Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/184

 tyg The Plan of the Agts.

to be a ransom for mankind he had to be a man, of the same nature as the sinner whose substitute in death he was to become, it was necessary that his nature be changed, tod Paul tells us that he took not the nature of angels, one rtep lower than his own, but that he came down two steps and took the nature of men he became a man ; he was "made flesh." Heb. 2:16] Phil. 2 : 7, 3 j John * : 14.

Notice that this teaches not only that angelic nature is not the only order of spirit being, but that it is a lower nature than that of our Lord before he became a man ; and' he was not then so high as he is now, for " God hath highly exalted him," because of his obedience in becoming man's willing ransom. (Phil. 2 : S, 9.) He is now of the highest order of spirit being, a partaker of the div;*e 0ehavah's) nature.

But not only do we tires find proof that tfee divine, an- gelic and human natures are separate and distiacT:, but this proves that to be a perfect maa is not to be aa aagel, any more than the perfeSioa of angelic nature implies that angels are divine and equal with Jehovah ; for Jesus took n*t the na- ture of angels, bat a different nature thft na&tre of men ; not die ifflperfecT; humaa nature as we now possess it, but the p&ftcttea&s& nature. He became a man; not a depraved aad nearly dead being such as men are now, but a man in the full vigor of perfection.

Again, Jesos must have been a perfect man eke he coaid not have kept a perfect law, which is the full measure of a perfecf man's afttity. And he naust have been a perfecl: man else he could not have given a ransom (a correspond- ing price i Tim. 2:6) for the forfeited life of the per- fecT: man Adam ; "For since by man came death^ by man came also the resurre&ion of the dead-" (i Cor. 15 : 21.) Had he been in the least degree imperfect, it would have proved that he was under condemnation, and therefore he

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