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The Truth about Jesus and Anthropology Jesus — God and Man |
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By Pastor Richard Ballard Currently on Assignment in Ecumenical Ministry |
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The truth of Christianity has always rested in the person of Jesus Christ—who He is and what He has done. That is why no doctrine of the church has been more debated and scrutinized than the doctrine of Christology. History attests to the fact, and most historians would agree, that the man Jesus, around whom the New Testament is centered, was a real person who lived in first century Palestine. As J. McDowell points out, “Jesus definitely walked among us and accomplished powerful works that even hostile non-Christian sources do not fail to confirm.” What has been more difficult for many to accept, however, is the mystery that Jesus was (and is) both God and man, two natures in one Person. Early in church history, theologians such as Cyril of Alexandria used the expression "hypostasis" to help explain the coexistence of the two natures (human and divine) in the Person of Jesus Christ. What this means is that Jesus was not just someone who walked with God, like Enoch or Elijah, or who was even like God. Rather, He was and is the Lord God Almighty. As Titus 2:13 declares, we are to be “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
One of the mistakes often made by religious sects is misunderstanding the nature of the trinity, and more specifically the nature of Christ.
The Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, focus primarily on Jesus' humanity while ignoring His divinity. Christian Scientists, on the other hand, focus on Jesus' divinity to the point of denying His humanity. Neither of these views of Jesus, nor others like them, line up with the New Testament or the historical teaching of the church. That is why both natures of Jesus must be understood and defined to gain an accurate understanding of who he is.
There were many in Jesus’ day who questioned His identity and His allegiance to God. Many others doubted the truth of His words. But it was His self-identification with deity that brought the strongest condemnation against Him and led to His eventual death. The Jews had long understood that there was only one God (cf. Deut. 6:4; 1 Chr. 17:20), and He was not human. Therefore, anyone claiming to be divine was viewed in Jewish eyes as committing the gravest form of blasphemy and deserving of death. This is why, for example, when Jesus actually claimed the name of God, saying, “…before Abraham was, I AM,” the Jewish leadership tried to stone Him to death (Jn. 8:58-59). But it wasn’t just the Jewish leadership that had trouble with Jesus’ words. His disciples struggled with His claim to deity as well (e.g. Jn. 14:8; 20:24-25). It wasn’t until after His death, resurrection, and ascension that the disciples began to fully embrace and proclaim the truth that the man Jesus was indeed God.
Throughout the centuries, the church has used the term Incarnation to explain the two natures of Jesus. But how did God become both God and man? In the prologue of his gospel, John tells us that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (1:1-2). John goes on to say, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14). The “Word” (Greek, Logos) John is referring to is the divine pre-existent Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity Who was not only with God (i.e. the Father), but was also God Himself Who took on human flesh and walked among us. Centuries earlier, Isaiah had foretold of the incarnation when he wrote, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Is. 9:6). The apostle Paul highlights this truth in his letter to the Galatian churches when he writes, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (4:4-5). For God to send His Son presupposes that God had a Son. Thus, Jesus was God’s Son not because He was born of a woman, but because of His eternal, pre-existent relation-ship with the Father. Affirming this point, Russell Byrum writes, “This text [i.e., John 1:1-3] not only states that Christ existed prior to his incarnation, but it states that he is eternal. He is not said to have begun to be in the beginning, but that then he ‘was’ already existing.” To further emphasize this truth, John tells us that, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (1:3; cf. Col. 1:16-17). Here, Jesus is declared to also be the Creator of the universe, which is possible only if He eternally pre-existed as the Most High God.
What this means is that Jesus was not just part God or one-half God, or even mostly God. Rather, He was and is one-hundred percent fully God. And as God, He possesses all the divine attributes that God the Father possesses—omniscience, omnipotence, immutability, transcendence, sovereignty, etc. (cf. Jn. 4:29; Mt. 8:26-27, 18:20; Col. 1:16). It also means that Jesus possesses all the authority the Father has to rule His kingdom and forgive sins (cf. Mt. 9:6, 28:18; Lk. 7:48). The Hebrews writer speaks of the Father’s Own testimony concerning Jesus’ authority when he writes, “But to the Son he says: ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever’” (Heb. 1:8). Furthermore, as God, Jesus will one day judge the world in righteousness (cf. Acts 17:31; 2 Cor. 5:10). As Peter told Cornelius, “He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He [Jesus] who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42). Thus, to say that Jesus is God means that everything God is, Jesus is. For Jesus was and is truly God.
But just as Jesus was fully God, He was fully man as well. This is what His incarnation was all about, becoming human. As Paul declared, “Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6-7). As mentioned earlier, history, including the New Testament, testifies to the fact that Jesus was indeed a real person. As I. Howard Marshal states, “It is not possible to explain the rise of the Christian church or the writing of the Gospels and the stream of tradition that lies behind them without accepting the fact that the Founder of Christianity actually existed.” Few today would question this fact. There should also be no doubt that Jesus understood Himself to be fully human. He often referred to Himself as the Son of Man, drawing on the long standing tradition from the book of Daniel (cf. 7:13-14; Mt. 26:64) that spoke of a royal ruler who would rule over His dominion. In fact, all but three of the eighty-one times the title “Son of Man” is mentioned in the four Gospels are from the lips of Jesus, showing that it was He and not His disciples who understood the unique human role He was called to fulfill. Furthermore, we see a number of occasions where Jesus was addressed as the “Son of David,” another title given Him because of the long-held understanding that the Messiah would be David’s offspring who would rule forever (cf. Mt. 22:42-46), a fact Matthew affirms in the opening verse of his gospel. Thus, both of these titles, “Son of Man” and “Son of David,” demonstrate the fact that Jesus, as well as those who knew Him, was fully aware of His humanity.
Even so, what does it mean that God became man? It certainly does not mean that God turned into a man in the sense that He was no longer God. Jesus did not lose any of His divinity when He became man. Nor did He give up any of His aforementioned divine attributes. Rather, Jesus took on human flesh and incorporated it into His eternal being. As the early church father Gregory of Naziansen said of Jesus’ incarnation centuries ago, “Remaining what he was, he became what he was not.” J.I. Packer put it this way, “He was not now God minus some elements of his deity, but God plus all that he had made his own by taking manhood to himself.” And R. Byrum writes, “He became flesh . . . not by the changing of his divine nature into human nature, but by the addition of the one to the other.” This does not mean, however, that Jesus’ two natures were somehow merged into one, creating the person Jesus Christ. On the contrary, each nature, divine and human, remains distinct from one another. Just as His divine nature remained fully divine, so too did His human nature remain fully human. Thus, Jesus’ divinity did not hinder Him from experiencing all the things that any other human would experience—joy, sorrow, hunger, thirst, pleasure, pain, suffering, death, and even temptation from Satan. As the Hebrew writer declares, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).
That Jesus’ human nature remained fully distinct from His divine nature is further illustrated by the fact that He had a human body (Lk. 24:39), a human soul (Mt. 26:38), a human mind (Lk. 2:52), a human will (Lk. 22:42), and human emotions (Jn. 11:35). Thus, it can be said that while Jesus is fully God, He is still yet fully man. And although both natures remain entirely distinct from each other, Jesus Christ is nonetheless One Person. Furthermore, it must be pointed out that Jesus’ humanity was not something that was temporary in duration. In other words, He did not give up His humanity when He ascended back to heaven. As D.M. Baillie states, “If we believe in the incarnation, we cannot possibly say that Jesus ceased to be human when he departed from this world.” Just as Jesus incorporated His human nature into His eternal being to become both God and man, when He ascended, He took His humanity with Him to be permanently incorporated into the Godhead. Because of this, Paul says He now stands as the divine/human mediator between us and God—“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).
So what does all this mean for the church and those of us who claim the name of Jesus? First, it should be obvious that Christianity stands or falls with the Person of Jesus Christ, Who He is and what He did. Therefore, it goes without saying that to benefit from God’s love and grace necessitates a proper view and understanding of Who Jesus really is. Otherwise, the Jesus we find ourselves believing in will not be the Jesus of the New Testament. Second, because Jesus is indeed fully God, we can take confidence in knowing that not only does He have the authority to forgive our sins, He also has the ability to empower us so that we can fulfill our calling and mission in this life, for He is the only One qualified to be our Savior and our Lord (cf. Jn. 14:6; Acts 4:12). No one else can take His place. Third, to know that Jesus was and is fully human in every way that we are, means that we worship a God Who understands what it is like to be human, a God Who can fully sympathize with us and be a faithful high priest on our behalf. Fourth, the fact that God would choose to become part of His creation—to experience pain, suffering, and even death—so that we might have the opportunity to be reconciled and have eternal life with Him, shows just how incredibly great His love is for us (cf. Jn. 3:16; Rom. 5:6-8; Eph. 2:4-5). Finally, knowing the truth of Who Jesus is will not only greatly enhance the way we view Him, but how we worship Him as well. Indeed, the truth of Who Jesus is and what He accomplished on our behalf is the foundation of the Christian faith. As Dennis Kinlaw says, “Only in the heart of the Christian community can one find a concept of God as holy love, who seeks identity and fellowship with us and who desires union with us to such a degree that he willingly became one of us.” Thus, we can say with confidence that Jesus is our advocate, our savior, our Lord, and our God, for He is Jesus, God and Man!
Christology is the branch of Christian theology relating to the person, nature, and role of Christ. McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity (Nashville, TN: Nelson Publishing, 2006) 192 The term hypostasis comes from the Greek, which means substantive being. The word incarnation is not found in the Bible. It comes from the Latin in and caro (flesh) meaning “to be made flesh” or “the act of assuming flesh.” Byrum, Russell R. Christian Theology, rev. ed. (Anderson, IN: Warner Press, 1982) 174 Marshall, I. Howard. I Believe in the Historical Jesus (Iowa Falls, IA: World Bible Publishers, Inc., 1977) 24 See Witherington, Ben and Ice, Laura M. The Shadow of the Almighty (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2002) 75-80 Packer, J.I. Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973) 57 Byrum, Russell R. Christian Theology, rev. ed. (Anderson, IN: Warner Press, 1982) 287 The teaching that Jesus’ two natures became united into one nature without separation is known as Miaphysitism. The early church condemned this view as heresy at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. Baillie, D.M. God was in Christ (New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948) 152 Kinlaw, Dennis. Let’s Start With Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005) 73
A First Century Christian Writer On the Divinity and Humanity of Jesus Ignatius was a Christian pastor from Syria who was martyred in the Roman Coliseum sometime during the reign of the Emperor Trajan. He wrote a number of letters to the young congregations of the Empire, and among them is one to the Ephesians. While not inspired in the sense of the New Testament, his words show that the earliest Christians did, indeed, believe in both the humanity and the divinity of Jesus. Following is a beautiful passage from his letter to the church at Ephesus when he was awaiting execution for his faith.
For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived by Mary, in God’s plan being sprung both from the seed of David and from the Holy Spirit. He was born and baptized that by his Passion he might hallow water.
Now, Mary’s virginity and her giving birth escaped the notice of the prince of this world, as did the Lord’s death—those three secrets crying to be told, but wrought in God’s silence. How, then, were they revealed to the ages? A star shone in heaven brighter than all the stars. Its light was indescribable and its novelty caused amazement. The rest of the stars, along with the sun and the moon formed a ring around it; yet it outshone them all, and there was bewilderment whence this unique novelty had arisen. As a result all magic lost its power and all witchcraft ceased. Ignorance was done away with, and the ancient kingdom ([of evil]) was utterly destroyed, for God was revealing himself as a man, to bring newness of eternal life. What God had prepared was now beginning. Hence everything was in confusion as the destruction of death was being taken in hand.
I will explain to you more . . . if . . . you are all, every one of you, meeting together under the influence of the grace that we owe to the Name, in one faith and in union with Christ, who was “descended from David according to the flesh” and is Son of man and Son of God.
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