The Golden Chain - Robert J. Wieland

The word "like" is an adjective, whereas
"likeness" is a noun. Jesus never said that a fish-net
or leaven etc. is the likeness (or reality) of the
kingdom of heaven. But His flesh was the reality of
our sinful flesh. (See next question.)
5. Are you not going too far when you say that
the nature which Christ "took" or "assumed"
was "identical" to our own? Would it not be
better to say it was "similar" or it "resembled"
ours?
When Paul speaks of Christ "coming in the
likeness of men" (the same Greek word in
Philippians 2:7) he means that He truly became
man, or He would be teaching the heresy of
Docetism. He identified Himself with man, in
nature He was "made" identical to man, although
before His incarnation He was in "form" identical
with God (vs. 6). And there is no other way to
translate kath homoioteta in Hebrews 4:15 than to
say He was "in all things tempted identically as we
are." The Twentieth Century New Testament
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