VJesus Christ a Real Man
"And the word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth."—John 1:14.
"And the word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth."—John 1:14.
"Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of man; and being found in fashion as man, he emptied himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea the death of the cross."—Phil.2:6-8.
"Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of man; and being found in fashion as man, he emptied himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea the death of the cross."—Phil.2:6-8.
"There is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus."—1 Tim.2:5.
"There is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus."—1 Tim.2:5.
Our subject in this chapter is "Jesus Christ a Real Man." I have three texts, and the substance of all that I shall say is these three texts. The first text is John 1:14:"And the word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth."The second text isPhil.2:6-8:"Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of man; and being found in fashion as a man, he emptied himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea the death of the cross."Andthe third text is1 Tim.2:5:"There is one God, one mediator also between God and man, himself man, Christ Jesus."
We saw in the preceding chapter that Jesus Christ was God, that in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that He possessed all the distinctively divine attributes, that He exercised all the distinctively divine functions, that He occupied the position in New Testament thought that Jehovah occupied in Old Testament thought, that He was a being worthy of our absolute faith, our supreme love, our unhesitating obedience, and our whole-hearted worship, that He was God and is God. But in the passages which we have taken for our texts to-day, we are told that this Divine One, who had existed from all eternity with God, the Father, and who was God,became a man. In becoming a man, He did not cease to be God; but the Word, the Eternal Word, which was with God and was God, took human nature upon Himself. While He was very God of very God, He was real man, as truly and completely a man as any man who ever walked on this earth. The doctrine of the real humanity of Christ is as essential a part of the Christian faith as the doctrine of His real Deity. There is one very large class of people who do not see the real Deity of Jesus Christ. They are in fundamental error. There is another large class of people who see only His Deity, and who do not see the reality of His manhood. They also are in error. A doctrine of a Saviour who isonly man is false doctrine; and a doctrine of a Saviour who is only God is equally false doctrine. The doctrine of the Bible is that, One Who from all eternity was God in the person of Jesus of Nazarethbecame man. There are many passages in the Bible which set forth the Deity of our Lord Jesus in a way that is unmistakable and inescapable. There are many other passages in the Bible which set forth the complete humanity of our Lord Jesus in a way which is equally unmistakable and inescapable. It is with the doctrine of His real humanity, i.e., that He was a real man, that we are concerned this morning.
First of all,the Bible teaches us that Jesus Christ had a human parentage. We read in Luke 2:7,"And she(i.e., Mary)brought forth her first born Son; and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."Here we are told that our Lord Jesus Christ, though supernaturally conceived,was Mary's Son. Mary was as truly His mother as God was His Father. He had a human parentage as truly as He had a divine parentage. In the first chapter of this same Gospel of Luke, in the35thverse, we read,"And the angel answered and said unto her(i.e., Mary),the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee:wherefore also the holy thing, which is begotten shall be called the Son of God."He was called the Son of God because He was begotten directly by the power of the Holy Spirit; but the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and she became the mother of this One who was to be called the "Son of God." Not only was He descended from Mary and in that way of human parentage, we are clearly told also inRom.1:3 that God's Son"Was born of the seed of David according to the flesh."And in Acts 2:30 we are told that He was"The fruit of his(i.e., David's)loins, according to the flesh."And in Hebrews 7:14, we are told that"Our Lord sprang out of Judah."While we are told inGal.4:4 that"When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son,"we are also told with equal plainness in the same verse that this Son of God was "Born of a woman." The human parentage of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was just as real and just as essential a part of His personality as His divine parentage.
But not only did Jesus Christ have a human parentage, He had a human physical nature, a human body. This comes out in the first of our texts,"The Word Became Flesh,"and in Hebrews 2:14 we are taught"Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also(i.e., our Lord Jesus also)himself in like manner partook of thesame; that through death he might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is, the devil."Words could not make it plainer that our Lord Jesushad a real human body, a real human physical nature. Indeed, the Apostle John teaches us in 1 John 4:2, 3, that not to believe in the actuality of His human body, is a mark of the Anti-Christ. He says,"Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this is the spirit of the anti-Christ, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and now it is in the world already."There were those in John's day who denied the reality of Jesus' human nature, who asserted that His body was only a seeming or apparent body, that it was an illusion, or as the Christian Scientists now put it, "mortal thought," and John, speaking in the wisdom and power of the Holy Ghost, asserts that this doctrine is a mark of the Anti-Christ. It is the one supreme mark to-day, that "Christian Science" is of the Anti-Christ.
Jesus Christ not only had a human body during His life here upon earth, but after His resurrection He still had a human body. The Millennial Dawnists (Pastor-Russellites) teach us that this is not so; that, whereas before His incarnation He was wholly a spiritual being, that at His incarnation He became wholly a human being, and that since His death and resurrection He is wholly adivine being: all of which is not Scriptural, and therefore is not true. He himself said after His resurrection,"See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold me have. And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet"(Luke 24:39, 40). And to Thomas in John 20:27, after Thomas had doubted the reality of His resurrection, He said,"Reach hither thy finger, and see my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side: and be not faithless but believing."Not only after His resurrection while still here on earth did He have a real human body, but He still has a human body in the glory. In that wonderful view into heaven that was given to Stephen at the time he was stoned and killed we read in Acts 7:55, 56,"But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God."And when He comes again to take His rightful authority on this earth, He shall come with a human body, coming as "the Son of Man." He Himself said to the High Priest when He stood before him on trial, inMatt.26:64,"Nevertheless I say unto you, henceforth ye shall see the son of man standing at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven."In this utterance of our Lord we have a declaration of His Deity, but an equally cleardeclaration that He was a real man, and that He will come againas a manwith a human, though glorified body. Indeed, we are told inPhil.1:20, 21 that when He does thus come, He is going to transform these our present human bodies, the bodies of our present humiliation, into the likeness of His own glorious body, His glorified human body.
But the reality and completeness of our Lord's human nature comes out not only in the fact that He had a human parentage and a human body: we are also clearly taught that, while as God he possessed all the attributes and exercised all the offices of Deity, as a man He was subject to human limitations.
1.He was subject to the physical limitations which are essential to humanity.In John 4:6 we read that Jesus Christwas weary. The words are"Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour."But God is never weary. We read explicitly inIsa.40:28"Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary."
We are told inMatt.8:24 thatJesus Christ slept. But God never sleeps. We read inPs.121:4, 5,"Behold he that keepeth Israel shallneither slumber nor sleep. Jehovah is thy keeper: Jehovah is thy shade upon thy right hand."By comparison of these two verses, we see distinctly that Jehovah never sleeps. Yet Jesus did sleep, so while He was Jehovah, He was not Jehovah only. He was man as truly as He was God.
InMatt.21:18 we read thatJesus Christ hungered; in John 19:28 we read thatJesus Christ thirsted; in Luke 22:44 we read that Jesus Christsuffered physical agony, His agony was so great that He was on the point of dying with agony; and in1 Cor.15:3 we read that "Christ died," that His death is an essential part of the Gospel. Paul says in this passage,"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures."It was no merely apparent death, it was a real death. It was no "illusion." Our salvation depends on the reality of His death. "Christian Science" cuts the very heart out of the Gospel. We are oftentimes asked was it the human nature of Jesus Christ that died or was it the divine nature that died. It was neither the one nor the other, natures do not die, a person dies. It wasJesuswho died, the Person who was at once God and man. We are told in so many words in1 Cor.2:8, that they"Crucified the Lord of glory,"and we saw in the last chapter that the "Lord of Glory" is unquestionably a divine title. It was the one Person Jesus who was at once human and divine, who died upon the cross of Calvary.
2.He was also, as a man subject to intellectual and moral limitations.
We read in Luke 2:52,"Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man."As we are told here that He grew in wisdom, He must have been more perfect in wisdom after He grew than He was before He grew, and as He grew in favour with God and man, He must have attained to a higher type of moral perfection when He grew than He had attained to before He grew. While in the Babe of Bethlehem God was incarnate, nevertheless He was a real babe and grew not only in stature, but in wisdom and in favour with God and man.As a manHe was limited in knowledge, He Himself says in Mark 13:32,"But of that day and that hour(i.e., the day and the hour of His own return)knoweth no man; no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son but the Father."Of course, His knowledge wasself-limited: to set an example for you and me to follow in His steps, He voluntarilyas manput away His knowledge of the time of His own return.
Furthermore still, we are definitely and explicitly taught inHeb.4:15 that Jesus Christ was"In all points tempted like as we are."But in bearing this in mind as being clear and complete proof of the reality of His humanity, not only physical but mental and moral, we should also bear in mind what is stated in the same verse, that He was tempted "Apart from Sin," i.e., thatthere was not the slightest taint or tinge of sin in His temptation, not one moment's yielding to it in thought or desire or act. Nevertheless, He was tempted and overcame temptation in the same way that we may overcome it, by the Word of God and prayer. He Himself voluntarily placed Himself under the essential moral limitations that man is under in order to redeem man.
3.He was also, as a man, subject to limitations in the way in which He obtained power and in which He exercised power.Jesus Christ obtained the power for the Divine work that He did while here upon earth, not by His incarnate Deity, but by prayer. We read in Mark 1:35,"And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose up and went out, and departed unto a desert place, and there prayed."And we read also that before He raised Lazarus from the dead, called him forth from the tomb by His Word, that He lifted up His eyes to God and said,"Father, I thank thee that thou heardest me,"showing conclusively that the power by which He raised Lazarus from the dead was not His inherent, inborn, Divine power, but was power obtained by prayer. It is mentioned not less than twenty-five times that He prayed. He obtained power for work and for moral victory as other men do, by prayer. He was subject to human conditions for obtaining what He desired. He obtained power for the divine works and miracles which he wrought by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We read in Acts 10:38, that"Godanointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him."And we are taught, furthermore, that He was subject during the days of His humiliation to limitations in the exercise of power. He himself said just before His crucifixion and subsequent glorification, in John 14:12,"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; for I go unto my Father,"the evident meaning of which is, that during the days of His flesh there was a limitation to His exercise of power, but after His glorification, when He was glorified with the Father with the glory which He had with Him since the world was, there would be no limitations to the exercise of His power, and therefore, that we, being united, not to our Lord Jesus in His humiliation, but in His exaltation and restoration to His divine glory, will do greater works than he did during the days of His humiliation.
The completeness of the humanity of Jesus Christ comes out in still another matter, and that is, the relation that He bore to God as a man was the relation of a man, so that God was His God. He himself says to Mary in John 20:17,"Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the father:but go unto my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God."The evident meaning of this is that Jesus Christ's relation to God, the Father, was the relation of man. He speaks of God the Father as "My God." Though possessed of all the attributes and exercising all the functions of Deity, Jesus Christ the Son was subordinate to the Father. This explains utterances of our Lord which have puzzled many who believe in His Deity, such utterances, for example, as that in John 14:28, where Jesus says,"Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: For my Father is greater than I."The question is often asked, "If Jesus Christ is God, how could the Father be greater than He?" The very simple answer to which is; that He,as the Son, was subordinate to the Father, equal to the Father in the possession of all the distinctively Divine attributes and exercising all the Divine offices, and as an object of our wholehearted worship, but subordinate to the Father in His office. Jesus Christ's relation to the Father is like the relation of the wife to the husband in this respect, that the wife may be fully the equal of the husband, but nevertheless, the "Head of the Woman is the Man," she is subordinate to the man, just as we are told in the same verse (1 Cor.11:12)"The head of Christ is God,"i.e., Jesus Christ the Son is subordinate to the Father.
It is evident from what we have read from God's Word, that Jesus Christ in every respect was a true man, a real man, a complete man. He was made"In all things""like unto his brethren"(cf.Heb.2:17). He was subject to all the physical, mental and moral conditions of existence essential to human nature. He was in every respect a real man. He became so voluntarily in order to redeem men. From all eternity He had existed "in the form of God" and could have remained "in the form of God," but if He had so remained, we would have been lost. Therefore, out of love to us, the fallen race, as we are taught in one of our texts (Phil.2:5-8), He"Counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of man; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross."Oh, wondrous love! that out of love to us He should take our nature upon Him, turning His back upon the glory that had been His from all eternity and taking upon Himself all the shame and suffering that was involved in our redemption, and becoming one of us that He might die for us and redeem us! Oh, how wondrous the"Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich."(2 Cor.8:9.) He partook of human nature that we might become partakers of the Divine nature. The philosophyof the divine and human natures of Christ, the philosophy of the New Testament, is a most wonderful philosophy, the most wonderful philosophy the world ever heard, and thank God it is a true philosophy.
But some one may ask, "How shall we reconcile the Bible doctrine of the true Deity of Jesus Christ with the Bible doctrine of the real human nature of Jesus Christ, the doctrine that He was real God with the doctrine that He was equally truly man?" The answer to this is very simple. Reconciling doctrines is not our main business. Our first business is to find out what the various passages in the Bible mean, taken in their natural, grammatical interpretation. Then, if we can reconcile them, well and good; if not, we should still believe them both and leave the reconciliation of the two apparently conflicting doctrines to our increasing knowledge as we go on communing with God and studying His Word. It is an utterly foolish and vicious principle of Biblical interpretation that we must interpret every passage of the Bible so that we can readily reconcile it with every other passage. It is this principle of interpretation that gives rise to a one-sided, and therefore untrue, theology. One man, for example, takes the Calvinistic passages in the Bible and believes them and twists and distorts the other passages; that teach the freedom of man, to make them fit with those that teach the sovereignty of God, and he becomes a one-sided Calvinist. Another mansees only those passages that clearly teach man's power of self-determination and seeks to twist all that teach the sovereignty of God and the foreordaining wisdom and will of God to fit into his ideas, and he becomes a one-sided Arminian, and so on through the whole gamut of doctrine. It is utter foolishness, to say nothing of presumption, to thus handle the Word of God deceitfully. Our business is to find out the plainly intended sense of a passage that we are studying, as determined by the usage of words, grammatical construction and context; and when we have found out the plainly intended meaning, believe it whether we can reconcile it with something else that we have found out and believe, or not. We should always remember that in many cases two truths, both clearly true, that at one time seemed utterly irreconcilable or flatly contradictory to one another, are now, with our increased knowledge seen to beautifully harmonise. So we should have no difficulty in recognising the fact that truths that still seem to us to be contradictory, do now perfectly harmonise in the infinite wisdom of God, and will some day perfectly harmonise to our minds when we approach more nearly to God's omniscience. The Bible, in the most fearless way, puts the absolute Deity of Jesus Christ in closest juxtaposition with the real manhood of Jesus Christ. For example, we read inMatt.8:24,"And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the boat was covered with the waves; but He(Jesus)was asleep."Here we have a plain statement of the real manhood of our Lord, but two verses later, in the26thverse, we read,"And He saith unto them, why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then He arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm."Here we have a clear shining forth of His Deity, even the winds and the waves subject to His word. No wonder the disciples asked one another,"What manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him?"(Matt.8:27). The answer is plain: a Divine Man.
Again we read in Luke 3:21,"Now it came to pass, when all the people were baptised, that Jesus also having been baptised, and praying, . . ."Here we see Jesus in His humanity,baptisedandpraying. Surely this is a man. But in the remainder of the verse and in the next verse we read,"And the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon him, and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased."Here God with an audible voice declares Him to be Divine, to be His Son. Again in John 11:38 we read,"Jesus, therefore, again groaning in himself cometh to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone laid against it."Here we see Jesus in His humanity, but four verses further down, the43rdand44thverses, we read,"And when He had thus spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, comeforth. And he that was dead came forth."Here again his Deity shines forth.
In Luke 9:28 we read,"And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, that he took with him Peter and John and James, and went up into the mountain to pray."Here we very clearly see His humanity, His limitation, His dependence upon God; but in the very next verse, the29thverse, we read,"And as He was praying the fashion of his countenance was altered and His raiment became white and glistering."Here we see His Divinity shining forth, and then again in the35thverse, we read of the voice coming out of the cloud, saying,"This is my son, my chosen; hear ye him."Here His Deity unmistakably is seen again.
InMatt.16:16, 17, we read,"And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father who is in heaven."Here is a clear declaration by Jesus Himself of His Deity. But four verses further down in the chapter, the24thverse, we read,"From that time began Jesus to show unto his disciples that he must go up unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day rise from the dead."Here we have the clearest declaration of the reality and completeness of His humanity.
InHeb.1:6, we read of our Lord Jesus,"And when He(i.e., God the Father)again bringeth in the first-begotten into the world he saith, and let all the angels of God worship him."Here is a most unmistakable and inescapable declaration that Jesus Christ is a Divine Person, to be worshipped as God by angels as well as men, and two verses further down we read this further declaration of His absolute Deity,"But of the son he saith, Thy throne O God, is for ever and ever."Here again the Son is declared in so many words to be God, He is called God. But in the very next chapter,Heb.2:18, we read,"For in that He himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted."Here we have the clearest possible declaration of the reality of His human nature.
InHeb.4:14 we read,"Having then a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession."Here we have a plain declaration of His Deity; but in the very next verse, we read,"For we have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."One of the plainest declarations of the fullness and completeness of His humanity to be found in the Bible.
The doctrine of the Deity of Jesus Christ and the doctrine that Jesus Christ was a real man, go hand in hand in the Bible. What kind of aSaviour, what kind of a Lord Jesus, do you believe in? Do you believe in a Saviour that is a man and man only? Then you do not believe in the Saviour that is presented in the Bible. On the other hand, do you believe in a Saviour that is God and God only? Then you do not believe in the Saviour of the Bible. The Lord Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, presented to us in the Bible, is very God of very God and at the same time He is our brother, our fellowman, and is not ashamed to call us brethren. Oh, I thank God that I have a Saviour that is God, possessed of all the attributes and powers of Deity, all the perfections of Deity, a Saviour for whom nothing is too hard. I thank God that my Saviour is One who made the heavens and the earth, and who holds all the powers of nature and of history in His control; but I equally thank God that my Saviour is my brother man, One who was tempted in all points like as I am, One who is in a position to bear my sins, on the one hand because He is God, on the other hand because He is man. A merely divine Saviour could not be a Saviour for me. A merely human Saviour could not be a Saviour for me. But a Saviour in whom Deity and humanity meet; a Saviour who is at once God and man, is just the Saviour I need, and the Saviour that you need, a Saviour that is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God through Him.