When I was in seminary in New Orleans, we would often head down to the French Quarter, especially to have café au lait and beignets at the Café du Monde. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. One day I was walking in Jackson Square and glanced over at a clown making balloon animals. I only watched him for maybe two or three seconds. Then he suddenly started running over to me with his hand out, like I was supposed to give him money because I watched him make a balloon animal. Did I mention that he was a clown? I hate clowns. I’m scared of clowns. So I started backpedaling to get away. Then he ran faster and started yelling at me. I sprinted two blocks down a very crowded Decatur Street with a clown chasing me, yelling at the top of his lungs, “You booger!! You booger!!” Not my bravest moment.
Another day we were in Jackson Square and saw a statue we hadn’t seen before. Only it wasn’t a statue. It was a man acting like a statue, sitting perfectly still. We saw a group of teenage girls discussing the situation. “That’s not a statue. That’s a man.” “That ain’t no man. No one can be that still!” “Oh yeah, well go over there and see for yourself. He’s a man!” So this group of girls went over and walked around the statue, glaring at him, trying to figure out if he was a statue or a human. Then the statue stood up, and those girls ran screaming in every direction. At least he didn’t chase them.
Most of us realize that Jesus is God. After all, he’s the Son of God, God the Son. But is he man? The answer the Bible gives to that question is an absolute “yes.”
But why did Jesus need to be human? Why was it important for God to become a man? There are many reasons, but I’ll focus on four of them.
First, Jesus had to be human to be our example.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:29)
Jesus wasn’t some Superman. He didn’t disguise himself as a mild-mannered carpenter who ran into the phone booth and emerged with a red cape whenever someone needed healing. If that had been the case, there is no way we could conform to his image. Who could live up to that?
But Jesus was a man, fully human like us. So when the Bible says that our goal should be to be like Christ, we’re looking to someone who was both God and human as our example and pattern for living. It’s Jesus the man who is our example of how to love, how to face temptation, how to go through suffering, how to live a life of obedience to God, and so much more. Jesus, the man Jesus, is our example to follow.
Another reason Jesus had to be human is so he could be our substitute on the cross.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)
If Jesus had not been human, he could not have taken our place on the cross and paid the penalty we owe. Jesus had to be Deity because no mere human could have paid the penalty for our sins. Only almighty God could do that. At the same time, only a fellow human could bridge the gap between humans and God that our sin created. Because Jesus is human, his sacrifice can reunite humans with God.
A third reason Jesus had to be human is so he could be the mediator between God and humans. Only one person ever lived who could meet that job requirement:
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (1Timothy 2:5)
Note that Paul calls him “the man” Jesus. In the Old Testament days, priests would offer prayers and sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. In this way, the priests would lead the people into the presence of God. The priests weren’t gods. They were human beings just like everyone else, and they represented their fellow people to God and represented God to the people. In the Old Testament, the only way for sinful people to come closer to God was through the sacrificial system performed by priests.
Today we still can only approach God through a sacrifice, but it’s the sacrifice that was made by Jesus. Now Jesus is our mediator, representing us before God. Instead of making multiple animal sacrifices for us every day like the Old Testament priests, Jesus made one sacrifice on our behalf, and it was enough.
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. (Hebrews 10:11-12)
Jesus not only offered himself as the final, once-for-all sacrifice, he’s also the final mediator, in that he continually intercedes for us before God the Father.
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermostthose who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (Romans 8:34)
What is this intercession that Jesus does? Part of it is his presence with the Father as a constant reminder that he made the payment for our sins, and, therefore, we stand before God as not guilty.
But Jesus’s intercession for us is more than that. Jesus is constantly in the presence of the Father, making requests on our behalf. Let that sink in for a moment. Jesus, fully God and fully man, is sitting at the right hand of God right now, continually praying to the Father on your behalf. Have you ever thanked him for that?
And Jesus does this as both God and man. He is one of us, so he understands our struggles as humans. He has felt all that we feel. Like the Old Testament priests, he represents us because he’s one of us, having experienced all we go through as humans.
Which leads to the fourth reason Jesus had to be human – but that’s for the next post.
Richard, I am so happy to see that you are back at your writings. I am so blessed by the teachings of the word and what Biblical findings you tell that we may not have seen or understood in a way when we read through the Bible. Thank you again for all you do and again so glad of your series and to see you back doing what God has led you to do.