If one subject has distinguished itself among theologians as being particularly difficult and divisive, it's the subject of the nature of Christ. Sometimes we waste endless hours on it, and end up further from agreement than before we began! But when we talk about Jesus and who He was, it becomes very fascinating to discover what He said about it, and what the Gospel writers said about it. After all, He really should be the final authority on the subject, should He not?
There probably isn't any evangelical, fundamental, Bible-believing Christian who doesn't believe that Jesus was God, that Jesus is God. But notice a few of the major scriptures on the subject: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:1, 14). At the baptism of Jesus God Himself spoke: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17).
Even the devils knew who He was. The devil came and tried to tempt Jesus to turn stones into bread (see chapter 4). If he hadn't known Jesus was God, that would have been a ridiculous temptation. None of us has ever been tempted on that one! And not only the devil himself but all of his demon followers knew who Jesus was. On more than one occasion they said, "We know who you are, the Holy One of God" (see Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34, 41).
Jesus said, "I have powe'r to lay ... [My life] down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10:18). Not one of us could make that claim. Jesus was talking as God. He gave evidence that He had power to forgive sins, and the people charged Him with blasphemy (see Luke 5:20, 21). Once again, Jesus was speaking as God.
John 13:3 tells us that Jesus knew that He came from God, that He was God. In the Temple at the age of 12 when He said, "I must be about my Father's business" (Luke 2:49), He gave evidence for the first time that He knew He was the one sent from heaven. And at His trial, when the high priest asked Him under oath whether He was the Son of God, He said, "I am" (Mark 14:61, 62).
So Jesus was God. He continued to be God when He became man. And He continues to be God, at the right hand of the Father today.
Having said that, let's proceed to the second main topic under this theme— Jesus was also man. He was human. "The Word [or Jesus] was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).
As a man, Jesus exhibited certain traits common to human beings. He got tired, and went to sleep in the bottom of a boat (see chap. 4:6; Mark 4:37, 38). He got hungry and thirsty; He was thirsty on the cross (see John 4:7, 8; 19:28). He found out, as a man, what it is like to experience the needs and necessities that we experience.
But right here is where the subject of the nature of Christ begins to get a little sticky, where the dialogue and the discussions come in. How much of a man was He? How human was He? Was He just as we are, or was He not?
Jesus became a man after thousands of years of downhill degeneration by the human race. At the time of Adam, men lived hundreds of years. Not so at the time of Jesus. Jesus had less physical vitality than Adam would have had. Jesus got tired when Adam probably wouldn't have. In fact, in the story of the woman at the well (chapter 4), Jesus was apparently more tired than His disciples were! Since Adam, the human race had been decreasing in physical strength, mental power, and moral backbone. Jesus accepted the weakness of humanity; the power we see manifested in His life was the power of His Father. If Jesus had come to earth as a human during the first hundred years after the Fall of man, it seems He would have had a much easier time of it, humanly speaking.
We also know this concerning Jesus— He was never a sinner. He said it of Himself, "The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him" (chap. 8:29). "Which of you convinceth me of sin" (verse 46)? And long before His birth, the angel had said to Mary, "That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). Jesus was sinless. He was called "that holy thing," and no other person born into this world was ever described in that way. So right here we see a point in which Jesus was born differently than we are. He was never a sinner; He never sinned; He was sinless.
Sometimes we get into discussions of whether Jesus' human nature was like that of Adam before the Fall or like that of Adam after the Fall. Such discussions can keep you going until midnight! But in a sense, it's like asking someone whether he wants peanut butter or jelly with his bread, and he answers Yes. There is a sense in which Jesus was like Adam before the Fall and a sense in which He was like Adam after the Fall. Both are true. Jesus was like Adam after the Fall in that He accepted the workings of the law of heredity and became a human being subject to the limitations of human beings of His time. But He was like Adam before the Fall in that He was sinless.
When Jesus took the liabilities of fallen man, there was one that He did not take—man's sinful nature. He had a spiritual nature from birth that carried with it no propensities to sin. Jesus had no desire for sin. Can you say that about yourself? Could you ever say that about any other person born into this world of sin? But it was said of Jesus that He loved righteousness and hated iniquity (see Heb. 1:9).
All of this leads us to a very practical question: Did Jesus have some sort of advantage over us? Yes, He had an advantage over us. He was born "that holy thing." We weren't. Jesus never sinned; therefore, He was never tempted to continue in sin, something that I suggest is one of our greatest temptations. Jesus never had that. From the time He was a child, He loved righteousness and hated iniquity. That cannot be said about us. So He did have advantages.
But Jesus lived His earthly life through dependence upon His heavenly Father. Therefore He did not use the advantages that He had. He lived life in exactly the same way in which He invites us to live—through dependence upon a higher power. He tells us, "Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). But He also said, "1 can of mine own self do nothing" (chap. 5:30). Even His mighty miracles were wrought through the power of God, rather than from His own inherent divine power (see Acts 2:22). In the wilderness of temptation, an angel came to strengthen Jesus and minister to His needs. He did not use His divine power to meet His own necessities, in spite of the devil's temptation for Him to do that very thing (see Matt. 4:11). Again, in the Garden of Gethsemane an angel came to strengthen Him (see Luke 22:43). It was an angel messenger from His Father's throne who encouraged Him, and brought Him power to face the cross.
When we come to the cross, we see Jesus struggling under the weight of the sins and guilt of the whole world, and crying out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me" (Matt. 27:46)? And we wonder whether He is finally on His own. But no, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself (2 Cor. 5:19). God was still there, even though Jesus could not see Him. The presence of God was manifest by the supernatural darkness that came at about the ninth hour, by the earthquake, and by the rending of the Temple veil when Jesus finally died.
So all through His life—His perfect, sinless behavior; His miracles; Gethsemane and the cross—Jesus lived through a power from above Him. It was always through the faith relationship of prayer, communication, and fellowship that Jesus experienced this power.
Thus Jesus becomes our example. He says so in connection with the Lord's Supper. "I have given you an example" (John 13:15). He says so in John 13:34: "Love one another; as I have loved you." He says so in Matthew 10:25: "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master." And Revelation 3:21 tells us that we can overcome, even as Jesus overcame.
Many today seem to be choosing from three options concerning the human nature of Christ. One is to believe that Jesus was like Adam before the Fall, and therefore to believe that we can't obey the law of God as Jesus did, because He was different from us. The second is to believe that Jesus was like Adam after the Fall, and therefore to believe that we can obey God's law. After all, Jesus did it, and He was just like us. The third is that Jesus was like Adam both before and after the Fall. Let's go over each option in more detail.
Number one: If we define sin in terms of a fallen human nature, Jesus would have to be like Adam before the Fall, because He was not a sinner. We are sinners. Therefore, Jesus was different than we are and He could not be our example. He had an advantage over us in terms of obedience, and we, as sinners, cannot be expected to obey. Indeed, we find it impossible. So instead, we accept His substitutionary obedience and trust His obedience placed to our account in heaven.
Number two: If we define sin in terms of transgression of the law, Jesus could have been like Adam after the Fall. This viewpoint says one is a sinner because he sins (and he is not a sinner until he does sin). Jesus was just like Adam after the fall; He had a sinful nature just as we do. He avoided being a sinner by never doing anything bad. Thus if Jesus was just like us, but never sinned, then He becomes our example in all points, and we can obey as He did, by refraining from transgession.
Number three: If we define sin in terms of a broken relationship, Jesus would then be like Adam before the Fall, because He had a spiritual nature from the beginning that was never separated from His Father. But He was also like Adam after the Fall, because He lived in complete dependence upon His Father in order to produce the works we see manifest in His life. If the issue in sin is a broken relationship (rather than a sinful nature, or sinful deeds) then Jesus can be our example in showing us how to live in dependence upon a Higher Power. We can obey, because we can become partakers of His spiritual nature, experience the restoration of the broken relationship, and depend upon His strength to overcome. The result? The possibility of total obedience to the law of God.
I believe in the third option. I believe that the sin problem goes far deeper than simply doing bad things. The issue in sin is a broken relationship, a life lived independently of God. Who has the greater temptation to live independently? The one who is sinless or the one who isn't? In that sense, Jesus is a far greater example than we could ask for.
In summary, Jesus was divine and He was human. He took upon His sinless spiritual nature the liabilities of our fallen nature. In this weakened state, He gave us an example of victory from above, rather than victory from within. And that's the real issue in the end, anyway.
In examining this subject, I feel I'm on holy ground. It is an awesome thing to realize that Jesus came and lived life as I have to live it.
Does this make me feel that I am far behind? It certainly does. But does it discourage me? No. Jesus has given too much evidence that He loves me and will continue to help me understand how He lived His life, so that I can live in dependence upon Him, as He lived in dependence upon His Father.
We can be thankful that we are accepted because Jesus' sacrifice still paves our way to the eternal country. And we can also be thankful that He showed us how to overcome, through dependence upon Him: "I in them, and thou in me, that they maybe made perfect in one" (John 17:23).
