Chad says: "Christ's humanity isn't merely defined by flesh and blood because humanity isn't merely defined by flesh and blood. Humanity is also defined by will, cognition, and emotion. If Christ is not also defined by those characteristics of humanity, he simply isn't human." This is where you put the cart before the horse. You are forgetting that we were created in the image of God and it is Those divine God given characteristics that define humanity. He was all those things and had all those characteristics before the incarnation. So no gnosticism here, sorry. "Chad R. Bresson" <breusswane@...> wrote: --- H Dorrington wrote: > Romans 3 > 20For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since > through the law comes knowledge of sin.21But now the righteousness of God has been > manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to > it-- 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Nowhere does it say here that Christ righteousness was apart from the law. > We only understand righteousness because of the law This is only half true, depending on how you're using the word "law" here. Paul tells us that Gentiles understand righteousness because of the law written on their hearts and that Gentiles and Jews are both condemned because both have the same law... one on their hearts, the other in stone. The only difference between Jew and Gentile, according to Paul, is the amount of revelation concerning the law. Paul anticipates your objection by going out of his way (Romans 5:13,14 is a brilliant aside... Paul anticipates precisely the objection that Gentiles had no law, but stepping out of his argument to reject that view) to show how the law is the same for both. >before the law Christ was still righteous. Now we've come full circle to what I consider to be the inherent gnosticism in your view. Christ was both righteous and became righteous. The eschatology/Christology of the gospel writers simply doesn't allow for the pre-existent Son of God to trump The Messiah's humanity at every turn. This is precisely why John wrote his epistles. Christ's humanity isn't merely defined by flesh and blood because humanity isn't merely defined by flesh and blood. Humanity is also defined by will, cognition, and emotion. If Christ is not also defined by those characteristics of humanity, he simply isn't human. Christ was inherently righteous (John 1:4,5) and increasingly righteous (Luke 2:40,52). The obedience that The Messiah "learned" was truly "learned". Chad Bresson Xenia, OH --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! -- Read the Sound of Grace pages at http://www.soundofgrace.com To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: soundofgrace-unsubscribe@... To view our online archive go to our web page at http://www.associate.com/groups/soundofgrace