THEO 201 - B30 LUO
Jesus was human, a man. There are times when this fact is overlooked and it shouldn’t be. “His humanity is taken for granted in the Synoptic Gospels, as if could not possibly occur to anyone to question it.”(Elwell) There are many references to Christ’s humanity. Luke 2:40 “As the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom,and the grace of God was on Him.” The Bible declares that Jesus would be born of the seed of a woman. Galatians 4:4 says “ But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law.” John 1:4 also says “ In Him was life,and that life was the light of all mankind.” There is no denying the humanity of Jesus.
Now how do we know Jesus is God? Acts 10:38 reads, “ How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” God appointed him to be the Christ. His own people declared him to be the true prophet, their Messiah. In John 1:41, Andrew tells his brother Simon upon their becoming disciples of Christ that” We have found the Messiah.” In Romans 9 Paul is expressing his anguish for his people of Israel over their rejection of Jesus Christ when in verse 5 he says concerning Israel’s bloodline, “ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen! “
The fact that Jesus is God and man is difficult for our human minds to get a grasp on. The combination of his deity and humanity is explained in the doctrine called the Hypostatic Union. The union is described in this way. “ In the incarnation of the Son of God, a human nature was inseparably united forever with the divine nature in the one person of Jesus Christ, yet with the two natures remaining distinct, whole and unchanged, without mixture or confusion, so that the one person , Jesus Christ, is truly God and truly man.”
Bibliography: Elwell,Walter A. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology Towns,Elmer L. Theology for Today