAN, which the born again Christian should set His sights on. This is showing us that Jesus NEVER had the old man to put off so He did not walk in the flesh though He had a mortal body. He was tempted beyond anything we could be tempted with but He never sinned so He never had sinful flesh.

So by one half of one chapter in scripture everything you are saying is disproved. I could go through a hundred texts in scripture to prove the same point. I think the problem you have is seeing that Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh yet walked in the Spirit. Here is how Jesus walked within the confines of human nature without falling...

"In our humanity, Christ was to redeem Adam’s failure. But when Adam was assailed by the tempter, none of the effects of sin were upon him. He stood in the strength of perfect manhood, possessing the full vigor of mind and body. He was surrounded with the glories of Eden, and was in daily communion with heavenly beings. It was not thus with Jesus when He entered the wilderness to cope with Satan. For four thousand years the race had been decreasing in physical strength, in mental power, and in moral worth; and Christ took upon Him the infirmities of degenerate humanity. Only thus could He rescue man from the lowest depths of his degradation.{DA 117.1}

(This is not walking in "sinful flesh" this is overcoming our fallen nature while living in a human body. So it may be that you are trying to convey this sentiment while using the wrong terminology, which becomes an issue of semantics.)

Continuing...

"Many claim that it was impossible for Christ to be overcome by temptation. Then He could not have been placed in Adam’s position; He could not have gained the victory that Adam failed to gain. If we have in any sense a more trying conflict than had Christ, then He would not be able to succor us. But 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.{DA 117.2}

(He came as a man and took the frailties and handicaps of humanity, and it was possible for Him to fall while being tempted in everything we could ever be tempted in)

Continuing...

"With Christ, as with the holy pair in Eden, appetite was the ground of the first great temptation. Just where the ruin began, the work of our redemption must begin. As by the indulgence of appetite Adam fell, so by the denial of appetite Christ must overcome. “And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”{DA 117.3}
From the time of Adam to that of Christ, self-indulgence had increased the power of the appetites and passions, until they had almost unlimited control. Thus men had become debased and diseased, and of themselves it was impossible for them to overcome. In man’s behalf, Christ conquered by enduring the severest test. For our sake He exercised a self-control stronger than hunger or death. And in this first victory were involved other issues that enter into all our conflicts with the powers of darkness." {DA 117.4}


Where in this did Jesus walk in sinful flesh? As I see it Jesus walked in REDEMPTIVE Flesh. He did not satisfy the old man of fallen humanity, He overcame it. Jesus is the example for Born again Christians to focus on and strive for, but He was never needing to be born again. He was born perfect as His Father in Heaven is perfect and He remained that way forever.

Christ our substitute.

Being born of a woman, Christ was necessarily born under the law, for such is the condition of all mankind, and "in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Hebrews2:17.

He takes everything on Himself. "He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our disease." Matthew8:17.

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." He redeems us by coming into our place literally, and taking our load off our shoulders. "Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21.

In the fullest sense of the word, and to a degree that is seldom thought of when the expression is used, He became man's substitute. Not a penal substitution, but a real substitute. That is, He permeates our being, identifying Himself so fully with us that everything that touches or affects us touches and affects Him. He is not our substitute in the sense that one man is a substitute for another, in the army, for instance, the substitute being in one place, while the one for whom he is substitute is somewhere else, engaged in some other service. No; Christ's substitution is far different. He is our substitute in that He substitutes Himself for us, and we appear no more. We drop out entirely, so that it is "not I, but Christ." Thus we cast our cares on Him, not by picking them up and with an effort throwing them on Him, but by humbling ourselves into the nothingness that we are, so that we leave the burden resting on Him alone.

Who is it that is not satisfied with the candlelight of "righteousness and true holiness" and requires sunlight? Who is it that finds the good works of true believers, without the taint of sin, unacceptable?

James, it is not a sin to have sinful flesh. The "flesh of itself cannot act contrary to the will of God." Jesus lived life in the likeness of sinful flesh like a born-again believer. The following quotes describe born-again believers:


They are "like Christ--pure, undefiled, wholly acceptable to God, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing (MS 159, 1903). {6BC 1118.4} The only difference between the two is Jesus is also God and His righteousness is like sunlight and theirs is like candlelight.