“God with Us”
Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.
Acts 2:36
The question of Jesus’s identity and relevance for our world continues to captivate both scholarly and popular attention. Mel Gibson’s 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ, Catherine Hardwicke’s 2006 The Nativity Story, and Christopher Spencer’s 2014 Son of God highlight the popular fascination with Jesus and seek to subliminally answer the question of why Jesus matters for today.Who was—no, who is—Jesus? Indeed, the identity of the man from Nazareth has been the most perplexing question of all history. Already during Jesus’s earthly life, speculation abounded as to his identity (Matt. 16:13, 16). Rather than dying out, the debate about Jesus is just as intense two millennia later as it was while he walked the paths of Palestine. The question remains as crucial and provoking today as it was on the day Jesus stunned his disciples with the query, “Who do people say I am?” (Mark 8:27).
On that day the disciples recounted the opinions of the people. But then Peter burst forth with the insightful assertion, “You are the Messiah” (Mark 8:29).
Peter’s Spirit-inspired confession lies at the heart of our faith as well. With believers of all ages, we acknowledge that God has acted in this specific human life. Echoing Matthew, who saw in the birth of our Lord the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy, we declare that Jesus of Nazareth is Immanuel—“God with us.”
This lofty declaration, “Jesus is the Christ,” is a central element in every Christian’s religious vocabulary. We readily let the statement roll from our tongues. But what do we mean when we confess that God was active in Jesus? Does our confession remain intelligible two millennia after Jesus’s death? And if so, how are we to understand Jesus’s identity in our context? How should we answer the question, Who is Jesus? in the contemporary world in which we live? And what difference does it make in how we live?
In this chapter we offer an answer to the question, Who is Jesus? In continuation with Christians throughout the ages, our understanding of Jesus’s identity takes the form of three significant statements:
Jesus Is Fully Divine
The Christian church was born out of the acknowledgment that Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us.” His early Jewish followers believed that in Jesus they had encountered the God of the Hebrew patriarchs. As those who had known Jesus reflected on the implications of his life and ministry, they felt constrained to acknowledge that Jesus of Nazareth is both God and Savior (2 Pet. 1:1). Based on their testimony, the church concluded that Jesus is divine—indeed he is uniquely divine.
But can we continue to affirm this classic Christian confession? Is it possible in our day to declare that a man who lived two thousand years ago is divine? And if so, is Jesus the only person in whom we acknowledge this status?
Is Jesus Divine?
As Christians we know that it is the Holy Spirit who causes us to see the truth about Jesus. “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). But what aspects about Jesus’s earthly life does the Spirit use in bringing us to this realization? To answer this question we must review those dimensions of Jesus’s life that caught the attention of the early eyewitnesses and led them to this exalted conclusion. Specifically, we look at
And we ask, “Does any one of these aspects of Jesus’s life lead us to understand who he is?”
Jesus’s sinlessness.1 According to the New Testament, Jesus lived a sinless life. He committed no morally culpable act (Heb. 4:15), and he was free from the disposition to sin that characterizes fallen humanity (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:14; 1 John 3:5). Could this form the basis for our confession “Jesus is Lord”?
Jesus’s sinlessness stands as an attractive feature of his person. As we read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s conduct we are drawn to him, for we are led to wonder who he might be. Jesus’s moral life, therefore, invites us to consider the question of his identity.
At the same time, we cannot overlook that during his earthly sojourn Jesus’s sinlessness was a debatable point. The religious leaders of his day were convinced that he was a great sinner. They saw him as one who readily associated with the most impious of people. He flouted the traditions of the Jewish community and even of Moses himself. Worst of all, he was guilty of blasphemy.
In the end, therefore, Jesus’s sinlessness is not immediately obvious. Only those who already know Jesus as Immanuel confess him as the Sinless One.
Jesus’s teaching.2 We can say the same about Jesus’s divine teaching. Rather than engendering universal acceptance, his words evoked a mixed reaction from his original hearers. Only when we know him as “God with us” does his teaching carry divine authority for us.
Jesus’s death. Matthew reports that the Roman soldiers who saw Jesus die concluded, “Surely he was the Son of God” (Matt. 27:54). Perhaps the way Jesus died is a powerful statement about his divine identity.3
Yet unless Jesus’s death is viewed through the eyes of faith, its significance can be easily overlooked. We could readily dismiss it as the sacrifice of a well-intended popular hero and martyr. Or we could reject it as the self-induced demise of a deluded idealist. Even when viewed in faith, Jesus’s death entailed a painful experience of estrangement from God. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34), he cried in anguish.
Jesus’s death derives its great significance from the truth that he is divine. Only if Jesus is Immanuel does his death become the self-sacrifice of God for sinful humankind.
Jesus’s claim. All four Gospels agree that Jesus set forth a fantastic claim about his identity. Maybe we could find in his claim the clue to who he is.4
In his widely read book Basic Christianity,5 John Stott offers a helpful summary of the portrayal of Jesus’s claim as it is presented in the Gospels. First, Jesus’s claim came through his self-centered teaching. Although demanding humility in others, the Master repeatedly pointed to himself: he is the bread of life, the light of the world, the resurrection and the life, the fulfillment of the Old Testament, and the one who would draw all persons to himself (John 12:32).
Second, the signs Jesus performed entailed an implicit declaration that he was engaging in a unique mission. By changing water into wine, feeding the multitudes, restoring sight to the blind, and raising the dead, our Lord asserted that he was inaugurating God’s new order.
Third, by exercising functions belonging solely to God, Jesus articulated an indirect claim to deity. He forgave sins. And he claimed divine prerogatives as the one who could bestow life, teach truth, and even judge the world.
Finally, occasionally Jesus’s divine claim came directly. He spoke of his unique relationship with the Father. He viewed himself as the Son who is “in the Father,” knows the Father, and is one with the Father (John 10:30–38). In fact, he even appropriated to himself the divine name—“I am” (John 8:51–59). And after his resurrection our Lord accepted worship (John 20:26–29).
What can we conclude from this apparently lofty claim?
A quick look at history suggests that making audacious personal claims is itself not unusual. Jesus is not the only person who has claimed a unique relationship with God. Other religious figures of his day made similar professions. And what about Apollo Quilboloy, A. J. Miller, David Shayler, and Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez6 in our day—or less bizarre candidates for deity such as Sun Myung Moon? How does Jesus differ from these would-be messiahs?
Yet there remains something noteworthy about Jesus. His claim looked for, and even demanded, a future vindication. Jesus asserted that his Father would one day exonerate him and his ministry.
Jesus’s resurrection. According to the New Testament, God’s response came swiftly and decisively: he raised the crucified Jesus from the dead. Could this be the foundation for his identity?
Before answering this question we must deal with another crucial issue. Did the resurrection truly happen? Can we continue to declare that God raised Jesus from the dead?
For “modern” people, of course, the idea of a resurrection is a historical impossibility. The dead simply do not rise.7 Nevertheless, the New Testament authors bear consistent witness to the resurrection of Jesus as a historical fact. In making this claim, they appeal to the empty tomb and to the appearances of the resurrected Jesus. How strong is the case for Jesus’s resurrection?8
The Gospels report that the tomb was empty on Easter. And they assert that the empty tomb is a sign that Jesus triumphed over death. We can assess this appeal to the empty tomb by surveying six alternate explanations.
But the Gospels report that many other persons, including the disciples, viewed the same tomb. It seems unlikely that so many would make the same mistake about the place where Jesus’s body had been laid.
This was the theory that the guards were bribed to circulate (Matt. 28:11–15). Yet the persons who purportedly perpetrated such a hoax (the disciples) were subsequently willing to die as martyrs for their declaration that Jesus had risen. Is it likely that they would have suffered to that extent for what they knew was a lie?
But would they not have squelched the entire Christian movement by merely producing the body when the story of Jesus’s resurrection began to circulate in the city?
But how likely is it that Jesus could have pulled off such a hoax? He barely survived the ordeal of the final hours of Passion Week. Could he really have been in sufficient physical shape a few days later to convince his unsuspecting disciples that he had conquered death?
The New Testament accounts for the empty tomb by declaring that God raised Jesus from the dead. The alternate explanations lack plausibility.
The New Testament writers also appeal to purported appearances of the risen Lord. The resurrection must be a historical event, they argue, because many people saw Jesus alive after Easter. Does this explanation merit our acceptance? Again we must appraise the alternate theories.
But in what may be the earliest written assertion of the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:3–8), Paul appeals to living witnesses. He invites his readers to check out the story by contacting the persons who were there.
But the experiences of the risen Lord do not occur in the kinds of situations that are conducive to this phenomenon. There is neither a strong inward desire nor a predisposing outward setting. On the contrary, the followers of Jesus saw no hope of seeing their Master again after his crushing death. And the settings of the appearances were varied in location and in time of day.
Nor were these experiences merely personal, subjective visions. Instead, they were apprehended by several persons simultaneously.
The empty tomb and the appearances of the risen Lord substantiate the claim, “He is risen from the dead.”
We can draw confirming evidence from two additional sources.
First, Easter resulted in a change in the day of worship among the disciples of Jesus. These people were steeped in the strict Jewish heritage of Sabbath (Saturday) worship. Nevertheless, soon after the events of Holy Week the early believers began to gather on the first day of the week—“the Lord’s day”—to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor. 16:1–2; Rev. 1:10).
We can state with confidence, “God raised Jesus from the dead.”
Second, Easter also sparked the phenomenal growth of the infant church. A company of believers sprang forth among pious Jews (Acts 2:41, 47). And in a few years the message about Jesus’s resurrection had become a potent force in the entire Roman world (Rom. 10:18; Col. 1:6).
Considerations such as these ought to give us confidence as we, following the early believers, boldly proclaim that God raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:32–36; 13:32–39; 17:18; 1 Cor. 15:14–17). Indeed, our Lord’s resurrection lies at the heart of Christian faith itself (Rom. 10:9). It stands as the sign of his divine identity (Rom. 1:4), because the resurrection is God’s confirmation of Jesus’s understanding of himself and his mission.
Jesus’s resurrection is not only crucial to our apologetic, however. It is essential to our experience of Christ as his modern-day disciples. The resurrection provides the link between our present experience and the historical person Jesus of Nazareth. The resurrection guarantees that ours is nothing less than the experience of the living Lord. If God did not raise this Jesus from the dead, we could no longer claim to enjoy fellowship with the One whom Jesus called “Father” and whose kingdom he inaugurated.
Is Jesus Uniquely Divine?
God confirmed Jesus’s claim by raising him from the dead. The resurrection offers a response to modern skeptics who reject the Christian confession that Jesus is divine. In our day, however, Jesus’s deity is often less problematic than his unique deity. In keeping with the pluralistic ethos of contemporary society, people are increasingly open to “gurus” who supposedly put us in touch with the supernatural and mediate experiences of the divine. What is scandalous is any suggestion that Jesus alone is Immanuel—“God with us.”
Dare we continue to claim a unique status for Jesus in this pluralistic climate? Indeed, we must, once we understand the glorious implications of our confession of Jesus’s deity. If Jesus is divine in the sense that believers of all ages claim he is, then he is uniquely divine.
Why is this so?
Jesus is the Revealer of God. First, if Jesus is divine then he is uniquely divine, because he alone reveals God to us (John 14:9–10).
The New Testament writers consistently testify that in Jesus we see God. Throughout his earthly life and ministry he showed us what God is like. His teaching informs us about God; his character shows forth the qualities of God; his death reveals the suffering of God; and his resurrection vividly declares the creative power of God.
At the heart of the picture Jesus presents is a God who is a loving heavenly Father (Luke 15:11–32). Indeed, Jesus understood his mission as the expression of God’s self-giving, compassionate love.
Jesus himself was characterized by loving compassion. He saw the aimlessness of the common people who were as “sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36; Mark 6:34). He was moved by the plight of the sick (Matt. 14:14), the blind (Matt. 20:34), and the hungry (Matt. 15:32; Mark 8:2). Jesus was filled with compassion in response to the sorrow people experienced at the loss of loved ones (Luke 7:13; John 11:35).
Jesus expressed compassion by raising the dead (Luke 7:14; John 11), teaching the multitudes (Mark 6:34), and healing the sick (Matt. 4:23; 9:35; 14:14; 19:2). His godly compassion even encircled his enemies. Anticipating the final rejection he would experience from the nation he loved, Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem (Matt. 23:37). Then, during his arrest Jesus offered his healing touch to the soldier whose ear had been injured in the scuffle (Luke 22:51). In his hour of death, Jesus prayed that his Father extend forgiving mercy to the Roman soldiers (Luke 23:34).
Jesus not only shows us the loving heart of God; his life also indicates that the Triune God is love. We can understand this when we remind ourselves of the special relationship Jesus enjoyed with his Father. Jesus’s sense of a special fellowship is most vividly evident in his preferred way of addressing God. He called God “Abba,” an endearing name somewhat similar to “Dad.”
The one who called God “Abba” is not merely a human. He is the eternal Son. This Jesus is the only begotten, beloved Son of the Father who gives back to the Father the love he receives. The Father himself confirmed this relationship at Jesus’s baptism: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17).
In his relationship to his Father, therefore, Jesus disclosed the divine love that characterizes the eternal dynamic between the Father and the Son. Just as Jesus loves and is loved by “Abba,” so also the Son loves and is loved by the Father eternally. Thereby, Jesus opened a window for us to see the divine reality: God is the eternal community—the eternal love relationship—of the Father and the Son, and this community is the Holy Spirit.
Jesus’s disclosure of God does not merely lead to some vague theological talk. On the contrary, the goal of Jesus’s revelatory work is to introduce us to God (Matt. 11:27; Luke 10:22). He desires that the divine character become a vital reality within each of us and among us. As Paul declares, Christ—the Revealer of God—must be “formed” in us (Gal. 4:19). This is the work of the Holy Spirit (see chap. 8).
Because Jesus reveals to us the character of the God who is triune and because he forms that character in us through his Spirit, our Lord is uniquely divine.
Jesus is Lord. Second, if Jesus is divine then he is uniquely divine, because this Jesus is Lord.
The New Testament authors repeatedly use the divine title “Lord” to speak of Jesus. And we confess with the church of all ages, “Jesus is Lord.”
We can say with confidence, “Jesus is the unique Son, the Lord of all.”
Through this confession we affirm a fundamental truth about the relationship between Jesus and creation: Jesus is the Lord of the universe. Consequently, he is the one before whom every person should (and will) bow in homage (Phil. 2:9–11).
“Lord of the cosmos” means that Jesus is also Lord of history. He is the embodiment of the meaning of the entire universe from beginning to end. All creation—and each human life—can find its true meaning and identity only in him and by reference to him. He is not only Lord of the universe, but he is to be Lord of our individual lives as well. The history of all creation and the histories of every person who has ever lived find their true significance only as they are connected with one brief historical life—Jesus of Nazareth.
The affirmation “Jesus is Lord” produces a great fissure that runs through humankind. This confession divides those who acknowledge Jesus’s lordship from those who do not. But this confession also unites. As we will note in chapters 9 and 10, it brings together those who acknowledge his lordship into one great fellowship that transcends all human distinctions.
But this affirmation, “Jesus is Lord,” is not some grand theological statement that has no bearing on personal living. On the contrary, to declare Jesus’s lordship entails acknowledging Jesus as the Lord of our lives. Jesus must reign over every dimension of our existence, including every act and every thought (2 Cor. 10:5). Therefore, confessing with the church the lordship of Jesus obligates us to open ourselves to the in-breaking of his lordship into our daily life.
Let’s now draw our conclusions. As the revelation of God and the Lord of creation, Jesus is the standard for our understanding of who God is and what God is like. For this reason, we must measure all declarations about the divine reality by Jesus’s life and teaching. As the revealer of God and the Lord of life, Jesus is also the mediator of our experience of God. The way to God comes solely through Jesus of Nazareth. Regardless of the sensitivities of the contemporary ethos, we cannot avoid affirming that Jesus is uniquely divine.
Jesus Is Fully Human
The central confession of our faith declares that Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us.” In confessing “Jesus is the Christ” we are also declaring another dimension of the reality of Jesus of Nazareth. We are saying that in this historical life we find not only full deity but also complete humanity. Not only is he fully divine—the embodiment of God—Jesus is also fully human—the embodiment of God’s intention for us.
We now explore three aspects of Jesus’s humanity, three dimensions involved in the Christian confession “Jesus is fully human”:
Jesus Is Truly Human
The writer to the Hebrews declares, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity” (Heb. 2:14). What does this mean? In what sense did Jesus share humanness with all the children of Adam? To answer this question, we must return to Jesus’s earthly life.
Jesus lived under the conditions of human existence. The Gospel writers make plainly evident that Jesus of Nazareth was truly human. That is, he lived under the conditions of earthly existence as we do.
Our Lord grew tired and thirsty (John 4:6–7). He desired companionship (Matt. 26:36–38). And he knew the importance of withdrawing from his task of ministering to the throngs of destitute people so that he might be refreshed through solitude and prayer10 (Mark 1:35).
Jesus likewise underwent trials, faced temptations, and endured the onslaught of Satan (Matt. 4:1–11; 16:22–23; 26:36–39). But in each, he won the victory over his foe (Heb. 4:15).
This conclusion—that Jesus survived temptation unscathed—leads us to ask the following. Were the temptations he faced real? Could Jesus have sinned? Did Jesus feel the pull of temptation as we do?
Jesus’s temptations differed from ours in one important way. James declares concerning us, “but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed” (James 1:14). Because he was born without the fallenness we inherit from Adam, Jesus was not enticed by an inherited internal disposition as we are.11
At the same time, however, Jesus experienced genuine temptation. In fact, he bore the full weight of Satan’s seductive power to a degree that surpasses our battle against evil.12
To understand this, think about our own experience. As Christians, we repeatedly discover that the intensity to which we sense the power of temptation corresponds to the degree to which we are resisting it. In those areas where we are especially vulnerable, we know little of the reality of temptation. We simply yield to the evil impulse without a struggle. In areas where we are growing as believers, however, we have a greater sense of temptation’s power. Our knowledge of the difference between yielding without a struggle and resisting with all our might gives us a window into Jesus’s battle against the devil.
Jesus knew the full fury of temptation, because he was keenly aware of the alternatives Satan offered to him. He was completely cognizant of what was at stake in the choices placed before him. And he was entirely conscious of the implications of the decisions he needed to make. In this sense, he knew in the most intense manner the human experience of undergoing trial and temptation.
Our Lord was limited in time. His days contained only twenty-four hours. His weeks had only seven days. And his earthly sojourn lasted only thirty-three years.
Jesus was likewise limited in location. He simply could not be everywhere at once.
In addition, our Lord was limited in strength. He could not push himself beyond his capacities. And like all humans, he required the renewal brought through sleep, relaxation, and solitude.
Jesus was even limited in knowledge. He did not know the exact time of the awaited arrival of the Son of Man (Matt. 24:36).
Like Jesus, we must set priorities, choose from among many good causes that vie for our attention, and seek to do what will be most effective for the advancement of God’s rule.
Living under these various limitations carried an important implication for Jesus’s life, just as it does for ours. To accomplish his overall mission, Jesus was constrained to make choices and to order his activities. He engaged in choosing from among the many good options that vied for his attention and time. He needed to select from among the alternatives in accordance with how they fit with the priorities of his vocation.
Need we add that Jesus did not emerge from the womb perfectly mature? Indeed, Jesus began as an infant. And during his childhood he grew physically, intellectually, spiritually, and socially (Luke 2:52). Even as an adult, Jesus continued to gain from what he experienced. “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered” (Heb. 5:8).
In short, Jesus of Nazareth had no predisposing advantages. He traveled no shortcut to maturity, transcended none of the limiting aspects of embodied existence, was spared no difficulty in living in this fallen world. He was not Superman, an alien housed within a human body but inherently capable of superhuman feats. On the contrary, as the church has confessed throughout the ages, Jesus was fully human.
Jesus’s humanness is important. Jesus’s life as a human is crucial to his role in the program of God. Unless Jesus was human we are not saved from our sins (Heb. 2:14, 17).
Jesus’s experience is also important for our practical, day-to-day living. Jesus can sympathize with us as we struggle with the situations of life in a fallen world. Our “high priest” is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, for he was tempted in every way as we are, yet “he did not sin” (Heb. 4:15). But his sympathy is not merely a passive emotion. On the contrary, because Jesus overcame Satan’s onslaught, he is able to help us when we are tempted (Heb. 2:18).
In short: Jesus knows. Jesus cares. And Jesus provides us with his power—his Spirit.
Jesus Is the True Human
Our declaration “Jesus is fully human” does not merely mean he was one human being among many. Rather, we are affirming as well that Jesus is unique among humans. He is uniquely human, truly human, the true human.
Jesus claimed to be the true human. Our Lord claimed to be the true human. He proclaimed that he had come to show us how to live. He asserted that he, and not the religious leaders of his day, knew the true meaning of the Old Testament Scriptures (Matt. 5:21–48; Mark 12:24), as well as God’s intention for humankind (Matt. 19:1–9; Mark 7:9). And he enjoined his hearers to follow him, to be his disciples, to take his “yoke” and to learn from him (Matt. 11:29).
By itself, Jesus’s claim would have been audacious. We could view his declaration “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6) as vain and prideful. In this claim, however, just as in his parallel claim to enjoy a special relation to the Father, Jesus invited a confirmation from God.
God’s response came in the resurrection. By raising Jesus from the dead, God declared that this man is indeed the true human he claimed to be.
As God’s confirmation of Jesus’s entire life, teaching, and death, therefore, the resurrection leads us to view Jesus as the true human. His resurrection sets forth the risen Christ as the ultimate pattern for full humanness as intended by God.
Jesus is our pattern. In confessing “Jesus is the true human,” we are acknowledging that he reveals to us humanness as intended by God. In Jesus we find what God desires that we become.
This pattern is revealed in the resurrection. The risen Lord shows us the transformed humanness we will one day share. In raising him from the dead, God transformed Jesus’s earthly, bodily existence into the glorious, incorruptible state to which the early witnesses to the risen Christ gave testimony.
But this transformed humanness is precisely God’s design for us: “And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man” (1 Cor. 15:49; see also 1 John 3:2). Therefore, by looking at the risen Christ we discover that God’s purposes stand in stark contrast to our present human experience: God created us not for estrangement but for fellowship, not for death but for life, not for bondage but for freedom.
God’s pattern for us is also revealed in Jesus’s earthly life. Jesus of Nazareth is the revelation of how we are to live. Our Lord came to teach us the pathway to greatness in God’s kingdom. He declared that true greatness does not come through self-centeredness but through servanthood, suffering, and self-denial (Mark 8:34–38; 10:35–45). And he showed us that even death can be the route to life and blessing for many (John 12:24).
For this reason, Jesus is our example. We ought to model our attitudes and conduct after him. Above all, we ought to be characterized by Christlike humility (Phil. 2:3–8), patient suffering (1 Pet. 2:21–23), and love (Eph. 5:2).
Above all, Jesus indicated that the life God intends for us does not focus on the isolated individual saint. Rather, “kingdom living” is life in community. We are created for community.
The fellowship he shared with God included both communing with God in solitude and humbly acting in perfect obedience to the Father’s will, even to the point of death (Phil. 2:8).
Our Lord was no self-sufficient recluse. Nor did he embody the Western ideal of “the self-made man.” Rather, for him life included both mutuality of friendships and compassionate ministry to the needy. Jesus was both the “man for others” and the one who received the gift of friendship from others. And Jesus showed that community ought to know no boundaries; it reaches beyond friends to encompass the outcast and hurting, even one’s enemies.
In his teaching Jesus appealed to God’s care for plants and animals, for grass and sparrows. His spiritual life led him to embrace the wilderness and enjoy the beauty of creation. And he gave evidence to his identity by calming the sea.
In short, “Jesus is the true human” implies that he is our model. As his disciples, we are to pattern our lives after him. That is, we too are to seek to live according to the design of life in community Jesus revealed to us.
Jesus is the true human, for he is our ideal, the model for human life. As the true human, Jesus is also the New Human, the New Adam, the founder of a new humanity, the fountainhead of a new order of human beings. This declaration, however, moves us beyond Jesus’s life and resurrection to the reflections of Paul and other early believers.
Look to Jesus not only for the pattern for our lives but also for the power for living.
As the founder of a new humanity, Jesus forms a stark contrast to the first Adam (see Rom. 5:12–21; 1 Cor. 15:21–22, 45–49). Adam brought disobedience, sin, and death to his descendants. Christ, in contrast, mediates obedience, grace, and righteousness leading to life (Rom. 5:19, 21; 1 Cor. 15:22).
In inaugurating a new humanity our Lord has overcome the old human hostilities and divisions (Eph. 2:14–15). Jesus has brought people from every nation into the new company, the church, which is his “body” (Col. 1:18). We participate in this new company as we are drawn together through our union with Christ (Rom. 6:3–5; 2 Cor. 5:17).
Just as with the affirmations “Jesus was truly human” and “Jesus is the true human,” the confession “Jesus is the New Human” carries practical importance for life in the present. It means that Jesus is “the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Heb. 12:2). As our trailblazer, he goes before us and bids us to follow. As our leader, he seeks to bring us to the goal the Father sets before us. He is the fountainhead of our existence; he provides the resources for our lives.
Therefore, the key to living in the present does not lie with our own abilities. Instead, we are dependent on the provision we derive from the risen Lord, the New Human (John 15:1–8). Jesus Christ provides these resources ultimately by sending us his Spirit, as we will view more closely in chapter 8.
We can summarize our discussion of the significance of our confession “Jesus is fully human” with a chart.
| Jesus’s Role | Its Historical Basis | Its Implication |
| Truly human | His earthly life | He can save |
| The true human | His resurrection | He is our model |
| The New Human | Church’s reflection | He is our resource |
Jesus Is Both Divine and Human
As Christians we affirm that Jesus of Nazareth is fully divine. And we add that he is also fully human. This leads us to one of the most perplexing questions that theologians tackle. How is this possible? How can deity and humanity be present in one historical life? What do we mean when we affirm that Jesus is both divine and human?
How Can Jesus Be Both Divine and Human?
At first glance, our assertion that “Jesus is both divine and human” appears to be an unsolvable logical puzzle. A person who is simultaneously both divine and human seems to border on self-contradiction. But this has been the teaching of the church throughout the centuries.
To find the solution for this puzzle we need look no further than the New Testament. The early Christians were convinced that Jesus is both fully divine and fully human. And they expressed this conviction through two significant statements about him:
Jesus is the Word. According to the New Testament, Jesus is both divine and human because he is the Word.
John declares that Jesus is the “Word” in the prologue to his Gospel and in the introduction to his first epistle. The term John chooses (logos; “Word”) carries deep significance.13
According to the Greek philosophers the entire universe was ordered by an inner law around which humans ought to orient their lives. They called this principle the “Word.”
More important for our understanding of Christ is the Hebrew idea of the “Word of God.” The “Word” is what reveals God’s own nature. And it embodies the creative power of the God who speaks and it is so, the God who creates the world according to his wisdom (Prov. 8:22–31).
Through this term “Word,” John acknowledges Jesus’s creative and revealing identity. Jesus is God’s creative Word: “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3; see also v. 10). And Jesus is God’s revelatory Word: “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, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14; see also Col. 1:15–16).
The declaration “Jesus is the Word,” therefore, asserts that Jesus of Nazareth reveals the meaning of all reality—even the nature of God. That is to say, this human being Jesus is the divine revelation of God.
Jesus is the Son. The early believers also declared that Jesus is both divine and human by acknowledging him as the Son.
In the Old Testament era, “son” denoted selection to participation in God’s work. The “son of God” was God’s special agent, chosen to carry out God’s mission in the world. For this reason, Israel as a people was the “son of God.” And the title could designate kings or other specific persons to whom God had entrusted a special commission (Exod. 4:22; 2 Sam. 7:14; Ps. 2:7; Isa. 11:1–2; Hosea 11:1).
The New Testament declares that Jesus is the unique Son. God commissioned him with a unique mission, and this unique mission links Jesus directly with his Father. Jesus came to reveal God to us and thereby to make God’s salvation available. And Jesus fulfilled that unique mission perfectly, for he was obedient to the Father’s will to the end.
Want to know what God is like? Look to Jesus, the Son. Want to know what it means to be human? Look again to Jesus.
As the one who completely fulfilled a unique mission, Jesus enjoyed a unique relationship to the Father. He is the unique Son, the “one and only,” the “only begotten” (John 1:14 NASB), the divine Son of the Father. In keeping with this understanding, the author of the epistle to the Hebrews concludes, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Heb. 1:3). And Paul adds: “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col. 2:9).
Jesus is the Word and the Son. The designations “Word” and “Son” are closely connected. Both point to Jesus’s singular identity.
The designations “Word” and “Son” bring together the deity and the humanity of Jesus. As “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” and the one through whom God made the universe, the Son is the revelation of the meaning of all reality and of God’s essence. As this revelation, he is the powerful Word of God who sustains the universe and through whom God has spoken (Heb. 1:3).
As the Son and the Word of God, Jesus participates in the life of the Triune God. He is the Second Person of the Trinity who enjoys eternal fellowship with the Father. At the same time, Jesus shows us that true human life also entails life in community. God designed us to enjoy fellowship—community with God, with neighbors far and near, and with all creation. And Jesus inaugurated the new humanity, the company of those who enjoy this fellowship. Therefore, Jesus of Nazareth embodies true deity (what God is like) and complete humanity (what God created us to be). Jesus is indeed Immanuel, God with us.
What Does It Mean to Say That Jesus Is God Incarnate?
In speaking of Jesus’s identity John declares, “The Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14 NRSV). Theologians often speak of the Word becoming flesh as the “incarnation.” Consequently, we affirm that Jesus is the Incarnate One; he is the eternal Word or the Son in human form.
But what does this mean? How are we to understand “incarnation”? Some Christians picture the incarnation as a specific historical event. This event, which perhaps occurred in the womb of Mary, was an act of the Second Person of the Trinity. And it resulted in the union of deity and humanity in the one person, Jesus. Consequently, the personal center of this life was divine, the eternal Son.
This widely held understanding seeks to preserve both the deity and the humanity of Jesus. Unfortunately, however, it runs the risk of degenerating into the myth of Superman. Often we picture Jesus as Clark Kent. Beneath his common human exterior is a regal blue uniform bearing a big “S” on it. So often we suggest that just as Superman could shed his Clark Kent disguise at any time, so also the divine Son could set aside his humanness at will. In the end, Jesus is not really human, we demur, for he is God. We reveal this tendency, for example, when we dismiss the struggles Jesus endured by saying, “Well, after all, he was God, wasn’t he?”
Envisioning the incarnation as the act of the eternal Son also readily leads us into the dangerous trap of thinking of the Word apart from Jesus. Thereby we separate what the New Testament adamantly refuses to divide—namely, the eternal Son and the historical person Jesus of Nazareth. We open the door to speaking about the Christ apart from Jesus. And we pave the way for seeing the Christ at work through other religious teachers in addition to Jesus.
The New Testament writers, in contrast, never present the incarnation as the act of the Word at a specific point in history. For example, in his great hymn extolling the self-abasing Christ (Phil. 2:6–11), Paul carefully keeps his attention focused on the historical person of Jesus. The one who refused to clutch his divine prerogatives but was God’s humble, obedient servant even to the point of death, he declares, was “Christ Jesus” (Acts 24:24; Rom. 1:1; 3:24; 6:3, 11, 23, etc.). Consequently, Paul does not draw the confession “Jesus Christ is Lord” from any story of a descent of the eternal Son into our world at a specific point in time. Rather, the entire life of our Master, and especially his obedient death, provides the basis for God’s exaltation of Jesus as the name above every name.
John is equally careful in speaking about the Word becoming flesh. The evangelist avoids suggesting that the incarnation came as an act of the eternal Word taking to himself human nature in the womb of Mary. In fact, John never pinpoints an exact historical moment (such as Jesus’s conception) at which time the incarnation occurred. Nor does he cite the virgin birth as the vehicle that facilitated the beginning of the incarnate state.
Rather than focusing on Jesus’s miraculous birth, John appeals to eyewitnesses who observed our Lord’s earthly life. Based on these observations, he testifies to the incarnation: “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, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). In Jesus, the early witnesses saw the divine glory, a glory Jesus evidenced throughout his earthly life.
Following John, then, “the Word became flesh” (the incarnation) does not focus on how Jesus came into existence. Instead, it is our way of declaring the significance of the Master’s earthly life: as this human being, Jesus is divine; he is God’s revelation. He is the Word—the dynamic, revelatory Word of God—in human form. In this one historical, personal life we find revealed who God is—true deity—and who we are to be—true humanity. In Jesus, the Word has indeed come in the flesh.
In short, we do not celebrate the incarnation merely at Christmas but throughout the church year, climaxing at Easter.
In What Sense Is Jesus Preexistent?
Our declarations “Jesus is the Word” and “Jesus is the Son” lead us to yet another important consideration—namely, Jesus’s preexistence.
John opens his Gospel with the bold declaration “In the beginning was the Word. . . . He was with God in the beginning” (John 1:1–2). Now if Jesus is the Word, there must be a sense in which he is eternal and hence a way in which his life overflows his earthly sojourn. In short, he must be preexistent.
But what does “preexistence” mean? Before we can answer this question, we must dispel one common, but faulty, line of thinking.
Our understanding of preexistence often arises from viewing the incarnation as a point in time. Indeed, if we understand the incarnation as an act that occurred at a specific moment in history (somewhere around 4–6 BC), our inquisitive minds naturally ask, what was the Word doing before the incarnation?14 And in response, we offer many fanciful conjectures about the one who would be born in Bethlehem flinging the stars into space.15
To speak about Jesus’s preexistence means that Jesus belongs to God’s eternity.
As with the idea of incarnation, we must avoid the tendency to link preexistence solely with the Word and to separate it from Jesus of Nazareth. We ought not to conceive of preexistence as giving license for speculating about the activity of the Word prior to Jesus’s birth. In the contemporary context of religious pluralism, such speculation leaves us vulnerable to the suggestion that the divine Word has been or is operative in other historical figures and religious leaders as well.
Whatever it may mean, preexistence describes Jesus of Nazareth. We confess the preexistence of Jesus and not that of some purported eternal being whom we can view apart from this historical human life. “Preexistence” is a declaration about the identity of Jesus of Nazareth.
But in what sense can we predicate preexistence to a historical person? At its heart, the doctrine of preexistence speaks about the uniqueness and finality of Jesus.
In our discussion of Jesus as the Word and the Son, we affirmed that Jesus is the Second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of the Father. The affirmation of our Lord’s preexistence takes this idea a step further. It declares the importance of the revelatory significance of this historical person.
Contrary to the opinion of many, Jesus’s brief historical life is more than a blip in time. Instead, he discloses the very heart of eternity. That seemingly short earthly life is nothing less than the revelation of God. As Paul writes, “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” (Col. 1:19).
By confessing Jesus’s preexistence we affirm the uniqueness and finality of his earthly life. Jesus is the embodiment of truth. His teachings are true teachings, revealing the eternal truth of God. And his life shows us the true human living as God intends us to live. As a result, Jesus is the standard for measuring all religious truth and all human conduct. All other truth claims and all admonitions about the good life must be weighed by this one historical person.
Weigh all truth claims and religious teachings by the revelation of God in Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus is the meaning of history, because he embodies the significance of all history. This one, seemingly short life clarifies events of the Old Testament, which point to him. And his life is the foundation for events of the New Testament era—that is, the time between his advent and his second coming. But not only the events of “salvation history” find their meaning in Jesus. This historical life provides the source from which we can understand all events of human history.
Jesus’s story includes more than the thirty-three years of his earthly sojourn. All of history from beginning to end is his story, the story of the one Jesus Christ.
This is what the great confessions of the church about Jesus intend to encapsule for us:
This glorious person—our Lord Jesus Christ—is Immanuel, God with us. As Immanuel, he came to bring God’s salvation to sinful humankind. Therefore, we must now turn to the saving work of the one whose identity we have clarified.
Fairest Lord Jesus! Ruler of all nature,
O Thou of God and man the Son!
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
Thou, my soul’s Glory, Joy, and Crown!16
Having Read This Chapter, You Should Know:
For Connection and Application