The Lord Jesus was certainly a man. The Gospels leave us with no other conclusion. Yet, clearly, He is also God. We must affirm both His deity and His humanity. The incarnation is the heart of Christian faith. The Lord Jesus is Immanuel, God with us (Is 7.14). The eternal Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1.14). In Christ, God became man. This is a truth beyond the reach of our finite minds. We believe it on the basis of divine revelation. In becoming man, the Son of God lost none of His divine attributes. Rather, He added humanity to His deity, uniting them in His one blessed person.
The fact of the incarnation is unique. No similar event has ever taken place. It is the greatest miracle of all. The manner in which it took place was equally unique and miraculous Christs virgin conception (Is 7.14; Mt 1.18-25; Lk 1.26-38). The Lord Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Thus He had no human father biologically. Nonetheless, Mary is fully His mother (Lk 1.43; 2.7; Gal 4.4).
Thus our Lords humanity is not alien to ours. Notice the precision of Pauls language in Romans 8.3: God sent "his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh". He was not sent in sinful flesh nor in the likeness of flesh. His was true yet sinless humanity. Christ displayed the moral beauty of what God had originally intended human life to be. Through His incarnation He entered into the stream of the human race. He is truly the Son of Abraham and the Son of David (Mt 1.1). He belongs to Israel (Rom 9.4-5). He is descended from Judah (Heb 7.14). Indeed, Luke traces the genealogy of Christ back to Adam, showing His kinship to us all, and ultimately to God the Creator, whose Son He is (Lk 3.38). It was our humanity, apart from its sinfulness, that Christ voluntarily shared (Heb 2.14).
Although like us, the Lord Jesus is also very unlike us. He is God and not only man. He lived a life of total obedience, always bringing perfect pleasure to His Father (Jn 8.29). Our Lord was preserved from all sin by His deity which was always united with His humanity, His supernatural conception and the miraculous overshadowing of the Holy Spirit ensuring that even in Marys womb He was the Holy One (Lk 1.35). Although He was sorely tempted, He was victorious over every assault of Satan (Heb 4.15). Sin had no allure for Him. He loathed it with the utmost intensity. There was nothing within Him to which the Tempter could appeal (Jn 14.30). Unlike us, He had no fifth column in the citadel of His inner being. The fact that He never succumbed to temptation, or ever could do so, made the experience of it more, not less, intense. Because He never failed He felt the full force of all of Satans attacks. No one else has ever done so. His temptations demonstrated His impeccability.
The Lord Jesus passed through all human experiences, from conception and birth through to death and burial. His humanity is real. In New Testament times, some taught that He only seemed to be human. They asserted that He was only a phantom. These teachers were influenced by the philosophy of their day. They believed that matter was inherently evil and spirit was inherently good. In his epistles, John clearly shows that such teaching undermines the historic certainties of Christs birth and death (1 Jn 1.1; 4.2; 5.6). Thus it is antichristian deception which destroys the foundations of belief (2 Jn v.7). Luke describes the growth and development of Jesus as a child and then as a teenager approaching adulthood (Lk 2.40,42,52). He knew family life and worked with His hands as a carpenter (Mk 6.3, ESV). In His ministry, the Lord Jesus enjoyed the camaraderie of His disciples, young men of His own age. He also delighted in the generous hospitality of His friends at Bethany, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus (Lk 10.38-42; Jn 11.1-2). The Lord experienced weariness, hunger, and thirst (Jn 4.6; Mt 21.18; Jn 19.28). In the last few hours of His life He experienced the most intense suffering imaginable, the vilest verbal and physical abuse, crucifixion, and at last death (Mt 26.36-46; 27.27-31, 35-38, 50). Throughout His journey on earth, the Lord Jesus lived in complete dependence on His Father, manifested in unparalleled communion with Him in prayer.
In all these experiences, the Lord Jesus expressed true human emotions. His is a full human nature. In early church history, some taught that although Christ possessed a human body the immaterial part of man was replaced in His case by the Eternal Word. Such teaching denies that the Lord Jesus is fully human. Actually, the Gospels reveal that the Lord possessed a human soul (Mt 26.38; Jn 12.27) and a human spirit (Jn 13.21; Lk 23.46). In modern parlance, He not only had a full human physiology but a full human psychology. Thus we read of Him experiencing the full range of sinless emotions. The Gospels portray Jesus as displaying joy (Lk 10.21), sorrow (Mt 26.37), love (Jn 11.5), compassion (Mt 9.36), astonishment (Lk 7.9), and anger along with grief (Mk 3.5). Indeed, on several occasions, the Gospel writers use language which emphasises the depth and intensity of His human feelings. Take, for instance, Lukes description of the distress which convulsed the Lord as He contemplated the coming destruction of Jerusalem (Lk 19.41-44). Consider especially Johns account of the grief of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus. Not only did He shed tears of sympathy for the bereaved family but He was deeply moved and indeed outraged by the devastation that sin and death had wrought in human experience (Jn 11.33-38). How sensitively must He have felt rejection by His family and the nation, the forsaking of the disciples, the treachery of Judas, the denial by Peter, the pain and shame of His cross, and the deepest sorrow of all, His abandonment by His God!
The great purpose of Christ becoming man was our salvation by His atoning death. Only in becoming man did He become capable of voluntarily laying down His life. It was as mans representative and substitute that He, as man, died. In the picture of the Old Testament law, it was as the kinsman that He was qualified to be the Redeemer. The clearest exposition of our Lords humanity in the epistles is found in Hebrews 2. There, His sufferings and death are prominent. Carefully consider verses 9,10,14, and 17. Christ is the Champion who routed Satan by His death. In dying He dealt the death-blow to our arch foe. Thus He fulfilled the first hint of the gospel preached by Gods promise to Adam and Eve in Eden against the dread backdrop of the Fall (Gen 3.15). By His perfect sacrifice Christ made propitiation for us, satisfying all the demands of Gods righteous throne.
The Lord did not renounce His humanity on His death. He rose as man and ascended as man. He remains man forever. He has carried the imprint of all His earthly experiences with Him into heaven. There He is our Great High Priest. His full identification with us prepared and fitted Him for that wonderful ministry. Because He suffered when tempted, He is able to help us in our temptations (Heb 2.17-18). The Lord is most certainly able to sympathise with us in our weaknesses (Heb 4.15). Knowing human life as He did, He feels with us and for us.
The humanity of Christ is the pattern and prototype of ours. Our Saviour is also our example (1 Pet 2.21). We are called to follow the trail that He blazed for us (Heb 2.10; 12.2). Sanctification means becoming more like Him now. Glorification will mean becoming perfectly like Him. It is Gods purpose that all of Christs people will share His risen exalted humanity (Rom 8.29; Phil 3.20-21).
We confess the reality of the incarnation because Scripture emphatically witnesses to it. We affirm the true humanity of Christ because our salvation depends on His past sacrifice and present intercession and will be completed when we shall be like Him in glory. Then He will be the firstborn of many brethren.
To be continued.