according to the flesh
Romans 1:3
1:3 according to the flesh. The central truth of Christianity is the incarnation of God in human flesh, in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a true man, “made of the seed of David,” as foretold by the prophets; His birth was completely natural from the point of conception, but His conception was altogether miraculous. He had no human father (although Joseph was his legal, adoptive father, conveying the legal right to David’s throne) and His mother remained a virgin until after He was born. Since Mary herself was a descendant of David, and since He grew in her womb for nine months, He was indeed “made” of one who was of the seed of David. Nevertheless, He could have had no genetic conception to either Mary or Joseph. Otherwise, there could have been no natural way in which “that holy thing” (Luke 1:35) could have been kept from inherited sin or inherited mutational defects. Thus, His conception necessarily involved the special creation of the cell placed by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb. “A body hast thou prepared me” (Hebrews 10:5). Just as the body of the first Adam was specially created by God, without genetic connection to human parents, so was that of “the last Adam” (I Corinthians 15:45). Yet He was no less fully human than the first Adam, the father of all other humans. Furthermore, His growing body was “made” through natural nourishment in Mary’s womb as He grew, and Mary was “of the seed of David,” Thus He was, indeed, “made of the seed of David according to the flesh,” although the specifications for the “making” of His body were contained in the DNA code programmed by God in the created cell.
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