The Humanity of Jesus

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-3, 10-14.

Jesus was willing to come to earth as a man to be the Lamb of God; the perfect sacrifice that would deliver man from his sins. He willingly offered Himself upon the cross to die so that the shedding of His blood would pay the price for the redemption of sin, would snatch back the keys of death and hell from Satan, and through faith in Him would allow man to be “born again” of the Holy Spirit and give man the opportunity to know God and overcome his carnal nature – taking on the nature and mind of Christ – thereby becoming like Him (His image). It is not enough to understand that Jesus came into this world to offer Himself as a one-time propitiation for our sins. We must understand that He became flesh. I must interject that He was not born of earthly parents and therefore was not born into sin, but was born of the Holy Spirit through an earthly vessel who was a virgin. We must understand this most important aspect of His coming into the world. But we must also understand the humanity of Jesus if we are to get the full revelation of what He truly accomplished here on earth.

Before the foundations of the world were laid, God planned this most pivotal event in order to produce Their (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) desire – a creation that would be just like Them – the image of God. In the brilliant mind of God, He planned to send Jesus – who would be the demonstration of sonship and the vehicle through which man could become like Him. The plan depended upon Jesus being successful in living a sinless life as a man – thereby fulfilling the law, demonstrating the power and wisdom of being led by the Holy Spirit, laying down His life, and then being resurrected. This would provide the example and the way for man to die to self and the things of this world by and through the power of the Holy Spirit to then be raised up in the power of our Lord’s resurrection; becoming led of the Holy Spirit just as Jesus was here on earth.

As God, Jesus knew He would be successful in accomplishing His mission. As a man, He would not know if He would be successful. He would have to walk it out facing the same trials, disappointments, rejections, and frustrations that we do in addition to facing more pain and suffering than we could ever comprehend all because of His love for us. As a man, He was the demonstration of what we were created to be, of what our potential is in Him if we will be obedient to follow where He leads. I Peter 2:21 says “For even hereunto were you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps”.

He was “despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3), because he was the forerunner to establish the path that we would walk in order to overcome our carnal nature and be conformed to His image. Yet He was the expression of the fullness of joy and peace, demonstrating that “the joy of the Lord is our strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8), just as we are called to humble ourselves and be obedient to death – dying to all that is worldly in us. We are called to do the same works as He did and to be just like Him as He was here on earth. “Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto my Father.” (John 14:12) The greater works to which Jesus refers relates to the development of a corporate body who would grow into “a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

Luke 2: 41-52 gives us insight into the life of Jesus as a youth. “Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him sitting in the temple, sitting in the midst of doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, son, why have you thus dealt with us? Behold your father and I have sought you sorrowing. And he said to them, How is it that you sought me? Know you not that I must be about my father’s business? And they understood not the saying which he spoke to them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them: but his mother kept these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man”.

This is the only glimpse we have of the childhood of Jesus. It will be another eighteen years before He is released into His ministry. This scripture is very key to our understanding of the humanity of Jesus. I believe that this portion of scripture was included to give us insight that Jesus was not born into this world having already overcome the things pertaining to this life. He had to grow and develop just as we do. Here we see Jesus wrestling with His understanding of how He would accomplish that which His Father had placed on His heart. His desire was to go out and share all the wonderful things He had come to know about His Father and lead others to know Him in the same way. At this moment, Jesus didn’t understand that it was not yet time for His release into His ministry and that there were many things yet to be learned. God designed our world to have authorities placed in it and we must obey the authorities placed over us in order to obedient to God. It was no different with Jesus. We see Him quickly submit to His earthly parents and He continued to be subject to them until He was sent in the proper season.

Notice that He increased in wisdom and stature and also increased in favor with God and man, just as we will do if we will keep our eyes fixed upon the author and finisher of our faith and obediently follow Him wherever He leads. Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus was “in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin”, which again shows the humanity of Jesus and the pattern established for our example. “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. That when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death” (James 1:14-15). Sin is not committed because one is tempted. Sin comes forth when one meditates on the temptation and brings it to fruition, resulting in action contrary to obedience to God, instead of “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (I Corinthians 10:5).

Jesus accomplished this perfectly, not because He didn’t experience the fullness of the lust and desire that is part of our carnal nature, but because He so loved the Father and so desired to please Him that He refused to bow the knee to sin. It is also because He so loved us that He was willing to endure all things for our example and our deliverance from sin. James 1:13 says that “God cannot be tempted with evil”. From this scripture, we must conclude that either part of Jesus was tempted and part of Him was never tempted (if He was the God-man as is so commonly taught) which makes no sense, or that Jesus was fully human and therefore tempted like we are. Hebrews 5:7-8 gives further evidence of the humanity of Jesus.

Verse 8 says “Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered”. When the word of God speaks of obedience it refers to obedience to God or that to which He has ordained that we must be obedient. God does not need to learn obedience to Himself, only man has this need.

Verse 7 says “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared”. This passage refers to the time when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane praying to the Father. He said in Matthew 26:39 “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as you will”. Jesus did not know if it were somehow possible for Him to escape what He was about to face. He was in great fear and consternation.

But what was it that He feared? Most would answer that He knew the hideous type of death He was to face and He feared the suffering or questioned His ability to withstand the pain. I believe it was much more than this. I believe Jesus feared what we humans fear most: the unknown. Jesus knew the type of death that awaited Him and He knew He was to be the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” because the Word who became flesh knew and understood the scriptures. Therefore, Jesus knew He had to take upon Himself the sins of the world. But here was the problem: Jesus had never known sin. He had no idea how this would affect Him or if He could withstand the effect of sin when the fate of the whole world rested upon His shoulders. He didn’t know if He was going to be able to accomplish this gargantuan task. He was human and only knew that which the Holy Spirit revealed to Him. And the Holy Spirit was not revealing what lay ahead. Jesus faced the cross with no idea of the outcome.

Soon after Jesus finished praying, Judas and a great multitude came. They laid hands on Jesus and took Him. Peter attempted to fight for Jesus but only accomplished cutting the ear off a servant of the high priest. Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 26:53 “Think you that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” Jesus was saying here that He had a choice in this matter. By position, Jesus was still God. But in order to fulfill the scriptures, be the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and take back the authority in this earth from Satan, Jesus had to go to the cross as a sinless man. God had given man authority in the earth (the Edenic commandment) and lost that authority through the fall of the first Adam, but now the second Adam was positioned to take back that authority. But He could only do that as a sinless man. God is spirit and He is eternal. God, therefore, could not die for our sins. Jesus could have very well decided to not go through the task at hand and return to His state as God. But praise God He did not! He chose to be obedient even unto death and for the joy set before Him (for it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings – (Hebrews 2:10) He endured the cross.

The fact that Jesus had a choice whether to go to the cross or not only serves to magnify His accomplishment. Likewise, the fact that He did so as a human. He was humiliated and accused yet He didn’t open his mouth in defense. He was beaten beyond recognition then whipped with strips of leather with embedded sharp stones and glass that clawed out chunks of flesh each time they landed, yet was silent. In an account given by the Roman soldier that nailed Jesus to the cross, the soldier was astounded that Jesus did not cry out. Jesus just looked at him peacefully. After all this torture, then came the onrush of pain as His cross was dropped into a hole and gravity now forced His bodyweight on His wrists and feet while His shoulders were being pulled out of their sockets. Crucifixion was a horribly slow death and terribly painful. But still that was not the worst that Jesus faced.

At the appointed time, the sins of the world were unleashed upon Jesus; “who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed” (I Peter 2:24). It is impossible to imagine what Jesus was going through at this point. Then the situation turned even worse. At the ninth hour (3:00pm) Jesus cried with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”. God the Father had turned away from His Son and now Jesus was alone in the midst of His greatest suffering. He had never known separation from the Father (He was with Him by the Holy Spirit while here on earth) and had no idea that this was part of the plan. Yet He so trusted the Father that He persevered, cried out with a loud voice, and said “Father, into your hands I commend My spirit”. After having said this, He died.

During the forty days after He was resurrected by the Holy Spirit, Jesus walked the earth in His resurrected body and was now truly both God and man. In the beginning He was God only and while on earth (prior to His resurrection) He was fully man. Only now after He has accomplished the greatest act of love, courage, obedience, and faithfulness ever witnessed is He both God and man. It is imperative that we understand why Jesus had to become human for God’s plan to be fulfilled.

There are three reasons why Jesus had to come to this earth in the flesh – as a human. Philippians 2:5-8 says: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”. Jesus’ foremost mission was to go to the cross as the sacrificial lamb of God to pay the penalty for our sins. According to the Mosaic law a sacrifice had to be without blemish. Blood was the only thing that could cover sin. God is certainly perfect, but God does not have blood to shed for our sins. Therefore, a sinless man, perfect and without blemish, was the only sacrifice that God could accept to redeem all mankind.

The next reason is one I find very precious. By submitting Himself to the plan of God and suffering all that He did on our behalf, He became our great High Priest. Unlike the high priests of the Old Testament that went in yearly for the atonement of sins, first for his own, then for the people’s; Jesus did this once when He offered up Himself. And in so doing, we now have a high priest who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities because He has experienced every one of them and therefore He understands what we are going through. He understands your every need and every feeling because He has already been there. There is no pain or circumstance He has not already experienced and overcome and will lead you to overcome if you will only allow Him to do so. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

The third reason is most needed for the attainment of our potential in Christ : His demonstration of what it is to be a manifest son of God. It is this manifestation that will accomplish the fulfillment of God’s plan for man to become His image and accomplish the Edenic commandment. Jesus was the demonstration of what we are all called to be: sons of God. Even though He was without sin and had a perfect relationship with the Holy Spirit and His heavenly Father, Jesus was still thirty years in preparation before being released into His ministry. When He first appears we see Jesus coming to John the Baptist at the river Jordan to be baptized. John was puzzled because he didn’t understand why Jesus would need to be baptized. Jesus said in Matthew 3: 15 “suffer it to be so now: for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness”. What Jesus was saying was that in order for Him to lay the foundation for us to follow Him it was necessary for Him to do all the things He requires of us to receive righteousness.

What a wonderful Lord and Savior – who says to each of us that He won’t ask us to do anything that He isn’t willing to do Himself! So Jesus was baptized – symbolic of our sins being washed away. Then the heavens were opened to Him and the Spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove, symbolic that we too must be clothed upon by the Holy Spirit in addition to receiving Him in our spirit – the baptism of Jesus. In Matthew 4:11, John the Baptist stated that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. This fire, the refiner’s fire, is essential to our being purged of sin; which if we will receive and allow the fire of God to thoroughly deal with our carnal nature we will die to self, overcome sin in our lives, and become sons of God.

Please do not think this all happens at conversion (when you are born again). It is a process that entails much suffering – the fellowship of His sufferings – to break our carnal nature and release us into resurrection life. The Holy Spirit came to Jesus as a dove since He was without sin. In John 5: 18-20 the Jews were angry with Jesus because He said that God was His Father – making himself equal with God. Jesus answered “truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for whatsoever things he does, these also do the Son likewise. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all things that He himself does: and he will show him greater works than these that you may marvel”. Notice that Jesus said He could do nothing of Himself. He was affirming his humanity but also demonstrating to us what it is like to be led of the Holy Spirit.

We are called to be sons of God like the one true Son of God. “For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). “This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). The Holy Spirit will never lead you into sin, therefore being led of the Spirit means overcoming sin. Notice that Jesus said that the Father would show Him greater works (future tense) showing that Jesus did not see all things at all times like God would do. One other foundation that Jesus laid was the demonstration of total dependence upon God, which we also must learn to do if we are to enter into sonship. For without Jesus we “can do nothing” (John 15:5)