The Golden Chain - Robert J. Wieland

and Martyr, says, speaking first of our Saviour:
"He was the ark formed of corruptible wood. For
by this is signified that His tabernacle was exempt
from sin, of wood not obnoxious to corruption
according to man; that is, of the Virgin, and of the
Holy Ghost, covered within and without with the
pure gold of the word of God" (Berington and
Kirk, The Faith of Catholics, Confirmed and
Attested by the Fathers of the First Five Centuries
of the Church, vol. Ill, pp. 443-446, emphasis
supplied).
The difficulty with the word "exempt" and the
idea associated with it is that it divorces the
incarnate Christ from the exercise of His free
choice. It bypasses the "right action of the will, the
power of choice" (SC 47). The Word of God has
described this twisted, confused, apostate system of
thought that permeates the Roman Catholic idea of
"righteousness by faith" as "the abomination that
maketh desolate" and "the mystery of iniquity" (see
Daniel 11:31; 2 Thessalonians 2:7). Its clever
doctrine concerning the nature of Christ fulfills the
prophecies, for its natural consequence is the
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