Christ Came in the Likeness of the Flesh of Sin and God Condemned Sin in the Flesh

When Christ died as a man in the flesh on the cross, God condemned sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:3).

I’m so full of appreciation and love for the Lord who didn’t give up on us, fallen sinful men. Even though Satan injected his evil nature into us and right now all human beings are born in sin and have the indwelling sin in their flesh, God provided a way for us to deal with sin.

God created man in His image and according to His likeness for man to be God’s expression and representation, but when man succumbed to Satan’s enticing and deceit, sin entered into man and caused man to fall short of the glory of God.

Now all men live for themselves and not for God, and by default what comes out of man is just sin, the products of the sinful nature in him. Even though we are saved, have God’s life in our spirit and this life spreads through all the parts of our soul, we still have the indwelling sin in our members, in our flesh.

Man has become flesh, a fallen human being, and there’s nothing in ourselves that can cause us to prevail over the sinful flesh.

Therefore, God Himself became a man – the Word became flesh, and He tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality. Two thousand years ago God put on humanity, and the Son of God came in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, but without the sin in the flesh.

Christ came as a man, and His source was not of the male and female, as the rest of us, but of the Holy Spirit and of female – He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and he Had the divine essence. He lived a life without sin, and even though Satan tried to get into Him as sin, He didn’t sin.

Those around Him sinned, Satan tempted Him to sin, but He rejected sin and did not sin. Even though He had the likeness of the flesh of sin, He was without sin.

Christ became flesh to be indirectly involved with sin – He was involved with sin only in the likeness of the flesh of sin, but He didn’t have the reality of the flesh of sin. Therefore, in the flesh of Christ God condemned sin in the flesh. In this likeness of the flesh of sin God could judge sin, and on the cross Christ was made sin for us.

Even though Christ only had the likeness of the flesh of sin without the sin in the flesh, God considered this as the real thing on the cross, He made Christ sin, and God condemned sin in the flesh of Christ.

Satan thought that he finally got man when he injected himself into man, but what he did is that he trapped himself in man’s flesh. Now Christ came, put on the flesh and had the likeness of the flesh of sin, and God had a way to condemn sin in the flesh and to destroy Satan.

Hallelujah. What a wise God. And what a sin offering we have. When we lay our hands on Christ as the sin offering, He can condemn sin in us, judge it, and destroy Satan. Praise the Lord!

Christ Came in the Likeness of the Flesh of Sin and God Condemned Sin in the Flesh of Christ

In His death, Christ as a man in the flesh caused sin to be condemned in the flesh by God (Rom. 8:3). God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, and because Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin, on the cross God condemned sin in the flesh of Christ.

Now when we apply Christ as our sin offering, we are applying the One whose death on the cross enabled God to condemn sin in the flesh. Although we still have sin in the flesh until our body is transfigured, because Christ is our sin offering, we don’t have to live hour by hour with a sin consciousness.

We have a sin offering, we can apply Christ as the sin offering, and we will realise and appropriate the fact that God condemned sin in the flesh.

The flesh is of sin, and the Son of God has become flesh (John 1:1, 14; Heb. 2:14; 1 Tim. 3:16). However, He came only in the likeness of the flesh of sin, with no participation in the sin of the flesh.

Why did Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin? It is because today sin – the evil nature of Satan which was injected into man – is located in man’s flesh. Sin dwells in a particular element, and that element is man’s flesh.

Our flesh is the habitation of sin, and sin made itself one with our flesh. Sin as a person dwells in our flesh, and our flesh is the embodiment and incarnation of sin. Before God could be incarnated in man by man’s willing partaking of the tree of life, Satan came in and injected himself into man to be incarnated in man’s flesh.

Satan deceived man, tricked man, and cheated man, just to make sure he injects his evil element and nature into man. Now whether we like it or not, our flesh – the totality of our fallen human being – is the embodiment of Satan and the incarnation of sin.

Therefore, God had to come in. In His wisdom, God allowed Satan to inject himself into man, so that now Satan and sin would be located and trapped in man’s flesh. Then Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, and He did not have the sin in the flesh.

But because He put on the likeness of the flesh, He could be tempted just like us – yet without sin, and He could be hurt by death. Christ came not in the reality of the flesh of sin but in its likeness, without having the sinful nature or committing sin.

On the cross, God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus Christ. Here we see the amazing wisdom of our God.

He didn’t trick us, deceive us, or promise things to entice us, but He Himself came to put on the likeness of the flesh of sin, so that in His flesh on the cross God could condemn sin, destroy Satan, cast out the ruler of this world, judge the world, and put flesh to death.

When God the Father sent God the Son concerning sin and to deal with sin, even to abolish it, He sent Him not in the reality of the flesh of sin but in the likeness, the appearance, of the flesh of sin.

While Jesus Christ was on the cross, God condemned sin in the flesh of Christ, the One who was sent in the likeness of the flesh of sin. How we praise God for His wisdom!

Praise You God for Your wisdom in dealing with Satan and sin. Praise You for becoming a man who had the likeness of the flesh of sin yet without sin, so that through Your death You might condemn sin in the flesh. Hallelujah, through the death of Christ sin is condemned, death is finished, Satan is destroyed, and the world is judged! We praise You Lord for being so wise in dealing with Satan and sin. We take Christ as our sin offering. Thank You Lord, You condemned sin in the flesh, and by laying our hands on You, sin in our flesh is condemned!

Why Christ came as the Son of Man in the Likeness of the Flesh of Sin and Concerning Sin

Most believers and unbelievers alike know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He is God incarnated to be a man. But again and again throughout the Gospels the Lord Jesus referred to Himself as, The Son of Man.

When Satan tempted the Lord in the wilderness, he said, If You are the Son of God…; to this, the Lord replied, Man shall not… (see Matt. 4). He stood on the ground of the Son of Man, because He as God became a man and put on the likeness of the flesh of sin.

Christ came as a human being out of the seed of David (Rom. 1:3) to be the Son of Man; He is a descendant of David to be a man just like David, but without sin. According to the flesh, Christ came out of the seed of David to be the Son of Man.

In fact, in the four Gospels the Lord refers to Himself at least 78 times as the Son of Man.

And in John 3:14 in particular He says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up”. Here the Lord Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, a religious elderly person who came to Him at night to ask Him what should he do to enter into the kingdom of God.

Instead of giving him some teachings to perfect him in his humanity and improve his conduct, the Lord presented Himself to Nicodemus as the Son of Man, and in particular, as the Son of Man who is the reality of the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness.

The Lord Jesus was the Son of Man, and He was in the form of the serpent but not with the poison of the serpent, just as the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness didn’t have the poison of the fiery snakes but had its shape.

This is how the Lord came – He came in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, so that God might condemn sin in the flesh of Jesus Christ on the cross (Rom. 8:3).

As the One who was sent by the Father in the likeness of the flesh of sin, Christ is typified by the bronze serpent in Numbers 21:4-9. Praise the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man, the One who came in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, so that sin might be condemned in the flesh.

Thank You Lord for coming as the Son of Man to deal with sin, Satan, the flesh, the world, and death. Thank You for coming in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin so that God would condemn sin in Your flesh on the cross. Hallelujah, Christ as the reality of the bronze serpent was lifted up on the cross to deal with sin and Satan, and in His flesh God condemned sin and judged Satan! Praise the Lord for Christ’s wonderful and all-terminating death on the cross!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 768-769 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 7, The Reality of the Sin Offering, the Bronze Serpent, and the Destruction of the Devil.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # By righteousness was I condemned, / When I was lost in pain and sin; / When Christ redeemed me by His blood, / Thy righteousness gave peace within. / O God, Thy righteousness condemned / My Savior to the cross to die; / Yet now to us Thy righteousness / Grants peace, forgives, and justifies. (Song on, By righteousness was I condemned)
  # For that which the law could not do, being weak, / In the flesh, God sending His Son, / In the likeness of flesh, and concerning sin, / He condemned sin in the flesh. / That the righteous requirement of the law / Might be fulfilled in us, / Who do not walk according to the flesh of sin / But who walk according to the spirit. (Song on, The Law of the Spirit of Life)
  # Christ has sin condemned at Calv’ry / And its power done away; / Now it has no ground within me, / I am freed from all its sway. (Hymns #540)