Examples of Humanity and Deity

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Examples of Humanity and Deity

By Ray Wooten

Within theology there is a field of study called Christology, which is the study and the knowledge of Christ, the Messiah. One problem with this study is that the information that is given may not always be accurate. The reason for this being that many students of Christology do not use the Bible as their textbook, the very Book which God has given to us, to enable us to understand Him. Christology is primarily concerned with Christ’s origin and nature. There is another field of study called Soteriology, which is more concerned with His doctrines and His way of life. Whether the study of Christ is called Christology or Soteriology, it certainly is vital and essential to us; and we should diligently study the Bible to learn what our Father has revealed about His Son. The Scripture is filled with facts about Messiah. Every book of the Bible has either prophecies, facts, or teachings about our Savior.

We are told in 2 Peter 3:18f "but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." It is essential that we come to know Jesus Christ, the Messiah, not just facts about Him; we must come to know Him in a personal way. The primary way given to us to do that is through God’s textbook, the Bible.

In this article we will examine four examples in which Jesus demonstrated, first of all, the fact that He was in the flesh or human. Let me explain what I mean by the term human or humanity. Christ became human; He did not become carnal. There is a difference between carnality and humanity. Humanity is the nature that man has, which makes him what he is, in the flesh. It is not the carnality that makes him "enmity against" God. So, I will use the term human or humanity, which is technically the correct term.

We need to understand another thing about His being human. He was not human, merely by birth. We are human by birthright; we did not have a choice in it. We were born in Adam; therefore, we are human. Jesus became human by choice. He made that decision, Himself. That is the difference in His being man and our being man. Now conversely, we have to make the decision to become Christian (to become like Christ or to be in Christ). He has put us there; we have that opportunity. It is available to us, but we must make the choice to become Christian.

Jesus demonstrated His humanity in these four scriptural examples we will examine, and secondly, He also displayed, right along with His humanity, His Deity. Maybe you have never made such a study as this. If not, you will be amazed at the simplicity and profundity of these marvelous truths.

For brevity let us limit our study of these scriptures to one example from each gospel writer.

EXAMPLE NUMBER ONE

We will begin in Matthew 14:22, "And immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And after He had sent the multitudes away, He went up to the mountain by Himself to pray". Here, we see Jesus’ humanity exemplified by His praying.

Christ prayed; but you will never read of a place in scripture where God prays. So, when Christ went up to pray He showed us His humanness, His fleshliness. You see, Deity has no need to pray. Prayer is an act of mankind. So He was in His status as a man, when He went to pray. Humans pray; prayer is an expression of need. God has no needs. Prayer is also a declaration of worship and God worships no one. He does not need to worship, as

there is no one else higher than Himself to worship. He is self-contained; He is self-sufficient; all glory resides in Him. We humans pray because of a need to worship, or to ask for strength, or to request assistance, or guidance, or whatever we may need at the time. That is what we see Jesus doing here. In praying then, He shows Himself human.

His Deity, though, is exhibited in the very next setting. Notice verse 23, the latter part, "And when it was evening, He was there alone. But the boat was already many stadia" (the King James says, ‘in the midst of the sea’). A stadium is about 600 feet and it states here that, "He was many stadia away from the land battered by the waves for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them", notice, " Walking upon the sea".

Now in this same example, we have just seen Christ praying, doing an act that is exclusively human (that is limited to human beings) and now we see Him doing an act that only God can do. It seemed to the disciples that Jesus had come out of nowhere. He just started walking on the water; He was walking toward them. They looked across the sea; they saw Him coming; they were "scared to death". Notice verse 26, "And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were frightened, saying, ‘It’s a ghost!’ and they cried out for fear", (The Greek is phantasma). Its phantasma, phantasma! A fantasy, that is the word that Matthew uses. It is the word from which we get our words fantasy, fantastic, or phantom. It is as if they yelled, it is an apparition, it is a ghost, look! Peter says, "If that is the Lord walking on the water, I am going to try it too". So he stumbles out into the water and he quickly goes under. He cannot pull it off.

Later a very significant conversion occurred. Notice verses 32 and 33. "And when they got into the boat, the wind stopped and those who were in the boat worshipped Him, saying, "You are certainly God’s Son." So they recognized Him as God’s Son because of these acts of God that He had performed; not only in walking on the water, but also in calming the storm. So, only man prays and only God walks on water and calms storms and according to Matthew, Jesus Christ did all three. Perhaps you had not considered it in that way, but it is scriptural. That’s what it says.

EXAMPLE NUMBER TWO

The second event that we will examine is found in Mark 1:40 "And a leper came to Him (that is to Christ) beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him and saying to Him, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.’" Most of you have probably never seen leprosy; I have not. However so that we may better understand what it is like I will relate the story of a man whose military outfit, during his days in the Marine Corps in the Orient, would customarily visit a leprosarium once or twice a year. He said his outfit went to entertain and encourage the people there; he had never seen such helpless, tragic sights. The hands and the feet of those poor folks, with this leprosy, were often times just bleeding stumps. They could not wear shoes of any kind. It was obvious that some of them did not even have feet or toes, and some of their hands were gone.

I can imagine then, this tragic man with his bleeding stumps saying to Jesus, "If You are willing, cleanse me". He came to Him with a dire need. He did not just come because this Man was there and it was convenient. He came because he had a need. The scripture never speaks, by the way, of leprosy being healed or cured. It is always cleansed because leprosy is one of the Biblical pictures of sin. So we are never cured or healed of sin in a sense; we are cleansed of it. The leper says, "You can do it, I know that You can cleanse me. You can make me clean," he said to Christ.

Now as a man, Jesus was moved with compassion over a fellow human being in need. The King James Version speaks of, "One being moved deep within his bowels of mercies". I am sure that you have read that many times. I know that I have. "Bowels of mercies" - This is the best expression of the Elizabethan English that describes that pit of the stomach feeling where you chum. In fact one writer calls it our churning place. So Christ churned down deep, if you please, in His gut. That was the way He felt. Men do that; women do that. When you walk by, or drive by a tragic scene, for example, that is the way you tend to feel.

I remember years ago, I was driving down the highway and I saw a car that had run off the road. I stopped and went out to where people, were trying to help the passengers. Four people - two adults and two children were involved. The man was lying on the ground lifeless. One child was still in the car, but seemed okay. The woman was able to get up and walk around. She seemed okay but she was in shock. She had a little child that was about two or three years old and the child obviously had broken legs. She was saying, "Oh, you can walk, you are okay". The baby was conscious and she would stand her up then turn her loose and the baby would fall down. Her little legs would just fold up underneath her. I did everything that I could to help. When we took the baby away from her, she started screaming and yelling; we had to take the baby in order to save her. Well, my stomach churned at that. And that is the feeling, no doubt, that Christ had, a feeling of compassion. When you see a scene like this, when you view one on the television screen, when you read of one in a magazine or newspaper, you are moved with that same kind of compassion. We have that kind of feeling as human beings - that’s human mercy expressed over human misery. Now I am not saying God, the Father, does not have compassion; but He does not have that sense, that feeling, that emotion in the same way that we do. One of the reasons Christ had to become human was to experience that kind of compassion and feeling for human misery. That is an example then of Jesus’ humanity.

He does not stop with just humanity, notice verse 41 and 42, "And moved with compassion He stretched out His hand and touched him and said to him, ‘I am willing be cleansed.’ And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed". Only God can do that; man cannot do that. For all we know there were suddenly toes on his feet and fingers on his hands. The ache ended; the hemorrhaging stopped; and God/man had done His work.

That is what Jesus the Christ is about; that is true Christology. That is what God says of His Son, Jesus, The Christ.

EXAMPLE NUMBER THREE

Luke 8:22, "Now it came about on one of those days that He and His disciples got into a boat and He said to them, ‘Let us go to the other side of the lake.’ And they launched out. But as they were sailing along, He fell asleep". Now every time that I have been on the water just sailing, I have usually fallen asleep. There is something about the natural rhythm of the water; it massages the weariness of your bones and you get sleepy. It seems that sailing and sleep go together. Most humans, that I know, would agree that easy sailing and restful sleep do go together; they are meant for each other. In scripture it is never said that God sleeps. As a matter of fact, if you were to turn to Psalm 121:4 you would read, "He who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps." God does not sleep; yet man sleeps. Humanity must sleep; we have to sleep.

Here is a man weary from the day (according to this passage); he falls sound asleep in the boat and that is when things begin to happen. Notice verse 23b, "And a fierce gale of wind descended upon the lake and they began to be swamped and to be in danger. They came to Him and woke Him up, saying, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing’." They have already witnessed the feeding of some five thousand and yet they were still afraid. They said, "Master, wake up, wake up, we are going to die". Isn’t that interesting? Even after having seen many miracles performed by Christ they had seen the feeding of the five thousand, and each had a basket of food left over - they had not yet learned the lesson of His power. They had seen Him walk on water, and cleanse a leper; but they had not connected these acts with His Deity. So here they are afraid they are going to sink. They are in a boat and we see with them God in the flesh. You cannot sink, however, with God in the boat with you. You just cannot sink, when God is in your boat! "But suddenly with a word, " notice, "everything is calm". Only God could do such a thing. Notice the latter part, " who, being aroused, He rebuked the wind and the surging waves and they stopped and it became calm". That is an awesome thing when you think about it. It became calm; a storming raging sea, and this incredible wind, instantly became what fishermen call a slick. Their boat may have taken a few minutes to stop rocking; but, the sea was calm as glass and that just does not happen, normally. It usually takes more time.

And then notice the disciples’ response in verse 25, "And they were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this that He commands even the winds and the water and they obey Him?’" They could not believe it; yet, they had been with Him all this time. Does that sound like strong, believing followers? Does that sound a lot like us, occasionally? We see all the things that He does. He gets us through the difficult times; even so, when another trial, test, or problem comes, we are afraid again.

Here was His little group thinking, "Well what are we going to do?" They had God with them and knew all the things that He had already done for them. They were well aware of tests that He had already brought them through. They appeared to have forgotten these things because they said, "What are we going to do? Who is this?" Can’t you just see Peter, the fisherman, mumbling under his breath that even the wind and the waves obey Him? Yes, this is God. Yes, Peter, it is the one you awakened a moment ago and He is indeed God! Never doubt it brethren. In the tragic storms of life, He specializes in calming waves and in silencing winds. I have personally experienced it and I know that you also have experienced it. It will sometimes shock you. How can Jesus Christ do such a thing? Well, He is God! That is how’ He can do it. That is how He has always done it.

EXAMPLE NUMBER FOUR

The fourth scene that I want us to relive had to do with Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, who became ill and in a short time died. Jesus finally arrived on the scene after his death. Now He is faced with blame. He had not dropped everything earlier and come to the side of the grieving family. He walked in and the first thing they did was to blame Him.

They did not understand what He was doing here. He was going to confirm the doctrine of the resurrection. They were not totally aware of the purpose of His actions. They could only see the human needs.

John 11:32, "Therefore when Mary came where Jesus was she saw Him and fell at His feet, saying to Him, ‘Lord if You had been here, my brother would not have died’." If You had only been here, he would not have died! Now it was bad enough that she was blaming Him for not being there, and her brother’s death; but, in addition to facing that, He had to deal with the grief of His friends as well. Notice verse 33, "And when Jesus, therefore, saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved In spirit and was troubled". You won’t read of God being troubled; God is not troubled in the way that human beings are troubled. That is the human part of Jesus - this is His humanity on display.

And then verses 34 and 35, "And He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to Him, ‘Lord come and see’." And notice, the shortest verse in the Bible that we have all heard our entire lives. There was a reason for this verse being there. "Jesus wept." This is one of the proofs of His humanity. He was not God totally; He was also flesh and blood; He had the same feeling and the same experiences that we do. "Jesus wept." Have you ever read where God wept? You do not read of God weeping in the heavens. Tears are human traits, not divine. He wept as He grieved, not only because of their unbelief, but also over the loss of His friend and for the sorrow of His companions. It was a scene where any one of us would undoubtedly have cried.

And then notice verses 38 through 40, "Jesus, therefore again, being deeply moved within came to the tomb. Now it was a cave and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Remove the stone.’ Martha the sister of the deceased said to Him, ‘Lord, by this time there will be a stench for he has been dead for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you believe you will see the glory of God’?" "I said, move the stone," is what He responded. So they moved it. You see, Jesus was not going to resurrect Lazarus per se. Now notice carefully what I am saying. When I think of resurrection, I think of the, change of the body structure. I think of the first resurrection. That is not what Christ was going to do here. He was going to resuscitate Lazarus; He was going to bring him back to human life, not to spirit life. Understand the difference. If He would have resurrected him, the stone could have stayed there. In the resurrected state the whole molecular structure of one’s body changes and one can pass through wood, stone, glass or space with no resistance. There is a whole different makeup of the body. You must move the stone out of the way, if you are going to bring a man back from beyond and resuscitate him. He said, "Move the stone".

And then verses 41 through 43, "So they removed the stone and Jesus raised His eyes and said, Father, I thank You that You heard Me. And I know that You hear Me always, but because of the people standing around, I said this that they may believe that You did send Me." He did not call on God for His own purpose here. He called on God for the purpose of those standing around. There are times when prayer, in the presence of someone who needs prayer, is good for him or her. Hearing your prayer helps them understand what you are saying and it helps their faith. That is what Jesus did here. He called on God to help their faith. "And when He said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth’." I once heard something a country preacher spoke of this and I like what he said. It may not be true, or it may be true, I don’t know. However, I like to envision what he had to say. He said, "If Christ had not limited that command to Lazarus, every corpse in the graveyard would have come forth. I love that - that’s faith! You know that is looking at Christ the way that He was. It was as if He said, just Lazarus, this time, just Lazarus.

Someday, though, He will bring them all back. That almost makes chills run up and down my spine. To think that some day every human being, those who are in the first resurrection will be resurrected to eternal life, and those who are not will be resuscitated and given their opportunity to know and to accept Jesus Christ.

He Is Verse 44, "He who had died came forth bound hand and foot with wrappings and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him and let him go’." Unbind him and let him go. Isn’t that an electric moment to you? It is to me. Wouldn’t you have loved to have had supper with Lazarus that night just to ask, how was it, Lazarus? How do you feel? What’s it like? Here was a man who had died, who had been dead four days and who was resuscitated and was sitting there. Wouldn’t you have liked to talk to him a little bit about it? He had indeed been to the beyond and back

Only humans can weep and grieve in the way Jesus did. Only God can raise the dead and Jesus did. Is He flesh and blood? Yes, He is. Is He god? Yes, He is.

I have a personal walk with Jesus, the Messiah. I have a personal fellowship and communion with Him on a regular basis. I know He lives in me through the Holy Spirit. I know that He put His Spirit in me. I know that Jesus Christ is alive. I know that He is God. I know that our Father lives. I believe that with all of my being. I do not have to make a big scene out of it. I just know that is true. I have that confidence, not only because of my personal experiences, but because the Word of God says so; I have personally experienced what the Word of God says.

Who is Jesus Christ? He is God/man, the most unique person who ever lived. He is the awesome Son of God. A kindergarten teacher was determining how much religious training her new students had. While talking with one little boy, to whom the story of Jesus was obviously brand new, she began relating the story of His death on the cross (or the stake, if you prefer). When the little boy asked what a cross was, she picked up some sticks and fashioning a crude one, she explained that Jesus was actually nailed to this thing and then He died. The little boy with his eyes down cast quietly acknowledged, "Oh, that is too bad". In the very next breath, however, she related that lie rose again and that He came back to life. His little eyes got as big as saucers and he looked up and said, "Totally awesome!" That was the response of that little boy. You do not know the full identity of Jesus, if your response is only, "Oh that is too bad". You know His identity only if your description is, "Totally awesome!" We have -to understand that it is totally awesome!

If you were to read John 20:21 you would find John is saying, "Christ is the Son of God". If you turn to Matthew 16:16 you would find that Peter is saying, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God". If you turn to John 20:28 you find Thomas saying, "My Lord and my God". That is who Jesus was to them. That is who Jesus is to all of us. He is man and God. Jesus knew who He was. He knew that He was both Divine and Human and He explained how He knew that. Do you believe that Jesus was both Divine and Human, both Savior and Lord? The proof is scripturally irrefutable, as we have seen; He is both!