Jesus – both God and man
AS CHRISTIANS we must believe that Jesus was fully human. To deny His humanity is to nullify His redemptive ministry. Without Jesus’ humanity we do not have a sympathetic Mediator because, “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.” Hebrews 4:15 NLT. Without Jesus’ humanity we don’t have a redeemer who perfectly obeyed the law so that He might become a spotless sacrifice for us, and without Jesus’ humanity we don’t have a blood sacrifice that covers the sinner’s sin. Jesus’ humanity is critical.
Although Jesus was fully human, He wasn’t an ordinary human, because Jesus is also fully God. The Apostle John helps us to understand this in John 1 that states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life … 14 The Word became flesh an of the trinity, as God is three in one. To further concretise Jesus’ divinity, John states that Jesus is responsible for all creatiod made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-14 (NIV). This Word is Jesus, and the truth being communicated is that “the Word” existed before creation or time. Jesus eternally existed with God, but further to that, Jesus Himself is God.
THE TRUTH OF THE TRINITY
Though Jesus is God, He is distinct from God the Father. This points to the truthn when he states that, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made…” Jesus is the author of creation, therefore, He Himself was not created. Additionally, Jesus is also the author of life, so Jesus is fully God.
This Word became ‘incarnate’, meaning it became flesh and made His dwelling among us. This is the beauty of the virgin birth. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and therefore “…the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” Jesus was born holy. Being conceived of the Holy Spirit is important because if Jesus had two human parents, He couldn’t be God. The best He would have been is divinely empowered, but He would still be human and still subject to the original sin of Adam. If that was the case, He couldn’t be the Son of God and the Lord of all.
If Jesus was born solely by God (not Mary), He would be fully divine, but wouldn’t be human. If Jesus just came down from the Trinity, He would only look human but not actually be human. He wouldn’t understand our pain, temptations, sorrows, and fears. But as it is, Jesus had a human mother but God as Father. His divine parentage freed Him from original sin and since there is no sin in God, He was born sinless and lived a sinless life.
Being God gave Jesus the ability to be sinless and the perfect sacrifice for our sins. It also gave Him the capacity to bear the sins of the world which were all poured out on Him. Only the infinite God can bear the infinite sins of the world, and has the authority to destroy the works of the devil (sin, sickness, death). Because Jesus is fully human and fully God, He was qualified to be the Christ.