Fully Man
Jesus didn’t pretend to be human. He became human.
FULLY MAN
If the New Testament is saturated with the truth that Jesus is God, it is equally unmistakable that Jesus was truly human. We don’t have to search for evidence. It’s everywhere.
We see Jesus talking and walking, sitting and eating. We see Him sleeping because He was tired. We see Him becoming hungry and thirsty. We see Him weeping at the grave of Lazarus, touching people, listening to them, showing compassion and even becoming angry.
He had a mother and a family.
He had a human body that grew tired, sweated, suffered, bled and ultimately died.
John didn’t say that the Word merely appeared to become flesh. He wrote, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
Jesus didn’t pretend to be human. He became human. He experienced the things we experience. He knew hunger. He knew exhaustion. He knew sorrow and physical pain. He knew what it was like to be misunderstood, rejected, betrayed and abandoned.
Hebrews 4:15 reminds us that we have a High Priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses because He “has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”
And here is where the wonder becomes almost impossible to comprehend. The One who was God became man without ceasing to be God.
The One who created the universe entered the world as a baby. The One who never grows weary became tired. The One who gives life to humanity experienced death.
The eternal Son entered time and walked among us.
Jesus is God and man.
And that is not a contradiction to explain away. It is the mystery and glory of the incarnation. God didn’t save us from a distance. He came near.
The wonder of Christmas isn’t merely that a baby was born. It is that God became flesh and came to dwell among us.
