It matters that we continuously emphasise that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was not exclusively God but he was also a complete human being by all the physiological standards of humanity. The heresy reported in the Johanian letters that contended that Jesus was not a human being is refuted by the evidence we see in the biographies about Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
The New Testament insists that Jesus Christ was a human being like all of us. John 1:14 means this and more: “The Word became flesh.” His humanity became one of the first tests of orthodoxy and the reason to appreciate him as a solution (1John 4:2; 2 John 7). He was born (Luke 2:7). He grew up (Luke 2:40, 52). He grew tired (John 4:6) and got thirsty (John 19:28) and hungry (Matthew 4:2). He became physically weak (Matthew 4:11; Luke 23:26). He died (Luke 23:46). And he had a real human body after his resurrection (Luke 24:39; John 20:20, 27).
To contend that he was not fully human is to say that the incarnation did not take place in its fullness and therefore God did not become flesh as John 1:14 states. If there was no incarnation then we cannot say that we were representatively saved and ransomed by one in our likeness. If Jesus, therefore, was some supernatural being projected in human form but not human, then we were never redeemed and a spiritual superbeing redeemer could not and cannot afford to present a ransom for humankind.
Salvation is not a rescue mission, it is redemption agenda. We are not rescued from the fires, we are redeemed from the body that burns. In a rescue mission, any professional and expert with the right skills can rescue those stuck somewhere. A redemption agenda, on the other hand, is where a redeemer must be like the victim (identity), be vulnerable, suffer the same challenges (physical, psychological and sociological), participate in the same environment with the same temptations and limitations and emerge a winner in every moral respect where the victim to be redeemed failed.
If Jesus was not a complete human being, then he is already disqualified to be a redeemer of man and the best he could be outside humanity is a rescuer. He could only be a redeemer of those whom he was like in everything. That is why the cross is not for animals and not even for angels but the human race. Humanity created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27)
To believe that Jesus Christ was not human is to dismiss the fact that a great God risked his entire being and identity because of his loving nature and became like those he wanted to help as Philippians 2:5-11 puts it. If Jesus was God but not fully human, then we were rescued by a fireman-like God who was wearing a fireproof overall and couldn’t feel the heat and neither could he burn as we were.
If Jesus wasn’t human, then he had no human body, and therefore he never suffered the predicament of the body as we do. If Jesus wasn’t human then he never had a human heart to understand the matters of a human heart. If he wasn’t human then he never had a human mind to wrestle with the sinful propensities of the human mind like we do each day of our living. If he wasn’t human, then this Jesus never had a human will whose volitional tune is bent to evil and that Jesus can never understand why men will the way they will.
But because he was a human saviour, he did not just share my experiences but he experienced the same. He knew what it meant to lose a loved one and weep (John 11:35), He got angry, resisted and fought abusive strangers in his house (John 2:14-17), He experienced poverty at the level of homelessness (Mathew 8:20), He was tempted just as we are and actually more (Mark 1:13), Jesus the human being had to wrestle with paying taxes (Mathew 17:24-27), He experienced stress, frustrations and disappointment (Mathew 26:28).
Jesus suffered rejection and ridicule just as many of us (Mark 15:17-19), Jesus was betrayed and his cohorts denied they even knew him (John 18:1-3, 17) Jesus was accused and dragged to the authorities (John 18:12,19), He was ganged up on by an incited mob and subjected to mob-justice (Luke 23:19-21). I could go on and on, but the point in all this is that GOD WAS FULLY HUMAN AND FELT LIKE WE DO and so he understands.
That is why the Bible says:
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are; yet he did not sin (Hebrews 4:15)
I don’t know how you feel, excited or depressed, poor or rich, sinner or saint, sick or healthy, there is only one man who understands, and that is THE HUMAN JESUS CHRIST. Turn away from all those who are not you, and turn to Jesus who became like you.
I don’t care how powerful the spirits and principalities are, as long as they are not me, they don’t understand me like Jesus who created me and has ever been me. He understands, even when those you expect to understand don’t, JESUS DOES.
God bless you and: THINK & UNDERSTAND (2Tim 2:7 NLT)
Pr ITM WHITE
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24)
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 