Human or Divine?

Way back in the early days of the Church they faced the question, "Was Jesus God or Man?" The answer they agreed upon was "Yes!" So we have the formula, "fully God and fully Man". Settled. Thanks. Move on. All these centuries later it's still not settled. Although it was abundantly clear from Scripture then and remains abundantly clear now, people -- even those who call themselves "Christians" -- argue the point. They will either contend that Jesus was a man who lived and died and rose again (or worse, did not rise again), a created being just like us, or that He was God who only appeared to be a man. What is not realized is the fatal blow that the Gospel is given from either of these positions.

Looking from the position of what was accomplished, it should be abundantly clear that "fully God and fully Man" is the only right possibility and anything else is the end of Christianity. What did Jesus do at the cross? He defeated death, conquered sin, applied righteousness to all who believe, provided new life, and established His kingdom. These are "God things". You cannot defeat death if you are not greater than death. Humans cannot conquer sin. No matter how generous a person might be, they don't have the capacity to apply righteousness from one to another. To offer new life, eternal life, you have to possess it to offer it. And only God, as Sovereign, establishes rulership, so only God can establish His eternal kingdom. See? Jesus had to be God. If He wasn't, death would still reign, sin would still rule, we would have no righteousness nor new life, and there would be no kingdom. Christianity would be terminated.

On the other hand, Jesus accomplished some other things necessary to us. He lived a sinless life, paid for our debt, faced judgment, and died on our behalf. Now, if God came to Earth, living a "sinless life" would be pointless because He could do no other. But we know that Jesus was "one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Heb 4:15). God cannot be tempted. Jesus was ... and remained sinless. Without that sinlessness (which required the potential to sin -- only a human possibility), He could not have paid for our sin debt, since He would have owed His own. Further, it took a human to pay a human debt. (Note, also, that in paying that debt He also had to be God. A single human could pay the debt of a single human, but it took a human who was God to pay the debt for all.) One thing that most don't realize is that Jesus had to face judgment. If He had been run over by a chariot or killed in a robbery, there would have been no judgment involved; just tragedy. It was the fact that He was judged guilty by His accusers that made His death efficacious. And then He died. One of my favorite hymns, And Can It Be?, actually has an error in it. The line is "Amazing love! How can it be, that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?" Reasonable question. He can't. Sorry. It was Jesus the man who died on that cross, not God. Without being a man, Jesus could not have gone to that cross for us, taken our curse, and died. Thus, if Jesus had not been an actual human being, He couldn't have provided a sinless life, paid for our debt, faced judgment, or died for us. Christianity, again, would be terminated.

There are some essential doctrines that make Christianity what it is. There are some that are not so essential. The Resurrection is an essential (1 Cor 15:17). The Divinity and Humanity of Christ is an essential. It is not a peripheral question. Without a "fully God and fully Man" Savior, we would have no hope.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!