TEHILLIM 38

3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.

His human flesh was unclean flesh, "Sin's flesh," "filthy garments." This was the tremendous burden he carried, the tremendous battle he fought every moment of his life. Let us not be squeamishly afraid to give the name SIN to the very root of sin: the Diabolos itself. The Scriptures do. Brethren Thomas and Roberts do.

If we do not see this, we miss the whole point of Christ's sacrifice. We can juggle words like "metonymy" all we wish. They do not obliterate the facts: they are just a way of attempting to define them. This is not Andrewism: this is TRUTH.

We are told by some that we must not link transgressions and sin-in-the-flesh in the same "category," as two "aspects" of the same basic sin constitution. That is, we must not link "the Devil" (Diabolos) "and his works."

But the Scriptures do. The Devil is inseparable from his works, and the works from the Devil. This is the whole constitution of sin that Christ came to destroy: root (diabolos) and branch (transgressions). To artificially separate these parts of what is one whole in God's sight is to artificially (and fatally) separate Christ from his brethren, and his salvation from theirs, and leave them salvationless. Brother Thomas is very clear on this:

"The word 'sin' is used in two principal acceptations in the Scripture. It signifies, in the first place, the transgression of the law; and in the next, it represents that physical principle of the animal nature which is the cause of all its diseases, death, and resolution into dust..."

"Inasmuch as this evil principle pervades every part of the flesh, the animal nature is styled 'sinful flesh,' that is, flesh full of sin." -Elpis Israel, page 126

"SIN could not have been condemned in the body of Jesus if it had not existed there ... the purpose of God was to condemn sin in the flesh, a thing that could not have been accomplished if there were no sin there."-Elpis Israel, p. 127

"Children are born sinners or unclean, because they are born of sinful flesh ... This is a misfortune, not a crime." - Elpis Israel, page 129

"Men are sinners in a two-fold sense: first, by natural birth; and next, by transgression. In the former sense it is manifest they could not help themselves." -Elpis Israel, page 130

"Sin had to be condemned IN the nature that had transgressed ... He took part of the same, that through death he might destroy the Diabolos, or elements of corruption in our nature inciting it to transgression, and therefore called 'Sin working death in us."' -Eureka I, page 106

"Sin is a word in Paul's argument which stands for human nature." -Eureka I, page 247

"This perishing body is 'sin'. Sin, in its application to the body, stands for all its constituents and laws ... the law of its nature is styled the 'law of Sin and Death'." - Eureka I, p. 248

"What is that which hath the power of death? It is the 'exceedingly great sinner SIN' in the sense of the 'Law of Sin and Death' within ALL the posterity of Adam, without exception. This is Paul's Diabolos. -Eureka I page 249

"He (Jesus) was Sin's Flesh crucified, slain, and buried: in which by the slaying, Sin had been condemned; and by the burial, put out of sight." -Eureka II, page 124

All these statements are meaningless, if we must carefully isolate transgression from Sin-in-the-flesh. And if Sin-in-the-flesh (the Diabolos) was the aspect of sin upon which the condemnation of Sin specifically fell (in the crucifixion), then clearly it is no minor or inconsequential aspect. Further, even more importantly, if we separate it from actual transgression, then actual transgression did not get condemned at all for there was no actual transgression in Christ to be condemned.

When God condemned Sin by condemning the Diabolos in the sinless Christ, He inseparably linked all aspects of sin together - or active sin was not condemned.

Bro Growcott - Purifying of the heavenly Ch 1

4 For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

Mine iniquities a heavy burden

At first sight, it seems impossible that the Messiah should utter such language; but the difficulty vanishes when we remember that

"the Lord laid on him the iniquites of us all."

Having our iniquities laid on him, he owned them as his own. He groaned under them as a burden too heavy to bear. He carried them into his grave and left them there, when God, in His great favour, raised him the third day.

While he bore the burden of sins, the Spirit in David makes the Messiah speak of them as his own. We have a faint analogy to this in Daniel, who at the close of the seventy-years' captivity in Babylon,

"set his face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes."

In his prayer, he takes the iniquities of Israel on his shoulders so to speak. He says:

"We have sinned and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and Thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened to Thy servants the prophets,"

&c. Now Daniel was not guilty of this sin and rebellion. It is expressly declared of him that he was a man greatly beloved. But standing as Israel's intercessor at the close of their appointed affliction in Babylon, he takes upon himself the sin for which they had suffered. So though Christ

"did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth,"

yet as the bearer of the sins of the world, he is made to speak and mourn as if the iniquities were really his own. This explains what is otherwise inexplicable, viz, that the confessor of sins "more than the hairs of his head," is nevertheless able to declare his righteousness, saying,

"Keep not silence, O Yahweh, be not far from me. Stir up Thyself and awake to my judgment. . . . Let them shout for joy and be glad that favour my righteous cause."

The Christadelphian, Feb 1875

Hating iniquity

Too much prominence cannot be given to this attribute of the Son of man and the Son of God. Let us, therefore, further consider it. So fully was he to realize the sinful nature of his

flesh that he is prophetically represented in the thirty eight Psalm

This Psalm undoubtedly represents the mental attitude to sin and the mental anguish of the Son of God in temptation, because the very words of verse thirteen :

" I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I, as a dumb man, opened not my mouth. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs"

portray his actual character. Again the parallel passage descriptive of the sufferings of Messiah in the seventh verse of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is definitely ascribed to Jesus Christ by Philip (Isa. LIII. 7 ; Acts VIII. 32.) Our difficulty is to realize in what way the

whole of these prophetic utterances could be fulfilled in him, which undoubtedly was the case, for the Scripture cannot be broken (John x. 35.) He could say :

" There was no soundness in his flesh " because he himself said, "the flesh profiteth nothing". (John vi. 63.)

This testimony is amplified by the spirit in the apostle Paul thus:

" In me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing."

Jesus also could say :

" There is no rest in my bones because of my sin,"

when realizing fully, as he did, that there could be no freedom from temptation so long as he was of flesh and blood nature, and for this reason—

" the blood is the life of all flesh," Lev. χνπ. 11-14 ; Deut. xii. 23.

and therefore the cause of all its motions. Until crucifixion, when the life-blood exuded from his wounds, there could be no release from those impulses which are aroused by temptation and which were intensely offensive to him, even causing him to resent the well-meant solicitude of Peter, and to say,

" Get thee behind me, Satan {adversary) ; thou are an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of man." (Matt. xvi. 23.)

So long as the lifeblood was coursing through his veins he must always be amenable to and in conflict with temptation to sin, for only

"he who is dead is free from sin." (Rom. vi. 7.)

His "Iniquities went over his head " and were " a burden too heavy for him to bear " because without help the flesh was weak and not equal to the conflict, as vividly exhibited when in the midst of his greatest anxiety " an angel " was sent " to strengthen him " (Luke xxii. 43.)

Nevertheless, " his iniquities went over his head " and overwhelmed him when he uttered that last bitter regret, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " " His wounds," as it were, "stank of corruption" because of the foolish nature of the flesh.

How troubled he was ! How bowed down ! Possessed of this corruptible nature, this " loathsome disease," this " unsound flesh," he was " mourning all the day long," yet looking for deliverance, as expressed in relation to the outcome of his baptism, saying:

" How am I straitened till it be accomplished." (Luke XII. 49-50.)

The Temple of Ezekiel's prophecy 5.6.7.

7 For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh [basar].

àThis was his condition as a bearer of sin nature before he was begotten of the spirit. In death the quality of mortality became more apparent.

àThis was its condition while prostrate and hidden in the noisome pit (Psal. 40:2) beneath the turf. But though sealed up in Joseph's cave, it was not concealed from the Father-Spirit, who had so recently forsaken it. Walls, and seals, and soldiers, could not bar out the Spirit from the Body he was about to repair for future manifestations.

Hence the Spirit in David represents the Son as saying,

"My body was not concealed from thee when I was made in the secret place; I was embroidered in the under parts of the earth. Thine eyes saw my imperfect substance; and in thy book all of them were written as to the days they were fashioned, when there was not one among them (Psal. 139:15).

The Body was repaired, and in its being freed from the loathsomeness of death, it was created a Spiritual Body with all the embroidery of spirit.

"It was sown in corruption," though "not permitted to see corruption"; it was raised in incorruptibility: it was sown in dishonour, it was raised in glory; it was sown in weakness, it was raised in power; it was sown a soul-body, it was raised a spirit-body, incorruptible, glorious, and powerful: the last Adam was made into spirit.

He was freed from all those qualities of body which make our human nature inferior to the nature of angels; and acquired new ones, by which the nature he now rejoices in is so intimately combined with the Father-Spirit, that what is affirmed of the one is true also of the other, according to what is written in John 10:30, 38, "I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE; the Father is in me, and I in him,".

This is the true Theos, and the Aion-Life," (1 John 5:20), and therefore he is styled by Paul, "the Lord, the Spirit," imparting life (1 Cor. 15:42-45).

Eureka 1.1.1.

15 For in thee, O Yahweh, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Yahweh my Elohim.

Mankind will at last be reconciled

àThe plan is large, as the case requires, and involves a variety of instrumentalities—beginning with a system of family worship at the beginning, and ending with a kingdom which will govern all the earth

"in the dispensation of the fulness of times."

For the time, it seems a failure; but no matter is to be judged by appearances. It only seems a failure to those who do not understand the plan. They look round, and see man miserable, and at enmity with God and man. They say, where is the

"glory to God in the highest, the peace on earth and goodwill to man,"

sung of by the angels? We say "Wait a little; the plan is far advanced, though seemingly abortive." The plan involves and requires the prevalence of evil for a time. During this time, God is preparing the instruments of blessing for the next stage. He has prepared Christ. Through him he is preparing "many sons" whom he will lead to glory, and who will reign with him, and bless all the families of the earth.

Most of them have been prepared. Most of them are in the dust—forgotten of men, but not forgotten of God. They are all as distinct to His memory as living men; and at the appointed time they will stand forth from the grave, a multitude that no man can number. Part of the number is even now being made up. When the hour arrives for their manifestation, some are found in the land of the living:

"We shall not all sleep."

Consequently, as their preparation is in progress, the darkness continues; for darkness is needful for a generation of the children of light. Like the brilliant gem, they are prepared in the bowels of the earth, and only appear in glory when the light has come.

The Christadelphian, June 1886

22 Make haste to help me, O Yahweh my salvation [Teshuati].

Between the two living manifestations, was interposed the death-state. In this state, the Cherubic Flesh was deserted by the Eternal Substance. The effluent spirit forsook Jesus when he exclaimed upon the cross,

"My AIL, my AIL, why hast Thou forsaken me?"

The effluent power by which he had taught and worked was withdrawn from him for some time before he died. The Spirit no longer rested upon the Cherub, yet that Cherub continued to live as other men. In process of time he expired. He was now, like the Cherubic Veil of the Temple,

"rent in twain."

It was no longer affirmable that "I and the Father are one"; but that "I and the Father are twain"; for the Father was no longer in him, nor he in the Father.

In the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, the body was in the condition predicted in Psalm 38:1-22

"Yahweh's arrows stuck fast in it, and His hand pressed it sore. There was no soundness in the flesh; its wounds stank; and its loins were filled with a loathsome disease; feeble and sore broken, his lovers and friends stood aloof from His stroke, which had consumed him, and laid him low in a horrible pit."

This was the death state of the Cherub. Will any one affirm that that dead body was the Father? That it had lived in the world before the world was? That it was the Creator of all things?

Nay, it was the flesh only in which sin was condemned: and had it been left there, it would have crumbled into unprofitable dust (Psalm 30:9).

PHANEROSIS, THE ANOINTED CHERUB