Systematic Theology: The Person of Christ: Humanity

Question 1

The Humanity of Christ

Answer 1

1. Born of a virgin

2. Human Weaknesses and Limitations

Question 2

What human weaknesses and limitations did Jesus have

Answer 2

1. Jesus had a human body
2. Jesus had a human mind
3. Jesus had a human Soul and emotions
4. People near him, saw him as just a man

Question 3

Why was Jesus’ full humanity nescesary?

Answer 3

1. For representitive obedience
2. To be a substitute Sacrifice
3. To be the One Mediator between God and Men
4. To fulfill God’s Original Purpose for man to rule over creation.
5. To be our example and pattern in life
6. To be the pattern for our redeemed bodies
7. To sympathize as Hight Priest
8. Jesus will be man forever

Question 4

Why is the virgin birth important?

Answer 4

1. It shows that salvation ultimately must come from God
2. It made it possible to unite the full Deity and full humanity in one person
3. It made it possible for Christ to be born without sin.

Question 5

How does the virgin birth show that salvation ultimately must come from God?

Answer 5

Just as God had promised that the “seed” of the woman (Gen. 3:15) would ultimately destroy the serpent, so God brought it about by his own power, not through mere human effort.

The virgin birth of Christ is an unmistakable reminder that salvation can never come through human effort, but must be the work of God himself.

Our salvation only comes about through the supernatural work of God, and that was evident at the very beginning of Jesus’ life when “God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4–5).

Question 6

How did the virgin birth make it possible to unite the full deity and humanity of Christ in a single person

Answer 6

If Jesus simply descended from the sky, then it would be difficult for us to understand how Christ shares in our humanity

If Jesus had a normal birth, then it would be hard for us to understand and accept His deity

Being born of a virgin, Jesus had a combination of human and divine influence in his birth

Question 7

How is it possible that Jesus did not inherit any sin?

Answer 7

Jesus did not have a human father, but was conceived by the Spirit, therefore he did not descend from Adam in the same way as every other human and therefore the legal guilt and moral corruption that belongs to all other humans, did not belong to Christ

Question 8

Does Jesus’ sinless nature and virgin birth suggest that sins are inherited from the father?

Answer 8

No

Scripture makes no such assertion

Question 9

Why did Jesus not inherit sin from Mary?

Answer 9

Mary was NOT free from sin.

Jesus did not inherit sin from mary because the Holy Spirit in Mary must have prevented the transmission of sin from Mary

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, therefore the child to be born will be called holy” (Luke 1:35)

Question 10

How do we know that Jesus had a human body?

Answer 10

1. He was born (Luke 2:7)
2. He grew into an adult (Luke 2:40, Luke 2:52)
3. He became tired (John 4:6)
4. He thirsted and hungered (John 19:28, Matt 4:2)
5. At times he was physically weak (after he fasted Matt 4:11) (Carrying his cross Luke 23:26)
6. He died (Luke 23:46)
7. He rose from the dead in a physical body (Luke 24:39)

Question 11

Did Jesus rise from the dead as a spirit?

Answer 11

NO

Jesus rose in a physical body

He appeared to the disciples in a physical body

Luke 24:39

“See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have”

He ate physical food

Luke 24:42; John 20:17, 20, 27; 21:9, 13.

“They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them”

Question 12

How do we know that Jesus had a human mind?

Answer 12

1. He had to learn

Luke 2:52 states that Jesus “increased in wisdom”, and had to learn as all other children do.

Heb 5:8 states that Jesus learned obedience to his parents

2. There were things Jesus did not know

Mark 13:32 states that, like our minds, and unlike the Father Jesus’ also did not know everything

“But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”

Question 13

How do we know that Jesus had a human soul and emotions?

Answer 13

1. Before his crucifixion, Jesus experienced:
   a. ) a troubled soul and anxiety (John 12:27, John 13:21),
   b. ) sorrowfulness unto death (Matt 26:38)
2. Jesus experience the full range of human emotions
   a. ) He marveled at the faith of the centurion (Matt 8:10)
   b. ) He wept with sorrow at the death of Lazarus (John 11:35)
   c. ) He prayed with a heart full of emotion (Heb 5:7)
3. Jesus experienced temptation

“in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15)

Question 14

if Jesus never sinned, how could he “learn obedience”, as Heb 5:7-9 tells us?

Answer 14

Apparently, as Jesus grew toward maturity he, like all other human children, was able to take on more and more responsibility. The older he became the more demands his father and mother could place on him in terms of obedience, and the more difficult the tasks that his heavenly Father could assign to him to carry out in the strength of his human nature. With each increasingly difficult task, even when it involved some suffering (as Heb. 5:8 specifies), Jesus’ human moral ability, his ability to obey under more and more difficult circumstances, increased. We might say that his “moral backbone” was strengthened by more and more difficult exercise. Yet in all this, he never once sinned.

Question 15

How does Jesus’ temptation confirm his human nature

Answer 15

Jesus “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15)

The fact that he faced temptation means that he had a genuine human nature that could be tempted, for scripture clearly tells us that “God cannot be tempted with evil” (James 1:13)

Question 16

How do we know that the people near Jesus saw him as only a man?

Answer 16

The people in Nazareth, that Jesus grew up with, never saw him as anything other than human.

“And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, and coming to his own country he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him….And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. (Matt. 13:53–58)

In fact, he was so human that not even his brothers believed in him (John 7:5)

Question 17

What do people who say that Jesus’ sinlessness means that he could not have been truly human, fail to realize?

Answer 17

We today are not truly human, but our current state of existence is rather abnormal and a distortion of our true state

God did not create us sinful, but holy and righteous. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before they sinned were truly human, and we now, though human, do not match the pattern that God intends for us when our full, sinless humanity is restored.

Question 18

How do we know Jesus was without sin?

Answer 18

1. Born Holy
2. Satan failed in tempting Jesus (Luke 4:13)
3. Jesus Himself Makes the claim
   a. ) Jesus asks the Jews that opposed him “Which of you convicts me of sin?” and received no answer (John 8:46)
   b. ) “I am the light of the world” meaning He is the source of moral purity for the world (John 8:12)
   c. ) “I always do what is pleasing to Him” (John 8:29))
   d. ) At the end of His life, Jesus says: “I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (John 15:10)
4. No one could convict him of wrongdoing.
   a. ) Pilate concluded: “I find no crime in him” (John 18:38)
5. The Authors of the bible testify of his sinlessness
   a. ) The Book of ACTS: Jesus is called the “Holy One” or the “Righteous One” (Acts 2:27, 3:14,4:30,7:52,13:35)
   b. ) The book of CORINTHIANS: Paul speaks of Jesus coming to live as a man he is careful not to say that he took on “sinful flesh,” but rather says that God sent his own Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin” (Rom. 8:3). And he refers to Jesus as “him…who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21).
   c. ) The book of HEBREWS: The author of Hebrews affirms that Jesus was tempted but simultaneously insists that he did not sin: Jesus is “one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). He is a high priest who is “holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens” (Heb. 7:26).
   d. ) The book of PETER: Peter speaks of Jesus as “a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:19), using Old Testament imagery to affirm his freedom from any moral defilement. Peter directly states, “He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips” (1 Peter 2:22). When Jesus died, it was “the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18)
   e. ) The Book of JOHN: And John, in his first epistle, calls him “Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1) and says, “In him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). It is hard to deny, then, that the sinlessness of Christ is taught clearly in all the major sections of the New Testament. He was truly man yet without sin.

Question 19

If all humans sin, but Jesus did not sin, was Jesus truely human.

Answer 19

Some have objected that if Jesus did not sin, then he was not truly human, for all humans sin. But those making that objection simply fail to realize that human beings are now in an abnormal situation. God did not create us sinful, but holy and righteous. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before they sinned were truly human, and we now, though human, do not match the pattern that God intends for us when our full, sinless humanity is restored.

Question 20

What was the essence of Jesus’s temptation

Answer 20

he essence of these temptations was an attempt to persuade Jesus to escape from the hard path of obedience and suffering that was appointed for him as the Messiah

Question 21

how did Jesus’s temptation demonstrate his humanity

Answer 21

Yet he had come to obey God perfectly in our place, and to do so as a man. This meant that he had to obey in his human strength alone. If he had called upon his divine powers to make the temptation easier for himself, then he would not have obeyed God fully as a man. The temptation was to use his divine power to “cheat” a bit on the requirements and make obedience somewhat easier. But Jesus, unlike Adam and Eve, refused to eat what appeared to be good and necessary for him, choosing rather to obey the command of his heavenly Father.

Question 22

how does Satan’s first temptation of Jesus illustrate the theme of escaping the hard path of obedience to God?

Answer 22

We can understand, then, the force of the temptation, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread” (Luke 4:3). Of course Jesus was the Son of God, and of course he had the power to make any stone into bread instantly. He was the one who would soon change water into wine and multiply the loaves and the fishes. The temptation was intensified by the fact that it seemed as though, if he did not eat soon, his very life would be taken from him. Yet he had come to obey God perfectly in our place, and to do so as a man. This meant that he had to obey in his human strength alone. If he had called upon his divine powers to make the temptation easier for himself, then he would not have obeyed God fully as a man. The temptation was to use his divine power to “cheat” a bit on the requirements and make obedience somewhat easier. But Jesus, unlike Adam and Eve, refused to eat what appeared to be good and necessary for him, choosing rather to obey the command of his heavenly Father.

Question 23

how does Satan’s second temptation of Jesus illustrate the theme of escaping the hard path of obedience to God?

Answer 23

The temptation to bow down and worship Satan for a moment and then receive authority over “all the kingdoms of the world” (Luke 4:5) was a temptation to receive power not through the path of lifelong obedience to his heavenly Father, but through wrongful submission to the Prince of Darkness. Again, Jesus rejected the apparently easy path and chose the path of obedience that led to the cross.

Question 24

how does Satan’s third temptation of Jesus illustrate the theme of escaping the hard path of obedience to God?

Answer 24

Similarly, the temptation to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple (Luke 4:9–11) was a temptation to “force” God to perform a miracle and rescue him in a spectacular way, thus attracting a large following from the people without pursuing the hard path ahead, the path that included three years of ministering to people’s needs, teaching with authority, and exemplifying absolute holiness of life in the midst of harsh opposition. But Jesus again resisted this “easy route” to the fulfillment of his goals as the Messiah (again, a route that would not actually have fulfilled those goals in any case).

Question 25

How did Jesus succeed where adam failed?

Answer 25

In these temptations in the wilderness and in the various temptations that faced him through the thirty-three years of his life, Christ obeyed God in our place and as our representative, thus succeeding where Adam had failed, where the people of Israel in the wilderness had failed, and where we had failed (see Rom. 5:18–19).

Question 26

What practical application does the temptation of Jesus have for us as Christians

Answer 26

This has practical application for us: in every situation in which we are struggling with temptation, we should reflect on the life of Christ and ask if there were not similar situations that he faced. Usually, after reflecting for a moment or two, we will be able to think of some instances in the life of Christ where he faced temptations that, though they were not the same in every detail, were very similar to the situations that we face every day.

Question 27

Why are we able to approach the throne of God with confidence that we will be understood

Answer 27

For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then [lit., ‘therefore’] with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb. 4:15–16)

Question 28

Was Jesus really tempted in all ways as we are, if the bible says that God cannot be tempted with evil?

Answer 28

What then do we say about the fact that “God cannot be tempted with evil” (James 1:13)?

It seems that this is one of a number of things that we must affirm to be true of Jesus’ divine nature but not of his human nature.

His divine nature could not be tempted with evil, but his human nature could be tempted and was clearly tempted.

Question 29

Docetism

Answer 29

A heresy that claims that Jesus was not a man. It denies Christ’s humanity

This was one of the earliest heresies that circulated in the early church.

John called it a doctrine of the antichrist

““By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist” (1 John 4:2–3).

Two varieties were widely known. In one version, as in Marcionism, Christ was so divine that he could not have been human, since God lacked a material body, which therefore could not physically suffer. Jesus only appeared to be a flesh-and-blood man; his body was a phantasm. Other groups who were accused of docetism held that Jesus was a man in the flesh, but Christ was a separate entity who entered Jesus’ body in the form of a dove at his baptism, empowered him to perform miracles, and abandoned him upon his death on the cross.[14]

The problem with docetism is that if Jesus was not fully human, or did not have a human nature or body, then he could not save us by being a substitute sacrifice, he couldn’t be a mediator between God and man.

Question 30

How was Jesus’ humanity necessary for representative obedience?

Answer 30

Jesus was our representative and obeyed for us where Adam had failed and disobeyed. We see this in the parallels between Jesus’ temptation (Luke 4:1–13) and the time of testing for Adam and Eve in the garden (Gen. 2:15–3:7). It is also clearly reflected in Paul’s discussion of the parallels between Adam and Christ, in Adam’s disobedience and Christ’s obedience:

Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous. (Rom. 5:18–19)

This is why Paul can call Christ “the last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45) and can call Adam the “first man” and Christ the “second man” (1 Cor. 15:47). Jesus had to be a man in order to be our representative and obey in our place.

Question 31

How was Jesus’ humanity necessary for him to be a substitute sacrifice

Answer 31

If Jesus had not been a man, he could not have died in our place and paid the penalty that was due to us.

The author of Hebrews tells us that “For surely it is not with angels that he is concerned but with the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation [more accurately, ‘propitiation’] for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:16–17; cf. v. 14).

Jesus had to become a man, not an angel, because God was concerned with saving men, not with saving angels. But to do this he “had to” be made like us in every way, so that he might become “the propitiation” for us, the sacrifice that is an acceptable substitute for us.

unless Christ was fully man, he could not have died to pay the penalty for man’s sins. He could not have been a substitute sacrifice for us.

Question 32

How was Jesus’ humanity necessary for Him to be the one mediator between God and Men

Answer 32

Because we were alienated from God by sin, we needed someone to come between God and ourselves and bring us back to him. We needed a mediator who could represent us to God and who could represent God to us.

There is only one person who has ever fulfilled that requirement: “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). In order to fulfill this role of mediator, Jesus had to be fully man as well as fully God.

Question 33

How was Jesus’s humanity necessary for Him to fulfill God’s original purpose for man to rule over creation

Answer 33

As we saw in the discussion of the purpose for which God created man, God put mankind on the earth to subdue it and rule over it as God’s representatives. But man did not fulfill that purpose, for he instead fell into sin. The author of Hebrews realizes that God intended everything to be in subjection to man, but he admits, “As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him” (Heb. 2:8). Then when Jesus came as a man, he was able to obey God and thereby have the right to rule over creation as a man, thus fulfilling God’s original purpose in putting man on the earth. Hebrews recognizes this when it says that now “we see Jesus” in the place of authority over the universe, “crowned with glory and honor” (Heb. 2:9; cf. the same phrase in v. 7). Jesus in fact has been given “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18), and God has “put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church” (Eph. 1:22). Indeed, we shall someday reign with him on his throne (Rev. 3:21) and experience, in subjection to Christ our Lord, the fulfillment of God’s purpose that we reign over the earth (cf. Luke 19:17, 19; 1 Cor. 6:3). Jesus had to be a man in order to fulfill God’s original purpose that man rule over his creation.

Question 34

How was Jesus’s humanity necessary for Him to be our example and pattern in life

Answer 34

for moral purity

John tells us, “He who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:6), and reminds us that “when he appears we shall be like him,” and that this hope of future conformity to Christ’s character even now gives increasing moral purity to our lives (1 John 3:2–3).

to be conformed to christ’s image

Paul tells us that we are continually being “changed into his likeness” (2 Cor. 3:18), thus moving toward the goal for which God saved us, that we might “be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29).

in our suffering

Peter tells us that especially in suffering we have to consider Christ’s example: “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

for encouragement

Throughout our Christian life, we are to run the race set before us “looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). If we become discouraged by the hostility and opposition of sinners, we are to “consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself” (Heb. 12:3).

in obedience unto death

Jesus is also our example in death. Paul’s goal is to become “like him in his death” (Phil. 3:10; cf. Acts 7:60; 1 Peter 3:17–18 with 4:1). Our goal should be to be like Christ all our days, up to the point of death, and to die with unfailing obedience to God, with strong trust in him, and with love and forgiveness to others. J

Jesus had to become a man like us in order to live as our example and pattern in life.

Question 35

How was Jesus’s humanity necessary for Him to be the pattern of our redeemed bodies

Answer 35

Paul tells us that when Jesus rose from the dead he rose in a new body that was “imperishable…raised in glory…raised in power…raised a spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:42–44).

This new resurrection body that Jesus had when he rose from the dead is the pattern for what our bodies will be like when we are raised from the dead, because Christ is “the first fruits” (1 Cor. 15:23)—an agricultural metaphor that likens Christ to the first sample of the harvest, showing what the other fruit from that harvest would be like.

We now have a physical body like Adam’s, but we will have one like Christ’s: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Cor. 15:49). Jesus had to be raised as a man in order to be the “first-born from the dead” (Col. 1:18), the pattern for the bodies that we would later have.

Question 36

How was Jesus’s humanity necessary for Him to sympathize as high priest

Answer 36

The author of Hebrews reminds us that “because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted” (Heb. 2:18; cf. 4:15–16). If Jesus had not been a man, he would not have been able to know by experience what we go through in our temptations and struggles in this life. But because he has lived as a man, he is able to sympathize more fully with us in our experiences.

Question 37

Will Jesus keep his human nature and body forever?

Answer 37

Jesus did not give up his human nature after his death and resurrection, for he appeared to his disciples as a man after the resurrection, even with the scars of the nail prints in his hands (John 20:25–27). He had “flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39) and ate food (Luke 24:41–42). Later, when he was talking with his disciples, he was taken up into heaven, still in his resurrected human body, and two angels promised that he would return in the same way: “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Still later, Stephen gazed into heaven and saw Jesus as “the Son of man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). Jesus also appeared to Saul on the Damascus Road and said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:5)—an appearance that Saul (Paul) later coupled with the resurrection appearances of Jesus to others (1 Cor. 9:1; 15:8). In John’s vision in Revelation, Jesus still appears as “one like a son of man” (Rev. 1:13), though he is filled with great glory and power, and his appearance causes John to fall at his feet in awe (Rev. 1:13–17). He promises one day to drink wine again with his disciples in his Father’s kingdom (Matt. 26:29) and invites us to a great marriage supper in heaven (Rev. 19:9). Moreover, Jesus will continue forever in his offices as prophet, priest, and king, all of them carried out by virtue of the fact that he is both God and man forever.

All of these texts indicate that Jesus did not temporarily become man, but that his divine nature was permanently united to his human nature, and he lives forever not just as the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, but also as Jesus, the man who was born of Mary, and as Christ, the Messiah and Savior of his people. Jesus will remain fully God and fully man, yet one person, forever.