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JESUS: FULLY GOD, FULLY MAN
A. Introduction: We’re live in a time when solid Bible teaching has been neglected in favor of positive,
motivational sermons, aimed at helping people solve their problems and feel better about themselves.
1. Although it’s not wrong to try to solve problems and feel better, this lack of teaching has left Christians
vulnerable to false ideas about who Jesus is, why He came to earth—as well as what Christianity is all
about. And, sadly, false ideas about Jesus abound, both outside and inside of Christian circles.
a. In our current series we are focusing on who Jesus is according to the Bible (particularly the New
Testament) which was written by eyewitnesses of Jesus (or close associates of eyewitnesses).
b. We are focusing on the fact that Jesus is God. Most Christians know that Jesus is the Son of God.
However, because of lack of understanding of what that means, many sincere believers view Jesus
as somehow less than God.
2. But the men who interacted with Jesus, His first followers, the twelve apostles (the eyewitnesses) were
convinced that Jesus was and is God—God with us, God Incarnate.
a. To incarnate means to take on flesh or a full human nature. Jesus is God become man without
ceasing to be God, fully God and fully man—one Person with two natures, human and Divine.
b. In this lesson we’re going to continue to examine who Jesus is, according to the eyewitnesses.
B. We need to restate the fact that the Bible reveals that God is Triune. God is one God who simultaneously
manifests as three distinct, but not separate, Persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
1. These three Persons co-inhere or share one Divine nature. Each dwells in the other, because they are
one substance.
a. These three Persons are inseparable. You can’t have one Person without the others. The Father is
all God. The Son is all God. The Holy Spirit is all God. This is beyond our comprehension.
b. Because God is an Infinite, Eternal, Transcendent Being (without limits, no beginning or end, and
above all), and we are finite (or limited) beings, all efforts to explain the nature of God fall short.
We can only accept what the Bible reveals and rejoice in the wonder and majesty of Almighty God.
2. The term Godhead is used in the New Testament to mean the Divine nature or Deity (Rom 1:20; Acts
17:29; Col 2:9). Two thousand years ago, the Second Person of the Godhead (the Son) incarnated or
took on a full human nature (become fully man without ceasing to be God) and was born into this world.
a. The angel Gabriel appeared to a virgin named Mary and told her that she was going to give birth
to a child who would be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. Luke 1:31-35
1. Luke 1:35 (NLT)—The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you. So the baby born to you will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.
2. In that culture, the term son of meant possessing the qualities of. Gabriel told Joseph, Mary’s
betrothed (fiancé), that this child would be Immanuel (or God with us). Matt 1:23
b. Mary and Joseph knew from the beginning that this child was the Son of God. However, at first,
they had no idea what all this meant. But they will learn that Son of God refers to the fact that God
is the Father of Jesus’ humanity (His human nature which was conceived in the womb of the virgin,
Mary) and that Jesus is God Incarnate (God in human flesh, God with us—Immanuel).
3. John the Apostle was one of Jesus’ earliest followers and part of Jesus’ inner circle, He spent three plus
years in close contact with Jesus, listening to Him teach, talking with Him, and watching Him do
miracles. When Jesus rose from the dead it authenticated everything He said about Himself. Rom 1:1-4
a. John wrote the New Testament book known as the Gospel of John specifically so that people would
would believe that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah), the Son of God. John 20:30-31
b. John opened his book with a clear statement that Jesus is God become man without ceasing to be
God. In his statement, John called Jesus the Word.
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1. The Greek word translated Word is Logos. It was used among classical Greek writers of the
day to mean the principle that holds the universe together, and was a common way of referring
to God’s revelation of Himself. Jesus is God’s clearest revelation of Himself to man.
2. John 1:1-3—In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without
him was not any thing made that was made (KJV). Note several key points:
A. The first line of the Bible states that before anything was created, there was God, and He
created the heaven and the earth…and the Spirit of God moved upon the waters. Gen 1:1-2
B. John informs us that the Word (the Son), was with God in the beginning because He is
God. According to John, the Word (the Son) is God, the Eternal Creator.
C. All three Divine Persons (the Trinity, the Godhead) were involved in creation and have
been in loving relationship with each other since forever. The Greek word translated
“with” in John’s opening statement (pros) means intimate, unbroken fellowship.
c. John then wrote that the Word (the Eternal Creator) became man without ceasing to be God: The
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth (John 1:14, KJV).
1. John used two different Greek words to emphasize that, at specific point in time, the Eternal
Creator (the Word) became man (or took on a human nature) in the womb of the virgin Mary.
2. When John wrote about the Word (v1-2) he used the Greek word en which denotes continuous
action in the past or no point of origin. When John refers to created or made things, he used the
word egeneto (v3) which refers to a point of origin, a time when something came into existence.
A. When John wrote that the Word was made flesh, he used the word egeneto (v14), meaning
that at a specific point in time, the Word (who has always existed because He is God)
entered human existence and became fully man without ceasing to be fully God.
B. Jesus was not God living in a human body. Jesus took on a full human nature. Human
nature is everything that makes a human being a human being.
C. The Greek word translated begotten (v14) refers to uniqueness or one of a kind. Jesus is
unique because He is the God-man, fully God and fully man, one Person with two natures
—human and divine.
4. God, the Second Person of the Godhead, took on a human nature, and even though He took on a human
nature, He did not cease to be God. He remained what He was—Eternal Deity.
a. Jesus was and is a Divine Person who assumed or took on a human nature which gave Him all the
attributes of human nature. He was a Divine Person living as a human being, fully God, fully man.
b. Even though Jesus was God, He was truly man, which meant He had all the limitations of human
nature. He had to eat, sleep, could be tempted to sin, feel pain, and ultimately die. Matt 21:18;
Mark 4:38; Matt 4:1; etc.
c. Although Jesus became fully man without ceasing to be fully God, Jesus was never just a man. He
was the God-man. Everything Jesus did, He did as God, as a Divine Person with a human nature.
1. We think in terms of: Did Jesus do what He did as a man or as God. The eyewitnesses did not
think like that. They spoke of Jesus as One Person, a Divine Person who has always existed,
who assumed an entire human nature, which He still has and will have forever.
2. The eyewitnesses simply accepted Jesus as the God-man. In their writings we find that
attributes of both natures (human and Divine) are attributed to the One Person, Jesus.
C. Many sincere Christians wrongly believe that when Jesus became a man, He emptied Himself of His Deity
and His divine rights and privileges. Christ did not empty Himself of His Divinity. He did not cease to be
what He essentially and eternally was and is—the Second Person of the Godhead.
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1. The idea that Jesus emptied Himself of His divinity, or His divine rights and privileges, is sometimes
called the kenosis theory. It comes from a misunderstanding of Phil 2:6-7 which says: (Jesus) who
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no
reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men (KJV).
a. The King James Version (or translation) of the Bible (KJV), was completed in AD 1611. For 500
years, it has been the most widely used Bible translation. In the late 1800s the Revised Version
(RV) was published. The RV translated the phrase “made of no reputation” as “emptied”.
1. Around that same time, a popular idea developed among some theologians that Jesus emptied
Himself of Deity when He became man. Up till then, the traditional view, going back to the
earliest days of Christianity, was that Jesus remained fully God when He became fully man.
2. The Council of Chalcedon (AD 45l) formulated a definitive statement about Jesus’ Person, that
was based on the writings of the apostles and early creeds. It says in part: Christ, Son, Lord,
Only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, without confusion, without change, with no
division, or without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way abolished because of
the union, but rather the characteristic property of each nature being preserved, and coming
together to form one person (prosopon) and one entity (hypostasis). Hypostatic union
b. Made of no reputation is translated from a Greek word that means to make empty. However,
elsewhere in the New Testament the word is used figuratively: Rom 4:14 (made void); I Cor 1:17
(should be made of none effect); I Cor 9:15 (should make void); II Cor 9:3 (be in vain).
1. The context of Phil 2:6-7 makes the meaning of the word clear. Paul was exhorting Christians
to be humble in their dealings with other people, and cited Jesus as our example (Phil 2:3-5).
2. Although Jesus was God, He did not demand and cling to His rights as God, He humbled
Himself by taking on the form of a servant and the likeness of men (Phil 2:6).
3. Jesus humbled or lowered Himself, not by putting something off, not by putting off His Deity,
but by putting on a human nature and voluntarily submitting to a criminal’s death.
c. God’s attributes (Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Eternal) are inseparable from His essence
(who and what He is). When Jesus was here, He retained attributes that are expressions of His
Divine nature: Omnipresence (present everywhere at once) and Omniscience (all knowingness).
1. Jesus saw Nathanael sitting under a fig tree when Jesus was nowhere near the Nathanael (John
1:47-48). Jesus knew peoples’ unspoken thoughts (Matt 9:3-4).
2. Jesus assured His followers that where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there (Matt
18:20). While talking to Nicodemus, Jesus stated that He was also in Heaven (John 3:13).
Jesus told the Pharisees: I existed before Abraham (John 9:58).
d. If Jesus divested Himself of His Divinity and Divine attributes, then how was He still able to express
Omnipresence, Omniscience, and Eternality?
2. There are several questions people bring up about this issue: How can God die? Even if Jesus was
God, didn’t His Divinity leave Him at the Cross? And, didn’t God forsake Him when He was on the
Cross? No and no. Remember who Jesus is. His essential Person is who He is.
a. In His essential Person, Jesus is God, the Second Person of the Godhead. Two thousand years ago,
He took on a full human nature and became fully man (without ceasing to be God) so that He could
die as the perfect, once for all, sacrifice for sin. Heb 2:9; Heb 2:14
b. Through His human nature Jesus, the Man, experienced death. Jesus, the God-man, died. He was
still God when He died. The God-man, fully God and fully man, laid down His life for us.
1. When Jesus died, the Divine Person was not separated from God. The Godhead is inseparable
because it is one substance: In Him (Jesus) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead (Deity)
bodily (Col 2:9). It is impossible that His Deity left Him.
2. If Jesus’ Deity left Him and He ceased to be God, then the value of His sacrifice would also
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cease. The value of His Person (the fact that He was fully God as well as fully sinless man)
qualified Him to take away (pay for) our sins by the sacrifice of Himself.
c. Not long before Jesus was crucified, religious leaders asked Him for a sign to prove who He was.
Jesus answered and said unto them: Destroy this temple (meaning the temple of His body), and in
three days I will raise it up (John 2:19, KJV). In other words, God will raise up God.
3. What then does it mean that God forsook (abandoned, left) Jesus when He was on the Cross? Matt 27:46
a. As a man, Jesus would have experienced all the physical and emotional effects of what He was
going through. Prior to His arrest and sentencing Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.
1. Matt 26:37—Jesus began to “be filled with anguish and deep distress. He told (Peter, James,
and John) my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death” (NLT).
2. Luke 22:42-43—Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering
away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine. Then an angel appeared from heaven and
strengthened him” (NLT).
3. We get another detail about Jesus’ experience in Heb 5:7—While Jesus was here on earth, he
offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears to the one who could deliver him out of
death. And God heard his prayers because of his reverence (NLT).
b. As a genuine man, Jesus would have experienced that sense of abandonment all people feel at some
point. On the Cross Jesus had a human experience and lost the awareness of God’s presence.
4. The context of Jesus’ statement gives us further insight into what happened. Matthew’s gospel tells us
that, as Jesus was hanging on the Cross, passersby, the leading priests, the teachers of the religious law,
and other leaders mocked Jesus saying, He saved others but can’t save himself. Matt 27:39-43
a. They said: So he is the king of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross, and we will
believe him. Then, to mock Jesus, they quoted Ps 22:8 to Him—He trusts in the Lord; let him
deliver him; let the Lord deliver him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him (NIV). The
Jews believed Ps 22 to be a Messianic psalm.
b. Matthew reported that at the sixth hour (12:00 noon) darkness covered the land, and at the ninth hour
(3:00 pm) Jesus cried out: My God, My God why have you forsaken me? Matt 27:45-46
1. This statement is the first verse of Ps 22. Just before Jesus died, He quoted the first verse of the
Psalm and applied it to Himself. Jesus wasn’t saying that His Deity had left Him or that He
was not God, He was identifying Himself with the Scripture, because He is the fulfillment of it.
2. Tradition says that Jesus recited the entire 22nd psalm while on the Cross. The last line can be
translated “it is finished” (v31, Amp), the final words Jesus spoke before He died. John 19:30
D. Conclusion: We have not said all that we need to say about who Jesus is so we can clear up some of the
popular misunderstandings sincere people have about Him. But consider these thoughts as we close.
1. The nature of God is beyond our comprehension so there is an element of mystery to all of this. Paul the
apostle wrote: Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh. I Tim 3:16
a. When did Jesus (the man) know who He was? As God, He always knew, but as a genuine man, He
had to learn and grow, from a helpless baby to a strong adult.
b. Jesus was Eternal, yet mortal. He was Omnipotent, yet He needed angels to strengthen Him (Matt
4:11; Luke 22:43). He was Omniscient, yet He increased in knowledge (Luke 2:40; 52). He
created food and water, yet He got hungry and thirsty, and had to eat and drink (Matt 21:18)
c. Although His blood was human blood, through incarnation it became the blood of God (Acts 20:28).
2. We live in a time of increasing religious deception as to who Jesus is, why He came, and what it means to
be a Christian in this world. If ever there was a time to know from the Bible who Jesus is, it’s now.