Summer in the Systematics – Christology (Part 3): The Humanity of Christ

Transcript

JRS 43
6/16/2024
Summer in the Systematics – Christology Part 3 – “The Humanity of Christ”
Selected Scriptures
Jesse Randolph

Well welcome back and good evening. We have kind of a trifecta going on. We have Father’s Day, we have the whole backdrop here. Sound Words Elementary is opening, I guess, in 2025, and we have summer in the systematics happening all happening on one evening. I’m going to have to keep my thoughts straight here, to focus on the task at hand.

After the first American astronaut landed on the moon, Neil Armstrong, the president of the United States, one Richard Millhouse Nixon, praised the feat. Referring to this event, in no uncertain terms, as “the greatest moment in history.” Well, Billy Graham, the evangelist, after hearing of Nixon’s announcement put things in their proper context. And he said, “With all due respect, the greatest moment in human history was not when man set foot on the moon, but when the infinite and eternal God set foot on the earth in Jesus of Nazareth.” Amen. We may not agree with Billy Graham on everything around here, but he got that one absolutely right.

Welcome back to Summer in the Systematics. This is our summer-long study, as we know, of the doctrine of Christology. And we’ve just gotten out of a study of the deity of Christ last Sunday night. And this Sunday night, tonight, we’re going to wade into a study of the humanity of Christ. And we’re going to start the study this evening with a quote from John Walvoord. He says, “Though the doctrine of the deity of Christ is generally recognized as the indispensable fundamental of Christology, the doctrine of His true humanity is equally important. On the fact of His humanity depends the reality of His death on the cross, His claim to be Israel’s Messiah. Those who deny the true humanity of Christ are just as effective at destroying the Christian faith as those who deny the deity of Christ. As in the case of the doctrine of the deity of Christ, the Scriptures bear full testimony to His humanity; and a denial of those aspects of His incarnate person would necessitate a denial of the Scriptures themselves. For this reason, the doctrine of the true humanity of Christ has always been a part of orthodox Christian faith.” And that’s right. The Bible does teach clearly and unequivocally that Jesus of Nazareth was not only perfectly divine but perfectly human. Fully God but, at the same time, fully man.

And the study of His perfect humanity is an essential aspect of any study of Christology. That is the study of the Person, the works, the purposes of Jesus. Now, how Christ’s perfect divinity and His perfect humanity interplay with each other, that will actually be the focus of our study next Sunday night when we look at the two natures of Christ. When we look at the—here’s a fun word—the theanthropic person of Christ and the hypostatic union. We’ll get to that next Sunday night, but tonight we’ll be focusing primarily on the humanity of Christ. And the question we’re going to be seeking to answer this evening is one the disciples raised after Jesus stilled the storm. In Matthew chapter 8, where they asked, “What kind of a man is this?” That’s an appropriate question for our study this evening to get us started. Jesus was absolutely a man, and the question we need to answer is well what sort of man?

As we did last Sunday night, we’re going to attempt to cover our topic in six points here. I was told last Sunday night as people walked out in the south lobby, that hands were cramping and maybe some ice packs are in order. Maybe we’ll get there by the end of the summer. We’ll hand out icepacks, usually to cool down or to heal cramping wrists or writing hands. But I’m going to go ahead and give you the six blanks ahead of time, like we did last Sunday night, so you can fill in these blanks and then fill out the rest as you see fit. But our six blanks are these. First, is going to be the Perversions of Christ’s Humanity. There’s a rosy way to get us started. Perversions of Christ’s Humanity. Second would be the Pillar of Christ’s Humanity. Third would be Periods of Christ’s Humanity. I’ll show these to you. there’s perversions, blank 1, pillar, singular, part 2, periods of Christ’s humanity would be heading number 3. Proofs of Christ’s Humanity would be heading number 4. Purpose of Christ’s Humanity would be number 5. And then number 6 would be the Perpetuity of Christ’s Humanity.

So we’ll jump right into it with our first heading for tonight, which is going to be a quick survey under this first one, Perversions of Christ’s Humanity. This will be a quick survey of some of the heretical and otherwise problematic teachings that have been out there over the centuries concerning or surrounding the humanity of Christ. Now let me, as we get started on this first one, make sort of a big-picture statement. Which is that, relatively speaking, as we look back over the 2,000 or so years of church history, denials of perversions concerning the humanity of Christ are far less common than denials of or perversions concerning the deity of Christ. And why might that be? Well, I think it boils down to our humanity. Our human nature. And what we want and when we want it, in our natural, sinful state. We want to be able to do what we want to do, and go where we want to go, and be with whom we want to be with. And as long as the deity of Christ is sort of kept on the sidelines, so to speak, so long as Christ is kept in this orbit of being a mere man. No matter how noble He may have been, or exemplary He may have been, if He was a mere man, He cannot lay claim on our lives as the God-Man. He has no basis for demanding that we submit to His lordship. All that to say, given who we are, as humans, and given the truth that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one, it’s no surprise at all that those who would look to throw off the so-called shackles of the “oppressive” Christian religion and, as they try to wriggle their way under Christ’s yoke, though it’s gentle, they would focus most of their efforts on challenging Jesus’ deity.

But at the same time, appropriate to our topic tonight, there have been certain heretical teachings, certain perversions of the truth, which have entered the Christian church over the past many centuries concerning the humanity of Christ. Like this one, Docetism. Docetism is a form of Gnosticism. And what Gnosticism was, was a form of philosophy and understanding which was rooted in this attempt to attain a superior form of knowledge. And what Gnosticism taught was that man’s salvation, whatever that meant to them, came through knowledge, and the pursuit of a special form of knowledge, gnosis, concerning the world and our origins and our place in it. And the core of Gnostic thought was this dualistic philosophy of the world and of man. This form of philosophy was highly influenced by the ancient Greek philosophy, and at the risk of sort of over-simplifying things, Gnosticism heavily emphasized the distinction between matter, material things, and the spiritual things. Matter, the world, the earth, our bodies, anything physical, anything material was deemed to be evil. Whereas the things that were spiritual, things in the spiritual realm, were considered to be good.

As I mentioned, Docetism was a form of Gnosticism. And what Docetism taught, specifically in reference to the person of Jesus Christ, was that Christ did not have an actual physical body. Instead He had only the “appearance” of a body. That’s the whole basis of Docetism. In fact, the Greek verb dokeo, that forms this name, means “to seem” or “to appear.” The Docetists, then, they rejected the idea of Christ being fully human, and they rejected the whole idea of the incarnation of Christ. Because what that would do, contrary to their presuppositions, would mix good with evil; good being the Spirit of Christ, evil being a human body or human flesh.

Here’s how Louis Berkhof summarized the whole position of Docetism. He said, according to them, “Christ descended upon the man Jesus at of the time of his baptism, but left him again before his crucifixion; while according to others,” other Docetists, “he assumed a merely phantasmal body.” Here’s more on Docetism, from Donald Macleod. He says that the Docetist label “covers a group of sometimes bizarre speculations bound together by a refusal to accept that God could in any real sense become man.” The best-known Docetists were men like Cerinthus, and Marcion, and Valentinus, and then we’ll see some of those men mentioned in these next quotes from McCloud. He notes that, “Docetism rested on two fundamental principles: matter is evil, and the divine can experience neither change nor suffering. These principles obviously required a denial of the most cherished Christian beliefs. The Son of God could not be born of a human mother, and certainly not linked to her by an umbilical cord; nor could he suffer and die; nor take an ordinary flesh and blood body.” He continues on by saying, “Impelled by these considerations, Cerinthus,” that was a Docetist, “for example, drew a sharp distinction between Christ and Jesus. Jesus was an ordinary man, born of Mary in the usual way, possessing a fleshly body and crucified on the cross of Calvary. Christ, by contrast, was a heavenly being who came upon Jesus only at his baptism and left him before he was crucified. This meant that Christ, as such, derived nothing from Mary, had no personal connection with matter and experienced no physical pain.” He goes on and, note, “Marcion,” another Docetist, “on the other hand, regarded the humanity of Christ as only a phantom. He had the appearance of a man, but this was a mere mask, an image without substance, hence Docetism, from the Greek dokeo, ‘I seem’. His flesh had no reality, with the result, in the words of Tertullian, that he ‘was not what he appeared to be, and feigned himself to be what he was not – incarnate without being flesh, human without being man.’”

Docetism, then, rejected the idea of Jesus being fully and truly man. And to men like Tertullian, who’s quoted here, this early church father, this was unacceptable. They were standard bearers for truth back in those days. Tertullian noted that to reject the true humanity of Christ would nullify the cross and the resurrection. Even so, Tertullian would later write, “How will all this be true in Him,” meaning the cross, the resurrection, “if He was not himself true. If He really had not in Himself that which might be crucified, might die, might be buried, and might rise again?” In other words, if it was all just an appearance, if it was all just a phantasm, then what did Christ actually accomplish?

But it wasn’t just Tertullian and other church fathers who wrote against Docetism and Gnosticism. So, too, did some of the human authors of Scripture. Namely, John the Apostle. Recall these inspired words from 1 John 4. He says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit,” get this, “that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” Do you see what he’s saying there? He’s saying it’s of vital importance, for one who has made a profession of faith in Jesus, to affirm not only that He is perfectly God, but that He is perfectly man. Which includes that confession that “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.”

Here’s another early church father, Ignatius of Antioch, who lived in the early second century, the Early 100’s. He says, “Stop your ears, therefore, when anyone speaks to you at variance with Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, and was also of Mary; who was truly born and did eat and drink. He was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate. He was truly crucified, and died. He was also truly raised from the dead.” He then wrote, Ignatius did, “Now, He suffered all these things for our sakes, that we might be saved. And He suffered truly, even as also He truly raised up Himself, not, as certain unbelievers maintain, that He only seemed to suffer.” You note Ignatius’ emphasis there, it’s the word “truly.” Ignatius was a man of his day. A man writing in a specific context, in which these Gnostic and Docetic types were teaching that Jesus was not truly fully human. That He hadn’t come in the flesh, that He didn’t actually suffer bodily when He was on the cross. But instead, that He only appeared to be going through that agony on our behalf. I mean, when you think about it, that does not offer much comfort or hope, does it? To think that Jesus didn’t actually really suffer and die in our place, but only that He appeared to be doing so.

As I mentioned, denials of the humanity of Christ have been relatively rare in church history, as compared to denials of the deity of Christ. But they have existed. And we’ve just taken a quick glance at Docetism, a form of Gnosticism. I’m now going to make a few brief remarks about a few other forms of false teaching which get the humanity of Christ wrong. One is an old heresy called Monarchianism. This was a false teaching that developed in the late 100’s A.D., at the end of the second century A.D. And what it was, was a form of Unitarianism, that’s the easiest way to think about it. God was seen according to this view, as a single Person. Not tri-personal, not trinitarian, but a single Person. Namely, God the Father was thought of as this singular Person within the Godhead, and the other two Persons, God the Son and God the Spirit, were looked on not even as God. I said that wrong, they were viewed as “manifestations” of the One true God.

Well Monarchians, like I said, were like modern-day Unitarians. They were modalistic. T. D. Jakes would be a modern example, a modalist. And what this meant, in practice, ancient Monarchianism, is that they denied the humanity of Christ. See, Christ to this group didn’t take on true humanity. He didn’t even take on true Personhood. Instead, He was a mere mode or a mere manifestation of the unipersonal God that they worshipped. That’s Monarchianism in a minute.

Here’s Apollinarianism. This is a heresy that developed in the fourth century, in the 300’s A.D. It was named appropriately for Apollinaris, and he was the bishop of Laodicea during this time. And the way that this movement denied Christ’s full humanity is they affirmed that Christ, in His incarnation, had an actual human body. But they denied that He had a human soul, and that’s an important distinction. One we’re going to actually get into much more deeply next week when we consider the two natures of Christ, and the Council of Chalcedon of 451 A.D., and the Chalcedonian Creed. Stay tuned. But we are going to see next week that to be orthodox you have to agree and, consistent with the Scriptures, affirm not only that Christ had a human body in his incarnation, but a perfect human soul. He was still perfectly and eternally divine. And by part of Him becoming man, He not only put on flesh but He had a perfect human soul. Again, more on that next week.

Last one I’ll mention, and this one hits very close to home; like across the street close to home. This would be the Christian Science movement. Mary Baker Eddy, its founder, like the Docetists, like the Gnostics, like the Monarchians, like the Apollinarians before her, she denied Jesus’ true humanity. Like Cerinthus of old, Eddy drew a false distinction between “Jesus” and the Christ. She saw these as different manifestations of this second person. There was Jesus and there was Christ, she put a wedge between the two. Christ was spiritual, in her judgement. Christ didn’t have a body, Jesus had a body. But Christ was purely spiritual. As we get into this next week, that falls right in line with various heresies of the fourth century that were rooted out by Athanasius and others. Point being challenges, problems, perversions, of the humanity of Christ pervade. They exist still today, even across the street.

Here’s our second point for this evening. We just looked at Perversions of Christ’s Humanity. Next will be singular. The Pillar of Christ’s Humanity and, specifically, by that I mean that through the incarnation, through Christ’s virgin birth, the eternal Son of God took on humanity. The pillar is the virgin birth, the Incarnation. Here are a few quotes about the Virgin Birth and the Incarnation to get us warmed up and prepared. Martin Luther, speaking of Christ here says, “He did not flutter about like a spirit, but he dwelt among men. He had eyes, ears, mouth, nose, chest, stomach, hands, and feet, just as you and I do. He took the breast. His mother nursed Him as any other child is nursed.” C.S. Lewis says, “The Second Person in God, the Son, became human Himself: was born into the world as an actual man. A real man of a particular height, with hair of a particular color, speaking a particular language, weighing so many stone. The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a fetus inside a woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.” I’m sure there are breakdowns in the logic there, but you kind of always appreciate the colorful way Lewis communicates. Robert Gromacki says, “Although Jesus Christ was God, His humanity was a true and perfect humanity. He was not like Superman, a visitor to earth from the fictional planet Krypton. His eyes did not have X-ray vision, and bullets would not have bounced off His chest. He was not a science fiction character with Martian, Frankenstein, or Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde qualities. Jesus was truly human as we are. There was no difference between us. We are neither more nor less human than He was. When His hands, feet, and side were pierced, blood came out of the wounds. It would have been the same for us.” Again we’re not sacrificing the deity of Christ there, but we are just handling humanity with a quote like that. But anyway these are a couple of helpful, colorful, hopefully memorable ways to start thinking about Christ and His humanity, taking it on through the Virgin Birth and Incarnation.

But it’s not just through theologians that we get these truths. These truths ultimately come from the Bible. The Scriptures teach us about the eternal and pre-existent Son of God becoming incarnate to reveal God to man. John 1:14 of course, “The Word become flesh and dwelt among us.” And then this one, John 1:18 says, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” He, meaning Christ, has explained, revealed, exegeted, God the Father.

The Scriptures are the ones that teach us that Jesus was supernaturally conceived, as we started to work through in the gospel of Luke this morning. And the Scriptures teach us that Jesus had a normal human birth. “Jesus was born in Bethlehem,” Matthew 2:1, “of Judea in the days of Herod the king.” Or Luke 2:11, “For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” He was born of a woman just as any other human. Yes, the conception was supernatural, but not the birth. The birth, as we see here, was a normal human birth. Galatians 4:4, “When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.” And He had a normal, as we saw this morning, though favored, mother who brought Him into this world. Luke 2:7, “She,” meaning Mary, “gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger.” And because He underwent this normal human birth through His normal human mother, He could be said to have been “born of the seed of David according to the flesh,” Romans 1:3. Here’s Gromacki again. He says, “The miracle of the incarnation,” this goes back to what I said just a moment ago, “The miracle of the incarnation occurred at the conception, not at the birth. Apart from the overshadowing ministry of the Holy Spirit, Mary’s pregnancy was no different than that of any other human mother. Her giving of birth was accompanied with the normal birth pains. If spanked, the child Jesus cried as His lungs filled with fresh air. There was nothing magical or extraordinary about the birth procedure of Jesus.”

Now an important question is often raised in connection with Christ’s Birth. We know He was conceived by the Spirit, and with that happening we know that’s one way which he was prevented from having a sinful nature on His father’s side—because there was no human father who was participant in the conception. But what about on His mother’s side? Though virgin born, did Jesus somehow inherit a sinful nature from a sinner like Mary? The answer’s no. No he didn’t. And one of the ways we can establish that, and we’ll have more arguments for this next week when we look at his duel natures, is that Scripture is very clear that Jesus was separate entirely separate from sin in His incarnation. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.” That’s speaking of Christ. This is also said of our Lord, He was “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,” Hebrews 7:26. 1 John 3:5 says you know that He was manifested in order to take away sins. And in Him, in Christ, there is no sin. Not only that, we’re going to see next Sunday morning in our study of Luke, at the annunciation the angel Gabriel spoke of Jesus this way, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,” to Mary, “and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and for that reason the Holy Child shall be called the son of God.” He was a holy, sinless Child. These words from Henry Clarence Thiessen are accurate, “Through the miraculous overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was born sinless.”

Well, we have started by looking at number one, Perversions of Christ’s Humanity. We just looked at the Pillar of Christ’s Humanity; namely, His Incarnation and virgin birth. Next, we’re going to look at Periods of Christ’s Humanity. Meaning, His stages of development in His humanity. Now, for starters, He was born. Matthew 2:1, that’s where we start, “Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king.” He was born as a baby, not as a full grown adult. That would have been weird. He was born as a baby, and then He grew up normally. Luke 2:40, “Now the Child continued to grow and become strong, being filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” And then just down the page in that passage. Luke 2:52 says, “And Jesus was advancing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” I like what
G. Campbell Morgan says about that passage. He says, “The whole story of the childhood of Jesus from infancy to His religious coming of age is contained in one verse.”

Well, we know that He, Jesus, grew up in a family which included physical brothers and sisters. Matthew 13:55 and 56, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?” Again, I think I’ve mentioned this not this morning but last Sunday morning, that kind of does away with the whole idea of the perpetual virginity of Mary. Jesus had siblings. And then on several occasions, outsiders referred to Jesus as “Joseph’s son.” Which was an indicator that they perceived Him as being human. Like here in Luke 4:22, “all were speaking well of Him and marveling at the gracious words which were coming forth from His lips, and they were saying, ‘Is this not Joseph’s son?’” Or John 1:45 is similar, “Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’” And then one more here, John 6:42 says, “They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, “I have come down from heaven?”’” These are all indicators of His humanity.

Here’s another one. Jesus in His earthly ministry, as young men would do during those days, He worked, and apparently as a carpenter. Mark 6:3, “Is this man not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?” Here’s another thing, though, Jesus was not formally educated in the Pharisaical or Rabbinic sense. He wasn’t like Paul, who was trained at the feet of Gamaliel. We see this. “The Jews then were marveling,” John 7:15, “‘How has this man become learned, not having been educated?’” So while not formally educated, He did receive some sort of learning in His humanity, all through this godly upbringing He received by His earthly parents. And that godly upbringing is scattered all throughout the gospel accounts. We see references to it. Like in Luke 4:16 which speaks of His regular attendance at the Synagogue. It says, “He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read.” Or we also know His regular visits with His family to the temple in Jerusalem. Luke 2:41, “His parents would go to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.” Or down the page in Luke 2:46, “And it happened that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.”

We also know that Jesus grew in learning in His humanity through His study of the Scriptures. And this is from Luke 4:17, it says, “And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the scroll and found the place where it was written,” that alone says something, it’s speaking to His familiarity with the Scroll of Isaiah. “‘THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.’” See, Jesus was not growing in, or familiar with, the Scriptures as an aspect of His deity. Since, being fully God in His deity, He was the One who gave us the Scriptures. But He was familiar with them and growing in his familiarity with them in His humanity, which is why we see Him handling them and referencing them this way. Not only in Luke 4, but in places like Matthew 4, when Satan tempts Him in the wilderness. Again we’re going to get into that next week when we look at how this works; this interplay between Jesus and His divine omniscience, and Jesus and His human learning and growth in knowledge.

And last, we know, and under this heading, that Jesus, in His humanity regularly communed with God the Father. Like here in Mark 1:35, “And in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus rose up, went out of the house, and went away to a desolate place, and was praying there.” And He had moments of communing with God the Father like this, really all the way to the end of His life here on earth. They’re continual pictures, even all the way to the Garden of Gethsemane. At the very end of His going out and finding desolate places to pray and commune with the Father.

Well, as we consider each of these stages and aspects of Jesus’ developments, in His earthly life, in His humanity, these words from Robert Gromacki again are helpful. He writes, “Jesus’ development reflected the original purpose of God for man. In His human growth, Jesus became what all men could have achieved were it not for the presence and transmission of the sin nature. Man, today, is in a fallen state; Christ was not. Jesus experienced normal, human intellectual, physical, spiritual, and social growth. In a sense, He was more a man than we are. His life was the normal human life; ours is not. It is as if we are trying to run a one-hundred-yard dash with a hundred-pound weight attached to our backs. That is not normal! In His life experiences, Christ had no weight of sin to keep Him from fulfilling all goals outlined for man by God.” Hopefully that’s a helpful way of thinking about Christ in His humanity.

With that we move into our fourth heading for the evening. If you haven’t already, you can turn your worksheets over. We’re at number 4. We’re going to look at the Proofs of Christ’s Humanity. To eventually be that perfect sacrifice, to atone for the sins of men, Christ Himself had to be one. He had to be Man, He had to be human. So in addition to what we’ve already covered, what are some of the key Scriptural proofs for the humanity of Christ? Well, let’s start with the fact that He had a human body. He had a human body that was made of up flesh, bone and blood; joints and sinews, and tendons and ligaments. And the fact that He had a human body is made clear from Scriptures like these. “For when she poured,” these are the Words of our Lord, “For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial.” Or in John 2, “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It took forty-six years to build this sanctuary, and will You raise it up in three days?’ But He was speaking about the sanctuary of His body.” Hebrews 2:14, “Therefore since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same.” Hebrews 10:5, “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, ‘SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME’” Hebrews 10:10, “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Colossians 2:9, we think of this in the deity sense, but look at the other part of it. “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells,” what, “bodily.” And then again, we have already seen this passage, but 1 John 4:3, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” Or this one from the gospel account and, specifically, the crucifixion. “But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.” It wasn’t the appearance of blood, it was actual blood, actual water. And of course, as a result of this crucifixion, we know Jesus died. We know He was wrapped in burial clothes. We know He was buried. We know He rose. And then He rose, what? In what form, eventually? He rose bodily, it was a bodily resurrection. Which is why He would say this, post resurrection, in Luke 24, “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’”

So Christ clearly had a human body. But not only that, He had a human soul. A human spirit in His incarnation, post virgin birth. Get this locked in. Christ in His humanity, He had both material and immaterial components. Material, meaning he had a perfect human body, and immaterial, meaning He had a perfect human soul or spirit; and He was perfect in both. Look at all of these examples from Scripture, of Christ having a soul or a spirit, a human soul or spirit. Matthew 26:38. It says, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” Mark 2:8, “Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, ‘Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?’” Luke 23:46, “And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ Having said this, He breathed His last.” Mark 8:12, “And sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, ‘Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.’” John 12:27, “My soul has become dismayed; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” Last one,
“When Jesus had said these things, He became troubled in spirit, and bore witness and said, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.’”

So our Lord had a human body. He had a human soul or spirit during His earthy ministry, His incarnation. Next, as we’ve worked through some more Scriptural proofs, we’re going to see He had a human nature. A human nature. Again, we’re going to get more into this next week, as we look at the two natures of Christ. His divine nature, and His human nature, and how the two interrelate with each other. But for now, in saying that Christ took on human nature, or a nature, we’re focusing on His human nature. And in doing so, I want to make sure we are being very careful in noting that in taking on a human nature, Christ did not take on a sinful human nature like ours. No, while Christ did take on a human nature, He took on a sinless human nature as the supernaturally-conceived Son of God. And what this means is that, with a human nature, He was able to experience various infirmities that we experience as humans. Though in His case, as we know and we’ll see this in a minute, He was able to do so without sin.

This is why we have examples in Scriptures, Christ experiencing things like weariness. Like here in John 4, “He had to pass through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.” This is why the Scriptures can refer to Jesus experiencing things like hunger. Like in Matthew 4, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.” Or Matthew 21:18, “Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry.” This is why Jesus could experience thirst. John 19, “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been finished,” this is Him on the cross, “in order to finish the Scripture, said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth.” This is why Jesus slept. “Behold,” Matthew 8, “there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was sleeping.” This all goes back to Jesus having a human nature.

This is also why Jesus is recorded as experiencing human emotion. Like compassion. Matthew 9, “And seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.” This is why Jesus is recorded as experiencing feeling love. John 11, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” Or John 19, “When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved,” John, “standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’” This is why Jesus could be recorded as experiencing sorrow. Mark 14, “And He said to them, ‘My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.’” Or my kids’ favorite memory verse, John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” This is why Jesus is recorded as experiencing joy. Luke 10, “At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, ‘I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.’” John 15, another instance of Christ’s joy, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” Or John 17, “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” This is why Jesus is recorded as experiencing anger. Like in the legalism that He saw in Mark 3, “And He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there with a withered hand. And they were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Get up and come forward!’ And He said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?’ But they kept silent. And after looking around at them with anger,” and here’s another one, “grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.”

Or here’s another instance of the righteous indignation of Jesus. “And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, ‘Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’” This is why in Jesus’ human nature, He demonstrated His dependence upon the Father for strength. Matthew 14, “And after He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone.” Or Hebrews 5 says, “He, in the days of His flesh, offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.” Mark 1:35, we saw this already, “And in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus rose up, went out of the house, and went away to a desolate place, and was praying there.” Showing His reliance, in dependence, on the Father in His human nature. John 6, “So Jesus, knowing that they were going to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.”

All of these examples show us that Jesus was truly human, fully human. Perfectly human. He didn’t merely appear to be human. He wasn’t faking it as though He was human. No, He had a genuine human nature which allowed Him to experience genuine human emotions. Sinless human emotions. Because, unlike us, He was perfect in His humanity.

Here are a couple of quotes on this subject. Warfield says, “It belongs to the truth of our Lord’s humanity that he was subject to all sinless,” important word there, “human emotions.” Calvin colorfully says, “Christ has put on our feelings with our flesh.” And He also says, “those who imagine that the Son of God was exempt from human passions do not truly and sincerely acknowledge him to be a man.” And the result is, because of His humanity, because He has a true human nature, albeit sinless, we have in every respect a truly sympathetic High Priest and Savior. Hebrews 2, “Therefore, He had to be made like His brothers in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to help those who are tempted.” And then Hebrews 4:15, “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.”

F.F. Bruce is helpful on this. He says, “Christians have in heaven a high priest with an unequalled capacity for sympathizing with them in all the dangers and sorrows and trials which come their way in life, because He Himself, by virtue of His likeness to them, was exposed to all these experiences.” And then Bruce Demarest says, “Jesus differed from us,” he qualifies it here what Bruce just said, “Jesus differed from us in one significant respect; His manhood was untainted by the corruption of sin. He who called others to repentance had no need to seek forgiveness for any sin of His own for He embodied the highest, holiest manhood the world has ever known. Today’s newspapers are filled with reports of people demanding human rights. The fact is that mankind in its fallen state is subhuman. In the character and conduct man is a pale image of the original, unspoiled creation of God. Only in Jesus do we see authentic, uncorrupted humanity as God intended it.”

We’ve seen that our Lord had a human body, a human nature. He experienced human emotion. Another set of proofs related to His humanity is that He had a human identity. By that I don’t only mean that He and others called Him a man, but there are other markers of His human identity. Let’s start with the fact that He did call Himself a “man.” John 8:40, “But now you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. This Abraham did not do.” John the Baptist called Him a man. He said, “This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who has been ahead of me, for He existed before me.’” Again this is just further evidence of his humanity. Peter referred to Jesus as a man. He says, “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God did through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put Him to death.”

Paul referred to our Lord as a man. 1 Corinthians 15, “For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.” I’m going to skip a couple here. “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” But it wasn’t just the forerunner, John the Baptist. It wasn’t just the apostles though who referred to Jesus as a “man.” So did the general populace of Jerusalem and Judea during our Lord’s earthly ministry. John 7, “Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, ‘Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? And look, He is speaking openly, and they are saying nothing to Him. Do the rulers truly know that this is the Christ? However, we know where this man is from; but whenever the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from.’” John 9:29, “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.” John 10, “The Jews answered Him, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself God.’”

And there were other ways people referred to Him as a “man,” not just with the word “man,” but other markers of identity. Like here they were commenting on His…, this Samaritan woman was commenting on nationality. She calls Him a Jew. Well, that’s a mark of His humanity. He’s not a Jewish rock, or a Jewish dog, He’s a Jewish man. Or commenting on His age in John 8:57, “The Jews said to Him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’” That age reference is an indicator of His humanity. In addition, He was given a human name. “Jesus.” “…for He will save His people from their sins.”

And then we know He went by the title “Son of Man.” We looked at this title last time as a mark of His deity, which it is. It’s an indicator of His deity, but it also showcases His humanity. Ezekiel, going back to the Old Testament prophets, spoke with this Son of Man. “Stand on your feet,” He was referred to as the Son of Man by Ezekiel. “That I may speak with you!’” Daniel referred to the Son of Man in Daniel 8:17, but in Daniel 7 that term Son of Man, was used prophetically about the anticipated Messiah of Israel. “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming.”
And then we get to the Jews of Jesus’ day. They understood this phrase, this Son of Man phrase, to be referring to the Messiah. “The crowd then answered him, ‘We’ve heard from the law that Christ has remained forever. And how do you say the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” And this Messiah would not only be truly God as we saw last week, but He would be truly human. He would be a representative of all humanity. Hebrews 2, “One has testified somewhere saying what is man that you remember him? Or the Son of Man that you are concerned about him? You have made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, and have appointed him over the works of your hands; you have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in subjecting all things to Him, He left nothing that is not subject to Him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to Him. But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels—Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”

So the title, Son of Man, while indicating His deity, also linked Him to His mission here on earth. I’m going to skip a few more slides for time’s sake, and I’m going to get right to the fifth heading on your worksheet. These slides are always available on the Website about a week later, so you can always pull down the ones I skipped, in your free time.

Here’s the fifth heading on your worksheet. This would be the Purpose of Christ’s Humanity. In addition to the long list of Scriptural truths that we’ve just worked through, establishing that Christ was truly and fully and perfectly man. The Scriptures also teach that there were purposes, this should actually be plural. There were Purposes of Christ’s Humanity. God became man for multiple reasons. And one of them was to be a substitute. Purpose number one would be that to be a substitute. Putting it simply, if Jesus had not been a man, He could not have died in the place of men and women like us. And He could not have paid the penalty which was due, the penalty we owed God. He had to become a man, not an angel, for instance, because God was concerned with saving men, not angels. Not the inanimate objects around our world. This would be Hebrews 2, “For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the seed of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in all things so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” But to do this He had to be made like us in every way. So that He might become, as it says here, the propitiation for us, so that He might present a sacrifice that would be an acceptable substitute for us.

If he were not fully man, He could not have died to pay the penalty for man’s sins, and could not have been the sufficient substitutionary sacrifice for us. Romans 8, “For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the Law of sin and of death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
So one of the purposes of Christ taking on humanity was to be our substitute. Another was to be our mediator; it’d be a second purpose to be our mediator. Because we were alienated from God by sin, we needed somebody to stand between God and ourselves, to bring us back to Him. We needed a mediator who could represent us to God, and God to us, and there is only one person who has ever fulfilled that requirement.
1 Timothy 2:5, “there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” And in order to fulfill this role as mediator, to stand in that gap between God and man adequately, he had to be fully man as well as fully God.

Here’s our next one, our next purpose for Christ taking on humanity. That would be to be our example, to be man’s example. 1 John 2:5-6 says we are to walk the same way He walked, that’s my paraphrase. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says we’re to be continually changed, transformed into His likeness. “We with an unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed in the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

That moves us, then, to our goal, Romans 8:29, of being conformed to the image of His Son. We see that in the middle of the passage there. And then in 1 John 3 He tells us that when He appears, we will be like Him. We know that when He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is. 1 Peter 2 says that Christ has left us an example. “For to this you’ve been called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you example, that you should follow in His steps.” Throughout our Christian life we’re to run the race before us. Hebrews 12, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.” And then when we get discouraged, the next verse says we “consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary, fainting in heart.”

Jesus is also our example in death, as Paul notes in Philippians 3. “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

And then here’s our last purpose for Christ taking on humanity that I’ll mention here. And that would be to be our sympathetic high priest. “For since He Himself was tempted in that which He suffered, He is able to come to help those who are tempted.” And we already looked at this one but, Hebrews 4:15, “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who is been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” If Jesus had not become man, He wouldn’t have the ability to know by experience as a man, what we go through in our temptations and struggles in this life. But because He lived as a man, He’s able to sympathize more fully with us in our experiences.

And that brings us to our final heading on your worksheet there for this evening’s message on the Humanity of Christ. That would be the Perpetuity of Christ’s Humanity. The Perpetuity of His Humanity. And what that means, really simply, is that Jesus did not give up His human nature after His death and after His resurrection. Rather, He still has, to this day, a human nature. He is at this very time, at this very hour, both fully and perfectly divine, and fully and perfectly human. And for that we look at truths like these. The fact that He appeared to His disciples as a man after His resurrection. “Other disciples were saying to him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them,” this is Thomas, “‘Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’ And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Bring your finger here, and see My hands; and bring your hand here and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.’” We also know that in His post-resurrection state Jesus had flesh and bones. He had nail prints in His hands, like was saw in the Thomas encounter, but He had flesh and bones. Look at the very bottom of this quote here, He says, “touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

We also note that post resurrection He ate food. Spirits don’t do that. It says, “And while they still were not believing because of their joy and were still marveling, He said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and He took it and ate it before them.” So, it was as a “man” He rose from the dead. And then He appeared in that post-resurrection state in human form to them, which is why we see even more statements like this. John 20, post resurrection, “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you crying? Whom are you seeking?’ Thinking Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.’” She thought Him to be the gardener. The resurrected Christ. John 21:4, “But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.” He’s right there before them in His human form. And then later when He was talking with His disciples, we know He was taken up to heaven still in His resurrected body. And the two angels who were there promised that He would return in the same way. Acts 1:11, it says, “‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.’” So He left bodily, He’s going to return bodily.

Even after His ascension, Stephen gazed into heaven, this is right before his stoning, and saw Jesus in bodily form. “Behold, I see the heavens opening up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” And then still later, Jesus appeared to Saul, later Paul, in bodily form. As we see in some of these passages, like Acts 9, in His human form. “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.” Paul would then say later in 1 Corinthians 9, “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” He’s not talking about some phantom that was speaking into His ear. And then 1 Corinthians 15:8, “Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.” And then last, actually second to last, in John’s vision in Revelation 1. Jesus appeared physically, bodily, in human form as “One,” it says,” like a son of man,” with all those glorious descriptions of Him and His glorious state today.

And then this one is interesting, as yet another in a final evidence of Christ’s humanity and perpetuity. He promised His disciples that He would drink wine with them in the future coming kingdom. “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it with you in My Father’s kingdom.” It’s a bodily reference, a human reference.

Now, what do these Scriptures tell us? These last ones we just looked at? They tell us that Jesus did not temporarily become man. Rather, His human nature was permanently united to His divine nature, so that He lives forever. Not only as the eternal Son of God, that the Second Person of the Trinity, though He does, but also as Jesus, the One who was born of Mary. And also as the Christ, the Messiah and Savior of His people. At His Incarnation, and the virgin birth, the eternal Christ became eternally wedded to a human nature. He didn’t throw off His humanity, or any part of it at His death, His resurrection, or His ascension. Rather He is, and will remain, fully God and fully man in one Person, forever.

That’s it. We have covered the Perversions of Christ’s Humanity, the Pillar of Christ’s Humanity, the Periods of Christ’s Humanity, the Proofs of Christ’s Humanity, Purpose of Christ’s Humanity, and the Perpetuity of Christ’s Humanity. This is really unfair to try to squeeze this into one hour! I hope we have done it justice. Let’s Pray.

Lord, thank you for a chance to do a deeper dive this evening into the reality that in sending your Son into the world, You sent Him as fully God, fully Man. He did take on a divine, He had a divine nature eternally, eternally but took on a human nature, and was a perfect substitute as a result. God, thank you that in your perfect wisdom, You saw fit to send the Lord Jesus into the world, that He had all these attributes that we’ve been studying. Attributes of deity, has all these attributes of deity, but also has ongoing perpetuity, these attributes of humanity. God I pray that would motivate us to pray to you in ways that maybe we haven’t thought of before. Of course, praying reverently to you, Oh God, as God. But also remembering that we do have this sympathetic high priest, this sympathetic Savior, who understands and knows, in various ways, the types of trials and ordeals that we go through. The grief and the anger and the worry and hurt that we go through. Of course He did so sinlessly and perfectly, but He nevertheless is a sympathetic Savior, and we praise You for that. God, I pray that this week, as Andrew prayed earlier, that You would go before us and go before our church. That You would do great work through our upcoming VBS. God, that you would strengthen those who are serving all week. I know it is a sacrifice and a labor of love for many to serve in that way. There will be a certain type of exhaustion that will come with it, especially by Friday night, but I pray that You would give joy to those who are serving and that they would see the eternal value of what they’re doing. And, God, I do pray that you would turn the hearts of many young children to You this coming week. I pray the gospel would go out clearly and accurately, and that through conversation and conviction of the Holy Spirit, that you would save souls in this place this week for Your glory. We thank You and give you praise for this day in Jesus name. Amen.