Jesus is God the Son Incarnate, our Lord and Messiah.
Last lesson, we focused on Jesus’s deity, his eternal identity as God the Son. During this lesson, we will focus on Jesus’s humanity, his ongoing identity as God the Son Incarnate.
God the Son added a fully human nature to himself such that he became fully human. Why? To save his people from our sins. As we read in 1 Timothy 1:
15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.’ 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
—1 Timothy 1:15-17
But before we get to exploring this truth, let’s clarify what we are not saying:
Denials
1. We deny that God the Son was always human.
Jesus eternally existed as God the Son. Yet he did not exist eternally as God the Son Incarnate. God the Son added a human nature to himself to become the God-man at the incarnation. Before the incarnation, he was fully divine but not at all human. After the incarnation, he remained fully God but also became fully man.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, fully of grace and truth.
—John 1:1, 14
2. We deny that Jesus is merely like a human.
The incarnation was not a sleight of hand. Jesus really became fully human. He really joined us in our humanity. Jesus does not merely look human or seem human. He is fully human. His deity did not diminish or hollow out his humanity in any way. He was born. He was nursed. He grew. He learned. He slept and ate and went to the bathroom. He felt and thought. He dreamed and prayed. He suffered, and he died. Then, he rose again. All of this, he did as a Jewish man in Palestine during the first century. Indeed, apart from really becoming human, he could not have been the savior and king we really need.
28 Simeon took the child in his arms and praised God, saying:
29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 31 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel!'
—Luke 2:28-32
'Jesus saves from sin' we know well. 'Jesus heals our flesh' has the feel of something from outside our comfortable shire. But by coming in a body, Christ came to give a hope and a future to our bodies. After all, Christ came not to replace but to redeem the very creation he had designed and declared good: bodies, trees, lions, lambs, all of it.
To do that, though, and to share his life with the humanity he had created, he had to take it to himself. Life is found only in him, after all (Jn 1:4). To heal this race of Adam, he could not just appear in a body, cobbled together and brought down from heaven; he had to take Adam's flesh and blood. Of course, he could have started a wholly new human race by taking dust afresh from the ground, as he'd done with Adam. But that would do us no good. The old race of Adam would be left entirely unaffected by what he did. Outlandish it may sound, but we must say it: no umbilical cord of connection, no redemption!
(Michael Reeves, Rejoicing in Christ, 48)
3. We deny that Jesus had a sinful or fallen nature.
The fact that Jesus became fully human does not mean that he had a sinful or fallen human nature. Do you remember what we discussed in Lesson 2 as we looked at the creation of humanity? A sinful, fallen nature is not intrinsic to what it means to be human. God created Adam and then Eve “very good.” Therefore, being fallen and sinful is not essential to who we are as humans. Jesus was not born in Adam, with the stain and guilt of original sin that all of Adam’s children bear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
—1 Peter 1:18-21
4. We deny that Jesus stopped or will ever stop being human.
Some people get into their heads the strange idea that Jesus somehow stopped being human. But his humanity remains central to his identity as our Prophet, Priest, and King. While it is unthinkable, if Christ were to somehow lay aside his humanity, he would have to lay us aside with it. This will never happen. At the incarnation, Jesus became fully human, and he will remain so forever for us. His body is our pathway to glory, the mediator between us and God:
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
—Hebrews 10:19-25
5. We deny that Jesus’s humanity compromises his divinity in any way.
Jesus is the God-man, fully God and fully man. This does not mean, however, that in becoming human he somehow lost or compromised his divinity. The divine and human are united in the person of Christ, but they are never mixed or compromised. It is beyond our power to comprehend, but even as Jesus nursed at the breast of his mother, he remained the Creator and Sustainer of the entire cosmos.
We must remember that Jesus lives and acts as one person but with two distinct natures. When he slept, he acted according to his human nature. This is important because if we lose sight of this, we will lose sight of the biblical testimony that Jesus is fully God and fully man.
How can the LORD who neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:4 NIV) sleep in the stern of a fishing boat (Mark 4:38 NIV)?
The answer is that as God the Son Incarnate, Jesus is both God and man. When he sleeps, he acts according to his human nature. When he simultaneously remains the ever-vigilant protector of his people, he acts according to his divine nature. Jesus's humanity does not compromise his divinity in any way.
6. We deny that God the Son and Jesus of Nazareth are two different persons.
In the history of the church, some have attempted to answer the questions raised in the previous denial by teaching that God the Son and Jesus of Nazareth are two different people. But, of course, this creates an even greater problem. If Jesus is not one person, then God and humanity never truly meet, and we would be left without a mediator who can truly save us. Not only that, but we would also remain outside of God’s “very good idea” to truly dwell among his blood-bought people from every nation. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people...
—1 Timothy 2:5-6
7. We deny that Jesus could have incarnated as a non-human creature.
Other religions contain stories of their gods incarnating as animals. Greeks told myths about Zeus becoming various animals. Hindus see elephants as “the living incarnation of one of their most important gods." But the Bible makes it clear that the true God could have incarnated only as a human, both because God created humans uniquely in his image and because creation needed another Adam to redeem and reconcile it along with God’s people to God. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
—Romans 5:14-17
What did these denials clarify for you about Jesus’s identity as God the Son Incarnate?
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