Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/72

66 truth in our minds—and so bring us into complete spiritual union or at-one-ment with Himself. When this is effected we are reconciled to God; no longer alienated, but at-one with Him. Hence we read "that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself."

We know that the Saviour when on earth endured temptations; for these are often referred to in the New Testament. But how could He have been tempted, unless there had been in Him some propensity to evil? Absolute Divinity cannot be tempted. And that there was some such evil proclivity in Him, is plain from his own declaration: "And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth"—language which shows that there was something in Him that needed to be sanctified.

But although the Lord as to his maternal humanity, was full of hereditary tendencies to evil like other men, yet He never ultimated any of those tendencies; He never made the evil his own by actual life. Herein He was different from all other men. Therefore He knew no sin for sin consists, not in having inclinations to evil, but in acting from them, and so making them our own. This agrees with the teaching of the Apostle, who says: "He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."