One thing that is hard to
understand for most non-Christians and Christians alike is the concept of the
Trinity which consists of God the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. Are
they one person? Do they exist as one entity? How does each one differ from the
other? While we explore Jesus’ humanity and deity, how He exists as God and
man, why Jesus became man to save humanity, common objections to traditional
understandings of Christology, and how Christ in His humanity is an example to
me; I hope that I can help explain the power of God and Christ.
Jesus
the Christ was human. He was born of woman and raised by two human parents. I
can see Jesus growing up as a carpenter’s son, working with Joseph his earthly
father, and helping his dad with projects. One day He cuts his finger and
starts bleeding and cries. His mother, Mary, then runs in saying “What
Happened? Are you ok?” like any other mother would. He describes that he cut
his finger and it hurts, and I can see Mary tending to his wounds. Jesus was a
human, a son, and hurt like the rest of us. A good example of Jesus’ humanity
is in Matthew 4:1-11 (KJV). The first verse describes that Jesus was “tempted”
by the devil. The definition of tempted or temptation according to Webster’s
Dictionary is “A cause or occasion of enticement.” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
This means that Jesus was tempted to follow the Devil’s decrees. He wanted the
food, the water, the kingdoms, but He said no because He is also God. In the
second verse it even goes on to say that Jesus was hungry. That is a human
feeling. He had cravings just like the rest of us. He thirsted like any other
human being. He was different, but in what ways?
Jesus
was also the Messiah. The one sent from His father to save humanity. That is
more than any regular human being can do. I know that I can’t go die at
someone’s hand, and save all humanity for doing it. Why? Christ was sent from
His heavenly Father to die for each of our sins. He was sinless. The only time
that sin and Jesus were in the same category is when Jesus met all of our sins
at the cross and carried our load on His shoulders. But how can Christ be both
human and Messiah?
Jesus
Christ was Messiah long before He came to Earth. In John 8:58 Jesus states that
“Before Abraham was, I am.” But we just described that He was human. He exists
as one being with two parts. This is called the Hypostatic Union. He was both
the man and the Lord. If you wanted to see God, all you needed to do was look
to Jesus, but He was in human form. He came down to Earth to exist as we do,
but still had all the knowledge of Heaven. What this means as Jesus being both
God and Man is that He had the saving and loving power of God, but the feelings
of Man. He still felt pain, anguish, hunger, thirst, and fatigue. He felt
everything we felt. So why did He come to Earth, become human and need to die
to save humanity?
There
needed to be results for Christ dying for our sins. Jesus didn’t die for
without cause. He came for one purpose, and that was to give us everlasting
life. For human beings, it is so easy for us to sin. We are surrounded by
temptations every day. There is not a day that goes by when we think something
we shouldn’t think, or do something we shouldn’t do. We are incapable of not
sinning. As humans, we are born into sin. But through Jesus Christ, we have
redemption through His blood. Jesus Christ took our sins on the cross, and
covered them with His blood. Christ was our substitute for our sins. He took on
our sins full steam. Christ was without sin, so He didn’t die for His sins, He
died for ours. We were incapable of getting to Heaven without Him, because
Heaven is perfect. Jesus was perfect. Jesus died so that we as imperfect beings
can see Heaven. He acted as our Ambassador to the Lord. If you choose not to
acknowledge Jesus as both deity and human, then in the words of Phil Johnson in
the online video by Phil Johnson; “By not acknowledging Jesus as both man and
deity you are committing spiritual heresy.” I also believe that if you don’t
choose to believe Christ as the man, you won’t know Him as the Lord because
they are one in the same. There is a strong line that you can’t cross when
believing Him all as deity or all as man though. You need to believe that they
are one. If you recognize Jesus as too much man, than you are also committing
“Spiritual heresy.” A common objection
is usually that Christ was either a man or God, or that they merged as one
being. This is not a correct statement. They did not merge into one being,
Jesus the Messiah and Jesus the Man are separate in nature, but create a union
as on person. The man and the Christ have separate natures. But how does this
affect me?
For
me, I can take Jesus the man and use Him for an example to who I am supposed to
be as a Man. As we stated above, there still existed temptation in Jesus’ life. Every day we are surrounded by the
temptations of the world. Jesus was able to turn them away and remain sinless. That is what I strive to do
every day. I can use Jesus’ example to be the best husband, father, friend and minister
