All God, All Man

Most of us would agree Christmas is an important Christian holiday. After all, it’s when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior. However, I wonder if we truly understand and think about what really transpired when Jesus was born of the young virgin, Mary.

A central miracle Christianity revolves on is the incarnation of Jesus Christ. God became Flesh. He laid down His divinity and took on humanity (Philippians 2:6-7). We must remember before He came to earth, He was not human, but once He took on the body of a man, He assumed that position permanently.

He was still all God, but now He was also all man.

“He who never began to be, but eternally existed, began to be what he eternally was not, and continued to be what he eternally was.”

C. H. Spurgeon

All God?

Gabriel explained to Mary the baby Jesus would be “a holy thing” without the sinful nature of human man (Luke 1:34).

Mary was a virgin which was important to the miracle as part of prophecy and proof of being a Son of God and without a sin nature (Isaiah 7:14, Luke 1:34). Because of God’s power, He used the Holy Spirit who “overshadowed” Mary (Luke 1:35). It is thought to be similar to how the Shekinah glory filled the Temple (2 Chronicles 7:1). When we may question all this with our finite human minds, God reminds us in Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” The Creator of this amazing, beautiful world has no problem performing a miracle such as this.

Proof of Jesus’ divinity was shown in the miracles He performed on earth which also coincide with verses from the Old Testament showing the power of Israel’s God. Such as when Jesus commanded the wind and sea to be still (Mark 4:35-41), we also find in Psalms how Israel’s God had the power to do the same (Psalm 65:7, Psalm 89:9, Psalm 107:28-29).

All Man?

Even though Jesus was all God, He was also all man. He had feelings (sadness, anger, love, pity, etc), weaknesses like you and me, yet He knew how to control Himself. The Bible teaches Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered. Imagine the Lord of the universe being reduced to having to learn like a little child through His sufferings (Hebrews 5:8).

“He learned obedience” means that Jesus moved from untested obedience into suffering, and then through suffering into tested and proven obedience. If you think about it, if you are good enough, you can learn a new task without failing. And the new task that Jesus had to learn every hour, especially at the end of his life was: Can I endure this suffering that I have never experienced before, this new obedience that I have never performed before in the history of the universe? Can I learn and do this perfectly without failing, without falling into unbelief and murmuring? And the answer of Hebrews is yes. He could and he did. He learned obedience in what he suffered, and he never, never, never failed once in the process of perfect learning, proven, tested obedience.

John Piper

Other verses in Scripture show His humanity such as the fact He was tempted as we are (Hebrews 4:15), even though He knew what God asked of Him, He still had His own will (Luke 22:42), He feared (Hebrews 5:7 – referring to the wrath of God), He hungered (Luke 4:2), and truly felt joy, grief, and affections (John 11:35).

Why is this important to accept?

If you want to accept Jesus, then you must accept these truths from His Word. Why? Because Jesus claimed to be God in the flesh, and if we don’t believe this, then His death on the cross and resurrection mean something different.

Each of us must answer the question Jesus asked His own disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). This determines for ourselves what we think of Jesus. Was He just a good man, a prophet, who walked on this earth as some believe? Or was He God in the flesh?

The Bible is clear Jesus had a divine nature, that He was the Son of God.

Death was proof Jesus was human. The resurrection was proof that He is God.

“The birth of Christ brought God to man, but it took the cross of Christ to bring man to God.”

Dr. Paul Chappell

Are we really convinced that the God who gave up His heaven, His throne, and His only Son for us would not truly love us? God is love, yes, but He is righteous, and that is why He had to do this for us. He had to send His Son as the sacrifice for our sins so if we accept Him, then we can have our sins forgiven, have a relationship with Him, and have eternal life in heaven. There’s only one way – one way to pay for our sins and one way to heaven.

We need to truly grasp the importance of all Jesus sacrificed when He left heaven. God sent Jesus to earth to do all this for us. For everyone (Romans 10:13). The miracle of Jesus being all God and all man is why we celebrate Christmas. When you see a nativity scene this month, remember that love came down! 💕