Sympathetic Savior: The Humanity of Jesus

God became flesh… How is it possible? What does it mean? How Human was Jesus?

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project

Sympathetic Savior: The Humanity of Jesus is intended to clarify what it means that Jesus Christ experienced humanity in the flesh by fully participating in the human condition. Tis the season of revelation, recognizing what Jesus sacrificed to know every bit of who we are so that we, through relationship with him by faith, can be delivered, healed, and restored into every bit of all that God wants and has for us… today!

“Jesus never did anything halfheartedly. When he embraced our humanity, he didn’t pull a fast one by making a show of it. He embraced it so fully and totally that he was able to die. God can’t die. But Jesus did.” —John Eldredge, author, Beautiful Outlaw

What I have written here may be something different than you typically hear on this subject concerning the humanity of Jesus. As I went into some deep study, I believe that I received revelation from God’s Spirit that blew my mind and broke my heart. I wept.

For the first time, my perception of what God in the person of Jesus Christ did for me shook me to the core. I did not begin writing this piece knowing that this is what I would be writing. It was indeed heartbreaking, and afforded me the opportunity to more fully understand and appreciate what God, and more specifically, Jesus Christ, sacrificed to pay the ransom for sin. Jesus laid down everything necessary for every one of us to experience relationship with God in the person that is Jesus Christ.

Apostle Paul wrote about Jesus:

Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. Colossians 2:8-10 (NLT)

The writer of Colossians, the Apostle Paul, makes it clear that Jesus is alive in a human body while fully God. The Bible is clear on this as theological certainty. Paul wrote this letter to a New Testament group of Christ followers after having an experience when he saw the resurrected Christ in all of his glory. Paul’s encounter with the risen Christ rendered him blind until he found the man with whom he was told by Jesus would restore his sight. What occurred may have been traumatic for Paul. Then, he experienced the miraculous healing that would affirm his newfound faith.

The focus in this comprehensive essay is to place greater emphasis on the time that Jesus, the Son of God, emptied himself entirely of divine standing and privilege. It is entirely possible that the deity of Jesus not only would not be used to his advantage while a person of human, but perhaps could not be used to his advantage.

I hope that you will have an open mind and follow me with me as I hope to convey what I believe to be true about the humanity of Jesus while on earth in the flesh.

There may be interpretations and commentary of The Bible in this essay that some, if not most, theological scholars deem suspect. These opinions of biblical scholars with PhDs may dismiss less orthodox perspectives as the kind of “empty philosophy” or “high-sounding nonsense” that Apostle Paul identified in the passage above. Is it just possible that there may even be biblical scholars would dismiss reasonable possibilities identified as realistic in this essay?

It might just be worthy of serious consideration that a less than traditional take on scripture (doctrinally speaking) is, not only credible, but might actually make more sense. Continue reading and you will discover that this comes from a responsible study of scripture, upholding the integrity of the context of each passage examined here involving the application of original Greek texts and how it might be translated for context. Despite objection from what might be closer to theological presumption than a reasonable hypothesis, I am convinced that God’s divine Spirit led me to the lengths I have gone to more fully appreciate the humanity of Jesus, and what it cost him to redeem, reconcile, and restore us into relationship with God.

So, here we go.

Fully Man, Fully God

Did you know that the name, Jesus, is translated from his name in the Greek, Yeshua, a variant of the name Yehoshua?

The name Yeshua, when translated from Hebrew is the name, Jeshua (Jeshuah), which is known by its variants, Joshua, and Jesus. What is interesting is that ‘yeho’ is a variant of YHWH (Yahweh), the name of God, and ‘shua’ means “to cry out”, “a scream for the need to be rescued.” The name Jesus was the given name of the newborn Savior in the gospel of Matthew of the New Testament. Christ from the Greek word Christos means chosen by God to deliver his people. Altogether, Jesus Christ is the chosen to save each one of us as we identify ourselves as needing to be rescued and call on Jesus to deliver us from oppression and poverty, held captive, enslaved by sin.

Jesus, when speaking to his disciple, John, in the book of Revelation, referred to himself as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters, or symbols of the Hebrew alphabet, translated emet, meaning truth. The irony of that is that there is no beginning, and there is no end. The triune God has always existed. He/They have always existed, and so therefore, are the Alpha. They will always exist, eternally, and therefore, are the Omega.

How long did God exist before creating anything—the first thing?

How about this? Alpha and Omega is not really about time. What it actually means is that everything that is, for all time and space is contained within these aspects of the triune God. God is not only at the center of all things, he envelops all things. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is God, symbolized as the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet until the last letter of the alphabet, and includes every word contained within and throughout throughout the alphabet. Wow! How do we wrap our feeble human minds around that? We cannot really comprehend the empirical forces within and throughout the universe either. We choose to accept it. What other choice do we have?

Being addressed here is the fact that this triune God understood the whole time that creating human beings who are not themselves God, giving us free will to choose on our own, means that it was inevitable that we would choose poorly. This is due to our inclination to take for ourselves what has not been given, which we understand to be sin, creating a void since we have chosen in a fashion that opposes the integrity of what God created.

God (Father, Son, and Spirit) knew from the beginning that it would be up to God’s son lower himself from divine to the likeness of human flesh—sinful flesh, according to Apostle Paul (Romans 8:3)—in order to fill that void. The void is what sin did to separate humankind from its creator.

John, the beloved friend of Jesus, saw his friend die on a cross. John comforted Jesus’ mother during the darkest of times within feet of the cross as Jesus died. John would see his Savior, resurrected from the dead. He also saw Jesus ascend to heaven. John would then be filled with the Holy Spirit, anointed (meaning chosen) to write one several manuscripts about his experiences with Jesus. When he saw Jesus again in a vision (Revelation 1), John beheld the awesome glory of his exalted king, and fell at his feet as if he was dead. Not in an act of worship… dead.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever!” Revelation 1:17 (NLT)

This was an entirely different and unique experience, nothing like he had ever experienced before in his three years with Jesus in the flesh. Jesus appeared as though he was holding stars in his hand. In the radiance of his king, the Almighty One, in the blaze of his magnificence, John went down to the ground as though he was toast. Or so John thought. It was not until Jesus identified himself and reminded John that he is indeed alive; fully man and, no doubt fully God, having been exalted to kingship, that John was restored by the gracious, compassionate love contained in this blaze of glory before him.

All glory to him (Jesus) who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen. Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven. And everyone will see him—even those who pierced him. And all the nations of the world will mourn for him. Yes! Amen! “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.” Revelation 1:5b-8 (NLT)

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11 (NLT)

Prior to all that, Jesus, fully God, needed to be made fully human in the flesh in order to ultimately pay the ransom for our sin. Jesus would live a human life and then die on a cross as the sacrifice for sin; yours and mine. It is challenging, to say the least, to understand how the person of God can be full of the glory of God, has been reduced to being a human embryo, born as an infant, grown through childhood into adulthood, experienced fatigue, immeasurable physical pain and psychological suffering, and is then executed to death on a cross as the sacrifice for sin. How is this possible?

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (NKJV)

Most Christians, regardless of religious denomination or affiliation, have been taught as theology that Jesus was God made flesh some 2000 years ago, and was identified as being fully man and fully divine (God) simultaneously; the God-man. It is theologically considered to be fact that Jesus was fully divine while fully participating in the human condition. It would be a miraculous thing since it is an intellectual contradiction. However, there appears to be room for discussion regarding the humanity of Jesus, taking into account the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), the New Testament writings of Apostle Paul, as well as the written words of Jesus himself.

“God became a man, but his now-fellow men would not accept him. At every turn, he was doubted, challenged, and scorned by people blinded and enslaved by their expectations of what God should be like… With rare exception, the people did not recognize who he was, and they did not believe him when he told them because their minds already had a firm image of what the Messiah should be like, as well as how the prophecies of his coming should be fulfilled. Their ideas about these things were so ironclad that they were unable to recognize the reality standing in front of them.” —David C. Grabbe, author

There are numerous passages in both the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible that describe the sacrifice for sin as the perfect sacrifice, a lamb without blemish, and blameless. Because there is so much biblical commentary on this, I will not simply pick the one that suits the points I hope to support through my study of Scripture. That does not feel right to me.

When looking deeper into the original Hebrew translation for the word ‘perfect’ in the Old Testament, taman, is typically described to mean wholeness, soundness, and integrity of mind; innocence, or to go a step further, most innocent. The original Greek translation used in the New Testament for the word ‘perfect’ is calal, translated to mean completeness, free from sin. The word ‘perfect’ in the Old Testament, as it related to the sacrifice for sin, typically described what Jesus needed to be. The New Testament, in the book of Hebrews, described what Jesus did as the perfect sacrifice, achieved in its completeness, in order to set God’s creation free from sin.

This is worthy of examination, though not for the purpose of seeing Jesus as anything less than who he was in the flesh as a human being on earth. It is for the purpose of appreciating what Jesus had to overcome to be who he was while entirely human and dwelling among humans, in order to achieve his mission, in order to fulfill his calling as the sinless, blameless sacrifice for sin.

So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings (temptations) we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:14-16 (NLT)

The New Testament of The Bible clearly states that Jesus understands the weakness of flawed imperfection, not because we were created imperfect, but because the original humans could choose for themselves. Adam and Eve had it all. They were stewards of God’s creation. However, when tempted to want more, when their belief in who they were was challenged, they were compelled to want more than they already had, and to be more than they already were, and made that infamously foolish, self-centered, choice. They would go on to repeat poor decisions until it became rather routine behavior. They would then pass imperfect thoughts and behavior on to their children. And so it went and goes from there; the endless cycle of giving in to the temptation to be selfish.

Because of that, all have sinned since Adam and Eve. All have chosen poorly at one time or another, and so we are born into this imperfectly flawed condition that is humanity. The New Testament tells us that Jesus was born into the same human condition, imperfect as it is, and was tempted by human desire and intention, and tested by the same challenge that comes with being human.

I am not the first to chronicle who and what I believe Jesus to be as one who laid aside his deity to become someone in the likeness of human flesh in order to most fully appreciate the human condition, having participaed fully in the human experience. The Apostle Paul did that long before this. What I have written involves deep study into Scripture, as well as researching the opinions and commentary of Biblical scholars. There is a spectrum of opinion interpreting Scripture regarding the theology of Jesus having emptied himself of divine standing, privilege, and advantage, born of human flesh, and to live the human experience (Philippians 2:6-8). How human was Jesus during his 33 years living among “us”?

Here’s the thing. Once we accept that God in all three persons made the universe and originated life from nothing, then all things done, made, and changed by God is entirely possible. This includes the transformation of God the son into the person of human flesh, born of a virgin, known as Jesus (Yeshua) while inhabiting the earth.

What you will read throughout this essay is not only possible, but I believe is likely, to the point I believe it to be more than one person’s opinion or speculation. If you read this, you may disagree. But if you process this information with an open mind, hoping to appreciate what Jesus sacrificed so that we would have relationship with God, you just might find this to be a compelling read; or at the very least, something to seriously consider.

At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 2 Corinthians 5:16 (NLT)

Most will say that Jesus, as a man of flesh walking the earth, was no doubt perfect. But that presents a problem. If Jesus the man was absolutely perfect, as we typically consider perfection to be without a single flaw, then it would not be possible for Jesus to sin. If Jesus could not sin, how could he be truly tempted to sin? The virtuous essence of the humility of Jesus as a servant was his dependence on God the Father. Perfect and fully God, why would Jesus need to depend on God, except to be a model of what dependence on God is supposed to look like?

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. Luke 4:1-2 (ESV)

Did Jesus really need that time to fast and pray in in the wilderness? Did he know he would be confronted by incredible adversity while broken down by fatigue, hunger, and loneliness? If Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, is not entirely human without the advantage of being fully divine, is his participation in the human condition entirely authentic? This expression of human need was not a show as some token model or example of what it looks like to depend on God.

His time of fasting with prayer and meditation in the wilderness truly and fully prepared Jesus for servanthood and ministry of historic proportions that would ultimately take him to the garden of Gethsemane, pleading with his heavenly father—God—for an alternative option to be the blood sacrifice for sin. Whether we like it or not, Jesus, entirely human in the likeness of sinful flesh, according to Apostle Paul, bore the full weight of God’s wrath against the sin of humanity that proved most hostile in opposition to God’s glory and holiness.

Who, being in very nature God, (Jesus) did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Philippians 2:6-7 (NIV)

This is a big deal to me. Why? It’s important that I appreciate the very real need of Jesus in human flesh who trusted God absolutely to fulfill his role as the sinless sacrifice for sin.

Does it diminish who Jesus was in the flesh as a human being? Or, is the opposite true?

The life of Jesus, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, having experienced a sinless life, amplifies the life of Jesus in the flesh. It would be so much more that Jesus would experience every heartbeat of human discomfort, pain, suffering and struggle, whether it be physical, psychological, or spiritual. As Apostle Paul wrote, Jesus emptied himself of his divine nature to the point of absolutely no divine standing, privilege, advantage, and authority.

“In the New Testament the words rendered “carnal” are derived from sarks, “flesh.” This refers to the flesh as opposed to the pneuma, “spirit,” and denotes, in an ethical sense, mere human nature, the lower side of man as apart from the Divine influence, and therefore estranged from God and prone to sin; whatever in the soul is weak and tends toward ungodliness.” —James Orr, General Editor, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1915

So within this study lies a myriad of questions:

Was Jesus without flaw or shortcoming as a human being, or was Jesus so human that he shared in all of the weakness of every person subject to temptation?

Did Jesus desire what a human being, by nature, desires?

Could Jesus be selfish, or to put it another way, self-centered?

Being made in the likeness of sinful flesh, was Jesus prone by his human nature to sin?

Was Jesus have self-centered impulses as a child growing up?

Did Jesus make mistakes as a child growing up that would not be counted against him as sin since he was, in fact, a child learning to discern right from wrong?

If Jesus was incapable of immature self-centeredness natural to being human as an impulsive young child, could he ever truly be tempted to sin as he matured into adolescence and adulthood?

Really think about this. Would the emotionally-driven impulses of a very young Jesus be without flaw and imperfection?

In his ministry as an adult, when he returned to his “home town” to do ministry, he did not impress a whole lot of people. He was not known by the people of his hometown to be all that remarkable. Even his own siblings, including his brother James (yes, that James, who wrote scripture), did not identify Jesus to be the prophesied Messiah that would one day be his king, until after the resurrection.

The spotless lamb of God who Isaiah, prophesied to be the Messiah, in the minds of his family and friends, I suspect, found Jesus to be “disqualified” since they had seen his flaws as a young person. To them, he was not known to spotless… not considered remarkable as this perfect human being without flaw as the Son of God would be. Not even his own brother James was buying it.

Please understand this: What makes Jesus all the more “qualified” to be our Messiah is that he was indeed flawed as a human being, as the Apostle Paul wrote, made in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3, NKJV). In other words, Jesus was born human with the potential—the aptitude and natural inclination—to be self-centered enough to sin, as any human born would be. And yet, by the time he was found in the temple blowing the minds of scholars with his understanding of things at the tender age of twelve, Jesus was living a sinless life.

Was young Jesus without flaw or imperfection? No. Was it possible that Jesus had an ego or sense of pride that would not be held against him as sin at such a young age? I believe it to be possible; likely even. How can you not believe it to be possible? As stated, if at the age of 12, Jesus was in control of all emotional impulse, he would have been observed by everyone as being an incredibly remarkable child. It may not have been a surprise to his brothers, cousins, and townspeople that there was someone uniquely special in their midst who as an adult might be healing people from affliction, delivering them from bondage,  and what not.

But, none of them would consider that the promised Messiah was in their midst. What I find peculiar about that is that his family and friends would have been so convinced that this child prodigy among them was so remarkable that it might even be reasonable to believe that he was the chosen one, their Messiah. He was one of them. What an advantage it would be to his home town to proclaim that the Messiah had grown up among them.

Did God blind their minds from recognizing something phenomenally special about Jesus during his formative years?

Why were they not in awe of this boy—this prodigy, this phenom—while growing up if he was the perfect child?

We are led by the story in scripture to consider that young Jesus was not a boy that was viewed as perfect. He was not considered remarkable compared to his brothers, who were probably good boys, but hardly perfect. Among his family and friends, young Jesus was no doubt favored by his parents because of who they knew him to be, but young Jesus would be groomed by his mother and others to recognize, and believe for himself, that he was indeed the chosen one.

It would not be until Jesus was 30 years old that he would be led to fast for 40 days and nights in the wilderness that his imperfections and flaws would be put to the test. Why? It wasn’t theater. It wasn’t for show! It was so that Jesus would identify that only God was his source for strength, sustenance, comfort, stability, and perhaps even his sanity under the weight of his circumstances.

The human being that was Jesus apparently needed to be put to the test so that during three years of ministry he would not need to be validated by his friends and family when he went home to do ministry; to serve those he loved. Because, he didn’t get it. I tend to think that when Jesus declared that “a prophet is not welcome in his home town”, and then left town, that it was not out of spite or anger, but from a place of humility, having been tested in the depths of his character. Jesus stated the fact of who he is and was rejected. However, he may have stirred the hearts of a few folks who were receptive to him, who would one day find him, and like his brother James, would come to serve with him in ministry.

Everyone else, many of whom he knew in Nazareth, were accusing Jesus of blasphemy, so vehement to the point of trying to throw him over a cliff.

(As an aside, it is interesting to me that whenever preachers or anyone else talk about Jesus while human on earth, as it pertains to his relationship with God, they will not refer to God, as God. They are sure to reference God as “his Father” or “the Father”. Only Jesus, and at times the Apostle Paul, apparently referred to his Father as “God”, sometimes in the third person. Both Jesus and Paul in the New Testament hinted that there may be a hierarchy of sorts within the triune God relationship.)

Could Jesus Sin in the Flesh?

I will continue to emphasize, moving forward, that I am in no way attempting to diminish the person of Jesus while on earth in the flesh as a human being. My intention is to hopefully convey what I believe in my soul was revealed by the Holy Spirit about how Jesus was so altogether human that each and every experience while human was in his human body; his human brain; his human soul and spirit. What that does is amplify what it means that Jesus could resist the temptation to sin with human desire (the way you and I want what we want), entirely dependent on whom Jesus himself identified to be a higher authority, whether referring to him as his Father, or as God. Even the Apostle Paul wrote about wanting to appreciate all the more the sufferings of his Savior. Stripped of divine advantage, Jesus would experience every suffering—physical, psychological, and spiritual—entirely human.

Most Bible scholars write that in the flesh, Jesus could not in actuality sin. The God in him, if you will, overrode any real possibility that Jesus could give into whatever temptation he may have been exposed to as a human being in the flesh. Commentaries I read in my personal study usually suggest that the temptation of Jesus—God in the flesh—while human on the earth was more of a perceptual reality, that while exposed to temptation, was sinless because he was fully God. And so, there lies the great paradox regarding the temptation of Jesus; or, perhaps there lies the contradiction.

If Jesus fully divine as God was incapable of feeling temptation to the extent that it was possible to give into it, wouldn’t the same be true that fully divine as God he was limited in his flesh to feeling pain to the extent that he suffered like you or I would? Would the divine in Jesus limit, or even prevent, Jesus from emotional or psychological pain and discomfort on the level human beings not fully God would fully experience as being fully human?

If Jesus was fully God while fully man in the flesh, he would be without flaw and incapable of sin. Incapable of sin, he could hardly be tempted to sin. Not really. It can be said that there is no way that Jesus could have led a sinless life if not fully divine. But, what if that is exactly what qualifies Jesus as the only one to so fully depend on the Spirit-filled relationship he had with God the Father to be the model of what it takes to live fully human having led a sinless life?

Also, if Jesus was perfect without flaw, would he need nourishment and sleep to adequately function; to stay alive?

The following is a Bible passage I found in my research that indeed points to Jesus being fully man and fully God:

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. Colossians 2:8-10 (ESV)

Many will accuse me of spewing human philosophy and empty deceit that does not align with the truth about Jesus the Christ, our Savior who has redeemed us through his sacrifice as the ransom for sin. I am in full agreement that Jesus is fully man and fully God, and sitting on the throne as the sovereign head with absolute authority. It is Jesus whom I serve. When examining the passage above, the Apostle Paul is speaking in the present tense. Read it again if you did not see it.

Does it diminish Jesus if fully in the flesh he was flawed and could make mistakes from a self-centered nature? Or rather, does it make it that much more remarkable that Jesus, from the time of accountability, led a sinless life? Does it make Jesus less or does it make Jesus more, to consider him capable of sin should it have been possible, to be authentically tempted to selfishly do wrong, yet remain innocent of unrighteous behavior?

God absolutely cannot sin. God can do no wrong. God cannot die. It is utterly impossible.

It will be addressed throughout this article the matter of whether it is at all possible that Jesus, from the time of accountability for sin, could have. The question that will be addressed repeatedly is: If Jesus could not have been capable of sin while participating fully in the human condition, could he ever be tempted on an emotional level to behave badly from a self-centered place from within?

Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:6-7 (ESV)

For he, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his prerogatives as God’s equal, but stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man. Philippians 2:6-7 (PHILLIPS)

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges taking the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. Philippians 2:6-7 (NLT)

Jesus, who considered equality with God something not something to be cling to, emptied himself of divine standing and privilege, to be obedient in the likeness of sinful flesh. Actually, grace did not really become a thing until Jesus did what he did. Jesus abandoned his God nature to take on human nature; which in the Apostle Paul’s text is like that of a sin nature. This is an in-depth study into what it all means.

This is so important, perhaps even necessary, to more fully appreciate the immense sacrifice it was for Jesus to fully participate in the nature, condition, and experience without applying any of his nature as God to be an advantage in his time living among human beings on the earth. Jesus did not find it advantageous to truly experience human desire, temptation, pain, and struggle by clinging to his divine, God nature, so why do we have such a hard time accepting that Jesus laid it all down to be born human?

As I attempt to lay out the entirely human suffering of Jesus in the flesh to pay our debt, please try not to let the preconditioning of what you thought you knew about this growing up get in the way. That’s what I had to do with tears to get to this point.

I will be making the point that Yeshua, Jesus, fully man, having been made flesh and born into the world, laid down his divine nature as God for some thirty-three years, making it absolutely necessary to trust and fully depend on God the Father while filled with God the Spirit. There is no twisting, spinning, or taking what the Bible says about it out of context. It is simply a matter of discerning literary truth while acknowledging the written Word of God laid out by Paul in letters to the churches in Philippi and Rome.

Paul wrote that Jesus gave up divine standing and privilege to participate in the likeness of human flesh. The word ‘likeness’ is translated from the original Greek to mean, “to be made into”. (This will be a big deal later when getting into the matter of understanding what it is that Jesus is God’s only begotten son.) The word ‘man’ is translated from the original Greek language to mean, “human being”. This study will take on the challenge of identifying the degree to which Jesus was human by examining the Greek words for ‘likeness’ and ‘flesh’.

My purpose in making this point is to establish that his torment and suffering leading up to his crucifixion, during his crucifixion, and for three days until his resurrection was entirely a human experience, without the advantage (perks, if you will) of being divinely sovereign. To be divine as God, I believe, diminishes Christ’s suffering because, after all, how much can God actually suffer (being that he’s God), even if he has taken on human flesh? Entirely and exclusively human, Christ’s suffering is immeasurable and unimaginable. Maybe, this is why Paul goes to great lengths to also appreciate the suffering of his Lord; wanting to fellowship with Jesus in that suffering.

I will harp on making this point repeatedly throughout this article.

I Am In the Father and the Father is In Me

It is typically accepted and taught that Jesus was fully God and fully man. This is true. Jesus, fully God-fully man is the alpha and the omega. He was from the beginning, and is today and forever, fully God while fully man.

Let’s get right to it. Here is the scripture pointing to Jesus proclaiming his deity:

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. ⁴ And you know the way to where I am going.” ⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸ Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. ¹¹ Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

¹² “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. John 14:1-14 (ESV)

Is Jesus stating definitively that in his flesh he is entirely divine as fully God? Perhaps. But consider this: The disciples and most of his followers believed their Messiah to be the new king of the Jewish people who would restore Israel into the nation it once was; out from under the oppression of Roman rule. It was a thousand-year prophecy that had yet to be fulfilled, and still wouldn’t be until nearly another two thousand years in 1948 A.D.

When Jesus died on the cross, so did the fulfillment of the prophecy, as far as these believers understood. It wasn’t until believers were filled with the Holy Spirit—glorified Jesus living in them—that they would realize that it was Christ dwelling within them, inhabiting their souls and brains. Their Messiah had come for them in human flesh, and then lived in and through them by way of his Spirit; the Holy Spirit of God. Just as Jesus himself was filled with the Spirit of God, so had the disciples, at something called Pentecost, been filled the Spirit of God.

The disciples were anointed and ordained by God, full of the Spirit of God, to continue the miraculous work of Jesus, having ascended to heaven and exalted to the throne as King, at the right hand of the Father. It is accepted theologically and doctrinally that Jesus is in fact fully man and fully God. But what about his time on earth as a man of flesh? It’s a bit complicated.

What does it mean that Jesus said, “Whoever have seen me has seen the Father?” Jesus was known to be a teacher while human on the earth, master since he was known to have spiritual authority considering his connection with who the disciples recognized as God, and Jesus was known to be a prophet. At the very least, “Whoever have seen me has seen the Father,” is prophetic.

When the day comes that we see God in heaven, we will see Jesus in all of his glory as God. Jesus is the physical manifestation of God. Whenever we have seen Jesus we will indeed see our heavenly Father. We will also be glorified in our bodies, which will allow us to see Jesus, unlike what John experienced when he fell as if he was dead, when he saw Jesus glorified. Even in heaven, we will be filled with the Spirit of God. We will always experience the presence of Jesus, wherever we are, whatever we are doing.

Think about it. How many will inhabit heaven? All believers in relationship with God from Adam and Eve until… Well, I don’t know how to finish that sentence since only God knows. Will there be billions of us? Tens of billions? According to WorldAtlas.com, some 108 billion people have lived on planet earth until now. What percentage of that ever-increasing number have experienced relationship with God on some level… on the level that they have experienced the unmerited favor of God and their sins have been forgiven?

The omnipresence of Jesus, fully man and fully God in heaven will allow him to be anywhere and everywhere he chooses to be among us as the family of believers in glory. Anytime we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father. And it is the Holy Spirit that allows us, even in heaven, to encounter and experience Jesus in our midst, all of the time.

That is then (future tense), this is now, and now behold the promise.

Sympathetic Advocate

²⁵ I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. ²⁶ But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. ²⁷ “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. ²⁸ Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am. ²⁹ I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you will believe. John 14:25-29 (NLT)

Jesus, while human in the flesh, addresses the order of things. While participating fully in the human condition and plight of the human condition, that contains within it the desire of the flesh, it ultimately leads to death in the flesh. The difference in the case of Jesus, is that he led a sinless life. However, even a sinless life in the flesh was vulnerable to the flawed human existence, and still subject to the inevitability of death in the flesh. Jesus understood it and lived it, beyond the scope of what any biblical scholar has to say about it. Jesus spoke of the Father as “greater than I am” recognized he was flawed and, dare I say, imperfect as a human being on earth. Jesus, the man, laid aside divine standing, privilege, and advantage, in order to completely experience all that he did; beyond anything you or I could possibly imagine.

What is awesome is that, having died as the sacrifice for sin, resurrected into new life, paving the way for all of us to be resurrected into new life, Jesus left his experience as a human being, and was exalted as fully God, fully divine. But, Jesus did not stop there. Jesus told his disciples that his leaving would be better and to their advantage.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. John 14:12 (NLT)

Jesus came back by way of the Holy Spirit, to be our advocate, helper, and comforter, by inhabiting our lives in the way that transcends human comprehension. Being filled with the Spirit of God, is the unveiling of everything that is possible and accessible in relationship with God.

Whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 (NLT)

Spirit-filled believers were doing mighty works while filled with the Spirit of God fully alive in them. You might say, Jesus raised people from the dead. So did apostles Peter (Acts 9:36-43) and Paul (Acts 20:7-12). They healed people and cast out demons with the Spirit of God fully alive in them. Peter and Paul, I suppose, could have said, and rightfully so, when you see me, you see Jesus. I am in Jesus and he is in me. Deity was fully alive in these human beings but they were not themselves divine. Paul sometimes challenged believers to imitate him as representative of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to his disciple Phillip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works… whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” At the outset of the passage above, Jesus speaks in future tense of preparing a place in glory for believers. Jesus said that he speaks from a place of a higher authority, and that those in ministry after him will do even greater works than he because Jesus is going to the Father, having been fully restored into who he is as God; sovereign king with full authority to dwell in the lives of the faithful. Again, future tense. 

In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? Hebrews 1:2-5 (ESV)

The writer of Hebrews indicates that the Son of God reflects the majestic, radiant glory of the Father and was and is the full expression of all that God is, to the extent that the universe was created through the person of God’s son. But then Jesus, as planned, emptied himself of his position of divine standing and privilege to live among us in the flesh, obedient to the point of sacrificing his very life to redeem us from sin and death. Then God resurrected Jesus from the dead and exalted him to the throne to be worshipped. All relationship with God, including the atonement for sin, is through the person that is Jesus Christ. The other point worth noting is an apparent inference that there has always been a hierarchy in the triune persons of God in terms of how they interact with each other and their roles in terms of how they interact with each other. The writer of Hebrews seemingly goes out his way to speak of Jesus as worthy of worship.

This has been the introduction to responding to the question, what does it mean that God became flesh? How can God become flesh? How human was Jesus, God in the flesh?

So then, since we have a great High Priest (advocate) who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:14-16 (NLT)

In order to better understand and appreciate the sacrifice of the person of God who we call Jesus, we need to examine him humbling himself to the point that his initial sacrifice was laying down his function and authority as God; to become entirely man Jesus can sympathize with your weakness and mine. To begin, let’s define the word ‘sympathy’.

Sympathy—from Latin sympathia, from Greek sympatheia, having common feelings, sympathetic, feelings, emotion, experience—pathos means an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion

Sympathy—1 a: an affinity, association, or relationship between persons or things wherein whatever affects one similarly affects the other b: mutual or parallel susceptibility or a condition brought about by it c: unity or harmony in action or effect 2 a: inclination to think or feel alike: emotional or intellectual accord b: feeling of loyalty: tendency to favor or support 3 a: the act or capacity of entering into or sharing the feelings or interests of another b: the feeling or mental state brought about by such sensitivity

Savior—1: one that saves from danger or destruction, 2: one who brings salvation
As defined by Merriam-Webster, Inc.

The objective here is to really get to know Jesus Christ as the person who knows you intimately, and has experienced personally—physically, emotionally and spiritually—all that you and I have experienced in our lifetime. He knows the emotional spectrum from human triumph and elation to deep sorrow, paranoia, fear and devastation until finally the experience of death.

The Humility of God

From the beginning Jesus was the sacrifice intended to restore mankind into relationship with God. Because we are not and never were God, we were by our nature prone to choose independently from the perfect will of God. God, knowing this, had already prepared a way for mercy for our imperfect choices and behavior.

The Bible says that God gave us His only begotten Son. But, the word ‘begotten’ used to describe how God gave us Jesus means, ‘brought forth’, ‘produced’, or ‘created’. Jesus has always been, from the beginning, God, as the Bible tells us he has. So perhaps He was identified by God as His Son for the first time when He was conceived inside the womb of his earthly mother Mary. While the person of Jesus always existed as God, His humanity was “created” or made for Jesus, becoming the only begotten Son of God as conceived by way of a human being to be born human.

What killed the body, mind, and human heart of our Lord Jesus was the sin of mankind that, not only killed Jesus on the cross, but also was responsible for Jesus being exhausted, hungry, thirsty; and able to experience pain, sickness, fear, discouragement, and even despair at Gethsemane.

This is important to better comprehend and appreciate the degree to which Jesus was actually human as He demonstrated His dependence on God the Father to live out His life of humanity—what the Bible refers to as “flesh”—without sin. Jesus modelled for us the perfect example of recovery from flesh as he would admit powerlessness, believe that His Father, God, would empower Him with authority over his mortal body and mind of flesh, and commit to depend on God the Father for everything. The approach of Jesus to His own recovery from the human plight was as though his life depended on it. Jesus understood that His very breath was dependent on God to survive His life as a human being.

We may not be able to understand how Jesus, as God, made himself to become this “creation” of human flesh by the reproductive processes created by God, but the Bible explains why Jesus became flesh. It was necessary that Jesus not merely appear on the scene, but be born onto the scene; to live in the flesh.

That being said, God somehow caused a virgin to conceive and the human experience of Jesus began. The human life of Jesus began when the egg of the virgin Mary became fertile and formed into an embryo, which grew into a fetus with the exchange of human blood and DNA from his mother. He had his Heavenly Father’s Spirit, but the Bible tells us he was fully human. Jesus had the full deity of who He was as God but somehow laid it down in order to fully experience humanity in order to better relate with you and me.

“Jesus did not come to do what he did and say what he said to fulfill prophecy. Jesus came and did what he did, and said what he said, and prophecy was fulfilled.” —Mr. Johnson, incarcerated at the time

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:14 (NASB)

The Word Became Flesh

Does it merely mean that Jesus was God manifest in human form by means of flesh and bones, or was Jesus born of and in the flesh as it speaks to the whole person – body, heart, mind, and soul (the character, or spirit of a person)?

Was Jesus fully God and fully man? That is what most of us have been taught but is it an accurate interpretation of Scripture? Does it make sense even in a Biblical context?

God is never tempted to do wrong… Temptation comes from our own desires…  James 1:13-14 (NLT)

Start with these questions:

• Can God sin?
• Can God be tempted to sin?
• Can God die?
• Can God forsake (abandon) God?

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (NLT: “abandoned me?”) Matthew 27:46

God rejects—disowns—sin!

Can God reject—disown—God?

If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny (“disown”, NIV) Himself. 2 Timothy 2:13 (NKJV)

Could Jesus be tempted to sin in all aspects as we are if He was fully God in his “human” experience? It is important to understand the human condition of Jesus to appreciate the scope of His sacrifice in order for us to have a restored relationship with God. Jesus, was “made” to live the full human experience, the Bible says. I’ll ask it again, Can God die… really? He must have miraculously made Himself fully human, empty of His divine nature as God. I won’t speak for you, but I believe it is the only thing that makes real sense; magnifying all the more the sacrifice of the triune union that is God.

This is a revelation given to us by the Apostle Paul, to describe for us the nature of the man, Jesus. Observe the pattern of submission within this verse. While being in “very nature” God, meaning before becoming human, Jesus, fully God, decided within the the three-person union that is God to place Himself under the authority of God the Father. Jesus never ceased to be God. So, in being God, He would not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Paul wrote that Jesus, fully God, made Himself “nothing”. Nothing in relation to what? Who He was as God, that’s what. Somehow He made Himself fully human—not fully God anymore until He was resurrected and exalted to the throne as King of kings and Lord of lords. I don’t have to understand it… because I don’t… but I do accept it.

The Bible in this passage tells us that in His humanity Jesus gave up the function of being God by the laying down of His divine nature so as to have no advantage in His human experience. He humbled himself absolutely to be a man of no reputation to the point that, in his humanity, He was subject to the law of sin that leads to the decay and death of his human flesh—body, mind, heart and soul. He also did not consider Himself to be equal with God, in terms of function (power and authority) while in human flesh. This fact came from the lips of Jesus Himself, delineating between God’s perfect goodness and His own humanness.

Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is, God.” Luke 18:18-19 (NKJV)

Father-Son, Master-Servant Relationship

“Consider how our Lord regards his own Sonship, surrendering his will wholly to the paternal will and not even allowing himself to be called ‘good’ because Good is the name of the Father. Love between father and son, in this symbol, means essentially authoritative love on the one side, and obedient love on the other. The father uses his authority to make the son into the sort of human being he, rightly, and in his superior wisdom, wants him to be.” —C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain   

The relationship of God the Father and God the Son had been established. Exactly when this relationship between God the Father and Jesus, the Son of God, was established is hard to say. The prophets were given revelation of the father-son relationship between God and Jesus way back in the Old Testament (Psalm 2:16). The prophet Isaiah referred to Jesus as God’s beloved Servant (Isaiah 42:1, 53:10). Revelation tells us that Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world. As stated previously, I believe that Jesus became God’s begotten  Son at the point He became flesh in Mary’s womb even though it was planned from the beginning (remember that ‘begotten’ means ‘made’ and ‘created’ while also being uniquely God’s son since as God He humbled Himself to be made human in the flesh).

Even when resurrected, while encountering his dear, and perhaps best, friend Mary, Jesus says to her,

“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” John 20:17 (NLT)

The original Greek translation for the word ‘ascend’ means “to rise; to go up”. There is only speculation in most Bible commentaries about this particular passage of Scripture. It is odd. The word ‘cling’ is typically translated to mean “touch”. Yet Jesus told certain people, such as Thomas, to touch him. Are to understand that no one was permitted to embrace risen Jesus with a hug for the nearly six weeks Jesus remained on earth prior to actually ascending to his Father and exalted to the throne?

What if Jesus is referring to his position? What if the resurrection of Jesus is part of the process of ascension positionally returning to his divine standing as fully God while still fully man? What if Jesus is telling Mary something about that… that he has been resurrected from the dead, but is still fully man without divine standing and privilege until ascending to that position, once exalted to who he is as God on the throne? What if Jesus has always known that since entering ministry? As one who is humble to the core, would Jesus care whether he was fully God or not while entirely human in the flesh, even post-resurrection, the way theologians care?

It sounds to me as though Jesus knew it to be something like that as he clearly stated to Mary, “Go find my brothers and tell them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” Jesus, having just been resurrected from the dead, which together with his death on the cross is the most important and essential event in history, is identifying with Mary, his sister in their unique and united fellowship, and his brothers in the fellowship of human servants fishermen in the faith, that he will be ascending to their God, who in that moment, is his God.

Wow! I will no longer allow that to be lost on me. Jesus is keenly aware of the distinction between where he is in the flesh, and where he is going, exalted to the throne as King. Jesus knows definitively who he is in that moment, and who he will be when fully divine upon the throne. Before ascending to his God, Jesus will tell his brothers and sisters of that incredible fellowship, that he will return to them very soon by way of the Holy Spirit, the person of God they have only known through Jesus.

What is remarkable, in close examination of this relationship, is that it appears that Jesus, as God, humbled Himself out of necessity to fulfill His purpose of becoming a submissive servant. While still being God, according to these verses in Philippians, Jesus chose to lay down His divine nature and authority. Then, after Jesus lowers himself, as if to initiate a divine hierarchy, He offers Himself in submission to God as a servant, as a son under the authority of His Father, and reduces himself from who he is as God to the form of a human being.

How Human Was Jesus?

John wrote, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us… the only begotten of the Father.” What does scripture say about the flesh? The flesh is imperfect. It is by nature unclean because of sin, and it is decaying to death because of the law of sin. Remember that the law of sin dictates that what is made alive on this earth must die. The Bible tells us that Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, meaning He was subject to the law of sin. His body would eventually get worn out, grow old and die.

What is so interesting in determining to what extent that Jesus the Son became flesh is that the original Greek word for flesh in the Bible is the word ‘Sarx’.

The meaning for ‘Sarx’ is as follows:

• the soft substance of the living body covering the bones and permeated with blood
• the sensuous nature of man
• the physical man subject to suffering
• human nature apart from divine influence, and therefore prone to sin

A root word for ‘Sarx’ is ‘Sarkinos’, which means:

• consisting and composed of perishable flesh
• Latin: ‘carnalis’ meaning “carnal, worldly, bodily, sensual, unspiritual and fleshy.
• wholly given up to the flesh, or rooted in the flesh

(Above descriptions of ‘Sarx’ and ‘Sarkinos’ are derived from Thayer’s Greek Lexicon)

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:3-4 (NLT)

The apostle Paul wrote that Jesus, fully God while fully man, emptied himself of divine standing and advantage—position—becoming nothing, to take on the nature of a humble servant (Philippians 2:6-7) “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3). So, when Jesus said that seeing him is seeing the Father, what really is he referring to… who he knows he is in divine standing as fully God and man… or… this most vulnerable of human beings made “in the likeness of sinful flesh” who can be truly tempted to truly sin?

“In fighting for his deity, as we should, have we overlooked how human — how shockingly human — God himself became in Jesus of Nazareth? Paradoxical as it is, the Scriptures plainly affirm that Jesus both knows all things as God and doesn’t know all things as man. For the unique, two-natured, singular person of Christ, this is no contradiction, but a peculiar glory of the God-man.” —David Mathis, Executive Editor, DesiringGod.com

Mr. Mathis is right to say that if Jesus was entirely God while entirely human, he would know all things as God, and not know all things as man. But, how does that begin to compute on any level as reasonable? I can have a sense that something is good or bad but then, when weighing the risk against the reward, the cost versus the potential benefit, I may feel stuck as though I cannot decide what to do. But, it’s not as though I am in the dark about what I know and don’t know. I am fully aware of the conflict as I consider my options. Is Jesus the man the left hand in the dark not knowing what Jesus the divine, the right hand, is doing? Seriously? How does that not diminish who Jesus was as the Son of God in the flesh on the earth if he was fully divine while in the flesh? Is it paradoxical, or is it a contradiction at the root of all that is reasonable? Is it word play?

Another word representing the fleshly body of a human being, aside from a person’s mind and soul, is the word ‘soma’. Typically, soma is the Greek translation for the word ‘body’ in the Bible. The word ‘Sarx’ on the other hand, is what is translated from the original Greek language to contextualize your flesh and mine as carnal, dominated and ruled by sin. We as sinners have no problem identifying these word to describe our own flesh given over to the powerful nature of sin that enslaves us (John 8:36, Romans 7). It is the sin nature of our flesh—Sarx—that we have been set free from by the sacrifice of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Would you like to hazard a guess as to which of these words, soma and Sarx, is assigned to the flesh that is Jesus in human form, both in John 1, verse 14 (the Word was made flesh), and Romans 8, verse 3, (“By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh”)?

The word Paul used to describe the Jesus in the flesh is in fact ‘Sarx’. There is no escaping this. I am not alone, even among theologians, in the assertion that Jesus was vulnerable to real temptation influenced, even coerced, by the drive of human desire, and all it entails.

“Soma and Sarx overlap in meaning in that both can refer to the physical body, man in his physical relationships. But where soma is generally a neutral concept, Sarx regularly has negative connotations. Soma denotes man in the world; Sarx denotes man belonging to the world. Sarx is more regularly negative in itself without a qualifying phrase. Sarx by itself means mortal body, body dominated by weakness and corruptibility; Sarx by itself means body of sin, body ruled by sin.” —James D.G. Dunn, British New Testament Scholar, Tyndale Lecture delivered in Cambridge, 1974

The Vulnerability of Jesus in the Flesh

If taken literally, does being vulnerable to temptation “in the likeness of sinful flesh” somehow invalidate the blameless sacrifice of Christ as anything else but sinless? What does it really mean that Jesus on earth truly was tempted in every way we are?

He himself has shared fully in all our experience of temptation, except that he never sinned. Hebrews 4:15 (PHILLIPS)

Was Jesus subject to the law of sin in his soul? I believe that we learn that Jesus, a man of flesh, was vulnerable, and even “obedient” to the reality of sin in the world as a person of human flesh. I will not pretend to comprehend this; however, this point needs to be made for Jesus to be authentically human, having the will of the flesh, meaning the full measure of human desire. It is important, then, that we accept that God the Son essentially emptied Himself of being God in order to become flesh.

Sin is predicated on our desire for control in order to minimize our discomfort in our pursuit of satisfying contentment; to be fulfilled, wanting for nothing. For Jesus to experience honest authentic temptation, would suggest that Jesus the man experienced human dissatisfaction. Here lies the irony. We strive to be more our own god in our pursuit for control, which we eventually learn by experience is impossible to attain (even though we may resist admitting that). Jesus who is God, completely lets go of the control and authority that is His, to become flesh as Jesus the Son, and must totally trust in the control and power of God.

There is no doubt that the disciples of Jesus knew him to be the Christ, the Son of the living God. Thomas saw Jesus, post-resurrection, boldly proclaimed that about Jesus: “My Lord and my God”. There dozens of passages that speak about Jesus as fully divine. Each of these New Testament writers speak of Jesus as fully human, and fully divine in the present tense; usually post-resurrection and post-ascension.

Jesus spoke creation into existence. Jesus breathed the breath of life into Adam, and then Eve. Jesus always was as a third of the Holy Trinity, and always will be; the Alpha and the Omega. I personally do not need to right regarding what I am suggesting about Jesus fully alive as a human being in the likeness of sinful flesh; the begotten Son of God. I only want to best understand and appreciate the degree to which the triune partnership that is God sacrificed so that we might live in fellowship with all three persons of God for eternity.

While preparing and studying to write this, I asked my pastor (of a large church near Chicago), “Could Jesus, while a man on earth, sin to be genuinely tempted to sin?” His response? “Yes.” My pastor, carefully parsing his words, did not disagree that Jesus could not really be tempted to sin, if he could not in actuality sin. It has to at least be logically plausible if Jesus fully participated in the human experience.

In the Likeness of Sinful Flesh

Jesus was tempted in his flesh to sin. What really does it mean that Jesus was ‘flesh’, and what really does it mean that Jesus was ‘tempted’? This is where the seminary scholars want to go to argue in favor of Jesus being simultaneously God while, “in the likeness of human flesh.” They’ll agree that human flesh is literally the physical appearance of human flesh—the human body. It was certainly that; but so much more. I will be taking that on as you read further what the word ‘flesh’ means in the original Greek language of the text. Paul wrote that Jesus took on the likeness of sinful flesh.

The original Greek translation for is homoioma, which can be translated to mean, “a figure, image, likeness, or representation”, to which most would prefer to apply to Paul’s description of Jesus, while living among us, in the likeness of sinful flesh. But homoioma also means, “resemblance, such as amounts almost to equality or identity”.

“I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”  John 6:38 (ESV)

Why not his own will while fully human on planet earth? Is it not the same as the will of his heavenly Father? Are they not entirely in sync? Or, are they in sync only because Jesus in the likeness of sinful flesh is entirely submissive to the person and the will of his heavenly Father?

Paradox or Contradiction?

I get it that it’s an illogical paradox. I struggle to believe that God somehow needed for his son to be born human while simultaneously fully divine. As ridiculous as this will sound, I have to ask, what really is the “challenge” in that? Of course, a fully divine human Jesus would not sin, no matter how tempted, if he could not. It is not what God needed in the human experience of Jesus, it’s more what we need as followers of Christ to mitigate the problem of what reasonably is a contradiction. It is easier to apply full deity to Jesus on earth than it is to believe that Jesus while fully God, emptied himself of divine standing prior to his entry as an infant, and prior to that an embryo in his mother’s womb, to be birthed into the human condition and experience.

I contend that the paradox is not that Jesus could be both fully human and fully divine as God, but that Jesus, born of the favored virgin, emptied himself of his divine nature, as Paul writes (Philippians 2:5), and separated himself from his divine nature to fully experience his humanity in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3, NKJV). There lies the shock value in appreciating the participation of Jesus in the human condition. Today, Jesus the glorified God-man (fully God, fully man) in fact sits on the throne of grace, from a heart of compassion, generously extending such grace to any and all who have need of it.

I have been asked if my study on this subject involved research of biblical scholars who have written about this topic. I have researched biblical commentary and original Greek and Hebrew language as part of my study. You might say that camp is split attempting to understand how human Jesus was, and to the degree to which Jesus was literally tempted to sin against… well… God; how he was tempted, and if Jesus being truly tempted to sin against God is even possible in the literal sense.

“Why does Paul say that Christ came in “the ‘homoioma’ of sinful flesh”? Certainly, in light of “in the flesh” later in this very verse, Paul cannot mean that Christ had only the “appearance” of sinful flesh. “In the form of sinful flesh” emphasizes the full participation of the Son in the human condition.” —Dr. Douglas J. Moo, New Testament scholar, author & professor

There is a great deal of religious dogma assigned to theological doctrine addressing this point. Theologians tend to argue that Jesus could not have sinned; that if he could, he would already have sin in him, disqualifying him as the necessary blood sacrifice without blemish. Religious scholars want to argue that Jesus was tempted, because he was so from the outside in, not from the inside out as normal humans are.

What I go into depth about, is the reasonable, sensible reality that if Jesus could not in fact sin, then he was not in fact really tempted to sin; that if Jesus had to be pure of mind, without human self-satisfying desire, then Jesus could not as a human being sympathize with me. As translated by the New International Version (NIV), Jesus understands me by way of having empathy for me—imagining what it might be like to be you, and to be me—but he would not by experience relate to my inclination to please myself; to rid myself of discomfort through self-soothing means.

Apparently, Jesus need to be able to know my experience and yours, because he experienced fleshly desire and discontentment when the desire was not met. It seems to have been necessary to do more than simply as God, know my experience because God knows all things. Jesus emptied himself of who he was as God in order to related fully and completely to the experience. So, everything he experienced, from birth to the grave and beyond the depths of the grave, must have been necessary. In fact, at some point, Jesus was of a carnal mind, which is enmity against God. We know that because at some point while being crucified, Jesus felt forsaken; abandoned by his heavenly father.

You will come to read that God cannot forsake or abandon God. So God never did forsake his son, even though that is what it felt like to Jesus. Jesus, full of your sin and mine, experienced everything that comes with it; the guilt, the shame, the arrogance, the pride, the indifference; all of it.

“The death of Jesus was qualitatively different from any other death. The physical pain was nothing compared to the spiritual experiences of cosmic abandonment.” —Timothy Keller, author, The Reason for God

I have asked several of my pastor friends to guide me to Scripture that definitively describes Jesus as fully man while fully God, walking in our shoes in order to truly sympathize with the human condition (Hebrews 4:14-16). Each time, I was told they would need to look further into it. I found it curious that seminary grads that have served in ministry for some time would need further study into a foundational point of doctrine and theology concerning the deity of Jesus, while a human being. Perhaps, it’s because it was never questioned, so why prepare for the question.

Of course, they would point to the authority Jesus had to do miracles, heal the sick and restore sight to the blind, cast out demons, forgive sin, and resurrect the dead. The woman whose bleeding condition was healed by a glancing brush with the hem of the garment that Jesus was wearing. Sensing access to his healing authority and power, Jesus stopped to ask, “Who touched me?” Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit; the divine fully alive in him.

The apostles, namely Peter, also preformed healings and miracles; including exorcisms and resurrection. Full of the Holy Spirit, Peter was given authority to forgive sin, and perform astounding miracles, according to the authority and power of the Holy Spirit, the divine fully alive in him. Peter even walked on water with Jesus.

The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. More and more people believed and were brought to the Lord—crowds of both men and women. As a result of the apostles’ work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed. Acts 5:12, 14-16 (NLT)

There is scripture that serves as the foundation for the position that Jesus is at the same time, fully God while fully human. The following verses from the Bible say it all about who Jesus is, but it is often quoted as though it was written to describe the state of Jesus the man of human flesh as he walked the earth.

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. Colossians 2:9-10 (NKJV)

What this verse from the Word of God informs us of is that Jesus is fully God, and fully man, the King of kings with absolute sovereign authority, and that we who are in relationship with him, are made complete in who we are as children of God. God is who God is. Jesus is who Jesus is. And, we are who we are because of who Jesus is… today, right now.

While it might not come easy to reference specific Scripture concerning Christ’s deity while fully human on earth, there is specific Scripture on the tip of my tongue that at the very least suggests that, while he was equal with God, Jesus Christ emptied himself of his divine standing and privilege to take on the likeness of sinful flesh.

Please understand that what I am about to say does not make Jesus less, but on the contrary, makes Jesus more. It enhances the cost and value of what Jesus did for us in his human suffering and sacrifice.

Pastors, priests and teachers of the Gospel will dispute this because it certainly flies in the face of Jesus being fully God while fully man. It’s usually insisted upon that Jesus operated with full authority while flesh on earth. But even Jesus stated that he had no authority; that the only authority he had was afforded to him by the Father (John 5:30); just as the only spiritual authority you and I have comes only from God.

“Coming in the likeness of men” again refers to Christ’s identity as a human being, fully participating in the human condition. Synonyms for the word “likeness” include “replica” and “reproduction.” Jesus was entirely engaged in the human experience. He prayed with his mother. He learned from his mother and at the side of his father.

Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  Philippians 2:6-7 (NIV)

The NIV translation goes even further to say that Jesus emptied himself of his divine nature and took on the nature of a servant, made into human likeness—a reproduction into human flesh. Nature! Our nature is at the core and the very fiber of who we are. Our nature is the very essence of who we are.

When all is said and done, you will find that the point of all of this is to more fully appreciate the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, who bore it all at the cross and beyond, truly paying the entire debt of sin. Not only is it not heretical to point this out, I believe it lends itself to depicting the full glory of what the three persons of God were willing to do to enjoy the best of relationship with you and me.

A Savior was born unto us, broken for us, to breathe life into us

The miracle that was the birth of Jesus—itself the initial act of mercy—set it all in motion; the reconciliation of all people into right relationship with God. What Jesus did out of love at the cross and for three days in the belly of the earth was pay the ransom for our sin. The debt being paid was for our redemption from slavery unto sin into freedom by the life-giving power of the Spirit of God. As Christ was resurrected from condemnation for sin, so were we raised from our fallen condition having been restored into the full inheritance of our salvation in communion with God and into fellowship with the saints; the children of the Father as one family, living in the harmony of perfect, fearless love for all of eternity.

Yeshua—Jesus—is God! So it had to be, dare I say, uncomfortable for the triune relationship that is Father, Son, and Spirit, fully understanding what was at stake as Jesus became a seed in the womb of a human being. And so it began. Even at his birth, the end was in sight; the end of separation between God and His children because of sin… the end of slavery to sin and its power.

Why is only Jesus the remedy for our problem of lingering and deepening dissatisfaction? Besides being the plan of God, why is Jesus uniquely “qualified” as the acceptable sacrifice for our selfish sin? Why is Jesus our sole advocate before the Father?

You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9 (NLT)

It will do your heart good to discover that Jesus shares in your humanity. He was, as the creeds insist, fully human. (Yes, yes – more than that to be sure. But never ever less than that.) When it was funny, he laughed. Imagine Jesus holding his side from laughing so hard. When he witnessed injustice, he was angry. He was at times furious with haughty religious leaders lording over “their subjects.”

Early on in his ministry, Jesus came back to Nazareth, where he grew up. He presented himself as the Messiah, in town to minister to family and friends. Jesus was there to love on those he knew and loved. Jesus was there to heal his family and friends in need, and show them providence in some form, while sharing the good news that their Messiah had come.

It turns out the reception for Jesus wasn’t all that warm. Pretty cold in fact.

Jesus left that part of the country and returned with his disciples to Nazareth, his hometown. The next Sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. They asked, “Where did he get all this wisdom and the power to perform such miracles?” Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.

Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family.” And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Mark 6:1-6 (NLT)

“What… you’re the Messiah from the prophecy?”

“We’re supposed to believe that, because… ?

“We saw you growing up. We knew you to be a normal, regular, guy. We saw you with your brothers and your cousins. You had your issues just like anybody else.”

“You’re our Savior, our new king to be? You’re going to deliver us from Roman oppression? You… really?”

Why would the townspeople, his neighbors and such, not believe Jesus to be special among them? Why would they consider him to be so ordinary? Wasn’t Jesus a special, extraordinary child? If Jesus embodied the full deity of God as a child, wouldn’t he be so unique that his neighbors would be at least impressed with what he’d become?

Unbelievable

Even at the outset of his ministry, Jesus appears to have this contentious relationship with his brothers about who he is, and what he is purposing to do. Why would the younger brothers of Jesus seem to be in conflict with him?

For even his brothers didn’t believe in him. John 7:5 (NLT)

The easy and convenient—fashionable—response is to suggest that the brothers of Jesus were jealous in some way. Were they? Were they so immature and shallow as to resent that Jesus had been shown so much favor by his parents? Or, as children, was Jesus more like them than not, perhaps participating in child-like rebellion, skirmishes, and such? Because, as they grew up together into young adult men, they did come to see that big brother was unique and special, with abilities they did not share. In fact, they may have become disappointed that big brother was unwilling to do more with his potential to be great with his power and influence.

If you read the story from John, chapter 7, it appears that his brothers were daring Jesus to attend a public festival to show himself to his people and, according to their thinking, perform the kinds of miracles a messiah and future king would. They accused Jesus of hiding from people seeking to do him harm, suggesting he is jeopardizing his opportunity to be famous if he doesn’t come out of hiding.

Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!” John 7:3-4 (NLT)

Were his brothers being sarcastic in their jealousy of big brother? Were they seeking to do harm to Jesus by essentially daring him to face his public, as though he would get hurt in the process?

The brothers and sisters of Jesus were raised by the same parents. The entire family was likely loving to one another, following the example of these Spirit-led parents. So then, is it more likely that his brothers actually wanted their big brother to be who he claims to be, but that staying in hiding perhaps reflected weakness and fear, unbecoming of a messiah that would be king one day? Were they spurring him on, challenging big brother to do more with his potential to be great?

As the story goes, Jesus tells his brothers he’s not going to the festival, and remains back. But then he goes to the festival, avoids the public for a bit, and then goes up to the temple and preaches in public and blows everyone away with his knowledge and wisdom.

It’s somewhat odd that Jesus would tell his brothers he’s not going, then changes his mind and goes, seemingly gauges the lay of the land, perhaps sticking his toes in the water, so to speak; and when the timing is right, completely goes for it. Jesus always understood his potential. However, fully participating in the human experience, he may have had to prayerfully overcome some anxiety. How effective would Jesus be speaking in public in front of strangers?

I wonder what his brothers thought of that? It sure was risky, considering Jesus has a whole lot of opposition coming for him. His brothers double-dared Jesus to face his fans, along with his enemies, and as it turns out, he took them up on it. Even though he had his critics calling him a fraud, Jesus made a huge impression on a bunch of folks hearing him speak for the first time. I’d like to think that even though his brothers doubted Jesus was the Messiah, that they also may have been impressed with their big brother.

One of his brothers is James, the writer of the New Testament epistle, James.  Younger brother, James, has written some of the most profound literature of all time. It is certainly divinely inspired Scripture but from the depths of the wisdom from the man’s mind and soul.

So, is it that Jesus as a young man was so morally superior to his younger brothers and in so much favor with his parents (now, only mom since Joseph had died) that they resented him for it? Or, is it possible that Jesus the young man could be temperamental, and perhaps at times isolative under the weight of his God-given objective? Imagine your sibling being divinely appointed to rescue a people from long-standing oppression and slavery. “Come on now. Let’s be serious. Big brother’s a great guy and all, but a future king? The King of the Jews? The prophesied messiah? Really? No way!”

Assuming the brothers of Jesus, in particular James, loved, respected and admired their mother and father, why wouldn’t they grow up feeling at least somewhat privileged that their big brother is going to represent them as he rises to prominence? Why wouldn’t they want to be aligned with their brother? We know they didn’t hate him. The were afraid for him. They loved their big brother. So, why the disconnect? Perhaps they needed more time to fully grasp the scope of it all.

Scripture does say that the people of Nazareth were offended. I suppose it is possible that Jesus was also offended in his own way, or perhaps emotionally affected by the experience. Either way, their disbelief was a bit shocking to him. He didn’t stay long. He left. He healed a few, and helped out a few others who needed what only Jesus could do. And then he left.

Perhaps, it feels like I am putting a great deal of effort into tearing down the “perfection” of Jesus, a man of flesh for 33 years, fully participating in the human condition; the human experience. Why?

There are dozens of scriptural references from both the Old and New Testament describing Jesus as sinless, beyond what any other human being has done in life, without comparison, but there is none that I have found referring to Jesus as perfect. In fact, during his ministry when Jesus instructs us—yes, you and me—to be perfect, it’s perfect as the heavenly father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). I find that to be quite intriguing.

You will find that my objective here—my mission—is to convey that Jesus was so human, he felt everything entirely as a human being, living the human experience, everything you and I feel. All the good, and all the bad, on every level.

Jesus felt joy, weakness, fatigue, sorrow. To be fully human, he would likely have felt resentment, even if he did not sin in it. He would likely have felt lust, even if he did not sin in it. He must have felt fear (anxiety, stress, worry, panic), embarrassment, betrayal, failure, disappointment, etc., even if he did not sin in any of it.  The more we can grasp his humanity, the more we will find him to be someone we can approach, know, love, trust, admire and adore.

The purpose here is to recognize and appreciate the immeasurable, unimaginable sacrifice of God in the fully human person of Jesus Christ; who left the divine union that is God for a period of some thirty three years to fully experience life as a human being with real human experiences and issues. Apostle Paul wrote that Jesus surrendered completely His divine privileges so as to not use his “God-ness” to his advantage, which for me would marginalize His human experience, particularly when it came to authentic temptation, pain, struggle, and suffering. It is necessary to comprehend that Jesus took on the full blow… all of the impact of suffering from birth until death until he experienced in his flesh three days of condemnation in the belly of the earth… hell (Romans 8:3). This is prayerfully supported by Scripture sensitive to being contextually accurate in the interpretation of it.

“I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.” John 5:30 (NLT)

Paraphrasing in context to what Jesus was responding to, it might go something like this:
“As a man, I admit that I would not have the power or the authority to heal, cast out demons, and raise the dead, unless that power and authority was given by God. As I hear from my Father, I believe it. I act according to his authority, which means my actions are fair, right, and best. Since this is the case, why would I seek my own desires and intentions when they on their own are insufficient? It makes sense that, in dependence and submission to the will and plan of my Father, I commit to going where he tells me to go, and doing what he tells me to do.”

The last Adam

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son of God…” John 3:16

The word ‘begotten’, according to typical dictionaries refers to being created, bred, made, produced… It suggests that when God caused Mary to conceive by his Spirit, he reproduced in her womb a human being. It is assumed that because God caused Mary to be pregnant that God is the earthly father of Jesus. The original Greek translation for the word ‘begotten’ in linked to the word to the ‘only’ so that Jesus is the only begotten son of God. When these two words are tied together as they are written, the original Greek translation, monogenes means unique, one of a kind. It suggests that as a human being begets only other human beings, that God, through Mary, can only beget the likeness of himself, fully God. However, the Bible refers to Jesus as the second, and last, Adam. The following address from Apostle Paul would suggest that just as Jesus was born both as human and spiritual, so shall we, you and I who a born of the Spirit, bear the image of the man of heaven. But we will never be fully God, even when glorified in eternal glory.

⁴² So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. ⁴⁸ As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:42-49 (ESV)

This is no doubt a passage of Scripture that may affirm that Jesus was born entirely God while entirely human. Adam was made a man of dust. Like Jesus, Adam did not have an earthly father; not even an earthly mother. The same can be said of his wife. The woman we would know to be Eve, did not have an earthly mother or father, though she would have a something from Adam’s body, a rib, that would be contained within her body. Theology scholars point to Jesus having only a heavenly father as to reason to declare that Jesus was fully divine while in the flesh on earth. While both Adam and Eve did not have earthly parents, both were created to inhabit the earth in the image of the maker; God.

What was the image of God? How was the person of God manifested to Adam and Eve that they recognized him while alive in God’s image? Did they identify Jesus, the human manifestation of God, fully divine in all of the glorious splendor that is God? He would not be “Jesus” to them, though they knew him to be Lord, meaning master. To them, He was YHWH, which would eventually be pronounced as Yahweh, their name for God.

Did Adam and Eve look a bit like God? Did their human bodies present as being glorious, even as human beings? There were not created (made, begotten) in the likeness of sinful flesh as Paul describes Jesus to be in Romans 8:3 (NKJV). There were made perfect in the image and glory of God, while entirely human, not at all divine. Though Jesus, born human in the likeness of sinful flesh, having been tempted to sin from the place of fleshly desire, did not sin, Adam and Eve when tempted as human beings walking and breathing while basking in the glory they were created to be as humans, did in fact sin.

For me anyway, this contains such stark contrast and irony at the same time. Adam and Eve did not live in the midst of a corrupt sinful culture, infused with selfish desire and examples of habitual self-centered behavior. Yet, they were capable of lust for the one thing—the one single thing—they did not on any level need, that they would come to covet. The craving for more… more than who and what they were as perfect, sinless human beings, until they sinned. What is sin? Sin is the preoccupation with being in control of what is most outside of your control. Sin is the God complex Adam and Eve experienced at that time, that Jesus surrendered in his human experience in the flesh that was absolutely necessary to be, and remain sinless.

Adam and Eve were not created by God with a sin nature. However, created in the image of God, they were not God. Apparently, they lacked the fullness of a selfless character that we know to be authentic about God. They must have had an inclination to desire what they would not comprehend to be self-centered.

For that matter, Lucifer, who would come to be known as Satan, was not created for the intention of evil. But Lucifer was, of course, not God either. Lucifer also was inclined to want more than he was, and chose to pursue more, against the will of God. As Satan, Lucifer would go on to use immense power for the purpose of self-centered gain, and would perpetuate the worst of what we understand to be evil against God and all God’s creation.

What is remarkable is that Apostle Paul writes in Romans (ch 8, v 3), that Jesus was born in the likeness of sinful flesh. This suggests that Jesus, unlike Adam, was born perhaps as more inclined towards the pursuit of selfish desire and more readily tempted to behave contrary of God’s divine standard. Yet, Jesus, entirely human, having emptied himself of divine standing and privilege prior to being conceived in the flesh, did not sin. Can you see how it does not diminish who Jesus was while human on earth, but does magnify who Jesus was, and all that he accomplished while of human flesh to even make it to the cross as the most innocent sacrifice.

Today, Adam, according to Apostle Paul, having been resurrected after death, bears the image of the man of heaven. Like Adam, it could be said that Jesus was born of dust since he was perishable in the flesh. Jesus was resurrected from the dead, and raised imperishable. While at the time of resurrection, the body of Jesus bore the scars of his perishable body in the flesh, Jesus, the last Adam, would ascend as the man of heaven to be exalted to the throne at the right hand of the Father. Jesus presently inhabits the throne of the temple that is the body Christ. That is you, if you are in relationship with Jesus, and me. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Jesus, the last Adam, was sown perishable as a human being. He died. He likely experienced the horrors of hell in the heart of the earth, as he prophesied his death would be.

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12:40 (ESV)

After experiencing the hell of condemnation for three days and nights, Jesus was resurrected from the dead, raised from death to life, from perishable to imperishable. Jesus ascended to heaven to return to his rightful throne, fully man while fully God. From his throne, by way of the Holy Spirit, Jesus became the life-giving spirit, resembling the invisible God who enters into the body and soul of a human being to dwell in the lives of his followers, transforming us by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).

Why is it considered theologically treasonous to consider that the three-person union that is God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) could by choice beget the visible manifestation of God the son to be of a fully human nature, void of his divine nature, with a need to depend on the divine nature and authority of the Father and Spirit that to Jesus was always God? Is it too great a shock to what we have been conditioned to accept as religious, untouchable theology and doctrine, even if it appears to be inconsistent with Scripture on so many levels?

Once again, it in no way diminishes the person of God made flesh in the person of Jesus, it elevates Jesus to consider all that he overcame to live a sinless life on earth, experience the physical and psychological brutality and torture involved in his crucifixion, and endure the spiritual suffering of condemnation. It amplifies the person of Jesus, that we know and reasonably understand today to be fully man and fully God as the King of kings, and Lord of lords, in all of the glory of who Jesus is as God.

I cannot believe that God would be offended or find it insulting that his children are curious and interested in going deeper into all that God is, and all that God spent to ransom his people from the debt of falling short of his glory. Therefore, I am asking that you be open to asking the question guided by Scriptural truth, particularly that spoken of by Jesus himself about himself while flesh as a human being. It was Jesus who admitted he was powerless without the presence of God (the Father) filling him with the Spirit of God throughout his time as a human being on earth.

God could not, could Jesus?

God is never tempted to do wrong. James 1:13 (NLT)

So, I am supposed to believe that the man in Jesus could sin, and therefore be tempted to sin, while the God in Jesus could not sin, and therefore Jesus could not sin? Is it the same as the people among us who have the Holy Spirit of God fully alive in us? No. When we are in relationship with God through Jesus Christ, his Spirit is fully alive in us, yet we are not fully God while fully human, even when filled with the Holy Spirit; the embedded presence of Jesus living in us. Conceptualize that.

Why is it heretical, if not to some sacrilegious, and still other perhaps even blasphemous, to suggest that it may have been the same for Jesus in human flesh. The exception is that Jesus was fully tempted to truly sin, yet did not, having yielded in surrender to the will of God’s Spirit fully alive in him throughout hie earthly experience?

So, the problem with Jesus being fully man and fully God simultaneously lies in the fact that God absolutely cannot sin. How could Jesus the man be tempted to sin if He was at the same time divine and not capable of sin? It does not make sense to me that God would become flesh in the form of man, but still be all God. It does not make sense to me that Jesus could be tempted to sin if it was impossible to sin if he was in fact divine as a human being.

Do me a favor. Go out and lift your automobile over your head with your own two hands. You can start by lifting up the front end so you can get under the vehicle until you are able to get enough leverage, and with a little more effort, lift with everything you’ve got to get your car over your head. Aren’t you going to step out and at least try to lift your vehicle over your head?

Someone might say that my challenge tempted you to lift your car over your head just because I said it to you. But, at any point were you actually tempted to lift your automobile over your head? Of course not, it’s ridiculous. It is impossible. You are not tempted to do something that is impossible. I can offer you the world and the moon and you still would not be tempted to lift your car over your head because it is impossible. Therefore, you will not even try. It should also be said that a person is not really tempted unless there is at least desire for the object of temptation. If Jesus was fully human then he would have desired what human beings desire.

If it was not possible for Jesus to commit sin, how and why would he be tempted to sin? Do the math. It doesn’t add up that Jesus could be tempted to sin if in His deity it was not possible for Him to do so. But, if Jesus laid down his deity, denying His divine power and authority, He could then give in to temptation, and yes, actually be tempted in weakness as a human being to sin. Central to His position as a spotless lamb to be sacrificed, Jesus did not yield to temptation. Jesus did not sin. While flawed by his flesh, He remained innocent of sin.

When having this discussion with my pastor friends, the looks on their faces changed as though my theology was held suspect. How dare I (as Paul did) humanize Jesus until he is diminished into something less of what they need Jesus the man to be; that somehow completely humanizing Jesus disqualifies him to be the sacrifice for sin.

In fact, the opposite is true. As I stated, it makes Jesus more! He’s more qualified as the one who, with selfish inclinations, could have given into temptation but, depending on God did not. If possible, it adds to the substance and gravity of what he experienced in the flesh on earth, and then sacrificed into human suffering and death.

It means that Jesus, the man, did not have a “get out of the human struggle free card.” So when Jesus was tempted, he wasn’t just sort of tempted. He was tempted to sin. Jesus experienced vulnerability to temptation and so for him to resist temptation was legit… it was real. When Jesus experienced physical and emotional pain, he actually felt it entirely in the flesh.

At the very end of the explanations of the original Greek text regarding Jesus being made in the likeness of humanity, from the Abbott-Smith Lexicon (1922), is this: “as indicative of the inner being.” Whoa! If Jesus was truly tempted in all points as a human being, what do we have to say about it? Who are to dare to lower the meaning of his sinless life by saying that it was only possible if Jesus was “God enough” that he would never yield to temptation?

Let’s see. There is pride. There is greed. There’s resentment. There’s compromise related to a person’s values. What about lust? Uh oh. Now, it’s getting real. We know when tempted by Satan he resisted the temptation for a power grab. Jesus was not to give in to that.

So, what about sensual lust? (I avoided using the word ‘sexual’ there since that might be crossing a line.) Wouldn’t Jesus have to be tempted in that way to be tempted in all points common to the human experience?

The Law never succeeded in producing righteousness—the failure was always the weakness of human nature. But God has met this by sending his own Son Jesus Christ to live in that human nature, which causes the trouble. And, while Christ was actually taking upon himself the sins of men, God condemned that sinful nature. Romans 8:3-4 (PHILLIPS)

The Phillips New Testament indicates that the weakness of our human nature is our failure. Our human nature has been infected by sin. Therefore, our human nature is understood commonly as being our sin nature. This passage translated by Phillips states that God dealt with our sin nature by, “sending his own Son Jesus Christ to live in that human nature, which causes the trouble.”

Why go so on and on and on about this?

Because, one of the most critical passages of Scripture in the entire Bible tells us that Jesus knows and understands us because he effectually and experientially relates to our humanity. If Jesus was fully human while walking the earth, tempted in all points as a human person, he could not have been fully God at the same time. Can God sin? Can God be tempted to sin?

If Jesus was fully God, as a person of flesh, he could not have sinned. If Jesus could not have sinned, he could not be tempted to sin. That being the case, to say that Jesus was in fact tempted to sin, while fully God, would be a lie or, at the very least, disingenuous. It would invalidate one of the most important and necessary scriptures in the entire Bible that we believe to be the Word of God.

Two questions:

1. Could Jesus, the Word made flesh, sin?
2. Could Jesus be tempted to sin?

The answers to those questions are either ‘yes’ and ‘yes’, or ‘no’ and ‘no’.

They have to be.

I believe the answers to those two questions to be ‘yes’ and ‘yes’.

God cannot, Jesus did

“Jesus never did anything halfheartedly. When he embraced our humanity, he didn’t pull a fast one by making a show of it. He embraced it so fully and totally that he was able to die. God can’t die. But Jesus did.” —John Eldredge, author, Beautiful Outlaw

God can’t die. But Jesus did. I don’t know that Mr. Eldredge shares my opinion concerning the humanity of Jesus as having emptied himself of deity in order to fully embrace his humanity. But that quote from him surely seems to make that point.

Being made in the likeness of sinful flesh is not about flesh and bone but is about the flesh between the ears of a person; brain matter. The flesh then involves the mind, the body, the behavior that emanates from the heart, and most importantly, the soul of a person. Jesus took in his soul of flesh, the sin of your flesh and mine to experience condemnation for it for three days and nights. He suffered fully human before the cross, while on the cross, and for three days and nights until the resurrection.

In my sin and yours, Jesus experienced the full impact of falling out of divine favor—even though he prayed three times in the garden for grace instead of the suffering… and three times was denied grace since he had to die… drinking from the cup of God’s wrath for man’s sin (according to most scholars)—and therefore by his sacrifice became grace for you and for me.

Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done… So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again.” Matthew 26:42-44

How often do you hear about Christ’s human experience for the three days between the crucifixion and the resurrection? It’s rarely examined. When it’s written about, it is romanticized to suggest that the human soul of Jesus sang songs and praised God in his hell. Some have suggested this herculean adventure when Jesus stormed the gates of hell, took the keys back of life and death (as if someone or something in hell had them at some point), and redeemed the souls from Sheol that were right with God.

It wasn’t some romantic dive into the pit of hell (or even Sheol) to wrestle the devil and rescue lost souls. It was however, absolutely heroic what he did for us. Fully man, having emptied himself of the advantage of being God, the suffering of our Lord was at the very least unimaginable. Here’s the thing: Jesus even sympathizes with the suffering of the human souls condemned to the worst places in hell—condemned only because they chose to remain in relationship with their selfish sin rather than surrender into relationship with their Sympathetic Savior. Please keep this in mind as this discussion continues.

In laying down his God nature, to by experience know the nature of man, Jesus became human. The nature of human flesh was created intentionally by God to be independent from his will. God already had the universe and everything in it as a means to express and receive glory. But nothing else in the universe was independent and able to choose on its own to glorify God. We were created for that purpose. To give God glory is not for God’s benefit. God is glorified whenever a person resists the temptation to be selfish, according to the sin nature, and choose to choose and to act for the purpose of doing right and good, opposing the nature to be selfish.

God gave us free will—the independent spirit to make up our own mind. God desires that we choose to love him, to worship him, and to serve him; again not for his benefit—God is not made to be more or less because we offer up praise—but for our benefit, as blessing logically flows in response to righteous behavioral choices.

We know by our experience that independence from God means that we are prone to make mistakes by choice since we are not God. Jesus left heaven and the glory that was his as God, and was made in our likeness with the independence from God to choose. As a human man of flesh, even Jesus was prone to make mistakes by choice. Therefore, he had to choose daily, moment by moment, to turn away from what might appear to make sense according to human reasoning, capturing every independent thought and obediently depend on his Father God, according to what made sense in relationship with God (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

Seeing then that 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 (advocate) who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16 (NKJV)

Please allow me to paraphrase: “Seeing then that we have an advocate in Jesus Christ in his heavenly position as God, let us be free to come to him as we are with our confession. For in Christ we have an advocate who understands us; even sympathizes with our weakness since he was in his human experience vulnerable to weakness and susceptible to the draw of temptation in every way we are. The difference is that he did not sin. Now let us with full confidence come to his throne where grace abounds so that we may obtain mercy and experience his grace in our time of need.”

Central to Christ-centered recovery that works recovery the way Christ himself modeled it for us. Jesus surrendered his life into the care and plan of God. He depended on God absolutely, every day of his life as a human being. If that was the recovery model for Jesus, who are we to think we can realize authentic recovery into freedom any other way? Now fully God again, Jesus Christ invites us into the fullness of our new life experience. We must be willing to lay down the former life that is in one way or another killing us, willing to die to the life that is death to us in the end.

So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (NLT)

Jesus Christ understands the human experience but make no mistake; he is no longer limited and hindered by the flesh. He is all God with full authority. He loves you like crazy. Jesus is your Sympathetic Savior.

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11 (NLT)

“I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.” —Tim Hughes, Here I Am To Worship (song)

When Jesus heard what had happened (to a blind man he had healed), he found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.” “You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!” “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshipped Jesus. John 9:35-38 (NLT)

“The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.” John 10:17-18 (NLT)

These two passages are from the same message from Jesus to the blind man, to the Pharisees, and to the worshippers. This is the key passage of Scripture speaking to the authority of God in the flesh. There have been icons throughout history who were treated like deity and worshipped. At issue are the words of Jesus as he speaks of authority regarding life itself. Please look at this very carefully. Notice that Jesus attributed his authority as coming from the Father through him. He continued to be fully dependent on God the Father until he ascended to heaven and retained his place on the throne of God as fully God in position and function.

Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” John 5:39 (NLT)

Please understand that I love Jesus with all that I am. Again, it is not my intention to diminish Jesus while operating in the flesh on the earth to be the Gospel, to lay down the essence of who he is to die by crucifixion for us. My intention is to amplify what Jesus did for us, not only on the cross as a human soul of flesh, but also what he suffered in the heart of the earth as a human soul while is flesh lay in a tomb for three days and nights. Since ascending to the throne of grace, he is exalted to his rightful position at the right hand of God, as God, King of kings and Lord of lords.

About scriptures that read, “I and the Father are one” and “When you have seen Me you have seen the Father,” it must be said that Jesus was filled with the Spirit of God. We today are to be filled with the Spirit of God and to be doing greater works than even Jesus did while of human flesh, according to the words of Jesus. Scripture says that you and I in relationship with Christ are clothed in righteousness and when God sees us, he sees Jesus. We are not God, yet the Bible says that in Christ, God sees himself in us. This is amazing truth!

I suppose the only discrepancy between what I have written in the Sympathetic Savior series and the teachings of popular doctrine is that I contend that Jesus was fully man while somehow making himself less than God while in the flesh. I have cited specific scripture concerning this. I don’t comprehend how the Son becoming less than God is possible any more than I could comprehend that somehow God can be tempted to sin and that somehow God can die. Both precepts seem just as ridiculous to my human finite mind, but I guess something’s got to give here. Should I get that check in my spirit by his Spirit of conviction, however it comes, I will respond accordingly, and swiftly. For now, I believe from the bottom of my heart that this word is from God through me to you. I can live with that.

In fellowship

The purpose is to better understand his suffering while on earth to better know him. I want to more fully appreciate his human experience. I believe Apostle Paul did as well when he spoke of wanting to share the fellowship of his suffering. Paul didn’t want to take on Christ’s suffering. That would demean his suffering since he suffered on our behalf so that we would never experience the consequence of eternal suffering for our sin. Paul did, though, want to fellowship with Jesus in the truth of his human suffering. He wanted to know that Jesus; the Jesus that I believe I am talking about here; the Jesus that paid an unbelievable price so that you and I can live forever, beginning today in recovery and throughout eternity.

Look again at the Magi in the image above staring into the face of baby Jesus; and then notice Mary Magdalene, John, and Mother Mary looking into the face of Jesus having died for their sin and ours.

I believe it is so important to appreciate the enormity of Christ’s sacrifice by understanding that it happened to Him as fully man without the advantage of being fully God, having deliberately laid that down. While nailed to the cross at the most critical moment of His human life, alone and blinded by our sin, Jesus cried out, “Why?!” If fully God in that moment, He would not have been alone, and would not be asking “Why?!” He cried out in His tragically human misery, “Why have you abandoned me?” “Why now when I need most to depend on You have you left me to suffer alone?” “Where are you?”

I believe there was crisis in the Father-Son-Spirit relationship at that moment. Not a “What do We do now?” crisis but rather the crisis of immense pain shared by the Father and Spirit experiencing Jesus, the “fallen” one of the persons of God, die. Then they would share in the experience of the soul of Jesus condemned in the belly of the earth for three days and nights. What a miracle! When we more fully comprehend the dreadfully painful experience of the sacrifice of our Savior and friend, Jesus, the more we are compelled to worship Him resurrected, today and forever, fully God.

Finally, if I am a heretic for bringing this revelation to you, then so be it. I had so much affirmation in my spirit while processing and writing this, I was often moved to tears, dwelling in God’s presence, considering the physical pain, psychological torture, and spiritual torment, that my Savior experienced at the cross and beyond; while entirely human. Jesus was called a lot worse than a heretic when delivering the message of his Father’s truth. Jesus was crucified while fully human for the compassion and mercy he delivered. And he felt and experienced every bit of it.

The Sequel to this article, Sympathetic Savior: The Sacrifice of Jesus, takes on what Jesus prophesied about his death being like Jonah in the belly of the fish for three days and nights, except that he would be in the belly of the earth. What did Jesus experience in the belly of the earth for three days and nights before hell couldn’t contain Jesus and coughed him up from death back into life?

Continue reading, by clicking on Sympathetic Savior: The Sacrifice of Jesus.