The Person of Christ, how is Jesus fully God and fully man in one person?
He WAS fully God and fully man in one person, and WILL be so forever.
Starting with his humanity:
1. Christ is born of a virgin; conceived in the womb of his mother Mary by a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, without a human father. This shows us that salvation must come from the Lord, a virgin birth is an impossibility for man. It unites humanity and deity in a perfect way.
Being born of a virgin allows Christ to have true humanity without inherited sin. The angel Gabriel even pronounces to Mary, "therefore the child to be born will be called holy."
2. Jesus had human weaknesses and limitations.
A human body, the need to grow up. He became tired, thirsted, hungered, he eventually died.
Jesus also rose from the dead in a physical human body, which had been made perfect. He ascended into heaven with that body, to show a continuity between his existence in a physical body.
He had a human soul and emotions. "Now is my soul troubled." "He was troubled in spirit." He marveled, he wept with sorrow, he learned obedience. Yet in all this he never once sinned.
"In every respect he has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."
People near him saw him only as a man. Jesus did a lot of miracles, yet when he approached his hometown, the people said, "where did this man get his wisdom and these mighty works? Isnt this the carpenter's son?"
He was human, yet without sin. When he says, "I am the light of the world," he points to pefect truthfulness and moral purity. He says of his Father, "I am always doing what is pleasing to him." (we cannot say the same of our relationship with God!)
Was it possible for Jesus to sin? as a human, it is in his nature to be able to sin, but since he has a divine nature, we know that God cannot be tempted. They somehow work in unity.
If Jesus had sinned, then he would cease to be God. Yet his temptations were very real.
He stood fast to the end and triumphed over temptations, and in this way felt the full weight of these temptations.
Why was it necessary for Jesus to be fully human?
1. He was our representative, and obeyed where we and Adam disobeyed.
2. to be a substitute sacrifice. Only by becoming one of us could he be an acceptable substitute for our sins and its punishment.
3. The one mediator between God and men.
4. Man was made to rule over creation, and only through Jesus is this put to right again. "given all authority over heaven and earth..."
5. to be our example and pattern in life.
6. To be a pattern for our redeemed bodies.
7. To sympathise as high priest. He has gone through the same temptations as we and knows what it is like.
Jesus will be a man forever. In his resurrection body, he ate, and had flesh and bones. And it is promised that he will come back in the same way we saw him go into heaven. Fully God and fully man, yet one person, forever.
He WAS fully God and fully man in one person, and WILL be so forever.
Starting with his humanity:
1. Christ is born of a virgin; conceived in the womb of his mother Mary by a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, without a human father. This shows us that salvation must come from the Lord, a virgin birth is an impossibility for man. It unites humanity and deity in a perfect way.
Being born of a virgin allows Christ to have true humanity without inherited sin. The angel Gabriel even pronounces to Mary, "therefore the child to be born will be called holy."
2. Jesus had human weaknesses and limitations.
A human body, the need to grow up. He became tired, thirsted, hungered, he eventually died.
Jesus also rose from the dead in a physical human body, which had been made perfect. He ascended into heaven with that body, to show a continuity between his existence in a physical body.
He had a human soul and emotions. "Now is my soul troubled." "He was troubled in spirit." He marveled, he wept with sorrow, he learned obedience. Yet in all this he never once sinned.
"In every respect he has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."
People near him saw him only as a man. Jesus did a lot of miracles, yet when he approached his hometown, the people said, "where did this man get his wisdom and these mighty works? Isnt this the carpenter's son?"
He was human, yet without sin. When he says, "I am the light of the world," he points to pefect truthfulness and moral purity. He says of his Father, "I am always doing what is pleasing to him." (we cannot say the same of our relationship with God!)
Was it possible for Jesus to sin? as a human, it is in his nature to be able to sin, but since he has a divine nature, we know that God cannot be tempted. They somehow work in unity.
If Jesus had sinned, then he would cease to be God. Yet his temptations were very real.
He stood fast to the end and triumphed over temptations, and in this way felt the full weight of these temptations.
Why was it necessary for Jesus to be fully human?
1. He was our representative, and obeyed where we and Adam disobeyed.
2. to be a substitute sacrifice. Only by becoming one of us could he be an acceptable substitute for our sins and its punishment.
3. The one mediator between God and men.
4. Man was made to rule over creation, and only through Jesus is this put to right again. "given all authority over heaven and earth..."
5. to be our example and pattern in life.
6. To be a pattern for our redeemed bodies.
7. To sympathise as high priest. He has gone through the same temptations as we and knows what it is like.
Jesus will be a man forever. In his resurrection body, he ate, and had flesh and bones. And it is promised that he will come back in the same way we saw him go into heaven. Fully God and fully man, yet one person, forever.
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