Basic Training 2 – The Humanity Of Jesus

Have you ever wondered about the humanity of Christ? I know I have.   If Christ was fully human how could He be God?  On the other side of the issue is, if Christ was fully God how could He be human?  Now I know some people try to come up with different equations for how much Christ was human and how much He was God. 

There are those who explain Jesus dual nature this way

                                                Jesus is 50% Human

                                                Jesus is 50% God

Which makes Jesus Half God and Half Man.  Now this may sound right but it does not fit with the our need to have someone who is fully God and fully man on order to take our place on the.  Read the following excerpt from Christian Internet Forum

Jesus was not only fully God - He was also fully man, fully human. This is a vital aspect of the person of Christ. If He were not fully human, He could not have represented us on the cross. Also, He could not be the High Priest who comforts and strengthens us. As a man, He has gone through our human experience (Heb 2:16-18), and He is fully able to understand and sympathize with us. That is an astonishing truth.

Jesus as we have seen in Basic Training 1 was God and as God had all the attributes of God, but Jesus was also fully human and as such can relate to you and I and the things that we will go through in our human condition.

Jesus Was Born Of A Woman- Mary

Read the Gospel accounts of Jesus birth starting in Matthew 1:18 and also in Luke 2:1.  These accounts give documented proof of Jesus birth.  These accounts have often been disputed but most Bible scholars feel that these accounts were given from Mary the mother of Jesus.  Even John in his Gospel in Chapter 1:14 says that Jesus became human.  Now I don’t know about you but being born is very human thing to do.  I was born, you were born and chances everyone you know was born and we are human. 

Isaiah predicted Jesus’ birth -- Isaiah 7:14

The Angels proclaimed Jesus birth -- Luke 2:13-15

The Shepherds saw the baby Jesus – Luke 2:16-20

The Parents had Him circumcised – Luke 2:24-28

This is only a partial list of proof that Jesus was born. He had proud parents here on earth as well as a Father in Heaven.  He was human because He needed the care of His parents until He was able to care for Himself.  God has become a man in order to doe for our sins.

Jesus Learned As A Human Learns

Jesus was God and as God created everything, but was never born into the human condition.  That is up until now.  As the baby Jesus grew he learned first hand what it was like to be human.  In like 2:52 it says that the boy Jesus went through the same stages you and I do in growing to adulthood.  This means He would have grown physically, mentally, intellectually, spiritually and socially.  He would also have according to Jewish tradition learned the Scriptures from what we know s the Old Testament.

As the firstborn Son, His earthly father, Joseph would have also taught Jesus the trade of carpenter.  In all aspects of human life Jesus grew and developed just as you and I do.  Now I know what your are going to ask, Why would God need to learn when He knows everything?”  if you read Philippians 2:5-8, Paul tells us that Jesus ‘made Himself nothing” in order to live as a we live.  In other words Paul describes how Jesus gave up part of deity to live the true human experience. 

Don’t be mislead, because Jesus did not cease to be God, He still healed people, calmed storms, changed water into wine fed the 5000, all things only God can do, but for a little while He chose to give up certain attribute of God in order to see what it felt like to be like us.  Think about your life as far back as you can remember.  Make a list of some of things you did.

• You learned to walk
• You lost your baby teeth
• You played games with your friends
• You went to school

This is only a partial list, but when you look at it think about how Jesus did these very same things and more.

Jesus Experienced Emotions

To me it is comforting to know that Jesus felt compassion, He showed righteous anger at the defilement of God’s Temple, He cried at the death of friends and perhaps at the death of His stepfather Joseph this we can see in passages such as John 11:35 which simply states “Jesus wept”.  He found joy in children and in doing His Father’s work and He felt anguish on the cross when His own Father had to turn away.

Yes it comforting to me to know that Jesus felt the same things I do.  The reason is that I know we have a Savior who knows what we are going through and who can help to heal our hurts because He was human.  Jesus knows, He understands our pain as well as our joy, our sorrow as well as our laughter.  There was a not so popular movie on TV about Jesus and the one thing I liked about the movie is that it depicted a Jesus who showed emotion and enjoyed the fellowship of His friends.  This I believe is true, because we can catch glimpses of it throughout the Gospels. I do not believe that Jesus was a stoic character that many people paint Him to be, but a human that was not afraid to show His emotions

Jesus Was Tempted But Did Not Sin

Like us Satan tempted Jesus, but unlike us Jesus did not sin.  Hebrews 4:15 states that ^“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”.  Make note of the fact that this passage in Hebrews states that Jesus did not sin at any point in His human existence.

Now Satan did his best to try to get Jesus to sin.  Jesus was in the wilderness without food and water.  This means as a human he was hungry, thirsty and weak.  I don’t know about you but when I am hungry and thirsty I am miserable.  If you are not familiar with this story you can find it in Luke 4:1-13.  Satan came and tempted Jesus three times to no avail.  Jesus stood strong yielding God’s Word each time as the sword of truth. 

This means that because He was tempted Jesus knows what you are going through when Satan tempts you.  It also means there are no excuses because even though we are not Jesus we can use the same method He did to call off Satan.  Remember Jesus was unable to sin because He is God. Jesus also had a human nature that never existed apart from His Godly nature so as the Bible tells us God cannot sin, but even if He could not sin He still understands the lure that temptation holds over us.

At First Jesus Did Not Call Too Much Too Himself

For the first thirty years of His life Jesus would have appeared to be the guy next door. People would have greeted Him, had Him construct things for them, perhaps even carry on an in-depth scriptural conversation with Him and would never have guessed that they were talking to God.  For the most part Jesus did not call any attention to himself He even tells His mother when she asks Him to turn the water into wine in John 2:4 ‘that His time had not yet come”

This is a clear indication that Jesus stayed out of the limelight. In fact the only clue someone might have had as to the true identity would have been His knowledge of the scriptures; after all He was the one who inspired their authorship.  There is plenty of other evidence that Jesus lived an ordinary life for thirty years.

If your read in Matthew 13:54-58 you will find that people who were the most astonished by the declaration of Jesus that He was the Messiah were those people He grew up with.  I could only imagine being one of the people from Nazareth who watched Jesus grow and develop.  I would not have seen anything unusual about Jesus.  Here was a loving son taking care of His mother and watching over His half brothers and sisters, now He is saying He is the what? 

Has the sun gotten to the man?  Is he crazy? In the end the prophecy of a prophet being dishonored in His own hometown was fulfilled and Jesus left Nazareth and set out to carry out His calling.  The people of Nazareth never saw it coming.  The only one who had a clue was Jesus’ mother Mary, but it seems Joseph and Mary kept the true identity of Jesus quiet. 

Some Things to Remember

1.       How should the knowledge that Jesus was human affect your life as a Christian and your relationship with Him?

2. Since we need to model Jesus, what are some of the ways that we can model His earthly example?

3.   If someone you knew for years suddenly stood up and said I am the Messiah, how ould you react?  Remember your reaction is once obstacle you will need to overcome in order to show others that Jesus though living here as a human was fully God.