And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14)
For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (I Tim 2:5)
Lord, you became flesh to redeem flesh. Praise Your Name.
Jesus was a man. That doctrine is central to Christianity. The creed says He is “fully man.” The Scripture says “He became flesh” (Jn 1:14) and calls Him the “man, Christ Jesus” (I Tim 2:5). This basic Christian belief about the ordinary humanity of Jesus is not unique. Atheists, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Taoists, Sikhs, you name it — all of these would agree that Jesus was a man. Sometimes, however, people think that Christians miss this idea, that Jesus’ followers deify Him to the point that He ceases to be human.
Quite the opposite is the case. Any attempt to make Jesus purely spiritual — as certain types of Gnosticism did in the first century — is not and cannot be Christian. Such attempts fly in the face of too many plain Scriptural references to the humanity of Jesus. Jesus, simply put, was one of us.
We too blithely pass this over. We think it nothing more than a nice doctrine. “Yes, yes. Jesus is human. So what?” We may not consciously say it that way, but that’s how we live. We don’t comprehend the depths of the humility involved in the humanity of Jesus. Or the love, which it so plainly shows. We think the doctrine quite ordinary and pat ourselves on the back for being reasonable folks. In reality, it is perhaps the most extraordinary sacrifice the world has ever seen. The weakness of Jesus is one of the greatest displays of the glory of God we will ever know. And we miss it. We miss it because He is so like us. We see humanity every day. We’re surrounded by it. We don’t think it glorious. So we don’t understand what is going on with Jesus.
When I was in elementary school, the teacher sometimes would have a little contest to give out some privilege.
“OK class,” she might say. “We just went over multiplying fractions. Now, I want one boy and one girl to come to the board. OK Marcus, you’re the boy. And Bethany, you’re the girl. Now get ready. I’m going to give you one problem to solve. If Marcus gets it right first, the boys get to leave for lunch first. But if Bethany gets it right first, the girls go to lunch first.” The fate of the entire group rested on the representative.
Something like that has gone on in history. Jesus is human; therefore, He can represent humans. His death can free you and me because He was like you and me. The power of His resurrection is for us because He was one of us.
The first man became the head of the race and brought sin into the world. In the same way Jesus has become the head of a new race and has brought righteousness into the world. Since the ultimate source of sin goes back to the head of the race, God’s ultimate solution must fix the head of the race. God does this by providing a new head of the human race. In Christ, God is undoing what Adam did. Or maybe we could say He is redoing Adam. God is saying, in effect, “Let’s start this human race all over.” But to do that, God must have a human.
Jesus is the human head of the new human race. The old race is characterized by sin. The new race is characterized by righteousness. We are members of the old race by birth. We are members of the new race by new birth. We inherited the nature of the old race from its founder. We inherit the nature of the new race from its founder. The humanity of Jesus makes all of this possible. Strip Him of His humanity, and you strip Christianity of its redemptive power.
The humanity of Jesus is not just a reasonable Christian doctrine. It is essential to many other Christian doctrines and central to the work of Christ.
