Last time we sought to answer the question, “Why did God become man?” Why would the Son of God leave all that He had in heaven and come to earth? Why did He do it?
We learned three reasons why God became man:
He did it so that you and I could relate to God, who is invisible to us.
Secondly, Jesus invaded time because God the Son became a man to fulfill Old Testament prophecies.
Thirdly, Jesus invaded time so that He would become a man so that men could become the sons of God.
Since Jesus Christ is the center of Christian doctrine and truth, who He is becomes of surpassing importance. This means that the doctrine of the Incarnation, which reveals who He is, is the foundation on which all of Christian doctrine is built.
This is clearly seen when you take some time to analyze the central tenets or teachings of the historic Christian faith.
For example,
* God’s existence: Without the Incarnation, talking about or knowing God personally is mere speculation. 2 Corinthians 4:6 says we have the knowledge of the glory of God which shines in the face of Jesus Christ.
* The Trinity: The other two members of the Trinity (Father and Holy Spirit) are only really understood and appreciated in light of the person and nature of Jesus Christ, who is The Son.
2 Cor. 13:14 - The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
* Atonement: Only Jesus Christ, who is the God-man, is able to reconcile a holy God with sinful humanity. 2 Cor. 5:19 “… God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them…”
* Resurrection: a bodily resurrection, which conquers death, is only possible for the God-man.
1 Cor 15:17 “…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”
* Justification: Our state of righteousness before God rests totally in our faith (personal trust) in the person and work of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
The doctrine of the Incarnation touches and affects virtually every single area of Christian theology.
Needless to say, if you are going to change the identity of Christ, if you are going to distort who Christ is, you are also going to destroy the very essence of the Christian faith.
Now we all might agree together that Jesus became a man but this affirmation of belief seems to beg the question, “What kind of man did He become?” After all, last week we learned that a true celebration of Christmas has to be a celebration of the incarnation.
A literal definition of the word “incarnation” means in the flesh. We also learned that a theological definition of the word incarnation is “God's becoming human,” or “the union of divinity and humanity in Jesus of Nazareth.”
The Bible teaches that the incarnation refers to the truth of God, who without in any way ceasing to be the one God, revealed Himself to humanity for its salvation by becoming human. Jesus, the Man from Nazareth, is the incarnate Word or Son of God.
Jesus is the God-man. He is fully God and fully man. He is very God and very man. He is most certainly God and most certainly man.
Today we are going to look and learn what kind of man He is as we examine (1) The Proof of His Humanity, (2) The Affirmation of His Humanity (3) The Perfection of His Humanity and (4) The Sinless Character of His Humanity.
The Proof of His Humanity
Jesus referred to Himself as a man. Shouldn’t that be enough?
In speaking to the Pharisees and Scribes He said:
(John 8:40 NKJV) “But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.
The witnesses in the New Testament recognized Him as fully human.
For example, Peter in Acts 2:22, in his sermon at Pentecost, declared that Jesus is “a man approved of God among you…”
In John 9 when the Pharisees questioned the man whose sight was restored by Jesus they asked, “How were your eyes opened?” He answered and said, "A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, 'Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.' So I went and washed, and I received sight."
The genealogies of Jesus in Matt. 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-37 serve as testimonies to His natural human ancestry).
He grew and developed along the lines of normal human development (Luke 2:40).
Luke 2:40 - And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.
During His earthly ministry, Jesus displayed common physiological needs:
He experienced fatigue:
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.
His body required sleep:
Mat 8:24 - And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep.
His body needed food (Matt. 4:2; 21:18),
Mat 4:2- And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.
His body needed water:
John 19:28 - After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst!"
With Jesus, human emotional characteristics accompanied the physical ones:
Jesus expressed joy (John 15:11)
Jesus experienced sorrow (Matt. 26:37)
He showed compassion (Matt. 9:36)
Jesus demonstrated love (John 11:5)
He was moved to righteous indignation (Mark 3:5).
The Scriptures teach that Jesus is a man and they also affirm His humanity.
(2) The Affirmation of His Humanity
One cannot read the Scripture and come away with a conclusion other than the fact that Jesus was human!
In the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed for emotional and physical strength to face the critical hours that lay ahead (Mark 14:34-35).
He perspired as one under great physical strain (Luke 22:43-44).
Luke 22:41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed,
Luke 22:42 saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."
Luke 22:43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.
Luke 22:44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
He died a real death (Mark 15:37; John 19:30). You cannot kill an angel by nailing him to a cross or suffocating him through the means of crucifixion. As far as we know you cannot make an angel bleed red blood cells, white corpuscles and plasma.
The Scriptures continue to affirm His humanity…
When a spear was thrust into the side of Jesus, both blood and water poured from His body (John 19:34).
John 19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
Jesus thought of Himself as human, and those who witnessed His birth, maturity, ministry, and death experienced Him as fully human. He was human!
If the Biblical record isn’t enough of a proof and affirmation for you, you can look to the historical record.
The Greek historian Tacitus tells of a certain “Christ” who had lived in Judea in the reign of Tiberius and had been brought to capital punishment by the procurator, Pontius Pilate.
Other heathen and Jewish historians such as Suetonius, Pliny and Josephus wrote about Jesus and about Christianity, which was considered a “movement” in those days.
We’ve looked at the proof of His humanity, and the affirmation of His humanity. Now let’s briefly look at the perfection of His humanity.
The Perfection of His Humanity
Although Jesus was fully human in every sense of the word, His was a perfect humanity--distinct and unique.
Can you imagine a perfect human? How is it possible to have a perfect human being? The Perfect Human came as a result of the virgin birth.
Jesus was just as much a human as anyone one of us. But on the other hand, He was supernaturally conceived, being born of a virgin (Luke 1:26-35).
(Luke 1:26 NKJV) Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
(Luke 1:27 NKJV) to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary.
(Luke 1:28 NKJV) And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!"
(Luke 1:29 NKJV) But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
(Luke 1:30 NKJV) Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
(Luke 1:31 NKJV) "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.
Now the doctrine or teaching of the virgin birth is not to be confused with the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception that the Roman Catholic Church holds to.
The Roman Catholic Church believes that Mary, the mother of Jesus was “immaculately conceived.” This means that when Mary was conceived in her mother’s womb, her soul was created free from original sin.
For the Catholic, this has crucial bearings on the birth of Jesus Christ. They say, “If Jesus, the Son of God, could choose for His mother a woman who pleased Him most, He would surely choose one acceptable to the Blessed Trinity and worthy of the great honor for which she was destined.”
They say, “Mary was, therefore, not only free from all actual sin, but she also remained exempt from original sin; otherwise, she would not have been a mother suitable for Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
In other words, they believe Mary was born without sin and could never and would never sin.
When we talk about the miraculous conception of Jesus we are not referring to the unbiblical teaching that Mary was without sin when she conceived Jesus. We are saying that though she was a sinner like the rest of us, Jesus was conceived in her womb not by the seed of a man but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This power and overshadowing allowed the Son of God to be born without the sin ordinarily transmitted from our first parent, Adam.
Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world…” Who was this one man? It was Adam. All of us are sons of Adam; thereby we have inherited his sin nature.
Have you ever wondered why you have always had this propensity or bent toward sin?
Have you ever wondered why the evil things you don’t want to do, you do and the good things you want to do you struggle with doing?
Paul writes in Romans 7:15, “For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” Then he goes on to say that “it is sin that dwells in me!”
Romans 5:12 goes on to say, “Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned…”
According to the Bible, the sin nature passes all the way from Adam from one generation to the next by the seed of the man. It was through the miraculous conception that Jesus bypassed this by being born of the seed of the woman by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.
In Luke chapter one the angel tells Mary that she would “conceive in her womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.”
Mary asks the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" The angel answers and says to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”
Now this miraculous conception leads us to consider another aspect of Jesus’ humanity, the sinless character of His humanity.
(4) The Sinless Character of His Humanity
If Jesus was the perfect human, it must go without saying that He was sinless. If He was not sinless, He would not be perfect.
The New Testament gives evidence of the sinless character of Jesus. He, Himself, asked the question, "Which of you convicts me of sin?" (John 8:46).
Paul declared that God "made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin, to be sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21).
The writer of Hebrews held that Christ was "without sin".
(Heb 4:15 NKJV) 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.
The New Testament presents Jesus as a man, fully human, and as a unique man, the ideal human, and the perfect human who was without sin.
Now let’s take the things that we learned so far from the chalkboard to where the rubber meets the road. This is where you and I live. What do you say when the Jehovah’s Witness comes knocking on your door?
JW’s don’t believe in the Incarnation; they don’t believe that Jesus is God in the flesh.
This is why they don’t celebrate Christmas.
This is why they don’t celebrate the Resurrection.
They believe that Jesus is a created being, who was formally an angel, the brother of Lucifer, before he came to earth as a baby.
They would readily agree with Jesus’ title of the Son of God but their definition of what this means is different from what the Bible teaches.
When you say “Son of God” to the JW, they see that as no more than a title or a designation. They teach that Jesus is the first Son of many created sons of God.
However, when the Bible speaks of the sonship of Jesus, it is referring to the fact that He is the same essence or substance of His Father. He is God; He is Deity.
Without spending too much time here, we need to say that just as a human begets or produces a human and not a dog or a cat, Deity begets Deity.
However, when you consider Deity begetting Deity you cannot factor in anthropological or human characteristics such as time, space and matter, because none of these factors have a bearing on deity--only on mankind.
Now someone may say again, “Well, aren’t all Christians sons of God?” Yes we are but we are not the “only begotten Son of God (John 3:16).
(John 3:16 NKJV) "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
When the Bible speaks of the “only begotten” Son of God it is speaking of His uniqueness, His distinctiveness, His matchlessness. He is the one-of-a-kind Son of God.
Yes, the Bible teaches that if you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Master and Savior you are a son of God but we are not the only, unique, one-of-a-kind Son that Jesus is; we are “adopted-into-the-family” kind of sons.
(Gal 4:4 NKJV) But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
(Gal 4:5 NKJV) to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
We are the adopted sons of God! But does this mean that we are not that important to God? No way! The Scriptures go on to say:
(Gal 4:6 NKJV) And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"
(Gal 4:7 NKJV) Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Because we are adopted sons of God Paul could write in Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ…” One of those blessings is our inheritance!
Peter says it like this:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you… (1 Pet 1:3-4)
We are adopted sons! But Jesus is a true Son of the very essence of God.
For Jesus to be a true Son in the very essence of God He has to be made of the same “stuff” of God and in order to be made out of the same stuff of God He would have to be God.
You can’t say that Jesus is eternal with saying that He is omnipotent. – If you know your physics you would know it takes “all power” to maintain an existence for all eternity.
You can’t say that He has all power without saying that He has all knowledge. – You can’t know everything without having the proper ability to get and keep that knowledge.
You can’t say that He has all knowledge without saying that He is omnipresent. – In order for God to know everything at every moment, He’d have to be everywhere at all times!
And you can’t say that He is omnipresent without saying that He is God!
We’ve already learned that Jesus existed before He took upon the form of a baby. He existed as God—He had no beginning and He will have no end. He always was the Alpha and the Omega and He always will be the Alpha and the Omega!
Now when Jesus took upon Himself human form He had to do something very important.
He had to veil His glory.
John 6:46 says, “No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only He has seen the Father.”
This is saying that no one has seen the Father in the fullness of His glory—Hebrews 12:29 says, “Our God is a consuming fire.” This is the same glory that Jesus had with the Father before the world was.
Not long before Jesus would go to the Cross He was found in the Garden praying the following prayer:
John 17:4 "I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.
John 17:5 "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
When Jesus left heaven’s throne, He wrapped Himself in flesh and was born as a babe in a manger—in essence, He veiled His glory.
So when Jesus took upon Himself a human form He veiled His glory.
One reason He had to do this was because He might kill the very persons He came to save. You see, in Revelation, we get John’s description of how Jesus looked unveiled.
Now don’t get hung up with John’s use of words here. He was just describing what Jesus looked like to him using things he was accustomed to in his day.
If you and I were trying to describe something big we might say, “It was as big as a Hummer!” Let’s listen to John as he describes Jesus in His glory:
(Rev 1:12 NKJV) Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,
(Rev 1:13 NKJV) and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
(Rev 1:14 NKJV) His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire;
(Rev 1:15 NKJV) His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters;
(Rev 1:16 NKJV) He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.
(Rev 1:17 NKJV) And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.
(Rev 1:18 NKJV) "I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
If Jesus had come unveiled, Mary wouldn’t have been able to carry Him.
If He had come into the world unveiled, Mary and Joseph wouldn’t have been able to hold Him.
If He would have been born unveiled no one would have been able to enter into His presence and live—the shepherds would have been burned up! The wise men would have been roasted!
Not only did He veil His glory when He came into this world, He submitted the use of His power to the will of God, the Father.
Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the book of Philippians does a wonderful job at explaining how this was done:
(Phil 2:5 NASB) Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
(Phil 2:6 NASB) who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
(Phil 2:7 NASB) but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
(Phil 2:8 NASB) And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
(Phil 2:9 NASB) Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
(Phil 2:10 NASB) that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth,
(Phil 2:11 NASB) and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus testified to this truth several times in the Scriptural record:
John 5:30 - "I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.
John 6:38 - "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
John 6:57 - "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
John 8:28 - Then Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.
Mat 26:39 - He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."
Every now and then as God the Father directed, Jesus would show glimpses of the fact that He is God.
The disciples saw a glimpse of it when in Matthew 17:2 He was transfigured before them and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.
His deity was demonstrated through His wisdom and His power over nature (He quieted the storm, the winds and the sea).
His deity was demonstrated through His authority over the devil and his demons—He told man a demon to “shut up and come out.”.
But then Jesus was also human.
As we said earlier, He grew and developed along the lines of normal human development (Luke 2:40). He displayed common physiological needs: He experienced fatigue (John 4:6); His body required sleep (Matt. 8:24), food (Matt. 4:2; 21:18), and water (John 19:28).
Jesus expressed joy (John 15:11) and sorrow (Matt. 26:37); He showed compassion (Matt. 9:36) and love (John 11:5); and He was moved to righteous indignation (Mark 3:5).
Jesus is God in that He was able to know the thoughts of men such as the Pharisees (Mat 9:4; 12:25) but He is also man in that He had to grow up from a child and learn like we do.
Jesus was God in that He never sinned and couldn’t sin but He was also human—God’s sacrifice for sin.
He was God, having all power. But He was also a man whose face was beaten beyond recognition (Mat. 26:6) and thrust a crown of thorns down upon His brow.
He was God, from everlasting to everlasting. But He was also a man who could be killed and that is just what happened when He went to the Cross and died for our sins.
In John 19 Pilate was trying to have a conversation with Jesus. Jesus wasn’t answering him so he says to Jesus out of frustration, "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?"
Jesus answers Pilate, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above…”
In John 10:18 Jesus says, "No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father."
Why did Jesus, who was God in the flesh, lay down His life? He gave His life for you and for me. He gave it that we might be saved from sin.
When Jesus and His disciples were in the Garden of Gethsemane the temple guards came to seize Jesus.
The Bible says in John 18, “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, "Whom are you seeking?” They answered Him, "Jesus of Nazareth."
Jesus said to them, "I am." Just when He said to them, "I am," the Bible says, “…they drew back and fell to the ground.” Remember Moses asked God, “What shall I tell the people is Your Name?” God answered, “Tell them “I AM…” (Exodus 3:13-14)
When Jesus says “I AM” and the soldiers fall back, it is at this time that Peter takes his sword and strikes the servant of the high priest, and cuts off his ear.
Jesus, as God in the flesh, takes his hand and touches the man’s ear and heals it. He then says, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?”
Jesus, as God in the flesh, could have called down His angels to wipe out all of those who were seeking to take His life but He went to the Cross-to die for your sins and mine!
When He was on the Cross, people passing by were mocking Him saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the Cross."
The chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, "He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him.”
Even the thieves crucified on both sides of Him were mocking Him this way.
But Jesus who was both very God and very man never said a mumbling word!
He could have come down from the Cross and wiped out all His enemies but as the song says, “He would not come down from the Cross just to save Himself; He decided to die just to save me.”
