Was Jesus God? Was He human? Both??

³⁴ “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
³⁵ The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Luke 1:34-35

“God became man so that man might become god.” Athanasius

This brilliant summary of the Gospel was written in the fourth century. The idea is that God cannot die, so He became a man in order to conquer sin and death by dying and rising again. If God only assumed a human body, then He is still God and could not die. If He chose a human, then he would not be able to beat the curse of death. God used His and Mary’s DNA to form a human body in which deity dwelled. It was the perfect synthesis! Jesus is both human and divine at the same time. Now, the passage in Hebrews 4 makes great sense:

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

From, “A Grand Illusion,” page 90,

Scripture is filled with references to Jesus’ divinity. Even if we didn’t have the Nicene or Chalcedonian Creeds stating the orthodox view on this point, Scripture is still sufficiently clear here. Every time Scripture calls Jesus “the Son of God,” it’s making a divine claim, for this is what the term meant in Greek. Herakles was “son of a god.” Various Semitic and Hellenistic kings referred to themselves as “the son of a god.” The Caesars took to calling themselves “sons of god.” Such titles did not simply mean “my daddy is a god.” Rather, one used the tile “son of God” to claim actual divine status.

Tomorrow, we will look at Scriptures that speak to Jesus’ divinity. Today, let us rejoice in Jesus’ humanity even as we rejoice in His divinity!

Abba, thank You for coming in Jesus. You became one of us so that we could become one with You. You are amazing! Amen.