The God Man
February 13, 2024
Many do not understand the concept of Jesus being simultaneously both God and man. It seems strange, even mystical, an unfathomable mystery, an enigma…
Let me give it a go…
First of all, if you don’t believe in God or Jesus or the Bible, perhaps you might be willing to reconsider — just for the sake of “open mindedness…”
Since the Bible says that we are made in the image of God, we should assume that God basically looks like us: arms and legs, torso, head and feet. However, inwardly, there is a vast difference, as in capacity for thought, kindness, righteousness, and all His other outstanding virtues. The other thing is with a word He can create or destroy what He decides to create — just like a potter with a lump of clay at his wheel. Fortunately for us, He loves what He has created and wants to continue to work with us until we are brought to what is perfection in His eyes — just like it was with Adam and Eve in Paradise.
The Bible continually demonstrates how, after the Fall of Man, human nature would cause more harm than good. So, that part of the image of God was lost just as Paradise was lost. In short, what the fall of man included was the fall of our God-given nature. We no longer had the virtuous, creative, caring nature like God, but a self-centered, selfish, and potentially, even a cruel one.
Look around and tell me how wonderful we have been. Show me what awful things God has done. Point it out and make the argument that God has done it. I will respond by telling you to look around and tell me what greatness Mankind has accomplished without any intervening act of God. The answer is nothing at all. Not one thing.
So how is it that Jesus was both God and man? He was given birth through the young woman, Mary, making Him human, and His conception was by the Holy Spirit. making His inner self God, In other words Jesus did not have a fallen, sinful nature. He had the nature and character of God! Early in His childhood, Jesus knew who He was: the Son of God. He also knew what His purposes were, what His mission was on Earth…
After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” — Luke 2:43–49, NIV.
Then too, an apostle writes…
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. — Hebrews 4:14–16, ibid.
A lot of antagonists write about how God is evil and cruel and sadistic. Well, they only see what they see with their eyes, and the world around them is sliding sideways and seems bent on destruction. Let me point out again, if I haven’t made it clear already, that the world they see is Mankind’s creation, not God’s. That Creation was lost…
God sent Jesus into the world to demonstrate the way to restore our God-given nature, to cleanse us and create in us that new nature…
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. — 1 Corinthians 5:16–21, ibid.
Then, the argument becomes, “If God is supposed to be omnipotent, why doesn’t He stop all that is bad?”
They don’t account for that part of the image of God within us that has decision-making power to exercise our free wills.
When apologists like myself point out that we choose, we decide, and most of what we decide ends up in disaster. We screw everything up with our free will choices… Then, Oh boy! Do we get an earful!
Yet, in my way of thinking, “They can’t have it both ways.”
Besides, God will exercise His omnipotence to stop it all, and they certainly won’t like that either! It’s commonly (and often mockingly) referred to as Judgment Day…
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” — 2 Peter 3:9, ibid.
Choose a new life. Choose to turn to Jesus to be reborn and receive a new, right nature. Choose to become a new creation with an inner person with godly tendencies. Then you can begin to see with new eyes, hear with new ears, and exercise your free will to do the creative works of God rather than the destructive works of Man.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. — John 3:17, ibid.
There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. — Proverbs 14:12, ibid.
The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the LORD are firm, and all of them are righteous. — Psalm 19:9, ibid.
