A fundamental Christian belief is that Jesus was and is
divine. Some have tried to reduce Him to a prophet, a teacher, or a
manifestation of God; others have gone so far as to brand Him a heretic, a
lunatic, or foolishly say that He never existed. The evidence, however, does
not leave room for any option other than the full divinity of Jesus. True,
Jesus was not the only person to perform miracles, but He forgave sins and
accepted worship (Mark 2:7, John 20:28), two things that are undoubtedly
reserved for God alone. The Bible also teaches that Jesus is co-eternal,
existing from the beginning with God (John 1).
But if Jesus is really God, then we must address the fact
that He acted very human. He wept (John 11:35), grew weary (John 4:6), and had
other human needs like food and water (Matthew 4:2). At times He even appeared
to be limited in what He knew (Matthew 24:36). If Jesus was divine, why did He
act so human?
We need to understand and appreciate the beauty and
necessity of the incarnation. If Jesus were only
God, He could not save us because God cannot die; if he were only human, He could not save us because
no human is sinless, and our substitute had to be pure. In order to do what
Jesus did, He would need to be the God-Man, or “all the fullness of the Godhead
in bodily form (Colossians 2:9).”
Athanasius of Alexandria, a 2nd-3rd
Century bishop, put it this way: “Thus, when it was necessary to raise up
Peter’s mother-in-law, who was suffering from a fever, it was a human act when
he extended his hand, but a divine act when he caused the disease to cease.
Likewise, in the case of ‘the man blind from birth’ it was human spittle which
he spat, but it was a divine act when he opened the man’s eyes by means of
clay. And where Lazarus is concerned, he uttered human speech in his capacity
as a human being, but it was a divine act when, in his capacity as God, he
raised Lazarus from the dead (Orations
Against the Arians, Book III).”
We could add to that this thought: Jesus drank water because
He was human. He walked on water because He was God.
Jesus was fully man for 33 years, but He has been fully God
from before time began. He alone can save, so put your trust in Him today.
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