There is a very strong note on John 1:14 in The Ryrie Study Bible (Moody Press, 1978, p. 1494) that boldly declares that Christ has joined Himself to sinful humanity: “Jesus Christ was unique, for He was God from all eternity and yet joined Himself to sinful humanity in the incarnation. The God-man possessed all the attributes of deity (Phil. 2:6) and the attributes common to humanity (apart from sin), and He will exist forever as the God-man in His resurrected body (Acts 1:11; Rev. 5:6). Only the God-man could be an adequate Savior; for He must be human in order to be able to suffer and die, and He must be God to make that death effective as a payment for sin.” I have not found such a strong word on this matter in anyone else’s notes, expositions, or commentaries. After his statement that Christ joined Himself to sinful humanity, Ryrie added the phrase apart from sin.
It is crucial for us to see why the Bible does not say that Christ as the Triune God became a man. To say only that Christ became a man does not definitely denote that man was in a fallen condition at the time of the incarnation. However, according to the New Testament usage, to say that the Word became flesh definitely indicates that “the flesh” refers to the fallen man. Romans 3:20 confirms this: “Because out of the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before Him.” At the time the Lord Jesus as the Triune God was incarnated to be a man, man had fallen already. Christ did not become a man before the fall, but He did so after the fall, while man was absolutely living in the fall. Therefore, as Ryrie says, He actually joined Himself to sinful humanity.
Nevertheless, we need to be very clear that there was no sin in the Lord’s humanity. The fact that the Lord joined Himself to sinful humanity does not mean that there was sin in His humanity. There is no sin in Him, although He became flesh, which refers to the fallen man in whom is sin.
In the same Gospel where it is recorded that the Triune God became the flesh (John 1:14), this Man Jesus, the Son of Man, told us, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” that is, lifted up on the cross (3:14). This word indicates definitely that the incarnated Christ was portrayed in typology as a serpent, by the brass serpent in Numbers 21, a serpent in form but not in nature.
The brass serpent lifted up on the pole in Numbers 21 was a representative of the people bitten by the serpents (vv. 4-9). All the people who had been bitten by the serpents became serpents in the eyes of God. For God to forgive them, to save them, and to recover them, they needed to be judged by God. Nevertheless, they themselves were not judged, but they were judged in and through their representative, which was the serpent made of brass. In the eyes of God, that serpent lifted up on the pole and judged there was the representative of all those who had become serpents, but the brass serpent possessed only the form of the serpent and not the nature. Therefore, from the Gospel of John we can see that the incarnated One was in the form of a fallen man, but He did not have the fallen nature.
In Romans 8:3 Paul tells us clearly that God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin. The major point in this verse is the flesh, but the flesh is limited by the word likeness, and the flesh is modified by the phrase of sin. In the likeness of the flesh of sin is a wonderful phrase, a wonderful expression. On one hand, there is the flesh of sin, but on the other hand, there is only the likeness of the flesh of sin. These two modifiers indicate that the Triune God became the flesh as a fallen man only in the likeness of the flesh of sin, but not in the sinful nature. We need to be clear concerning this distinction.
Moreover, our Christ in incarnation was made sin, although He knew no sin. Paul gives us an even stronger verse that corresponds to Romans 8:3 in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf.” Christ knew no sin, yet God made Him sin. To say that Christ was made sin is a much stronger expression than to say that He became flesh. Nevertheless, the Word clearly says that God made Him sin, and we need to be bold to declare what the Word declares. While Christ was being judged on the cross, in the eyes of God He was sin there. When we say that God made Christ sin, we have Paul’s word in 2 Corinthians 5:21 as the Word of God to support us. Paul, however, adds a modifier, “Him who did not know sin.” To say that God made One sin who knew no sin is to speak a heavenly language. How much we all need to learn to speak the heavenly language of the Bible!