Was Jesus human flesh fallen?
Romans 8:3—God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. By sinful flesh he means fallen human nature. So what is the meaning of likeness? Some say Paul is undermining the reality of Christ’s true humanity, perhaps suggesting that his flesh is only a facsimile of ours, but not the real thing. However, v. 8b (“in the flesh”) indicates otherwise. Others argue the word likeness is Paul’s way of saying that Jesus never committed an act of sin. But Paul is talking about character, not conduct. The best solution is that Paul used likeness to avoid saying that Christ assumed fallen human nature. He took flesh like ours, because really flesh, but only like ours, not identical with it, because unfallen. He uses the word likeness because he feels compelled to use the phrase sinful flesh instead of merely flesh. Had he omitted sinful he also would have omitted likeness. The question remains, “Why does he include the word sinful?” Murray comments: “He is concerned to show that when th...