'My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a

deceiver' (Gen. 27:12).

The word is repeated in verses 21 and 22.  While the disciples believed

not for very joy, the Lord in gracious condescension added to the 'proofs'

already given by asking whether they had by them any meat.  Producing a piece

of broiled fish and a piece of honey -comb, the remnants presumably of a meal

already finished, the Saviour took these viands 'and He did eat before them'.

As we have before remarked, this does not prove that broiled fish and honey -

comb are the staple diet of the risen believer, or that in the resurrection

the believer will eat food at all.  All that the Saviour did was to show

Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, and to disprove

once and for all that in the resurrection the Lord was 'a spirit'.  That the

body of the risen Christ had powers that transcend those possessed by mortal

man is evident, but that is not the question before us.  His identity was

proved, He could say with all the meaning with which the words are capable of

bearing, 'It is I Myself'.  In Luke 24:39 the words translated, 'It is I

Myself' are autos ego eimi (in the Received Text).  In Mark 6:49,50 we read

that when the disciples saw the Lord walking on the sea 'they supposed it had

been a spirit, and cried out'.  Here the word translated 'spirit' is

phantasma, the English phantom, which is evidently what was uppermost in the

minds of the disciples when they were terrified and thought the risen Christ

was 'a spirit'.  He reassured the disciples who were equally troubled and

said, 'It is I', ego eimi.  If the risen Christ was a man, if the

resurrection body bore the marks of the crucifixion, if that risen body was

'flesh and bones', then, it is a most perfect proof that the humanity of the

Saviour before His death on the cross must have been 'like unto His brethren'

-- but with one great and precious reservation 'yet without sin'.  This will

come to be discussed as other references to the humanity of the Son of God

come before us.  Let us meanwhile glorify God for His unspeakable gift.

Three passages in the Epistle to the Romans speak of Christ according

to the flesh, namely Romans 1:3; 8:3 and 9:5.  Two of these references

associate Christ with the covenant people of Israel; one disassociates Him

from the sin of Adam.

A Rom. 1:3,4.

According to the flesh.

Seed of David.

Declared to be the Son of God.

B Rom. 8:3.  Weak through the flesh.

His own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.

A Rom. 9:5.

Concerning the flesh.

Came of Israel.

Himself God over all.

Kata sarka, 'according to the flesh', the words used of Christ in

Romans 1:3, are found in Romans 9:3 in a context that permits no alternative

meaning, and allows no ambiguity.

'My kinsmen according to the flesh, kata sarka, who are Israelites'.

We can no more doubt that Jesus Christ according to the flesh was a real man,

than we can doubt that Paul's kinsmen according to the flesh were real men.

They were of 'the fathers', He was made of the seed of David.  Moreover,

Romans 9 not only says that the kinsmen of Paul were according to the flesh,

but adds, that of whom, that is of Israel 'as concerning the flesh Christ