The Deity and Humanity of Christ
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Part I - Introduction
Chapter 1 – Difficulties and Approach
In considering the deity and humanity of Christ, we have before us a wonderful, glorious and uplifting theme. If we, in all things, follow the exhortation to give Christ the pre-eminence in all things (Colossians 1:18), then it is perhaps the greatest theme. It involves pondering such weighty matters as God’s very being and nature, His great love for mankind, the lengths He has gone to in order to reconcile mankind to Himself, and a great deal more.
The matter at hand is also quite intriguing and carries with it a myriad of complexities. For instance: Was the Lord Jesus truly God, or was He the Son of God? If the Scriptures talk about there being one God, aren’t there really two Gods if we ascribe deity to Christ? If Christ was God, who was He speaking about in His referrals to “the Father”, and “My God”? Was the Lord Jesus truly a man? Is He still human today? And so on.
These and other such questions will be discussed more fully in subsequent chapters, but perhaps the one question which sums up the primary problem is this:
"Can one single entity be both God and man?"
In attempting to answer this question, some have concluded that, although a very special man, Christ isn’t or wasn’t ever God. On the other hand, some have concluded that Christ wasn’t truly human, but a manifestation of God who only looked like a man. Such conclusions certainly make the primary problem stated above disappear, but neither are conclusions I am able to agree with.
There is a long list of Scriptures showing evidence of Christ’s humanity. Frequently, those who do not accept His deity will point out things like Christ’s physical limitations, weakness and death in order to demonstrate that He couldn’t be God. Conversely, many who proclaim His deity do not feel comfortable dwelling on the Lord Jesus’ human features at the risk of being seen to undermine His deity. In reality, both deity and humanity shine through our Lord in abundance, as amply supported by a multitude of Scriptural phrases and passages. Rather than lean more one way or the other towards deity OR humanity, it is important to acknowledge that both aspects are present, and equally vital to who the Lord Jesus Christ was and is.
Needless to say, our limited human minds have difficulty comprehending this, and therein lies a major obstacle: we are reluctant to believe what we cannot fully understand. It is quite fair to say that reconciling the two aspects of deity and humanity within the one being conflicts with most logical thinking. However, it is more a matter of what we place as being our primary source of guidance in these issues. Do we look at the mountains of evidence pointing to both Christ’s deity and humanity, and place our faith in the revealed word of God who knows the ins and outs of the matter? Or do we defer to the limited knowledge and sometimes faulty logic of man? It is at this point we must decide to consider the full testimony of the Scriptures, or we will be wasting our time. The Bible is God’s words and thoughts, and He has spoken about Himself via those words and thoughts. It is of primary importance to consider what He has said about Himself first, before offering our human response. Would any of us dare to suggest that the Bible tells us everything there is to know about Christ’s deity and humanity, though? Surely it does not, and there comes a point when we must acknowledge, even upon diligently searching and reading the Scriptures, that there will be many aspects of His being we may never fully comprehend. This should not discourage us, however, as it highlights something of the wonderful subject at hand, and it is worth our attention for a moment or two.
Comparison and Equality
Consider how we learn – our method of understanding something is to compare the thing unknown with an object or concept that we do know. In describing a pony to a child who doesn’t know it is, we may tell them, “It is a bit like a horse”. In describing a nasturtium, we may say, “It is a kind of flower”. In describing a frankfurter, we may say, “It is like a sausage”; and so on. We take an item that is familiar and well known, in order to help the child understand that which is unfamiliar to them.
This method may be helpful in the things of this world, however the impossibility of us understanding the being and nature of God by comparison alone is emphasised many times in Scripture:
I am God and there is none like Me (Isaiah 46:9)
There is no one like the LORD our God (Exodus 8:10)
There is none like Me in all the earth (Exodus 9:14)
Who in the heavens can be compared to the LORD? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the LORD?
[implied answer: “There is none.”] (Psalm 89:6)
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?
[again, the implied answer: “There is none.”] (Isaiah 40:18)
See also Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 33:26; Psalm 113:5; Jeremiah 10:6; Acts 17:29.
In connection with none being like God, the question of “equality” with God is also put to Isaiah’s readers:
To whom then will you liken me, or to whom shall I be equal? (Isaiah 40:25)
To whom will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we should be alike? (Isaiah 46:5)
The Old Testament makes it clear: no being or object may be compared with God that one might be able to say summarily, “God is like such and such” or “God is equal with such and such”. Quite plainly, nobody is like God, or equal with God. However, the New Testament introduces us to Jesus of Nazareth, and we are presented with a being who is indeed compared with God, and attributed equality with God.
Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath,
but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5:18)
The Jews answered him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy,
and because you, being a man, make yourself God.” (John 10:33)
Both of these references quoted refer to Christ’s enemies’ accusations about His claims of equality with God. Note that the Lord Jesus did not refute these accusations. On many other occasions, He challenged the false teachings of the religious leaders of His day (e.g. Matthew 12:1-14; 22:29; 23:1-35; etc.), but it is significant that He did not do so in these instances. Their conclusions about what He was implying were actually correct; their error was that they didn’t believe it.
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Christ’s equality with God is also spoken of.
Christ Jesus … being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:5-7)
Being God in the flesh – not a different God, but the same God – Christ could justly claim equality with God and exercise all the rights that go along with it. Perhaps the hardest part for us to believe is that a being with such powers and rights would lay them aside voluntarily out of love in order to be of service to mankind. We shall also consider this aspect in more detail in due course.
Let us briefly draw some of these thoughts together. As we have seen from the question posed in Isaiah’s prophecy – “To whom will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we should be alike?” (Isaiah 46:5) – there is no duplicate of God’s being and nature anywhere in the universe that we may compare and say, “God is like such and such”. Yes, we are given glimpses in many places of His character, but there is far less about His being and nature. We often learn by comparing the known to shed light upon the unknown; yet when there is no thing or no one else like God to compare Him to, our understanding will be severely limited. Yet, despite the distinctions between the One who took on a human body and the One who remained invisible, the Lord Jesus Christ is referred to as being equal with God.
Modifying Isaiah 46:5 for the purposes of our subject, we may well ask, “To whom will you liken Christ, and make equal, and compare, that they may be alike?” The answer again is, “Nobody is like Christ”. This is a simple yet profound truth, and we would do well to bear it in mind before we continue. No other being throughout eternity has ever been both God and man. We have no other examples with which to compare Him, and this will necessarily affect our efforts to comprehend how both deity and humanity may be present in the one being.
Approaching the Matter
Despite this difficulty, I do believe some aspects of what has been revealed in the Scriptures about these things may be understood, to a degree anyway, and it is well worth the effort to explore the revelations we may be permitted to explore. This being the case, let us nevertheless be mindful of the sacred nature of our subject as we proceed.
In Exodus 3, when Moses approached the burning bush and was confronted by God for the first time, he was instructed to, “take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground”. Perhaps the message for us, as we attempt to draw nearer to an understanding of our God and His Son, is to approach in a similarly reverential and careful manner. It is not a place for us to bluster in arrogantly as if we have great command over the issue; no, this is God’s domain and we should treat it with the respect it deserves. With regard to that same incident, when Moses viewed the burning bush from a distance, his original motive for moving closer was to see “why the bush does not burn”. He initially approached out of mere curiosity, but Moses would later be privileged to enjoy such a close relationship with the God who revealed Himself, that it is said of him, “The LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11), a marvelous honour indeed! I hope that in our study of these issues we will not put our efforts into simply wanting our curiosity satisfied, for the end result is likely to remain as mere head knowledge with no further value. Rather, may we earnestly seek the Lord Himself, for we are considering not a mere SUBJECT to be learned, but a BEING to come to know more intimately and worship.
The study of Christ’s deity and humanity is not a series of scientific formulas or mathematical equations to be worked through. No, it is a consideration of the mysteries of our Lord and God, whose being is certainly beyond our ability to comprehend on our own. I am certain that we will never fully plumb the depths of the Lord’s nature anyway, no matter how right our attitude is, but if His Holy Spirit does not enlighten our understanding as we read the Scriptures, then our efforts will be as useless as a sundial whilst the sun is not shining. May I encourage the reader to seek the light and guidance of our Lord, and “lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). There is much to be gained if we earnestly seek the Lord in these matters, and if we constantly seek to be guided by His direction along the way.
The matter at hand is also quite intriguing and carries with it a myriad of complexities. For instance: Was the Lord Jesus truly God, or was He the Son of God? If the Scriptures talk about there being one God, aren’t there really two Gods if we ascribe deity to Christ? If Christ was God, who was He speaking about in His referrals to “the Father”, and “My God”? Was the Lord Jesus truly a man? Is He still human today? And so on.
These and other such questions will be discussed more fully in subsequent chapters, but perhaps the one question which sums up the primary problem is this:
"Can one single entity be both God and man?"
In attempting to answer this question, some have concluded that, although a very special man, Christ isn’t or wasn’t ever God. On the other hand, some have concluded that Christ wasn’t truly human, but a manifestation of God who only looked like a man. Such conclusions certainly make the primary problem stated above disappear, but neither are conclusions I am able to agree with.
There is a long list of Scriptures showing evidence of Christ’s humanity. Frequently, those who do not accept His deity will point out things like Christ’s physical limitations, weakness and death in order to demonstrate that He couldn’t be God. Conversely, many who proclaim His deity do not feel comfortable dwelling on the Lord Jesus’ human features at the risk of being seen to undermine His deity. In reality, both deity and humanity shine through our Lord in abundance, as amply supported by a multitude of Scriptural phrases and passages. Rather than lean more one way or the other towards deity OR humanity, it is important to acknowledge that both aspects are present, and equally vital to who the Lord Jesus Christ was and is.
Needless to say, our limited human minds have difficulty comprehending this, and therein lies a major obstacle: we are reluctant to believe what we cannot fully understand. It is quite fair to say that reconciling the two aspects of deity and humanity within the one being conflicts with most logical thinking. However, it is more a matter of what we place as being our primary source of guidance in these issues. Do we look at the mountains of evidence pointing to both Christ’s deity and humanity, and place our faith in the revealed word of God who knows the ins and outs of the matter? Or do we defer to the limited knowledge and sometimes faulty logic of man? It is at this point we must decide to consider the full testimony of the Scriptures, or we will be wasting our time. The Bible is God’s words and thoughts, and He has spoken about Himself via those words and thoughts. It is of primary importance to consider what He has said about Himself first, before offering our human response. Would any of us dare to suggest that the Bible tells us everything there is to know about Christ’s deity and humanity, though? Surely it does not, and there comes a point when we must acknowledge, even upon diligently searching and reading the Scriptures, that there will be many aspects of His being we may never fully comprehend. This should not discourage us, however, as it highlights something of the wonderful subject at hand, and it is worth our attention for a moment or two.
Comparison and Equality
Consider how we learn – our method of understanding something is to compare the thing unknown with an object or concept that we do know. In describing a pony to a child who doesn’t know it is, we may tell them, “It is a bit like a horse”. In describing a nasturtium, we may say, “It is a kind of flower”. In describing a frankfurter, we may say, “It is like a sausage”; and so on. We take an item that is familiar and well known, in order to help the child understand that which is unfamiliar to them.
This method may be helpful in the things of this world, however the impossibility of us understanding the being and nature of God by comparison alone is emphasised many times in Scripture:
I am God and there is none like Me (Isaiah 46:9)
There is no one like the LORD our God (Exodus 8:10)
There is none like Me in all the earth (Exodus 9:14)
Who in the heavens can be compared to the LORD? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the LORD?
[implied answer: “There is none.”] (Psalm 89:6)
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?
[again, the implied answer: “There is none.”] (Isaiah 40:18)
See also Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 33:26; Psalm 113:5; Jeremiah 10:6; Acts 17:29.
In connection with none being like God, the question of “equality” with God is also put to Isaiah’s readers:
To whom then will you liken me, or to whom shall I be equal? (Isaiah 40:25)
To whom will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we should be alike? (Isaiah 46:5)
The Old Testament makes it clear: no being or object may be compared with God that one might be able to say summarily, “God is like such and such” or “God is equal with such and such”. Quite plainly, nobody is like God, or equal with God. However, the New Testament introduces us to Jesus of Nazareth, and we are presented with a being who is indeed compared with God, and attributed equality with God.
Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath,
but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5:18)
The Jews answered him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy,
and because you, being a man, make yourself God.” (John 10:33)
Both of these references quoted refer to Christ’s enemies’ accusations about His claims of equality with God. Note that the Lord Jesus did not refute these accusations. On many other occasions, He challenged the false teachings of the religious leaders of His day (e.g. Matthew 12:1-14; 22:29; 23:1-35; etc.), but it is significant that He did not do so in these instances. Their conclusions about what He was implying were actually correct; their error was that they didn’t believe it.
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Christ’s equality with God is also spoken of.
Christ Jesus … being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:5-7)
Being God in the flesh – not a different God, but the same God – Christ could justly claim equality with God and exercise all the rights that go along with it. Perhaps the hardest part for us to believe is that a being with such powers and rights would lay them aside voluntarily out of love in order to be of service to mankind. We shall also consider this aspect in more detail in due course.
Let us briefly draw some of these thoughts together. As we have seen from the question posed in Isaiah’s prophecy – “To whom will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we should be alike?” (Isaiah 46:5) – there is no duplicate of God’s being and nature anywhere in the universe that we may compare and say, “God is like such and such”. Yes, we are given glimpses in many places of His character, but there is far less about His being and nature. We often learn by comparing the known to shed light upon the unknown; yet when there is no thing or no one else like God to compare Him to, our understanding will be severely limited. Yet, despite the distinctions between the One who took on a human body and the One who remained invisible, the Lord Jesus Christ is referred to as being equal with God.
Modifying Isaiah 46:5 for the purposes of our subject, we may well ask, “To whom will you liken Christ, and make equal, and compare, that they may be alike?” The answer again is, “Nobody is like Christ”. This is a simple yet profound truth, and we would do well to bear it in mind before we continue. No other being throughout eternity has ever been both God and man. We have no other examples with which to compare Him, and this will necessarily affect our efforts to comprehend how both deity and humanity may be present in the one being.
Approaching the Matter
Despite this difficulty, I do believe some aspects of what has been revealed in the Scriptures about these things may be understood, to a degree anyway, and it is well worth the effort to explore the revelations we may be permitted to explore. This being the case, let us nevertheless be mindful of the sacred nature of our subject as we proceed.
In Exodus 3, when Moses approached the burning bush and was confronted by God for the first time, he was instructed to, “take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground”. Perhaps the message for us, as we attempt to draw nearer to an understanding of our God and His Son, is to approach in a similarly reverential and careful manner. It is not a place for us to bluster in arrogantly as if we have great command over the issue; no, this is God’s domain and we should treat it with the respect it deserves. With regard to that same incident, when Moses viewed the burning bush from a distance, his original motive for moving closer was to see “why the bush does not burn”. He initially approached out of mere curiosity, but Moses would later be privileged to enjoy such a close relationship with the God who revealed Himself, that it is said of him, “The LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11), a marvelous honour indeed! I hope that in our study of these issues we will not put our efforts into simply wanting our curiosity satisfied, for the end result is likely to remain as mere head knowledge with no further value. Rather, may we earnestly seek the Lord Himself, for we are considering not a mere SUBJECT to be learned, but a BEING to come to know more intimately and worship.
The study of Christ’s deity and humanity is not a series of scientific formulas or mathematical equations to be worked through. No, it is a consideration of the mysteries of our Lord and God, whose being is certainly beyond our ability to comprehend on our own. I am certain that we will never fully plumb the depths of the Lord’s nature anyway, no matter how right our attitude is, but if His Holy Spirit does not enlighten our understanding as we read the Scriptures, then our efforts will be as useless as a sundial whilst the sun is not shining. May I encourage the reader to seek the light and guidance of our Lord, and “lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). There is much to be gained if we earnestly seek the Lord in these matters, and if we constantly seek to be guided by His direction along the way.
