Chapter 7: The Creator Became a Man
In Chapter 5 we learned that the Bible says that Jesus is both eternal God and the Creator of the universe. In Chapter 5 we also saw that this same Jesus became a man. In this chapter we want to look at the period of time when Jesus lived on earth.
Jesus was born as a human
Many passages in Scripture confirm this:
The Word became flesh, and lived among us (John 1:14). God was revealed in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood [human nature], he also himself in the same way partook of the same [human nature], that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Hebrews 2:14-15). Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God (1 John 4:2). For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who don't confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh (2 John 7).
Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this; for after his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit. 1:19 Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly. 1:20 But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 1:21 She shall bring forth a son. You shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins."
1:22 Now all this has happened, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, 1:23 "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son. They shall call his name Immanuel"; which is, being interpreted, "God with us."
1:24 Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself; 1:25 and didn't know her sexually until she had brought forth her firstborn son. He named him Jesus (Matthew 1:18-25).
How did Jesus became a man?
Traditional Christianity, from the first century onward, has understood Jesus to be God, and yet to have been born as a human infant[1]. A very old creedal statement from 381 AD says, "We believe…in one Lord Jesus Christ…very God of very God…being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate [became human] by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man."
[1]As we said in Chapter 4, footnote 5, the debate as to whether Jesus was God or a created being did not begin until the third and fourth centuries. Nonetheless, each of the three traditions identified in Chapter 1, footnote 1, have historically stated that Jesus is God. Nonetheless, there are religious groups today which believe in a historic Jesus, but do not follow the traditional Christian belief that Jesus has eternally existed as God. These groups include Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarians and others. Some believe that the Bible was changed and must be "corrected" by their own translation. Others believe that the Bible is mere literature, but not inspired of God, Some believe that the Father, [Jesus,] and the Spirit are one person who has shown himself as three manifestations (appearing at different times as the Father, [Jesus,] and the Spirit).
Interestingly, however, there has historically been little teaching as to what took place when God became a man, and how this transformation from God to human being actually worked during Jesus' lifetime. Nonetheless, we assume that many readers are curious as to how this might have taken place. Since we want to report that which would be a consensus among all traditions, we will quote the Bible and give only a few additional comments.
Jesus was God, but he gave up all he had when he became a man. The Bible says that "Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, didn't consider equality with God a thing to be grasped [held on to], but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:5-7). The Greek word translated into English as "emptied himself" gives us an important clue to what this verse is saying. To empty means to pour out so that there is nothing left. Earlier we talked about God's attributes. (See Chapter 3, footnote 1.) According to the verse we just quoted, Jesus had the nature (all of the attributes) of God. He was therefore all powerful, had all knowledge and possessed all of the other attributes of God before he became a man. All of this is acknowledged in the oldest Christian traditions.
Now we want to give a brief explanation of the possible meaning of the statement that Jesus "emptied himself." It would be consistent with everything traditional Christianity believes to say that Jesus emptied himself, or gave up the exercise of his eternal attributes as God. (We are not saying that Jesus gave up his divine attributes. We are saying that he gave up exercising or using his divine attributes during the time he was on earth.)
Therefore, when he became a human being, he no longer exercised any of his previous knowledge as God. He took the form of a servant—that is, he became a human being and needed to study in school and learn in his home and neighborhood just as would any other boy his age. So, too, he gave up the exercise of every other attribute and lived as any other human being needed to live. Just one event when he was 12 years old was recorded in Luke's Gospel during Jesus' boyhood. He stayed behind at the temple in Jerusalem without his parents' knowledge while the group he came with began their journey home. When Mary and Joseph realized Jesus was not in the traveling group, they returned to Jerusalem and began a frantic search until they found him. Luke says,
Luke 2:48 When [his parents] saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us this way? …your father and I were anxiously looking for you." 2:49 He said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I must be in my Father's house?" 2:50 They didn't understand the saying which he spoke to them. 2:51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth. He was subject to them… 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:48-52).
If, then, Jesus did not have any divine power as a human being, how did he live a perfect life without sin?[2] We would suggest that he was able to do that because the Father and the Holy Spirit empowered[3] him to live a perfect life. We are suggesting that it was the strength of the Father and the Holy Spirit in Jesus that allowed him to live his human life without sin; it was not divine power that he had within himself. Equally, how did he perform miracles? Again, it was because the Father and the Holy Spirit empowered him to heal others. In contrast, if, as a human being, he still had a small vestige of divine power that he carried from his eternal past, then he would not have been truly human, because none of us as human beings have that kind of divine power when we are born. The test of his humanity must be that he was human just as we are human.
[2]Hebrews 4:14-15 says that Jesus committed no sin during his entire life. "Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession. For we don't have a high priest who can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin."
[3]By empowered, we mean that the Father and the Holy Spirit worked through Jesus using their power rather than using a divine power which resided in Jesus. In this way, Jesus was fully human and yet performed miracles. That same empowerment is available to those who have been redeemed by Jesus. "Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us…" (Ephesians 3:20).
What did Jesus accomplish as a man?
In Chapter 2: Creation's Design Specification, we carefully explained the Bible's statement, "Even as [God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 1:4). During the time that Jesus lived as a man, he grew from infancy to adulthood. As a man of approximately 30 years of age, he began a teaching ministry which was to continue for about three years. During his teaching ministry, he gathered a group of faithful followers who eventually came to believe that he was the promised deliverer of Israel. (See Acts 1:6.) But above all else, Jesus came to this earth to be the Redeemer. It is Jesus' role as Redeemer which gives us the possibility of hope. Again, everything that will be said under the following two headings is consistent with the faith of traditional Christianity.
Human beings were given choice but exercised it poorly. The first humans, Adam and Eve, were created by God and were given a spacious garden as their home. They were also given the ability to choose to be either obedient or disobedient to God.
Genesis 1:27 God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them. 1:28 God blessed them. God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 1:29 God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food (Genesis 1:27-29).
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, "Has God really said, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?' " (Editor's note: It is almost universally understood that Satan—or the Devil—was speaking though the snake.)
3:2 The woman said to the serpent, "Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, 3:3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
3:4 The serpent said to the woman, "You won't surely die, 3:5 for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. 3:7 The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 3:8 They heard the voice of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.
3:9 Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"
3:10 The man said, "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."
3:11 God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
3:12 The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."
3:13 Yahweh God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
3:16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
3:17 To Adam he said, "Because you have listened to your wife's voice, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 3:18 It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field.
3:19 By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:1-13, 16-19).
The loss caused by their disobedience to God did not fall on Adam and Eve alone. It was a loss to all of humanity. But there was another loss as well. Something happened that day which has caused the universe we live in to be less than perfect. The universe does not have choice, but God made the change in it because of the human disobedience.
8:19 For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 8:20 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 8:21 that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. 8:23 Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:19-23).
Jesus redeemed both humanity and creation. Redemption's basic meaning is "to buy back" and is associated with humanity being "bought for a price." "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
We want to let the Bible speak for itself as it gives us information about the wonderful redemption Jesus provided for humanity and for all of creation.
Knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold…but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19). Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins (Romans 3:24-25).
Ephesians 1:7 [Jesus,] in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 1:8 which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 1:9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him 1:10 to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, in him; 1:11 in whom also we were assigned an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his will; 1:12 to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ: 1:13 in whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:7-13).
[The Father] who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love; in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins (Colossians 1:13-14). …how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:14-15).
We will quote for a second time the verses which show that creation will also be redeemed because Jesus "bought it back."
Romans 8:19 For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 8:20 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 8:21 that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. 8:23 Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:19-23).
Redemption means that Jesus gave his life and was raised from death to make it possible for human beings to come back to God. Because first century Christians lived in a society in which slavery was common, they understood the Apostle Paul's description of a slave who was given freedom [redemption] to illustrate the man or woman who was given freedom [redemption] through Jesus' sacrifice. "Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness…But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. " (Romans 6:18, 22-23).
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