“Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up!”
Part 2
“Truly Human, Truly God”
Philippians 2: 5-11 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. 9 For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
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We started a new series last time called “Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up.”
I think we can all agree that no one likes to be or should be misrepresented or mischaracterized.
We don’t appreciate it when people attribute to us characteristics, words, or actions that aren’t true.
So if faithful, accurate descriptions of US matter, how much more important is it when we are talking about God!
And since our very eternal salvation depends on what we are taught to believe about Jesus, it’s especially dangerous to misrepresent Him!
This is why Paul was so, so strong on this:
“If anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”—Gal. 1:8
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Now, in Matthew 24, Jesus predicted a flood of false prophets, false teachers, and false Christ’s would appear just prior to his return—all of them misrepresenting him.
And it’s happening before our eyes!
Social media, and all the various platforms it makes available for someone to gain an audience, has become the gateway for an explosion of false prophets, false teachers, and false Christs that are presented in teaching form by the false teachers.
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One of the latest (though ancient) false messages being pushed out there is that, when Jesus left heaven and came to earth by way of the virgin birth, he left all of his divinity behind in heaven.
It claims that while on earth he was NOT both divine and human, but only human.
And furthermore, none of the miracles he did were performed by Him as God—they were done by faith in the very same way we would.
One of these teachers said, “While Jesus is eternally God, He emptied Himself of His divine powers and became a man (see Phil. 2:7). It’s vital to note that He did all His miracles as a man, not as God.”
So the crux of this teaching argues that the incarnate Christ gave up or lessened his Deity while on earth.
There are some variations to this teaching—from Jesus totally ceasing to be God while on earth, to laying aside the three “omnis” (Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence).
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So here’s the question—While on earth was Jesus ever less than fully God?
And why should it even really matter?
Here’s why: If he left his divinity in heaven and was only human on earth, then the Bible is wrong in what it says about him.
Here are just a few examples of what the Bible teaches about Jesus while he was on earth:
In His personal conversation with the Father in John 17–Jesus the Son asks God the Father (in an equal to equal kind of way) for the return of His Glory.
He never mentions the return of His power or attributes, or God-ness: Because He still retained them!
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In John 1:1-14, John clearly lays out who Jesus was, both in heaven and while on earth:
“The Word (Jesus) was God”—he was Deity;
“He was in the beginning with God,”—he was Eternal;
“All things were made through Him…”—he was Creator;
And John clearly states “and the Word (God) became flesh.”
NOTICE: It doesn’t tell us that, as God he quit being God to become human, but that God clothed himself in humanity—he became a human.
So it’s not about what God the Son gave up, but about what He added—He added humanity onto Himself.
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Furthermore, the Bible over and over again reveals that Jesus manifested all the attributes of God while on earth:
He was OMNISCIENT: all knowing
For example, in John 11:11-14 we read that when Jesus was 50 miles away from the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, he was informed by messengers that Lazarus was sick.
Then Jesus told his disciples two days later, still 50 miles away, that Lazarus had died.
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He was OMNIPOTENT: all powerful
In Luke 7:14, John 11:44, and Luke 8, Jesus raised two men and a young girl from the stone cold dead.
In Matt 8:26 he commanded the wind and waves to be calm, and halted a vicious storm in its tracks.
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Then He was also OMNIPRESENT:
In John 1:48 Jesus tells Nathaniel whom he had just met, “Before Philip called you (told you about me), when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
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Col 1:19 says, “It pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself…through the blood of His cross.”
Catch that!—All the fullness of God dwelt bodily in Jesus during His earthly ministry prior to and up to the Cross!
While on earth Jesus, as God the Son, did not change: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.”—Heb 13:8
If you think about it, one of the three members of the Godhead laying aside his divinity for 33 years would have upset and destroyed the perfect unity of the Godhead itself!
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And here’s the biggest issue:
If the God-Man who died on the cross was not both fully God and fully Man, then the integrity of the atonement that purchased our salvation is null and void.
Why? Because the blood that redeemed us was the “Blood of God.”
In Acts 20:28 The church elders are commanded to “Shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.”
If Jesus had been any less than God, then His blood sacrifice would not have been sufficient to redeem us!
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So let’s break this down.
First…the Bible says that when Jesus came to earth:
I. He was truly human
He was “born in the likeness of men.”—Phil 2:7
Romans 8:3 “He sent his own Son in a human body like ours—except that ours are sinful.”
This means he became like us, experiencing needs, weariness, infirmities, temptations, pain, disappointment, hunger and thirst—resembling us in all things human, yet without sinning.
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That’s how he can understand, sympathize, and empathize with you and me in all of our suffering and trials.
“We have a high priest who can feel it when we are weak and hurting. We have a high priest who has been tempted in every way, just as we are. But he did not sin.”—Heb. 4:15 NIRV
So Jesus was truly human.
And being human, He never gave up His deity!
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ILLUS: I read this week of a very wealthy founder and owner of a company who decided that he would disguise himself as an employee and work among the other employees.
He wanted to see what it felt like to work in his own company.
He wanted to experience what they experienced, eat what they ate, sit where they sat, work where they worked, and talk to them as an equal.
Now, when he did this did he for one minute cease being the CEO?
As he sat at the lunch table eating and talking with them, did he ever relinquish his ownership of the company?
No! He simply concealed his position as boss and owner so that he could identify with his employees.
When he was finished with his investigation he simply returned to his executive office and reassumed his duties.
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This is exactly what Jesus did!
He concealed His God-ness all the while growing up in Joseph and Mary’s home.
Yet His divine nature was never gone or left behind in heaven.
The glory of His divine perfection was always intact.
ILLUS: When the sun is covered up by a cloud or in an eclipse,
there is no real change in its heat,
nor are its rays extinguished,
nor is the nature of the sun itself in any way changed.
It is only for a time hidden from view.
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So it was with Jesus, the Son of God.
So in summary—We should never undermine either the humanity of Christ or the Divinity of Christ.
At the incarnation, the eternal Son of God became truly human without losing or forfeiting His deity.
On earth and at his resurrection and now in heaven, Jesus remains fully man and fully God.