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Today, we’ll finish up our discussion on Christology by looking at the human nature of Jesus. The Bible is very clear: Jesus is a man. The human nature of Jesus is crucial for both the atonement for our sins and the effectiveness of Jesus’ ministry as our great high priest. We’ll look at why this is and think about how the human nature of Jesus impacts our faith.
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Hey everyone, and welcome to Season 2 Episode 27 of the A More Beautiful Life Collective Podcast. Today, we are going to finish up our study of Christology, which is the study of the doctrine of Christ. Jesus, the Christ (or, in Hebrew, Messiah), is central to our faith.
So far, we’ve examined Christ’s offices—how he is our prophet, priest, and king. We’ve also examined how Jesus functions as an agent of God, and as an agent, he commissions us to continue his work on Earth.
Today, we will focus particularly on the nature of Jesus in relation to his humanity. Because of certain creedal language, the humanity of Jesus is often downplayed or simply not talked about. But, the biblical authors pointed out that Jesus needed to be a man for our salvation.
We are going to look at why the human nature of Jesus is necessary and we’ll talk about the implications for us today.
Don’t forget to check out our Building Our Foundations Study if you would like to dive deeper into the 10 core doctrines of the Christian faith. You can also get our Personal Statement of Faith workbook here.
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The Human Nature of Jesus
In our last episode, we talked about the very real differences in the nature of Yahweh, God the Father, and Jesus, the Son of God.
Jesus was the representation of the Father to us as his agent. He was the representative who could perfectly represent the Father’s work in obedience. Being a representative or agent of God doesn’t mean that he has the same nature as God the Father. He represented God (and was in the form and image of God) in the way he did the mission and will of God on earth. If we see him, it is almost like we are seeing the Father because of his work as an agent. But, God sending Jesus in his stead does not mean that Jesus has the same nature as the Father.
Jesus was a man who did the will of God and is now exalted, seated at the right hand of the Father. The overlooked part of this statement is simply that Jesus is a man.
So, what does this human nature of Jesus look like?
Quite simply, it looks like ours.
According to an article by The Gospel Coalition, here are some examples of the human nature of Jesus:
- Jesus was born. – Luke 2:7
- Jesus grew and developed. – Luke 2:52
- Jesus hungered. – Matt 4:2
- Jesus thirsted. – John 4:7; 19:28
- Jesus grew tired. – John 4:6
- Jesus experienced the full range of emotions. – Matt 26:37; John 2:15; 11:35
- Jesus had limited knowledge (and not omniscience) – Mark 5:30; Mark 13:32
- Jesus was tempted. – Matt 4:1–11; Heb 2:18
- Jesus suffered, died, and was buried.
- Jesus was raised in his human body made of flesh and blood. – Luke 24:39
- Jesus continues his kingly and priestly work in his human body. – Rom 1:4; Col 3:1
- Jesus will return in his human body. – Acts 1:11
This shows how Jesus was fully human, and it foretells how our future inheritance in the kingdom as we are glorified like him (Phil. 3:20-21).
Could a human really die for our sins?
Why is important to recognize the human nature of Jesus?
A common argument for certain theological standpoints is that Jesus had to be God alone to die for our sins. In fact, this article argues that Jesus could not be a human person with rather convoluted logic.
In this video by the Biblical Unitarian Podcast, Dustin Smith lays out several key passages that describe Jesus being a man who died for our sins.
- John 11:49-53 – “49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” 51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.”
- Romans 5:15-17 – “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!”
- 1 Timothy 2:5-6 – “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. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.”
The Bible is clear on the humanity of Jesus and on the atonement of our sins because of Jesus’ death on the cross.
Why though? Why did we need a human mediator rather than a mediator that had a different nature from us?
The book of Hebrews describes the human nature of Jesus and the importance of a human mediator.
Hebrews 2:14-18, says, “14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he [Jesus] too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
From this passage, we see two important points: (1) It was necessary that a human pay the sacrifice for human sins. (2) A perfect high priest (or mediator between us and God) must be a human.
To help us and free us from the slavery of sin, he had to share in our nature. To make an atonement, he had to be human. According to these verses, he did not have to have the same nature as God to pay for our sins; he had to have the same nature as us.
In addition to this, Jesus was supposed to be fully human in every way so that he could be a faithful priest for us. Remember, a priest is a representative of the people to God. Jesus’ humanity made him a fitting priest because he can sympathize with our nature and our weaknesses. (You can read about the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4.)
The mercy and faithfulness of Christ towards us is because he knows what it’s like to be in our shoes. Because he suffered, he has compassion for our suffering.
Hebrews 4:14-16 goes on to say, “14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
If you’ve ever heard someone say that only God could pay for our sins with his death, these verses should help you to realize that truly we should say: Only a human can be the high priest that we need. Only a human could have suffered and died to pay for the sins of his people.
As we’ve seen, the nature of Jesus is almost identical to ours. However, there are two ways that Jesus’ nature differs from us. First, he never sinned while the rest of mankind has all sinned. He lived a perfectly blameless (aka sinless) life. Second, some believe he preexisted. We’ll look at both of these topics in turn.
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Questions about the nature of Jesus #1: Can Jesus sin?
Paul concludes his argument in Hebrews 5:9, “And being made perfect, he [Jesus] became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,” It could be easy to breeze right on by that phrase in this verse – “being made perfect” – but this brings up another important question.
Was perfection part of the nature of Jesus when he was born? Was he ever able to sin? God is impeccable, meaning he is not able to sin. He cannot sin. There is no capability for God to sin.
Was Jesus capable of sinning? Some people argue that Jesus is impeccable because he is a ‘God-man.’ As we’ve seen, Jesus is fully human. He represents God to the world, but he has differences in his nature from God. God cannot be tempted (James 1:13), so how is Jesus able to be tempted? Because of his human nature.
Jesus did have the capability to sin. However, he did not.
Jesus was holy and no deceit was found in his mouth (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22). How was Jesus unable to sin? There are two different answers to this question:
- Jesus had the full power of God in him. The redeeming influence of the Holy Spirit helped to strengthen him to whether temptation. In this way, he can do what we cannot.
- Jesus did not have original sin. There are various ways that people explain how he did not have it. The consensus is that due to his virgin birth, he did not inherit original sin.
I think the answer is a mixture of both options. Jesus grew in wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit leading up to the baptism of the Holy Spirit when he was fully anointed with the power of God. But, how could he have withstood sin for the first 30 years of his life? I don’t believe that Jesus ever sinned, even before he was baptized with the Spirit.
Instead, I believe that since he was the second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45-58) who had the potential to sin like Adam. Because he was born of a virgin through the power of the Spirit, he did not inherit original sin and had the same nature as the first Adam. But, instead of falling into sin, he was able to withstand it. He righted the wrongs of the past and so ushered in the New Covenant.
Jesus had free will and the capability to do wrong. What is so special about his time on Earth is that he submitted his will to the will of the Father. In doing so, he leads us in a new and righteous way that we can follow. Through Jesus, we are freed from the bondage of sin and given the model of a perfect life without sin.
Questions about the nature of Jesus #2: Did Jesus preexist?
Another common belief in the way Jesus differs from us is the notion that Jesus preexisted. This is based primarily on the prologue of John which reads:
John 1:1-5, 14, 18 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. […] 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. […] 18 No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
When we read this hymn at the beginning of John, we can wonder about the state of Jesus before the birth. This hymn describes the Word being with God and being God. However, if we read the descriptions of the throne room visions of the Old Testament, Jesus is never mentioned (Daniel 7, Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1). Where was Jesus in the Old Testament if he did preexist his birth at the beginning of the New Testament?
There are three views on preexistence:
View #1: Bodily preexistence
Jesus had a bodily existence before he was born around 0 A.D. appearing throughout the Old Testament in various theophanies (like in the meeting with Abraham and/or the Fiery Furnace).
This view may be common for people who have a trinitarian understanding of God, but not have thought deeply about the nature of God. Most learned theologians would recognize that Jesus’ bodily form would not have appeared until after the incarnation.
So, did Jesus have a bodily preexistence? No. But, he was thought of since the beginning of creation. Jesus is not the creator (Yahweh, God the Father is), but all things were created through Jesus because he was crucial to the plans and reason of God.
View #2: Logos Theology
Jesus existed in the mind of the Father as the Logos. The word Logos – which gives its name to this belief of Logos Theology – is the Greek word for ‘Word’ in John 1:1.
Bruce Hillman of 1517.org says, “Essentially, the patristic explanation of the Logos went like this (my summary): The Father and the Son are inseparable; they are one God, not two, nor is one lesser than the other. The Son is not a creation of the Father but has always eternally existed with the Father and is equal to the Father. There was no time when he was not. How? Because the Gospel of John teaches that Jesus is the Logos. What does that mean? Well, it’s like the (imperfect) distinction between a thought and a person who has the thought. The thought is part of the person, not a separate individual (you cannot separate thoughts from persons, if you try, they become ideas but they are no longer thoughts). As The Logos Jesus is like the thought in God the Father’s mind that created the whole universe. When God spoke the universe into creation, it was the Logos that proceeded from his “mouth,” a Word. But the Word was God. It was God’s reason (intelligence) that created the universe, and this Word also was causal-creative; it made it happen. There was no time when God was not thinking; there was no time when God was not with the Logos. And when the Logos took on flesh and lived among us, he did not cease being God’s Logos and, therefore, still eternally God. Before the incarnation, the Logos did not have a body, “but for our sake became man.” Thus, in his incarnation, the Logos became Jesus, the God-Man. The Logos makes salvation possible because it merges God and Man in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.”
Essentially, the word was the reason and intelligence of God that was made manifest in Jesus. In this view, the Logos is a conscious, pre-existing Jesus who exists in God’s mind. I think this is probably where most mainstream Christians would land based on the creedal language.
View #3: Wisdom Christology
Another view is that of Wisdom Christology, an explanation of which can be found in the book Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John by Dustin Smith. In this view, Jesus had no conscious pre-existence prior to his human birth. The prologue of John points to the way that Jesus is the personification of Wisdom (and through wisdom both the (1) plan of God and (2) the law).
We recognize the high value that Jewish authors placed on the law and the word of God in the Old Testament and the intertestamental period (just think about how the scribes and Pharisees treated the law even if they distorted it). John was arguing in the prologue of John that Jesus was the word made flesh. He was the personification of the wisdom of God sent to seek and save the lost. He was to bring the foolish to the paths of wisdom that would eventually lead the people to God.
This wisdom is found throughout the entire Old Testament. It is through this wisdom that the very world was established. In this way, wisdom did preexist Jesus’ birth. But, Jesus’ conscious bodily existence began in the manger in swaddling clothes. Wisdom Christology offers the most logical conclusion that aligns with Biblical evidence.
What does the human nature of Jesus mean for us?
The Gospel Coalition article goes on to state some implications for Christ’s humanity:
- Christ’s humanity means that he is fallen humanity’s representative. – Gal 4:4–5, Matt 3:15, 2 Cor 5:21
- Christ’s humanity means that he is fallen humanity’s substitute. – 1 Pet 2:24, Heb 5:1, 2:17
- Christ’s humanity means that he is redeemed humanity’s example. – 1Pet 2:21
My Personal Statement of Faith: Christology, Part 3
Jesus was fully human. He was able to sin but chose to not sin and is thus completely holy. Because of his humanity, he can be the perfect high priest who can sympathize with us in our weakness. He is also the second Adam who is able to redeem mankind. Jesus was the personification of the plan and wisdom of God that existed from the beginning of time and came into bodily existence with the virgin birth. He guides us on this way of wisdom and righteousness.
Now you try: Questions about the Nature of Jesus
- What is the nature of Jesus?
- Was Jesus able to sin?
- Why is important for us that Jesus had a human nature?
- What do you believe about the preexistence of Christ?
This episode wraps up our focus on Christology. We will be back next week with an episode on reading goals for this upcoming year. Be sure to subscribe to get future episodes on Systematic theology, practical theology, and more ways to make your life a little more beautiful.
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Until next time, keep creating a life you love and cultivating your heart for God.
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