The Nature of Jesus

Truly Man, Truly God

Preached at Chew Magna Baptist Church 25/Jan/09

I was asked to preach on the subject of the nature of Jesus; that our Lord Jesus is both truly man, and truly God, two natures yet unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably one person. In his first letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul calls it a great mystery [1], for this is what it is and we can only accept it with the eyes of faith. It echoes the other great mystery of God, the Holy Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons, yet one God. We should not be afraid of the mystical side of our faith; for ultimately we have faith in the all powerful, all knowing and everywhere present God.

As it says in the book of Job "Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?” [2] David put it like this “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom” [3].

I was asked to talk about Jesus’ humanity; as I gather someone else will be preaching on His divinity. However, I cannot do justice to this great and deep doctrine of our faith with mentioning a little about the divinity of Jesus.

I pray that God will guide my words and keep my thoughts and expressions from error today. I pray that God will bless us with a deeper understanding of the nature of our Lord Jesus.

 Today, some people have no difficulty believing that Jesus was a good man, a holy man, a prophet, an inspired teacher and a shining example of how we should live. But to believe that Jesus is God, well that’s an entirely different thing.

Interestingly, in the first and second century AD, many groups that were loosely part of the church could understand how Jesus was God but not how it was possible He was a man. True Christians have always believed He is both God and man together.

Let us try and understand this as far as we are able. Let me begin by asking this question “where did Jesus come from?”

Listen to some verses from John’s Gospel

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. [4]

The word of God; this was the name of Jesus before he was born on earth. He existed with God, and He was God. He existed from the beginning of all things. Before anything was made, Jesus, God the Son, existed; He was and is and ever shall be. In addition, listen to a verse from Hebrews.

³The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. [5]

Jesus, God the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. How can there be an exact representation of God’s being and glory that isn’t God? Jesus is not “a god”, god with a small “g”, a kind of “super-angel”; Jesus is the Lord God Almighty. The Jehovah witnesses and many other false “Christian-like” sects are quite wrong here.

 There must be no doubt about this. It is a fundamental article of faith. You cannot be a true Christian unless you accept this. Jesus created all things and sustains all things. There is nothing that exists without Him. Let us be clear on this point, Jesus always existed, He was never created, for the apostle John has said that Jesus, himself, created each and every thing, so how is it possible that Jesus was created? No John affirms that Jesus is eternally God, without beginning or end.      

So what are we to understand by the expression “only begotten son” that you find later in John’s Gospel?

 ¹⁶For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.[6]

Now follow this argument carefully. Jesus is said to be the only begotten Son of God. The apostle John is using the picture from human language to make a point. The point is this; Jesus has the same nature as the Father. If Jesus has the same nature as God the Father, then Jesus is divine and eternal as well. God the father has no beginning or end and His Son Jesus is the exactly the same. Jesus is eternally God; so there never was a time that He was literally begotten.

This is why we know that John uses this expression to describe his nature, and not his beginning. To call Jesus “the only begotten Son” means that He is fully divine and eternal. He is God the Son, without beginning or end. [7].

 As the first church council of Nicene (AD 325) put it in their Creed

“I believe in … one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”

Let us now talk about Jesus’ humanity. Listen again to John’s Gospel

¹⁴And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. [8]

Jesus became human, literally took on human likeness, God took on a human face. For the first time in history it was possible to see the face of God in the face of Jesus.

In using the phrase “the word became flesh” John is saying that Jesus physically took on human form. He looked like a human being; He was flesh and blood; He was a human being. This was the first time people could stand in the presence of God and live. You may have heard of the term incarnation. This term is derived from the Latin words for “made flesh”. It comes from this text in John’s gospel. It is used to describe this event, God became a man.

We are looking into a great and deep mystery of the faith here. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will help us in our weakness to understand God more fully.    

 Now consider a passage from Paul’s letter to Philippian Church, chapter 2 beginning at verse 1

¹Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? ²Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. ³Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. ⁴Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. ⁵You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. [9]

The apostle Paul is concerned with how Christians serve one another, in humility, as our Lord came to serve us and to redeem us.  Paul first makes it clear that the greatest cause of sin is pride, and the greatest Christian virtue is humility.

Through pride Satan sinned and plunged himself and a third of the angels with him into darkness. Through pride Adam and Eve sinned and plunged the human race and this world into sin. Human pride has always been at the root of sins, it causes disagreement, arguments and wars. Pride is the reason for our lack of understanding, our lack of forgiveness and our lack of service. Because of pride the human race was lost and cannot save itself, ever [10]. So Paul tells the Philippians to look at Christ’s example.  

⁶Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. ⁷Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, ⁸he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. ⁹Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. [11]

For the sake of His mission, the salvation of the world, Jesus did not hold onto the divine privileges of being God, he chose to go down to the position of a slave, to become a human being. Paul is telling the Philippians to look at the example of Jesus.

Jesus could have rightly refused to become a slave; after all He was and is God. Yet for our sake He chose to set aside some of His glory and honour. Because He loves us so much, He chose to become a humble man.

In one of his great Hymns Charles Wesley put it so well

Our God contracted to a span, Incomprehensibly made Man.

He laid His glory by, He wrapped Him in our clay;   ...

Infant of days He here became, And bore the mild Immanuel’s Name. [12]

Paul was saying to Philippian church look at God, He freely chose to serve not to be served; so you should do likewise. But in saying this Paul reveals to us something of the mystery of the incarnation.

Jesus, freely set aside a part of the glory and honour of being God and took up the role of a slave.

Consider this; if I chose to serve someone does this make me less human? Am I less valuable or important because I chose a life of humble service? For a worldly point of view the one who serves is less important than the one who is being served. But this goes to show how far from God the world is. From God’s perspective we become more like Him when we humble ourselves and serve others. This is true for us and it is true for Jesus.

In humility, Jesus become a man and did not become any less God.  It is clear that Jesus must always remain God, for God cannot change. But for our sake He chose to conceal some of His divine glory, He chose to humble himself and take on human form.

Jesus was born just like all human babies are born; by a human mother. He grew from a child to an adult just as we do. He was so fully human that even his brothers did not realize that he was anything more than a good human being. They had no idea that He was God come in the flesh. His glory was concealed from them.[13]

He experienced the human things that we experience. Jesus became tired just as we do, for we read that “Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well” in Samaria [14]. After he had fasted for 40 days the Gospel records that He was hungry. At times he was physically weak, so weak He was near to death in the wilderness. He was tempted by all kinds of spiritual attacks from the devil throughout his life.

He is able “to sympathize with our weaknesses” for He “has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin”. [15]

Scripture says He knew both joy and sorrow. He was moved with compassion at the suffering of people. He wept over the death of a close friend Lazarus.

He was despised and rejected by men, He was acquainted with grief. Just before the crucifixion, in the garden of Gethsemane, He was so troubled that He said “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” He felt alone and abandoned by His friends. [16]. The tension between His two natures, His humanity and divinity, was almost at breaking point when He prayed “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me”.

And what was this cup? It was suffering and death but even more than this, it was separation from God. He was to take on His shoulders and His outstretched arms nailed to a cross the sins of the whole world.

“My Father, if it is possible…” He knew it was not possible, for this is why He came, so He concluded “Yet not as I will, but as you will.” His Godly-humanity remained unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably one.

Finally, He was betrayed by a close friend. He was physically beaten to within an inch of his life. So much so, that on His way to be crucified His human strength gave out, and the soldiers forced Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross.

On that cross He suffered for all of us, He carried the sins of the world. He was the one perfect man that could carry the punishment of us all. Yes, he had to be a man to carry the sins of us all. He had to be one of us.

Remember, it all went wrong with the Adam. Adam chose to say “no” to God, and because of his pride, sin entered the world, and because of sin, death followed. For who can live without God’s help? If sin is rooted in a desire to be separate from God it must ultimately result in death. But the perfect man Jesus chose to say “yes” to God, in humility and obedience he said “not as I will, but as you will”. In doing so He bought us the possibility of eternal life. One man said “no” to God and put many people in the wrong; one man Jesus said “yes” to God and put many in the right. [17] 

We needed a saviour who is like us is every way but who was without sin; who was one of us, a human being to put things right between us and God. If Jesus was not a man, He could not have died in our place, He could not have paid the penalty that was ours.

That's why He had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when He came before God as High Priest to get rid of the people's sins, He would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed. [18]

He had to be made like us in every way, so that He, Himself, could be an acceptable sacrifice for us. It is important that we realise that unless Christ was fully man, He could not have died to pay the penalty for man’s sins. To be that perfect substitute, dying in our place, for our faults and wrongs, He had to be truly and fully man.

So, in conclusion, what have we learnt?

Jesus is fully and truly God, and fully and truly man. He is the eternal, all powerful, all knowing and ever present God become man. He is that perfect example to us of how we should live, in humbleness and trust in our Father God, saying “Not as I will, but as you will”. He is able to understand our weakness. He is able to understand everything we are going through because He has first hand experience of it. He was that one perfect and complete sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is ultimate expression of God’s love for us in human form;

Christ Jesus, Son of God and Son of man.

Amen

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[1] 1 Tim 3:16,  [2] Job 11:7 [NIV], [3] Psalm 145:3[NIV], [4] John 1:1-3 [NIV], [5] Heb 1:3 [NIV], [6] John 3:16 [NASB], [7] I thank Dr Allen Ross for this argument,  http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=166# [8] John 1:14, [9] Phil 2:1-5 [NLT] , [10] I thank Dr Allen Ross for this paragraph, http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=168,[11] Phil 2: 6-11 [NLT] , [12] Let earth and Heaven combine, Charles Wesley [13] Wayne Grudem’s “Systematic Theology, an introduction to biblical doctrine” [14] John 4:6 [15] Heb 4:15 [16] Mat 26:38 , [17] Rom 5:18-19 , [18] Heb 2:16-17 [The Message]