I have something inherent to my nature that causes me to search for inconsistencies. It may be my personality type, the education system, the cynicism and doubt of our culture…but whatever the cause, it makes paradoxes and faith extremely difficult for me. Hence, the following:
Why is it that being born a human, a descendant of Adam, automatically implies guilt for everyone other than Christ?
If the response is, “Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit (hence the importance of the virgin birth) and therefore free from original sin,” then I must argue that this is another way* in which Jesus/God cannot empathize with myself or man as a whole. He would not be able to fully understand what it is like to be born into sin. While he was condemned and crucified for sins that were not his, He knew on the deepest level that he was not guilty, he did not deserve death, and that God the father did not view him as sinful. We, on the other hand, are told that on the deepest level we are guilty, we do deserve death, and we are by nature objects of wrath.
What is it like, Jesus, to have to constantly rely on the sacrifice of another for your salvation? What is it like to be imperfect? What is it like to be sinful? Not tempted, but sinful. What is it like to actually be guilty? To be told that you are deserving of death because of the fruit choices of a man and a woman long before your time? How can you know?
*The first way that I think Jesus/God cannot empathize with us being that God is infinite and therefore he does not, and by nature cannot, know what it means to be finite or the struggles that accompany that. Jesus may have understood the need to eat and the frailty of life as a created being, but not the constraints on understanding and knowledge. If he did, he couldn’t have been both God and man. To take this a step further, if Jesus knew for certain the plan of his death and his ultimate resurrection and eternal life could he have truly experienced the fear, doubt, and unknowing that we experience being finite?
abstract relations vi 