My mission in life is to spend it in the effort to bring people into intimacy with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. My mission is to declare the humanness of Christ, as well as his Deity; my mission is to help others to understand why he is human.
1. Jesus was human before "the WORD became flesh." He has always existed in human form -- which may explain why in being created in the Image of God, we were created as human beings.
Look at Jacob's wrestling match with the Angel, whom he worshipped as "God."
Genesis 32:24-30
"Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he (the man) saw that he had not prevailed against him (Jacob), he (the man) touched the socket of his (Jacob's) thigh; so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him (the man).
Then he (the man) said, "Let me go, for the dawn is breaking." But he (Jacob) said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." So he(the man) said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." He (the man) said, "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and prevailed."
Then Jacob asked him and said, "Please tell me your name." But he(the man) said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" (knowing that Jacob very well knew with whom he was wrestling) And he blessed him there.
So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved."
Regarding the humanness of Jesus Christ, this is one of the most critical passages in the scriptures.
The pre-incarnate appearances of Jesus were not mere accommodations for the understanding of the human mind. Jacob did not wrestle with a Light, or a Presence, or anything else our science-fiction minds can imagine. He wrestled with a man, and that man was the pre-incarnate Christ.
There are many pre-incarnate appearances of Jesus in the scripture. Wherever the pharase "Angel of God" appears, as it refers to a divine Being, it refers to Christ. The Angel that appeared in the "burning, firery furnace" with Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, was likely the Christ. All of these "Angels" had the form of a human male.
2. We understand that Jesus is human -- now -- owing to the declaration of the two angels at His ascencion:
"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
-- Acts 1:11 NIV
"This SAME Jesus." The definite article, same, occurs twice, once in front of the name Jesus and again afterwards. In other words, this same Jesus is the Jesus they had seen in the upper room, and had breakfast with on the beach of Galilee. That Jesus, who they recognized as a man, a human being. That human Jesus will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven where he is now.
Then again, also at the stoning of Stephen,
When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." -- Acts 7:54
Stephen did not see some non-descript creature in heaven. He saw the real Jesus that he had likely seen in real life. In his vision Stephen saw the human Jesus (Son of Man) standing at the right hand of God. Since God is a Spirit, it is with some difficulty how he determined his "right hand," but there is no uncertainty in his vision of the Son of Man.
All of this profoundly supports the reality that Jesus remains as human today as he was at his ascencion and before, and in his pre-incarnate appearances.
3. We acknowledge that Jesus came to earth for the redemption and salvation of humankind.
A human died on the cross: Owing to the fact that humans egregiously sinned and fallen short of the glory for which God created them.
God's holy judgement on anything that is evil, is that it must die. The scriptures tell us of the wrath of God. His wrath is against evil -- and against evil people -- is infinite and irresistible. As a consequence, evil humans deserved condemnation. For an absolutely Holy God, the corporate evil of humankind derserved extermination.
However, a Human, a representative human, Jesus, died and absorbed the consequences of human sin; Jesus of Nazareth, picturing the ancient Hebrew practices of sacrifice, became the Lamb of God. Through his death, through the sacrifice of this Human Lamb, the wrath of God is exhausted.
But that is only half the story . . .
That human that died -- also had to be God. Since God's wrath against human evil was infinite, the retribution for that evil had to be infinite. So infinite wrath fell on an infinite human, and the result was that God's infinite wrath was utterly drained in the infinite Son of God, who was, who is Himself, God.
4. An equally necessary truth as to why the humanity of Jesus Christ is critical for our spiritual formation, is what we call the "Human Connection."
Paul speaks of this as, "Christ being formed in you." Gal. 4:19
The humanness of a redeeming Christ becomes formed in the believer's humanness.
How is it that the humanness of Jesus is our point of connection with him? We connect with him because he is human. We identify, relate to, and resonate with someone who is like us. We cannot relate to any other creature or creation, in the same way we can relate to another human. It is because of the humanity of Jesus that we can relate to God at all. Jesus is the humanness of God.
"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling -- sympathy (together emotion) with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. 4:14-16
Jesus knows from personal experience what it is like to have human emotions. Human emotion is the most powerful motivator that we know; far more powerful than intellect and reason, yet needs to be guided and formed by intellect and reason.
5. The humanness of Jesus is the only quality that makes us a viable interest to God. Were it not for the reality that Jesus was and is eternally human, God would have no interest in us at all. It is connected, irretrievably, with our creation in the Imago Dei (the image of God).
The humanness of Jesus is the outcome, the direct consequence, not of the will of God, but of the very nature of God himself.
Jesus was not created or made, He has always existed. He was, He is, He will be for eternity.
Now here is the Prime/Critical Directive for all who identify with Jesus Christ: The whole of intellect and awareness, the whole of knowledge and experience, the whole of written Divine Revelation, the whole of all is to be evaluated, is to be understood and interpreted through the Lens that is Jesus Christ. Through his teachings, through his Character, through his miracles, through his aliveness, through his Truth we become concious of God in our lives. He himself, is the Truth, the Way, the Life. Through this Lens, we understand and interpret all phenomena, both written and existential.
Jesus, and Jesus alone, in the Lens thorough which we understand.
-- PDM
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