Jesus was a man.
All right. If we look at Jesus’ life, it’s hard to deny that. But what about his claim to be God (as I already
examined in the last two blog posts)? Can he be both? The first followers of
Jesus certainly seemed to think so. Two of the Gospel writers, especially, said
so clearly in their account of the birth of Jesus.
Luke
recorded the visit of an angel to Mary telling her that she would become
pregnant and give birth to a son. Since she was then unmarried, she was
understandably (okay, I don’t really understand actually) surprised and alarmed
and asked how it could happen. The angel replied: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the
power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will
be called holy – the Son of God” (Luke 1:35, ESV).
Matthew, on
the other hand, highlights the experience of Joseph, Mary’s fiancé. Joseph was
understandably (okay, once again, I don’t really understand) concerned when he
discovered she was pregnant and he contemplated calling an end to the
engagement. But God through a dream spoke to him and reassured him: “Joseph, son of
David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in
her is from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew
1:20, ESV).
These part of the Gospel
accounts, possibly more than any other, is difficult for some to accept – it sounds
more like fantasy than fact (probably one of the great stumbling block for our
majority neighbour). Yet it is entirely consistent with the rest of the Gospel
accounts, and it provides an explanation of that contrast between the divinity
and the humanity claim of Jesus. Both
Luke and Matthew tells us that Jesus was born of Mary and is therefore – man; but was conceived by the Spirit of
God and is therefore – God. And that
is what early Christians have believed down the centuries until now, that Jesus
was both – man and God. The Apostles’ Creed (if you worship in a
Protestant Church, you might be familiar with this), one of the earliest
statements of Christian faith and belief, states that: “I believe in Jesus Christ… He was conceived by
the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.”
To say that Jesus is both
(100%) man and (100%) God is neither to twist the evidence in the Scripture,
nor to dismiss part of it, but rather to face up realistically to the whole Scripture’s
evidences. But, yeah, you must examine the evidence yourself. Start with
actually reading the Gospel story in the New Testament yourself. Don’t settle
for what people’s saying (like religious teachers in your university or campus
or school or on TV channels), seek for yourself. If you seek Jesus with all
your heart, you will find Him. I pray you will have peace in Him, amen.
Jesus is asking us, “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew
16:13-16)
Do you know Jesus of the Bible?
THINK BIG.
START SMALL. GO DEEP.
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