Sinful Flesh

Thomas Weinandy’s In the Likeness of Sinful Flesh: An Essay on the Humanity of Christ is a lucid, concise, yet comprehensive study of an issue that has become controversial. He states his thesis clearly at the outset: “While Christian theologians have stressed that the Son ofGod became like us in every way, what they have almostuniversally neglected and ignored, both in the present and thepast, is that in the Incarnation, the Son took upon himself,not some generic humanity, but our own sinful humanity.While he never sinned personally, or . . . had aninner propensity to sin (concupiscence), nonetheless his humanitywas of the race of Adam and he experienced, ofnecessity, many of the effects of sin which permeate the worldand plague human beingshunger and thirst, sickness andsorrow, temptation and harassment by Satan, being hated anddespised, fear and loneliness, even death and separation fromGod. The eternal Son of God functioned from within theconfines of a humanity altered by sin and the Fall. ‘He wasboth God and the son of Eve.’ This then is what we mean,when throughout this study, we speak of ‘Jesus’ sinful humanity,’his ‘sinful flesh/’ or his ‘sinful human nature’ (18).

Weinandy finds a few ambiguous allies in the tradition, especially Anselm and Aquinas, but almost none that develop the point. When he turns to the New Testament, he claims that the Son’s assumption of Adamic nature is essential to the gospel that Paul proclaims and defends.

Commending on the baptismal passage in Romans 6, he writes, “If our old self was crucified with Christ, as Paul proclaimed,then Jesus must have partaken of our sinful human condition.His humanity must have been of the sinful race of Adam. IfJesus did not possess a humanity scarred and tainted by sin,then our ‘old self’ or ‘sinful body’ did not die. Some otherhumanity may have died, but not one like our own. But thatis precisely what Paul said must die and did die. Clearly, Paulpredicated his theology of baptism upon the premise thatJesus, in the Incarnation, assumed a humanity like our own (75).

After examining the first verses of Romans 8 and Paul’s claim that Jesus “became sin,” Weinandy concludes that “Jesus, in offering his human life on the cross asa holy and loving sacrifice to the Father, not only reconciled usto the Father, but, simultaneously, actively put to death oursinful flesh . . . .The cross graphically illustrates that, while wewere indeed redeemable, we could be salvaged only throughthe actual putting to death of the humanity inherited fromAdam. Sin had so thoroughly penetrated and contaminatedour humanity that it had to die and be re-created. The cross,the putting to death of the flesh (sarx), is then the hermeneuticalprinciple for understanding the radical sinfulness of our humancondition” (83-4).

He concludes with this wonderful summary: “When theeternal Son of the Father entered into our world, under the
then-present conditions, he came to exist as man touched andaltered by the reality of sin. He was a son of Adam. He assumedour sinful flesh.Within this humanity, the Son lived an obedient life underthe guidance and power of the Holy Spirit, fending off alltemptation, and thus fulfilling all righteousness. His righteous,loving obedience culminated on the cross where, throughthe offering of his holy and innocent life, he both reconciled usto the Father and put our sinful nature to death. So pleased wasthe Father that he raised his Son to glory, giving him a
complete and incorruptible humanity.Through conversion, faith, and baptism, we experiencewhat happened to Jesus, our sinful flesh shares in the death ofJesus and we participate in his new humanity. By the Spirit, wecome to live in Christ, the new Adam. By coming to live inChrist, we become sons and daughters of the Father. Webecome members of the Church, brothers and sisters inChrist’s body. We take on the holiness of God, becomingtemples of the Holy Spirit. We are thus transfigured into thevery likeness of Christ, anticipating the fullness of glory inheaven. We look now for that promised us when the inheritancewill be ours” (149).

Weinandy thinks that the affirmation that the Son entered into and lived obediently as a member of Adam’s race is important for several reasons. First, it “captures a fresh authenticity” because it insists that “the eternal Son does truly know our human condition, in all its frailty.” Second, it heals the divorce of Christology and soteriology that has marked some of the Christian tradition, and advances an understanding of the incarnation that leads into a “theology of the cross and resurrection.” Weinandy emphasizes the role of the Spirit in Jesus’ ministry, arguing that “only through the Spirit could he defend himself against temptation and only in the Spirit could he remain faithful to the Spirit’s anointing, that of being the Servant/Son.” Thus this view closes the cap between Christology and Pneumatology. This thesis underscores the fact that “Jesus substantially changed reality” but putting sinful, Adamic flesh to death on the cross. Finally, this emphasis on the humanity of Jesus and His participation in “flesh” in the fullness sense identifies “the absolute definitiveness of Jesus.” He is the only Savior because in Him along is Adam put to death and raised to new life (150-2).