Chapter 13 How Can Jesus Be God and Man?
To begin with, we have to understand that there is only one God. But there are three persons in the Godhead. I am not making this up. I know it is hard to understand. I remember one time when I took two of my granddaughters out to Panera for a treat and while I was getting their drinks, they were talking about God. Sadie said something about Jesus being God. Katy said “I thought God was Jesus’ dad.” To which Sadie replied, “Well, actually there are three Gods, but you can only trust one of them.”
Junior Theologians
Katy and Sadie ages 4 & 5
See what I mean? These kids understood the Trinity about as well as most adults. At least they were talking about it and they were only 4 and 5 years old. But the doctrines of the Trinity and the dual nature of Christ are easily remembered if we can remember one, two and three. God is one being with three persons. Jesus is one person with two natures. Simple, right?
Let’s start with the Trinity. No other god of any nation had three persons. But our God does have three persons and that is extremely important because it means that our God has always been a family. He has always been part of a community. He has always been able to love because there was somebody to love. He has never been selfish. He has always been welcoming and embracing. He has always delighted in someone else. If our God were not a Trinity, there would be no such thing as love or family or friends or teamwork or any of those things that we enjoy so much. Bet you didn’t know that! The Trinity is very important.
Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. The Father is the first person and the Holy Spirit is the third person. Jesus has always been fully God from all eternity. But one day he became a man. When he became a man, he was still fully God and also fully man. Some people think that Jesus was a man with super powers, but that is not true. He was human with all the human weaknesses that you and I have.
Jesus had a human body just like ours. He was born just like we were. He grew and he got tired and hungry and thirsty. He became physically weak when he fasted. And he died. And he had a real human body after he rose again.
Jesus had real human emotions. When other kids didn’t invite him to their birthday parties, he cried. When people told lies about him, he was very sad. The Bible says He offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears. His soul was troubled at times. Other times he was joyful—like maybe on special holidays and feast days. Just like us.
Believe it or not, Jesus was not born knowing everything. He had to go to school. He increased in wisdom. One time he even said he didn’t know everything! He said he didn’t know when he was coming back!!! That is because Jesus' human mind was finite even though his God mind was infinite—at the same time! Try to wrap your mind around that one.
Jesus also had two wills—a human will and a divine will. He would sometimes say things like, “I came to do not my will but the will of him who sent me.” He has an infinite divine will that he shares with his Father and a finite human will that is perfectly in sync with and submissive to the divine will.
A lot of folks think that Jesus’s two natures kind of blended together, but that is wrong. Both natures were completely distinct. Fully God and fully man. Impossible, right?
Jesus is just like us in his humanity except for one thing—he never sinned. When he died on the cross for us God gave us His righteousness. If we are in Christ, it is not only just as if we never sinned, but also just as if we did everything right! And there is that outrageous, scandalous grace again. It’s all grace!
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