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HUMAN DIVINE
A Statement of the doctrine of the Humanity of Christ

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)
The Seriousness of the doctrine of the Humanity of Christ

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)
 The Importance of the doctrine of the Humanity of Christ

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:
 
1. 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.
2. 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.
 3. 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.

4. 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
n 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)
5. 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).
6. 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.
7. Christ’s humanity enables Him to fulfill
the scripture

How many prophecies of the Old Testament 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.
 8. Christ’s humanity is essential to the fulfillment 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.
Proofs for the doctrine of the Humanity of Christ

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..
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.
Cf. Immaculate Conception
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 labor pains (Rev 12:2).

c.Jesus matured as a normal human child, growing and developing

as the years passed (Luke 2:40, 52)

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.
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.
 
The Theology of the doctrine of the
Humanity of Christ

How does the Bible describe the humanity of

Christ?
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 Savior.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HUMANITY OF JESUS

a) The issue in the incarnation is soteriological.

b)Incarnation bridges the gap between MAN and GOD.
(incarnation=deity and humanity are united in
one person)

- God is high above man – God cannot be

known with unaided human reason.

- Spiritual and moral gap through Sin –

man is unable by his own moral effort to counter his
sin.
c) Jesus has been one of us – we’ve been given the
formula of salvation.

d) Jesus is able to experience all of the temptations and

trials of human existence.

HENCE, He understood and emphasized with us in

our struggles as humans.

e) He effects the kind of intercession that a priest must

make on behalf of those whom he represents.
 He had a fully human body
 He was born
 He was conceived in the womb of a human mother and
nourished like all of us
 He underwent life development inside the womb like the
experience of every human fetus
 He had a typical family tree (genealogies in Matt. & Lk)
 He had a physical human nature
 He increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor in God and
man (Lk 2:52)
-He grew physically nourished by food and water.
-He did not have unlimited physical strength:
. He had the same physiology with us – He
experienced hunger when he fasted
(Matt. 4:2)
. He also experienced thirst (Jn. 19:28)
. He also experienced fatigue (Jn. 4:6)
. He felt dismayed when his disciples fell asleep
while he was praying in the Garden of
Gethsemane and that same occasion He
experienced the same type of weariness…
(Matt. 26:36, 40-41)
-He felt angry when the Temple was made as market
place
 -He suffered physically, felt pain and died (Jn. 19:34)
JESUS HAD REAL HUMAN FEELINGS AND EXPERIENCES.

A.Jesus was born to experience the same human experiences we all

must face.

Romans 5:12
"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man,  and death
through sin, and in this way death came to all men..."
Heb  4:15
“For  we  do not  have  a  High  Priest  who  cannot sympathize with our
weaknesses,  but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Heb 5:7

During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and

petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from
death,  and he  was  heard because of  his reverent submission.
1. Jesus knew sorrow.
Matt 26:37
And  He  took  with Him Peter and  the  two sons of Zebedee,  and  He
began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.

2. Jesus knew hunger.

Luke 4:2
" . . . being tempted  for forty days  by the  devil.  And in those days
He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry."

3. Jesus knew poverty.

Luke 9:58
And Jesus said to him,  "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, 
but the  Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."

4. Jesus knew weariness.

John 4:6
Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from
His journey,  sat thus by the well.  It was about the sixth hour.
 
Objection of Rudolf Bultmann

Bultmann has objected to the idea of a physical perception of Jesus.

He based his contention in 2 Cor 5:16 – “ Therefore from now
on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we
have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him
thus no longer.”

Wrong position: We cannot know Jesus through ordinary human

means of perception or empirical historical
research.

Correct position: The possibility of acquiring historical information

about Jesus cannot be excluded on the basis of
the particular text of Paul in 2Cor 5:16.

If Jesus was a true human being in the physical

sense, he also was fully and genuinely human
in the psychological sense.
Jesus and the Limitation of His Knowledge

a. Mark 9:21
He asked the father of the epileptic
boy, “How long has he had this?”

b. Mark 13:32
In discussing the second coming, he
said, “But of that day or that hour no
one knows, not even the angels in
heaven, nor the Son,
but only the Father.”
This is a straightforward declaration
of ignorance on the subject.
NOTA BENE:

While Jesus confessed ignorance, he never

made an erroneous statement.

THIS IS HOW IMPORTANT TO KNOW THE

DIFERENCE OF ERROR AND
IGNORANCE.
FINIS
SALAMAT!