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Christology >> The Humanity of Christ

The Humanity of Christ

Michael J. Penfold

This neglected but vital subject is outlined here

under six headings, commencing with:
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1. A Statement of the doctrine
The Bible states in unmistakable terms that
Christ became man. Thus, from a Biblical
standpoint His humanity is unquestionable:

“The word became flesh.” (John 1:14)

“God was manifest in the flesh.” (1 Tim 3:16)
“He partook of the same [flesh and blood].” (Heb
2:14)

2. The Seriousness of the doctrine

In light of the denials of Christ’s humanity that
were already rampant towards the end of the first
century, the apostle John issues a stark warning:
“And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this
is that spirit of antichrist.” (1 John 4:3)

Commenting on the severity of John’s words,

Scottish theologian Donald MacLeod rightly
observes: “The doctrine that Jesus Christ has a
true human nature is probably the single most
important article of the Christian faith. Indeed the
apostle John insists that the denial of it is the
mark of Antichrist (1 John 4:3).” (Glory to
Golgotha, p. 25.)

3. The Importance of the doctrine

Why is it so important that Christ be truly human?
Why is a denial of His true humanity the mark of
antichrist and why must this doctrine be
defended at all costs? The following eight
reasons provide answers:

a. Christ’s humanity fits Him to be our

Redeemer (Heb 2:11-17)
Redemption for the human race would have been
impossible without Christ becoming flesh. Under
the Mosaic law, a relative had the right to buy
land from a brother who had fallen into financial
difficulties (Lev 25:25). Such a relative was called
in Hebrew a ‘goel’, one who has the right to
redeem. Boaz was the ‘kinsman redeemer’ who,
related to Naomi, acted as redeemer in
accordance with the law and bought the land
from Naomi and married Ruth (Ruth 4). All of this
prefigured Christ, who by becoming man also
became our ‘near-kinsman’ (Heb 2:11-17).

b. Christ’s humanity enables Him to die (Heb

2:9)
Angels do not and cannot die, but in order to
become the sacrifice for our sins the Lord Jesus
became a little lower in rank than the angels. He
became man and thus was able to die. His
humanity is absolutely essential to all that He did
on the cross.

c. Christ’s humanity fits Him to be our High

Priest (Heb 2:17, 4:15)
The risen Lord Jesus is the Great High Priest
who has real and genuine sympathy for His
people on earth. As their High Priest in heaven,
Christ’s succouring ministry is based on his
experiences in this world that are uniquely
connected with His humanity. During 33 years on
earth He became intimately familiar with
suffering, misunderstanding, weariness and pain.
In fact, he was subject to all the trials of the
human condition, apart from the question of sin.

d. Christ’s humanity fits Him to be the last

Adam and the second man (1 Cor 15:45-47)
Adam is seen in scripture as the physical head of
the human race. His sin in the garden constituted
us all sinners and made us liable to death (Rom
5:12). Just as all were made sinners though
Adam, so all may be judicially made righteous
through Christ: “For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made
righteous.” (Rom 5:19)

Due to the fall of Adam, “Another Adam was

needed, and divine grace supplied the need; the
Son of God became man, and in combined
Godhood and manhood wrought redemption by
His vicarious sacrifice. He is called ‘the last
Adam’. He is not the second, because there
would not be another after Him. He fulfilled in
Himself all that made Him in resurrection the
head of a new race (of believers).” W.E. Vine,
Collected Writings, Vol 2., p. 178.

Without becoming man none of this would have

been possible. He is now the head of a race of
redeemed sinners (the last Adam) and He is the
‘second man’ whose heavenly origin sets Him
apart from all the men who went before Him.

e. Christ’s humanity links Him with David and

thus the throne of Israel (Matt 1:1, Luke 1:32,
Rom 1:3)
Christ’s links with David are vital and frequently
mentioned in the Bible.

• He was made of the seed of David

according to the flesh (Rom 1:3)
• He was born in the City of David (Luke 2:11)
• He was promised the sure mercies of David
– Acts 13:34 (2 Sam 7:12-14 – the seed, the
throne, the house)
• He has the key of David (Rev 2:7)
• His is the root and offspring of David (Rev
22:16)
• He is both David’s Son and David’s Lord
(Matt 22:43-45)
• He will sit on the throne of David (Luke 1:32)

Clearly none of this makes sense unless the Lord

Jesus is related to David. The gospels give us
two genealogies of Christ: Matthew Ch 1. and
Luke Ch. 3. Each list is identical from Abraham to
David, but from David to Christ the line diverges.
Luke traces the line from David through his son
Nathan to Joseph the husband of Mary. Matthew
traces the line from David through his son
Solomon to Mary the mother of the Lord. Thus
Christ’s parents, Joseph and Mary, were both
directly related to David. However, in Joseph’s
line a King called Jeconiah (Matt 1:11) was cut
off by God. All His children were disqualified from
sitting on David’s throne (Jer 22:30). How then
can Christ inherit David’s throne? Due to the
virgin birth Joseph was not the actual father of
Jesus! So, Christ is physically related to David
through Mary (Luke 3), and legally related to
David through Joseph (Matt 1).

f. Christ’s humanity links Him to Abraham

and thus the land (Matt 1:1, Gal 3:16, Heb
2:16)
In Genesis 12 God promised Abraham a nation
(v2), a blessing (v3) and a land (v7). These
promises were made to Abraham and his seed.
In Galatians 3:16 Paul explains how this promise
is to be fulfilled through the singular seed of
Abraham, that is, Christ. For Israel to inherit all
these promises, Christ had to become a man and
be born to a Jewish mother. Though to this day
Israel says the land is theirs apart from Christ,
through Isaac, and Islam says the land is theirs
apart from Christ and Isaac, through Ishmael, the
fact is the land is Israel’s through Christ. As
Joshua brought Israel into the land, their rest, so
Christ will bring Israel into their millennial rest
and through them all the nations of the earth will
be blessed.
g. Christ’s humanity enables Him to fulfil
scripture
How many Old Testament prophecies would
have gone unfulfilled if Christ had never become
man! For example, the Lord’s prophecy of the
seed of the woman who would bruise Satan’s
head (Gen 3:16), Isaiah’s prophecy of a virgin
birth (Isa 7:14) and David’s prophecy of a
Messiah nailed by hands and feet (Psa 22:16). A
fuller list could be drawn up, but these suffice to
show that there are Old Testament prophecies of
physical events in the life of the Messiah that
could not have been fulfilled if He had not
become a real man of flesh and blood.

h. Christ’s humanity is essential to the

fulfilment of God’s will that all creation will be
under a man (Heb 2:6-9)
The New Testament reveals that the dominion
over creation lost by the first man (Adam) will be
regained by the second man, Christ. The crown
that Adam forfeited will yet be worn by a real man
in the very same world in which it was lost by a
man (Heb 2:6-9). Thus Christ’s humanity is
essential to this eventual triumph.

4. Proofs for the doctrine

Was Christ a real man or was He simply some
kind of apparition or appearance? Here are eight
proofs from Scripture for the real, true and
tangible humanity of Christ:

a. Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary

(Luke 1:24, 31, 36)
When Luke speaks of Christ being conceived in
the womb of Mary, he uses the normal word for
conception. In the same chapter he uses the
exact same Greek word for the totally natural
conception of John the Baptist. Speaking
reverently, conscious of the fact that this is a
sacred subject that demands reverent handling, a
human egg was involved in the birth of Christ.
The Lord Jesus was not implanted in Mary’s
womb as an already formed embryo. The often
misunderstood expression in Hebrews 10 “a
body hast Thou prepared me” refers to Christ’s
preparation for sacrifice, not birth.

Though He partook of Mary’s true humanity, His

virgin birth and the overshadowing of the Holy
Spirit preserved Him from inheriting a sinful
human nature. Had His nature been fallen, He
would have been fallen. Whatever is true of one’s
nature is true of one’s person.

b. Jesus went full-term and had a human birth

(Luke 2:6-7)
Though Christ had a miraculous conception, He
underwent a normal birth after the nine months of
pregnancy were completed. His mother Mary had
labour pains (Rev 12:2) contrary to the false
notions of the Roman Catholic Church.

c. Jesus matured as a normal human child,

growing and developing as the years passed
(Luke 2:40, 52)
Due to His essential deity it is true that even
when He was a tiny baby Christ upheld the
universe while Mary upheld Him. Are we
suggesting that as a 6 month old, Jesus could
have debated with the scribes in the temple?
Clearly not. In submitting to the Father’s will and
becoming fully human Christ accepted the
limitations of a developing human brain which as
He grew into manhood opened up daily to give
full expression to His eternal essential
omniscience.

d. He had a human body of flesh and blood

(Matt 26:12, John 19:34)
The Bible clearly and repeatedly refers to the
physical body of Christ. It was a normal body of
flesh and blood, in every respect the same as
every other human body, apart from sin. Based
on 1Pet 1:18-19 some erroneously teach that
Christ’s blood was not human but was physically
eternal. They claim that Jesus took all of His
blood back to heaven with Him. These verses do
not actually say that the blood of Christ was
'incorruptible'. True, it is precious and eternally
efficacious for sin, having supreme infinite value
spiritually – but is never said to be physically
eternal. Acts 20:28 says the blood is ‘God’s’ but
only in the sense that Christ is God, not that His
blood was non-human. Red blood cells, which
have no nucleus, are continually produced in the
bone marrow of large bones at a rate of 2 million
per second. They die within a lifespan of about
120 days. The Lord’s true humanity demands
that His blood had to be replaced, as did His
skin(about every 30 days), just as in all other
humans. If the Lord’s blood never ‘died’, He
would have had the same red blood cells from
Bethlehem o Calvary which implies a totally
inactive bone marrow. However, since He was
truly human, His bone marrow would daily
replace His dead blood cells. All other
explanations lead to a non-human conclusion.
The Saviour’s deciduous teeth, His hair, His nails
and His spittle all passed from Him in the normal
way without in any way compromising His holy
sinless person. True, His body was incorruptible
in the grave (Psa16:10), but the discharges from
that body were never 'incorruptible' during His
life. Heb 9:12 says Christ entered into heaven by
His blood(dia), not with His blood; that is, by
virtue of His blood, not literally carrying it.

e. He had, and now always will have, a body,

soul and spirit (John 2:21, 12:27, 11:33)
At the time of Christ’s conception in the womb of
Mary, not only did a new body come into being,
but a human soul and spirit too. It is important to
distinguish between the personal spirit of Christ
and the Holy Spirit. When on the cross Jesus
said, “Father into Thy hands I commend My
spirit”, He was referring to His own personal
spirit, not the Holy Spirit. Thus, at the moment of
death, though His human body hung lifeless on
the cross, Christ’s human soul and spirit were still
in essential indivisible union with His deity in
heaven.

f. He knew sinless weariness (John 4:6),

tiredness (Mark 4:38), hunger (Matt 4:2) &
thirst (John 19:28)
The Bible is careful to record the reality of
Christ’s humanity. What a wonder that the God of
eternity, the one who sits upon the circle of the
earth, also sat on Jacob’s well wearied with His
travels. It is essential to understand that Christ’s
weariness was real and not figurative. In the Old
Testament Jehovah speaks of being ‘weary’ with
Israel in a figurative sense (Isaiah 1:14) – but the
human weariness of Christ was a physical reality.
This of course means that weariness, tiredness,
hunger and thirst are not consequences of the
fall. Adam would have experienced these things
in the Garden of Eden prior to the entrance of sin
into the world.

g. He was strengthened after agonized

sweating in Gethsemane (Luke 22:43-44)
It is surely the case that the sufferings of Christ in
the garden of Gethsemane, and indeed on the
cross, were intensified due to the fact that His
humanity had never been coarsened by sin. His
agony was indescribably real and went to depths
that none from Adam’s sinful race could ever
know or fathom. The suffering in the garden
alone, in anticipation of being made sin on the
cross, left Jesus physically weak. He was thus
strengthened from heaven for the further and
much more intense agonies of the cross.

h. He is called a man (1 Tim 2:5)

A simple yet eloquent testimony to the humanity
of Christ is the simple fact that in scripture He is
called a man.

5. The Theology of the doctrine

How does the Bible describe the humanity of
Christ? What insights can we glean into the
character and nature of the man Christ Jesus?
 a. The Character of His humanity
The following characteristics of the blessed
humanity of the Redeemer are presented in
Scripture. He was and is:

i. Holy and righteous

Adam was innocent (Gen 2:17, 3:5) but the Lord
Jesus was intrinsically holy (Luke 1:35).
ii. Meek
He embodied true submission even under the
severest provocation (Matt 11:28-29).
iii. Humble
His humble obedience led even to the death of
the cross and is held up in scripture as the
supreme example of selflessness (Phil 2:5-8).
iv. Loving
He expressed the fact that ‘God is love’ in His
purpose on earth (John 15:13).
v. Balanced
The Lord Jesus had neither weak nor strong
points. He was grave without being melancholy
and joyful without being frivolous. There was an
exquisitely fine balance to His humanity that was
uniquely beautiful and glorious. In the Old
Testament we have repeated references to
things that are ‘fine’, all of which eloquently
speak of the Saviour:

Exod 26:1, 31, 36.

Lev 2:1-3. (The meal offering, speaking of the Lord’s
life, was most holy).
2 Chron 3:8, S of S 5:11, Lam 4:1.
Rev 1:15.
b. The Nature of His humanity
There are a number of commonly held
misconceptions regarding the nature of the
Saviour’s humanity. Some teach that Christ’s
human nature was less important than and
overridden by His divine nature. It is believed in
some circles that the two natures of Christ
blended into one to form a kind of superman.
Others think that since Christ had two natures He
must have had two personalities. Then again,
many mistakenly imagine that Christ was 50%
God and 50% man. Still others think that the
‘deity of Christ’ simply means that God lived
inside the body of Jesus. All of these ideas are
unscriptural and dangerous.

19th Century expositor C.H. Mackintosh rightly

said: “The truth respecting Christ’s humanity
must be received with scriptural accuracy, held
with spiritual energy, guarded with holy jealousy,
and confessed with heavenly power. If we are
wrong as to this, we cannot be right as to any
thing. It is a grand, vital fundamental truth; and if
it is not received, held, guarded, and confessed
as God has revealed it in His holy Word, the
entire superstructure [of doctrine] must be
unsound.”

There are four ways of coming into the world:

creation (Adam), formation (Eve), generation (the
rest of the human race) and incarnation (Christ).
Explaining exactly what happened at the
incarnation demands the careful use of language,
for at the incarnation, all that God is was joined
with all that man is. That is, when godhood joined
with manhood, the divine nature (deity) and
human nature (humanity) were united. Thus, at
the point of His conception in the womb of Mary,
the eternal Son of God took humanity and
assumed it, so that it became His own as much
as His divine nature had always been His own. It
is important to understand that the humanity He
took was not a person, but a nature, for the Lord
Jesus is one person but possesses two natures.
A person without a human nature would not be
human.

What kind of union was it? Theologians call it

hypostatic union – the union of deity and
humanity in one person. At the incarnation, a
sinless human nature (not merely a human body)
was inseparably and eternally united with the
divine nature – yet those two natures remained
distinct, whole and unchanged – joining without
conversion, mixture or confusion, so that the one
whole person, Jesus Christ, is truly God and truly
man at one and the same time. It needs to be
emphasized that in the incarnation the two
natures did not convert to a third, nor did one
nature convert to the other nor was there any
dilution or suppression of either nature.

The ramifications of this truth are many. For

example:

• Christ’s two natures can be distinguished

but not separated.
• Christ became something He never was
before while never ceasing to be what he
always was.
 • Christ has only one personality.
• Christ’s humanity never had an independent
existence.
• Christ is not able to sin, any more than God
can sin.
• Christ’s humanity is not independent of His
deity.
• Christ never does anything ‘as man’ or ‘as
God’ - He acts as Christ, who is God
manifest in flesh.

After coming to earth at Bethlehem, Christ could

no longer act solely ‘as God’. Nor did He
experience thirst and weariness solely ‘as man’.
He cannot act as man without being God - He
cannot act as God without being man. The Lord
said “I am thirsty” not “my human nature is
thirsty.” He said “I forgive” not “my divine nature
forgives you”. It is vital never to divide the Lord
Jesus in a way that scripture does not allow.

Though God cannot die, the man who died on

the cross was God. Though death is separation,
God cannot be separated from Himself. So, when
the Lord Jesus said “Father, into Thy hands I
commend My spirit” the spiritual entity that left
His body was a unity of divine and human. His
death did not dissolve the hypostatic union. While
His body lay in the grave, His human soul and
spirit were continued to exist in indissoluble union
with His deity.

The Westminster Confession of Faith’s

description of the glorious truth of the nature of
Christ’s humanity could hardly be surpassed:
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“The Son of God, the second person of the
Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one
substance and equal with the Father, did, when
the fullness of the time was come, take upon Him
man’s nature, with all the essential properties
and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin,
being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in
the womb of the virgin Mary of her substance, so
that two whole, perfect and distinct natures, the
godhead and the manhood, were inseparably
joined together in one person, without
conversion, composition or confusion, which
person is very God and very man, yet one Christ,
the only mediator between God and man.”

The Holy Spirit is very careful in scripture to

record events in such a way that the reader is
never allowed to wander far away from the
combined and inseparable truths of the humanity
and deity of Christ.

 Thoughasleep on a pillow one minute, the

Lord when awakened by the disciples,is
able to rise and rebuke the wind and still the
storm (Mark 4:38-39)
 Though wearied with his journey, the Lord is
still the one who is able to tell the woman at
the well her whole life’s history (John 4:3-
29)
 Though shedding real tears at the grave of
Lazarus, the Lord is able to call Lazarus
forth from the grave (John 11:35-43)
 Though sweating as it were great drops of
 blood in the garden of Gethsemane, the
Lord proceeds to heal Malchus’ ear and
upon saying the words “I am” the crowd
goes backward and falls to the ground (Luke
22:44-51, John 18:5)
 Though ‘made of a woman’ the Lord is still
‘God’s Son” (Gal 4:4)

6. Heresies against the doctrine

A number of false ideas about the nature of
Christ’s humanity and deity have arisen over the
centuries, from the earliest days up to the
present. Here are details of the main ones:

a. Denial of Christ’s true humanity

The Docetists (late 1st Century) believed that
though Jesus appeared human, He was really
only divine (Greek, dokeo, to seem). They taught
that the ‘divine Christ’ descended on the man
Jesus at His baptism and left before the cross.
Thus they denied that ‘the Christ’ ever had a real
body.

b. Denial of Christ’s true deity

The Ebionites (2nd Century) taught that Christ
was not pre-existent and only had the Spirit after
His baptism. All such denials of the deity of Christ
involve a denial of the Trinity as well.

The Arians (4th Century), named after Arius,

believed that since the Father ‘begot’ the Son,
the Son was the first person that God ‘created’.
They held that though Jesus was of similar
substance to God (homoiousia), He was not the
same substance (homoousia). They viewed
Christ as a demi-god, neither fully human nor
fully God. The representatives of this view today
are the Jehovah Witnesses.
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Another early heresy, Monarchianism,
overemphasized the unity of the Godhead,
making Christ and the Spirit mere ‘functions’ of
the Father. This is similar to the modern error
held by ‘Oneness Pentecostals’ or the ‘Jesus
only’ movement.

Yet another early error, Gnosticism (from the

Greek word ‘gnosis’, meaning knowledge), taught
that there were numerous ‘emanations’ between
God and man (on different levels), one of which
was Christ was one. Today’s counterpart to this
ancient group would be the New Age Movement.

Finally in this category the early error of

Socianism denied the divine nature of the Lord
Jesus.

c. Denial of the Perfection of the natures of

Christ (diminishing one or the other)
One error, Apollinarianism (4th Century),
named after Apollinarius of Laodicea (b. circa
310 AD), argued that since the human mind
leads men into sin, Christ, who could not sin,
must not have been a true man - rather the
‘logos’ took the place of His mind. Apollinarius
claimed that Christ was human and divine, but in
reality denied the true humanity of Christ, for if
Christ did not have a human mind He was not
truly human.
A widely held belief today called Kenoticism – or
semi-Kenoticism – states that the Son ‘emptied’
Himself of some or all divine attributed at His
birth. This is based on a false interpretation of
Philippians 2 which is dealt with in another article
on the deity of Christ.

d. Denial of the distinction between the two

natures of Christ
A strange early error by the name of
Eutychianism (5th Century), from Eutychus
(378-454AD), acknowledged that there were two
natures in Christ before He came to earth, but
only one nature after that point, when in effect, so
they believed, the human nature was subsumed
into the divine. They claimed Christ was neither
God nor man, but a mixture of both.

A heresy by the name of Monophysitism – from

‘mono’ single and ‘physis’ nature – rejected the
two natures of Christ. It stated that Jesus' two
natures were combined into one new one. Thus
neither God nor man was represented in Christ
but a new third thing.

e. Denial of Christ’s one personality

Nestorianism (5th Century) – named after
Nestorian (Bishop of Constantinople, 428) -
taught that the unity of Christ’s person was moral
(a conjunction of will only) not organic i.e. a true
unity in every sense. He divided the natures of
Christ so as to virtually make two persons, thus
denying the one personality of Christ. He
believed that the divine nature controlled the
human nature. According to this view, Christ was
not God, but merely a ‘bearer of God’.

f. Denial of the continuity of the Saviour’s

personality
Adoptionism – any theory which says that Jesus
was simply a man upon whom ‘divine qualities’
were conferred and who was ‘adopted’ as the
divine Word, rather than being the same as the
pre-existent Word.

To learn more about these ancient beliefs simply

type define:adoptionism or any other of these
words into Google.

Here’s a couple of items of interest to conclude.

First, a poem expressing the wonder of the true
humanity and deity of Christ, followed by
a quotation from C.S. Lewis, from his book 'Mere
Christianity' which outlines the consequences
that flow from who Jesus really is:

True God True Man

The maker of the Universe, as man for man was
made a curse
The claims of laws which He had made, unto the
uttermost He paid
His holy fingers made the bough, which grew the
thorns that crowned His brow
The nails that pierced His feet were mined in
secret places He designed
He made the forests where there sprung, the tree
on which His body hung
He died upon a cross of wood, yet made the hill
on which it stood
The sky that darkened o’er His head, by Him
 above the earth was spread
The sun that hid from Him his face, by His decree
was poised in space
The spear revealing precious blood, was
tempered in the fires of God
The grace in which His form was laid, was hewn
in rock which He had made
The throne on which He now appears, was His
from everlasting years
But a new glory crowns His brow and every knee
to Him must bow.

“A man who was merely a man, and said the sort

of things Jesus said would not be a great moral
teacher. He would either be a lunatic on a level
with the man who says he is a poached egg – or
else the devil of hell. You must make your
choice. Either this man was and is the Son of
God: or else a mad man or something worse.
You can shut Him up for a fool: you can spit at
Him and kill Him as a demon: or you can fall at
His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us
not come with any patronising nonsense about
His being a great moral teacher. He has not left
that open to us. He did not intend to.”

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