The Fully Human Son (Part 1)

Announcer: Welcome to Sword of the Spirit!  Written and presented by Colin Dye, senior minister of Kensington Temple and leader of London City Church.  Sword of the Spirit is a dynamic teaching series equipping the believers of today to build the disciples of tomorrow.  We pray that you find these programs inspiring and a catalyst in deepening your knowledge of God, your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and your intimacy with the Holy Spirit.

Colin Dye: Hello and welcome to The Sword of the Spirit.  A school of ministry in the Word and the Spirit,  We’re starting a new topic today “Knowing the Son” and it’s so vitally important that we understand how the knowledge of the Son of God touches everything else that we need to know about God.  After all, the Son of God brings the revelation of who God is!

It was Jesus Christ as the Son of God who paid the price, the ultimate price for the sins of the world.  We would never understand our salvation until we understood who Jesus is and what He’s done for us.  That very famous confession of Peter concerning Jesus when He asked them, “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter’s response was, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

And throughout this series of the Sword of the Spirit, we teach how the Son of God is vital to every aspect of Christian doctrine and Christian experience.  So I’m so excited as we are now coming to look at Jesus as the Son of God as a topic in its own right.  We’re going to be looking at many aspects of the Son-ship of Jesus.  We’re going to begin with the humanity of Jesus Christ.  Then we’re going to speak about His divinity.  The Bible shows us that Jesus Christ is both fully man and fully God.  And so many Christians who learn how to worship Jesus Christ as the Son of God need to be reminded of this important teaching, He is also fully human.

Hello and welcome to this Sword of the Spirit teaching series and the subject we’re looking at is “Knowing the Son.”  I’ve been so excited as I’ve been preparing this, getting ready to talk about Jesus.  We’ve spent time looking at knowing the Father, knowing the Spirit and now we’re coming to the second Person of the Trinity, knowing the Son.  And as that completes this series of studies on the Person of God!

And then we have some other Sword of the Spirit subjects that are coming but we’re very near the end of this whole series, the school of ministry in the Word and the Spirit.  At the beginning of knowing the Son, let me remind you again why we are focusing on these two twin planks of Biblical revelation and of Christian experience.

The Word and the Spirit; God speaks and when He speaks His Spirit is released.  And when God releases His Spirit, He does so in conjunction with the Word.  That’s why we’re spending time digging deep into the Word of God and opening our hearts to everything that the Holy Spirit has.

Now when we’re talking about knowing the Son, you need to know that this is a doctrinal emphasis.  We are going to spend time digging deep into the doctrines of Scripture as they relate to the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Every single one of these studies should stand on their own merits.  And every subject we, that we cover, we cover as fully as we possibly can.  And this subject of knowing the Son.  I want to tell you, this series is not going to do justice to Jesus.  It’s not, it’s, there’s not enough time to tell everything about the Lord Jesus Christ.  I think of what the Apostle John says when he writes in his, in his gospel.  He says, “There are so many other things that Jesus did and Jesus said and I couldn’t tell you about them all.”  Not even all the libraries in the world could tell you about him.

I’m focusing on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the next subject that comes up in this series, salvation by grace, speaks a lot about the work of Jesus Christ.  Particularly, His work in atonement and salvation.  And so this is the perspective that we’re looking at.  We’re looking at Jesus as a person and so therefore you must be careful to study this in conjunction with all the other Sword of the Spirit manuals but especially seeing it in relationship to the one that’s coming next which is, salvation by grace.

And so, when we come to study the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, remember it’s more than just some kind of intellectual thing that we’re seeking to find about facts about Him.  We need to know Him, that’s what this is all about.  We need to know Him and find out about Him and experience Him in our lives.  And that’s what this series is all about.

Now, it’s my prayer that by the time we have been, we spent together sharing in this subject that you will have a better understanding than ever before of the wonderful person of Jesus Christ and also His work.  To see Him as the Lord, to see Him as the Savior and to see how He is as the Son of God, the One who sets the agenda for our Son-ship and also for everything else that God has for us.

I pray even more then this that you will be inspired to a greater devotion, a more dedicated discipleship and a more submissive dependence on the Son who came willingly to suffer and to die and will come again willingly a, in power and glory to rescue humanity from evil and to establish the Kingdom of God in our lives.

So we come to the first section, here we’ve entitled it “The Fully Human Son.”  Throughout history, there’s always been people who think that Jesus is only divine and others who believe He’s only human.  Actually, He’s both, He is fully human and fully divine.  In fact, He is man as though He were never God and He is God as though He were never man.  But the fact is He is both God and man in the one person.  That’s the basic doctrinal position that the church came to in the very early centuries having studied all the Biblical data concerning Him.

Now there are many disagreements on many other things, but the church has been united for quite some time that Jesus is fully human and fully divine.  Now it’s easy for some people to imagine that Jesus was only a man, and easy for others to imagine that He was only God.  But we must see that whenever we emphasize His humanity at the detriment of His divinity or talk about His divinity forgetting that He was also a man, we are not a, we are not really grasping hold of who Jesus is, we’re misrepresenting Him.  And so we begin by looking at the humanity of Jesus Christ.  Now, I begin here because you see, the church for two thousand years has been worshiping Jesus as God and quite rightly so.  And we at the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century we are finding it difficult to imagine Him as man.  In the first century, perhaps they found it difficult to imagine Him as God because many of them knew Him as man but we need to see Him as both, He is the God-man.  But we’re beginning with His humanity.  What a very precious doctrine this is.  The gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, they present very similar portraits of Jesus.  They use different material and distinctive emphasis but they all concerned about the same person.

And a, in the opening verse of Mark’s gospel, it introduces Jesus suggesting that He is more than a man, the gospel of the Son of God.  And yet it goes on in Mark’s gospel particularly to present a picture, a human picture of, of a suffering serving Jesus.  And in Matthew and Luke, the a gospels begin with birth stories which point at the humble beginnings of Jesus and they present Him as an ordinary human, living in what, you know, as a ordinary human home, living there subject to all the ordinary pressures that this would involve.  In Luke’s gospel, chapter two particularly, we have a, a clear account Jesus’ childhood.  This reveals something of His essential humanity and the humanity of  His earthly family.

Have, for example have a look in a Luke 2 and verse forty.  Here we have an aside, a and the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him.  Here we have the picture of the child Jesus growing.  Now, this is a human picture, a picture of a human being, a real child, a real boy growing up.  O yes, Jesus is human alright!  Then in Luke chapter two, verses fifty-one and fifty-two we have another little aside showing how Jesus developed into adulthood, according to all the normal laws and principals of human growth.  Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them.  But His mother kept all these things in her heart and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.

Now all the gospels present Jesus baptism as the start of His ministry.  And here the gospels show how Jesus identified with ordinary people.  They were flocking to His cousin John and a yet Jesus came and said, “I’m also going to be baptized and it’s right that I should be baptized.”  He’s identifying with ordinary people as they flock to John.

And then the subsequent temptations of Jesus in the wilderness reveal that Jesus like all other people had to endure severe moral and physical testing.  O yes, He is human alright!  Throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, we have a Jesus presented as a thoroughly first century human being.  We find Him inhabiting a real world, a real person in a real world.  It’s the world of the Pharisees the Sadducees’ the Herodians.  We find His short lifespan is typical of a first century Palestinian person although He was cut short by crucifixion.  He heals and touch and teaches people who are facing the same social and political tensions that He faces.  He is a Man amongst men who does what ordinary people do.  He eats meals in homes, He travels by foot and boat, He pays taxes and mixes with a great variety of people.  I’m painting a colorful picture of a, of a human being living in a real human situation.  We find He is deeply compassionate towards those who are socially isolated.  He criticizes hypocrisy,  He argues with religious leaders, that’s a very human thing to do.  He is so distressed in Gethsemane that He sweats profusely, He feels abandoned on the cross.  Now some of these things are particular to Jesus because of His mission and indeed because of His Messianic calling and His divine nature, God in the flesh.

But in it, all we see this expressed in a real person, a real human person.  Now against this backdrop, the gospels also go on to make sure that we understand Jesus is different from all other human beings.  He is human but He is unique!  We find Him claiming authority to go beyond the law.  He has authority to forgive sins.  He has authority to command nature He casts out demons by His own authority.  He’s transfigured before three of His disciples in a way that makes it impossible for us to see Him simply as a, as an ordinary human being there’s something more.  He uses and accepts titles which sets Him apart in a category all of His own.  O yes, He is unique, human but unique.

The gospels also continually present Jesus as fully identified with humanity and as distinct from humanity.  This is a tension.  Now you know, it’s a point I want to make about many many doctrines as we walk carefully through the Scriptures to grasp what God says, we find so often the key to doctrinal balance is holding a tension between things which the, which the Bible reveals in tension.  For example, Jesus is human, but He is distinct from humanity.

Now if we go to John’s gospel which is slightly different from the, a synoptic gospel is Matthew, Mark , Luke, we find that John upholds the corresponding truth or the, the, the companion truth to humanity, that’s His divinity.  And very often people will go to the gospel of John first of all to prove that Jesus is God.  But remember, as true as that is, John’s gospel presents Jesus’ humanity equally powerfully.  Matthew and Luke present family trees.  That’s how it begins, it begins with the a, with ,with genealogies human, but John’s gospel begins with a Heavenly genealogy explaining His preexistence in divine origin.  So yes, John is serious in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  But remember it goes on to John chapter one and verse fourteen, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, tabernacled among us is the literal, literal translation there.  He pitched His tent in humanity, this means that God manifested Himself in real human flesh and it’s as if John has taken a word which was rather, what shall I say, it’s a kind of crude expression, it’s a crude word it’s not a refined word.  The Word became flesh, he does it to emphasize the real humanity of Jesus.

You need to know that in John’s time there was a, there was a heresy and I’ll come and tell you about it a little later on called the doscetism which suggested that Jesus was not, well that the, the Christ did not really come in the flesh.  John deals with this in his gospel and also in his Epistle.  He says, remember every spirit that has not confessed that  Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.  There was a heresy there that couldn’t appreciate that Jesus was human.  And a there were various ways that they, they, they a they got around this problem and basically it was the problem of Greek philosophy.  And they couldn’t understand how that God in all His glory and splendor could identify so closely with the human race as to become a man, why it was unthinkable!  And, and John says, you got to believe it you better believe it because the Word has become flesh.

Now in John’s gospel, we find too that a, the divine, the divine nature of Jesus is seen so clearly in this fully human tabernacle.  They regard Jesus as a Rabbi.  That’s a human picture, Jesus is a Rabbi, He’s a teacher, He’s a master, they just saw Him as a Rabbi.  And He was, He’s a man!  They found Him exhausted on a journey.  He experiences thirst, He arouses hatred, He weeps at the death of a friend, He washes feet, He prepares a meal.  O yes, in all of these ways we find John’s gospel presenting Jesus as God, but God manifest in the flesh.

And when we go to the early church, we find in the book of Acts for example that they focus a great deal on the exalted Christ.  He is the Jesus of Nazareth but also He is exalted.  And so when it’s referring to Jesus of Nazareth, it is locating Him in a place.  He’s a historical person, coming real place, a real town, a genuine man.  Paul’s letters we find a few facts about Jesus and some scholars suggest that this means that Paul didn’t know very much about the historical Jesus but that’s, that’s not true.  In Acts 9, twenty-six, it records that Paul meets the apostles in Jerusalem.  In Acts chapter twelve it describes Mark as Paul’s companion.  And in Acts twenty-three and twenty-four we find Paul spending two years in Cesarea in prison, that’s the capital of Palestine and he had freedom there to meet other disciples.  And also Luke cared for Paul during this time and Luke traveled with Paul.  So Paul had plenty of opportunity to acquaint himself with the facts concerning Jesus, His life story.  And of course, Paul doesn’t focus on the life story of Jesus.  His calling is to give doctrinal instruction and pastoral correction to young churches.  He doesn’t portray Jesus a as the gospels portray Jesus in terms of His events describing the story of Jesus.  He’s more concerned about the doctrinal implication of this.  But even so having said all that, Paul’s letters contain many details which underscore the historical humanity of Jesus.

For example, in Romans 1, verse three, Paul declares that Jesus was descended from David.  That means He was of an earthly genealogical line.  Romans 9, verse five, You belong to Israel according to the flesh.  Galatians four, verse four, He was sent by God at a specific time to be born of a woman, to live under the law.  Galatians one, verse nineteen speaks about Jesus having a brother whom Paul knew.  Can you see how human Jesus is, is coming to us from the pages of Paul’s writings?  Second Corinthians 8, verse nine speaks about the circumstances of Jesus.  He was poor.  He knew poverty.  One Corinthians fifteen, verse four, He was crucified, buried and resurrected.  One Corinthians 11, he speaks about Jesus instituting the Lord’s supper.  Two Corinthians 10, He was meek and gentle.  Romans 5, second Corinthians 5, He was righteous and sinless.  Philippians two, Thessalonians 3, He was humble and steadfast describing the personality of Jesus.  He was a man in the same way that Adam was a man.  Paul repeatedly speaks about Jesus as the second Adam or the last Adam.  Romans five, One Corinthians fifteen, and then finally One Timothy 2, verse five Paul says, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man, the Man, Christ Jesus.  O yes, Paul knows about the humanity of Jesus.

The book of Hebrews also shows us the humanity of Jesus.  It actually begins in the first three verses by introducing Jesus as the exalted Son of God, the heir of all things the creator of everything.  But then it balances that portrait of Jesus by providing a great deal of information concerning the fully human nature of Jesus.  For example, He is or was lower than the angels and concerned with people in His mission.  Hebrews two, verse nine, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that He by the grace of God might taste, taste death for everyone.  When it says, He was made a little lower than the angels it’s referring to psalm chapter a eight where it speaks of God’s purpose for mankind, You created Him, made Him a little lower than the angels, but You crowned Him with glory and honor.  What is man that You should visit and the Son of man that You should care for Him?

And, and so the writers of the Hebrews is saying, yes, yes, He was also made a little lower than the angels, in other words, He came in flesh and He carried that flesh with Him, which is of course why He was able to die.  And then in verse sixteen of chapter two, for indeed He does not give aid to angels but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.  And so we find here that Jesus was made a little lower than angels and was concerned, He took hold of flesh so that He could minister to people in mission.  Hebrews two, verse fourteen, He shed human flesh and, and, and blood like all people in as much then as the children are partaken of flesh and blood.  He himself likewise shed in the same.  There was a purpose for Him taking flesh that through death He might destroy Him who has the power of death that is the Devil, or who had, cause it’s taken away now, hallelujah!  But He came sharing flesh and blood like everybody else.  We also know that He was subject to temptation, Hebrews 2, verse eighteen, for in that He Himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.  And then verse four fifteen, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin.

O, the book of Hebrews presents Jesus as the wonderful human person, the One who is come.  He prayed with cries and tears, Hebrews 5, verse seven.  He learned obedience through suffering, Hebrews 2, verse ten and chapter five, verses nine.  He experienced godly fear, five, verse seven.  And He regarded death as an inescapable part of His mission, chapter two and verse nine as we read and verse fourteen, those two verses earlier, He tasted death for every person.

Of course in Hebrews, we have repeatedly the presentation of Jesus as the One who came to be the sacrifice for our sin.  And it establishes Him carrying all the qualification of  our great High Priest which is human hood, human kind, He had to be a person, He had to become a man in order to qualify as our High Priest so He could represent us in our humanity.  Of course the great parallel truth is that He retained His divinity that He might also represent God to us.  And so we find in the book of Hebrews that this teaching of the humanity of Jesus is indispensable!  So the idea of Him offering Himself as the sacrifice through the Spirit by as being the victim, being the sacrificial victim, being the sacrifice He had to be become flesh and blood in order to die and offer His life as a ransom on the altar of God.  But He also had to be human to be the High Priest that He Himself should make an offering both by being an offering He had to become man and by making the offering, He had to be man, He had to be man in order to be our High Priest.

The book of Hebrews makes it clear therefore that we have no access to God at all if Jesus does not mediate for us and pioneer the way.  And so the whole New Testament it seems to me to be keeping on making a double presentation of divine Son-ship and perfect humanity, Revealing Him simultaneously to be both, the Son who reflects the glory of God and the human who is tempted just like we are.  It is important truth that we keep these two things close together in our understanding, in our experience and in our proclamation of who Jesus really is.

We’ve seen already that the New Testament’s portrayal of Jesus as being fully human does not mean that He entered into our sinful humanity.  We need to see that when it says Jesus was fully human, it means that He took on sinless flesh, He didn’t become sinful man.  Paul in Romans 8, verse three says He took on the Likeness of sinful flesh.  He didn’t take on sinful flesh, He took on flesh which was in the likeness of sinful flesh, and then in, in flesh condemned sin in the flesh.  So He had to take on flesh but He remained sinless.  And so the sinlessness of Jesus and His sinless humanity is a very, very important doctrine in Scripture.  He is a sinless human being, in fact the only sinless person there has ever been since Adam and Eve, we find this in Hebrews four verse fifteen and again where it says, He is tempted in all points like we are yet without sin.  Jesus went into temptation and fully experienced temptation and perhaps as, as we shall see, He experienced temptation more fully than any of us experience it unless we also resist.  Do you know, a if you resist temptation you feel the full force of temptation.  If you give in to temptation, then that temptation is over.  You don’t ever feel the full force of temptation until you resist that temptation totally and fully.  And Jesus felt the full force of every temptation because  He resisted every temptation.  He was and is totally without sin.

And that brings to a end today’s teaching on “Knowing the Son.”  And I pray that throughout these programs, God will give you greater and greater revelation concerning Jesus Christ the Son of God.  We’ll be back next time with more teaching on knowing the Son.

Recommended reading

Dye, Colin. Knowing the Son
Kensington Temple, 2008