God With Us: Fully God & Fully Human
Notes
Transcript
God With Us: Fully God & Fully Human
God With Us: Fully God & Fully Human
Have Yourself a Glorious Christmas
Where He Is Now
Philippians 2:9-11; Hebrews 12:2
Introduction
* God With Us
(Pass out multiple choice sheets:
We know that Jesus was fully human and fully divine during His earthly ministry. But what is He now?
A. Fully human
B. Fully divine
C. Both
D. Neither
My answer: _________
Despite the title of one of my favorite Christmas songs (Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas), there is nothing "little" about Christmas.
Christmas is not about us, but about God and His filling the earth with His glory by coming into the world as Jesus Christ, God the Son.
We don’t need to have ourselves "a Merry Little Christmas." If we do, we’re missing the whole point of this holy anniversary. What we need to have is "a glorious Christmas," as we see Christmas from the perspective of the God who gave it to us.
We have talked about what Jesus gave up, how God the Son came down from His glory, leaving His exalted place in heaven, veiling His majesty, choosing to limit for awhile His awesome power and privilege of deity. He gave up more than we can possibly imagine in order to be born as a baby in that Bethlehem stable. That was a tremendous sacrifice.
But, in addition to giving up something, Christ also took on something. The eternal Son of God, who had existed for all eternity past, at a specific moment of time some 2,000 years ago, took on something He had never had before. He took on a human nature in addition to His divine nature. He became not only fully God, but, at the moment of His conception, became both fully God and fully human at the same time. Not two persons in one body, but one person with two natures. That was a tremendous sacrifice, too.
But there was more that Christ did. In addition to giving up His glory and taking on a human nature, the Son of God went through the same kind of things that we go through in life: temptation, suffering and death. He did this because it was necessary for Him to experience what we experience in order for us to relate to Him as our Savior and our Lord.
But there’s more to the sacrifice than even that. There’s something about what the Son of God has done that we often overlook, and yet it seems to me that it is the most remarkable thing about Jesus Christ. It has to do with where He is now, and, even more significant, who He is now. When the eternal Son of God took on a human nature, He did so permanently, for all eternity. Look at what Paul tells us:
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
Let’s pray.
Message
The question I asked you earlier was not intended to trick you, but simply to demonstrate that many of us have never given much thought to whether or not Jesus continues to be fully human as well as fully divine. I wanted you to know that if you did not put C as the correct answer, that you were not alone. Most of us have not given a great deal of thought to this question. And if we have any thought to it at all, we have wanted to affirm the fact that Jesus is God, so we would tend to move toward the answer that now, in His exalted state, Jesus must be fully divine. But that is not the case. Jesus remains fully human and fully divine and that truth is vital to us.
* (Neil Armstrong)
Neil Alden Armstrong was born August 5, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He was a Boy Scout and earned the high rank of Eagle Scout. He began studying aeronautical engineering at Purdue University, but his college education was interrupted by service in the military as a Naval aviator during the Korean War. After his discharge, he returned to Purdue and graduated. He met a girl at Purdue, married her, and they had three children. Then he began his career as a research test pilot which led to his selection as one of the first astronauts in the U.S. space program.
On the evening of July 20, 1969, while Michael Collins remained behind in the orbiting space capsule, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin traveled to the moon’s surface aboard a lunar module. They and radioed back to mission control in Houston, "The eagle has landed."
A few hours later, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon and said, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."
Buzz Aldrin followed him to the moon’s surface and together they spent a day on the moon before returning to earth. The crew was quarantined for 18 days to make sure they had not picked up any strange diseases from the moon, then they were showcased across the country and around the world as heroes during a 45-day "Giant Leap" tour.
Shortly afterward, Neil Armstrong announced that he did not plan to fly in space again. He spent a few more months on the staff of NASA, then accepted a teaching position in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
In a 2005 interview, Armstrong talked about his initial concerns about the Apollo 11 mission. He had believed there was only a 50 percent chance of landing on the moon. "I was elated, ecstatic and extremely surprised that we were successful," he said.
(space suit)
The landing on the moon was an exciting event. Neil Armstrong put on a space suit, went to the moon, stayed one day, came back, took off the space suit and lived out the rest of his life here on earth.
If we are not careful, we will tend to think of the incarnation like that. God the Son, putting on His earth suit, "the eagle has landed," "one small step for God, one giant leap for mankind," return to heaven, taking off his earth suit, and returning to His eternal existence as God the Son.
But the incarnation was not just an event or an episode. When God the Son, who from all eternity past had been only fully God added to Himself a human nature and was born as a baby in a stable in Bethlehem, it was more than just an event. It was an eternal commitment.
It is difficult for us in our limited human reasoning to see Jesus as fully divine during His earthly ministry. And it is difficult for us to see Him as fully human after His resurrection, and certainly after His ascension into heaven. But that is the clear teaching of the Bible, that Jesus Christ is one person with two natures. From the moment of His conception in the womb of Mary, God the Son has had and will forever have a human nature as well as a divine nature.
He is not two persons, but one person with two natures. The two natures did not mix into some third kind of nature which combined both. They remained distinct and separate, a completely human nature and a completely divine nature residing within the same person. If we can grasp that, then we can understand better some of the things that Jesus said and did during His earthly ministry. Some things came from His human nature and other things came from His divine nature.
For example, when Jesus said (John 8:58), "Before Abraham was born, I am," claiming that He had existed forever, He was speaking from His divine nature. But we know that Jesus was born as a baby in Bethlehem, so that refers to His human nature.
In His divine nature, Jesus knew all things (John 21:17), but in His human nature, He did not know the day that He will return to earth.
His human nature got hungry, but His divine nature could never be hungry. When Jesus got tired and slept, that was His human nature, because God never sleeps. And God cannot die, so when Jesus died on the cross, that was His human nature that died, while His divine nature, of course, did not die.
If we will keep in mind that Jesus Christ had both a human nature and a divine nature, it will help us greatly in understanding His earthly ministry. But we must also keep in mind that He continues today with a human nature and a divine nature. Let’s look at some Scripture to help us understand this.
* 1. When Jesus arose, He was still fully human.
After His resurrection, Jesus was careful to point out to His followers that He was not just a spirit, but still had a human body.
39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
Apparently there were some differences. We can see that because He was not immediately recognized by Mary in the garden or by the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Somehow His body was different. He seemed to be able to appear and disappear, to go through locked doors, but still He was ultimately recognized by those who would look closely and see His scars. The reason for the difference is that this was His resurrection body, His glorified body. But it was still His human body.
* 2. When Jesus ascended into heaven, He was still fully human.
It was not just His spirit that ascended into heaven, leaving His body to be buried by His disciples. When He ascended into heaven, He did so in His resurrected, glorified human body.
50 And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.
* 3. Jesus is now at the right hand of the father and is still fully human.
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This passage and many other passages in the Bible refer to God the Son as "Jesus Christ the Lord."
Jesus is the human name of God the Son, identifying Him as the man who lived among us and became our savior. It means "Jehovah is salvation."
Christ is His official title and is the same word as Messiah. It means the anointed one, who had been promised to come and save us.
Lord is the divine name of God the Son, identifying Him as God in the flesh. To call Him Lord is the equivalent of calling Him God.
55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Whom did Stephen see at the right hand of God? There are two identifications: "Jesus," His human name, and "Son of Man," the name Jesus liked to use of Himself because it emphasized His human nature. That’s who Stephen saw at the right hand of the Father. Not just the Son of God, but Jesus, the Son of Man.
4. When Jesus returns, He will still be fully human.
10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Now, I want you to notice who is coming back. "This same Jesus." Jesus is the human name given to God the Son when He was born as a baby in Bethlehem. It is the name that is related to His human nature.
So, when the men dressed in white said, "This same Jesus will come back," they were talking about the human being who had walked the earth with them. And when they said He "will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven," they were saying that Jesus will return in his human and divine natures, coming down from above.
5. Jesus will be fully human throughout all eternity.
In his vision of the wendtimes recorded in the Book of Revelation, John saw the Son of God in the future, and He still had His resurrected human body, scars and all.
6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. 8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”
13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
Not for awhile, not for half an eternity, but forever and ever, all praise and honor and glory and power will go to the Lamb who looks as though He was slain, still bearing the scars of His suffering, the Son of God and the Son of Man, Jesus Christ the Lord, fully divine and fully human in his resurrected and glorified body.
6. Because Jesus is still fully human, He is our mediator.
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
I want you to notice two things about this verse, written by Paul years after Jesus ascended into heaven. First, I want you to notice that it is in the present tense. It doesn’t say there was one mediator between God and men. It says there is one mediator between God and men. This does not refer just to the fact that Jesus died on the cross, but refers to what He continues to do today.
The second thing I want you to notice is how Paul identifies that mediator: "the man Christ Jesus." He doesn’t say the Son of God, or God the Son. He is more specific than that. He wants us to know that the mediator we have interceding for us with the Father is Jesus who is still fully human. "The man Christ Jesus."
This is vital to us, because it means we don’t just have as our mediator God Himself with a memory of what it was like to be human for awhile, but we have Jesus who still knows what it is like to be human because He took on a human nature and He still has it. That’s why He can be our mediator with the Father, because He still understands us completely because He is one of us.
17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Conclusion
