36+The+Humanity+of+Christ
· Christology ·
Lecture Thirty Six: The Humanity of Christ
TH330 Systematic Theology I · Moody Bible Institute · Dr. Richard M. Weber
I. The Fact of Christ’s Humanity
A. Introduction: Against Docetism
Docetism: connected to Gnosticism, that matter is in heirently evil, therefore Christ was not really in the human body. He only appeared as such.
1 John 4:2-3. “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist.”
B. Evidences of Christ’s Humanity
1. The Virgin Birth
2. Christ Had a Human Body
Luke 2:52. “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
John 8:40. Jesus says to the Jews: “As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.”
3. Christ Had a Human Soul / Spirit
Matt 26:38. Jesus said to the disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
Luke 23:46. On the cross: “Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his last.”
4. Christ Exhibited the Characteristics of a Human Being
a. Hunger
Matt 4:2. “After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.”
b. Thirst
John 19:28. Scene is on the cross: “...knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’”
c. Tiredness / Weariness
John 4:6. In town of Sychar, in Samaria: “Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.”
d. Sadness / Sorrow
John 11:35. “Jesus wept.”
Matt 26:38. Jesus said to the disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
e. Testing / Temptation
Heb 4:15. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.”
5. Christ Was Called by Human Names / Titles
a. “Son of Man”
85 + times in the NT. His most used self reference.
Matt 8:20. “Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’”
Luke 19:10. “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
Matt 24:27. “As lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
b. “Son of David”
Matt 1:1. “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
Matt 12:22-23. “Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, ‘Could this be the Son of David?’”
Matt 21:9. Setting is the Triumphal Entry: “The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
Matt 22:41. “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, ‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?’ ‘The son of David,’ they replied.”
2 Sam 7:12-13. God to David: “When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
Jer. 23:5. “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.’”
c. “Man”
1 Tim 2:5. “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, . . .”
6. Evidences From Phil 2:5-11
Phil 2:5-11. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
a. Jesus was in the Nature of a Servant
b. Jesus was in the Likeness of Man
“He truly became man, not merely in outward appearance, but in thought and feelings. He who was in the full image of God became the full image of man.” (TDNT, 5:197)
c. Jesus was in the Appearance of a Man
“outward appearance” He had a normal human appearance.
Matt. 13:53-58: “And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, and coming to his own country he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?”
7. Conclusion: Three Observations Regarding Christ’s Humanity (from Bernard Ramm, Evangelical Christology)
a. Christ had a full, complete, undiminished humanity
b. Jesus was a man in his own right – not general man, not universal – but a particular man, existing in his own right as a particular man
c. Jesus lived as his contemporaries lived – there was nothing supranormal in the conduct of his life; rather, he possessed normal humanity
II. The Significance of Christ’s Humanity
Heb 2:11-14. “Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. . . . Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendents. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God.”
A. To Provide Negative Righteousness (Passive Obedience)
Our sin is a negative. The suffering and death of Christ makes us right with God. It erases our sin. He had to be human to pay for that sacrifice.
Heb 2:17. “For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.”
B. To Provide Positive Righteousness (Active Obedience)
Not just a blank slate, Jesus lived and obeyed the Law perfectly. Then He died on the cross and was able to fulfill the requirements. Then the sacrifice was perfect.
Rom 5:18-19. “...just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”
C. To Serve as Mediator Between God and Humanity
1 Tim 2:5. “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.”
D. To Fulfill God’s Original Purpose for Humanity to Rule Over Creation
Matt 28:18. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
Eph 1:22. God has “put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church”
E. To Be Our Example
1 John 2:6. “He who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”
Follow the example.
2 Cor 3:18. “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
We are becoming more like the prototype.
1 Pet. 2:21. “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”
Rom 8:29. “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son...”
F. To Be the Pattern For Our Redeemed / Resurrection Bodies
1 Cor 15:49. “And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.”
G. To Sympathize With Those Whom He Represents
1 John 4:2-3
2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
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The Person of Christ
TH330: Systematic Theology I · Moody Bible Institute · Dr. Richard M. Weber
| Preincarnate | Divine Nature | Human Nature | Union of Natures | Character |
| ·Preexistent.From the “beginning” (John 1:1; 1 John 1:1)“With God” (John 1:1-2)“Before the world was” (John 17:5)The Word “became flesh” (implying a preincarnate existence, John 1:14)· Participated in Creation“Let us make man” (Gen 1:26)The “craftsman” (Prov 8:30)The “firstborn over all creation” (Col 1:15)All things were created “through him” (John 1:3; Col 1:16)World created “through him” (John 1:10; 1 Cor 8:6)All things created “for him” (John 1:10; 1 Cor 8:6)All things created “for him” (Col 1:16)All things hold together “in him” (Col 1:17)· Old Testament ManifestationsAs “Yahweh”To Abraham (Gen 18)In Judgment (Gen 19)In Promise (Hos 1:7)As the “angel of Yahweh”To Hagar (Gen 16)To Jacob (Gen 31)To Moses (Exod 3:2)To Israel (Exod 14:19)To Balaam (Num 22:22)To Gideon (Judg 6) | · Possesses Divine AttributesEternality (John 1:1; 8:58; 17:5)Omnipresence (Matt 28:20; Eph 1:23)Omniscience (John 16:30; 21:17)Omnipotence (John 5:19)Immutability (Heb 1:12; 13:8)· Possesses Divine OfficesCreator (John 1:3; Col 1:16)Sustainer (Col 1:17)· Possesses Divine PrerogativesForgives Sin (Matt 9:2; Luke 7:47)Raises the Dead (John 5:25; 11:25)Executes Judgment (John 5:22)· He Is Identified With the Old Testament Yahweh“I AM” (John 8:58)Seen by Isaiah (John 12:41; 8:24, 50-58)· Possesses Divine Names“Alpha and the Omega” (Rev 22:13)“I AM” (John 8:58)“Immanuel” (Matt 1:22)“Son of Man” (Matt 9:6; 12:8)“Lord” (Matt 7:21; Luke 1:43)“Son of God” (John 10:36)“God” (John 1:1; 2 Pet 1:1)· Possesses Divine RelationsThe expressed image of God (Col 1:15; Heb 1:3)He is one with the Father (John 10:31)· Accepts Divine Worship(Matt 14:33; 28:9; John 20:28-29)· Claims Himself To Be God(John 8:58; 10:30; 17:5) | · Had a Human BirthBorn of a Virgin (Matt 1:18-2:11; Luke 1:30-38)· Had a Human Development(Luke 2:50, 52)· Had the Essential Elements of Human NatureHuman Body (Matt 26:12; John 2:21)Reason and Will (Matt 26:38; Mark 2:8)· Had Human NamesJesus (Matt 1:21)Son of Man (Matt 8:20; 11:18)Son of Abraham (Matt 1:1)· Had the Sinless Infirmities of Human NatureWeariness (John 4:6)Hunger (Matt 4:2; 21:18)Thirst (John 19:28)Temptation (Matt 4; Heb 2:18)· Was Called a Man(John 1:30; 4:9; 10:38) | · TheanthropicThe person of Christ is theanthropic (combination of qeo", theos and ajnqropo, anthropos); he has two natures (divine and human in one person).· PersonalHypostatic union, constituting one personal substance; two natures; one person· Includes the Human and Divine Qualities and ActsBoth the human and divine qualities and acts may be ascribed to Jesus Christ under either of his natures· Constant Presence of Both Humanity and DivinityHis natures cannot be separated | · HolyHis human nature was created holy (Luke 1:35)He committed no sin (1 Pet 2:22)He always pleased the Father (John 8:29)· LovingHe laid down his life (John 15:13)His love surpasses all knowledge· HumbleHe took the form of a servant (Phil 2:5-8)· Meek(Matt 11:29)· BalancedHe was grave without being melancholyHe was joyful without being frivolous· Prayerful(Matt 14:23; Luke 6:12)· Incessant WorkerHe worked the works of his Father (John 5:17; 9:4) |
From H. Wayne House, Charts of Christian Theology and Doctrine, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992. Page 59. Used by permission
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[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984). 1 Jn 4:2-3.