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THE GOD-MAN
A. Introduction: Jesus warned that the years preceding His return will be marked by religious deception—false
Christs and false prophets who preach false gospels (Matt 24:4-5; 11; 24). We are living in that time.
1. To help protect ourselves from deception, we’re working on a series about who Jesus is and why He
came into this world. We’re looking at the historical accounts of Jesus—especially the New Testament
documents which were written by eyewitnesses of Jesus, or close associates of eyewitnesses.
a. We spent the first two months of this year examining the reliability of these documents. We made
the point that when the New Testament is assessed according to the same standards used to assess
other ancient writings, the New Testament stands up to the test. We can trust the contents.
b. We’ve also made the point that the New Testament writers did not set out to write a religious book.
They were eyewitnesses to the events they reported, and they wrote to tell what they saw and heard.
c. According to the men who wrote the New Testament documents, Jesus is God. Jesus’ first
followers believed that Jesus is God become man without ceasing to be God.
2. However, it has become increasingly common today to hear people say that, although they believe Jesus
was a good teacher who urged us to love each other, He was not God. They say that He never claimed
to be God. The idea that Jesus is God is a myth that developed much later.
a. While it is true that there’s no place in the New Testament where Jesus said the words “I am God”,
the various titles that He used for Himself, and that others applied to Him, are all claims of Deity.
b. Jesus was born into a people group (1st century Israel, the Jewish people) who, based on the writings
of the prophets, in what we now call the Old Testament, were expecting God to establish His
kingdom on earth, and send a Redeemer to cleanse the earth of sin, corruption and death. Dan 2:44
1. The Son of Man—The title Son of Man comes from their Scriptures. Daniel (one of the
prophets) recorded a prophecy about a Divine Person called the Son of Man, who will come at
the end of the world to judge mankind and rule forever. Dan 7:13-14
2. The Christ—The name Christ also comes from the Book of Daniel. The angel Gabriel spoke
to the prophet and called this coming Being the Messiah. Messiah comes from a Hebrew word
that means Anointed One. When the Old Testament was translated into Greek (285-246 BC)
the translators used the Greek word Christos (or Christ) for Messiah. Dan 9:24-26
3. The Son of God—Gabriel told the virgin Mary that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, she would
conceive a child in her womb, and that child would be called the Son of God. Luke 1:31-35
A. First century men in that culture understood Son of God to be a claim of Deity. That’s
why the religious leadership tried to kill Jesus to death when He healed a lame man.
B. John 5:17-18—When Jewish leaders reprimanded Jesus for healing a lame man on the
Sabbath, He replied: My Father never stops working, so why should I? So the Jewish
leaders tried all the more to kill him (because) he had spoken of God as his Father, thereby
making himself equal with God (John 5:17-18, NLT).
3. When Mary was found to be pregnant before she and her fiancé (Joseph) came together, Gabriel told
Joseph not to put her away, because she was pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. Matt 1:18-23
a. The angel said to Joseph: She will bear a son and you will call Him Jesus (which means Savior)
because He will save His people from their sins. Matt 1:21
b. Matthew wrote his book for a Jewish audience, to show how that Jesus was indeed the Anointed One
promised in the Old Testament prophecies. And he gives an important detail about Jesus’ birth.
1. Matthew stated that: All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by Isaiah the
prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name
Immanuel (which means, God with us) (Matt 1:22-23, ESV).
2. According to Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Emmanuel (or Immanuel) denotes or points out that
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Jesus is (theanthropos)—the God-man. This Being born to Mary was and is God with us, the
God-man—fully God and fully man.
B. Because of the times we’re living in, and the false ideas about Jesus that are circulating (even among
professing Christians), we need a clear understanding of who Jesus is according to the Bible. Therefore, we
are taking time to discuss this issue.
1. The Bible reveals that God is one God (one Being) who simultaneously manifests as three distinct
Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This teaching is known as the doctrine of the Trinity.
a. These three Persons are distinct, but not separate. These three Persons co-inhere or share one
Divine nature. 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.
b. This is beyond our comprehension, since we are talking about an Infinite (limitless) Being and we
are finite (limited) beings. All efforts to explain the nature and Being of God fall short. We can
only accept what the Bible reveals and rejoice in the wonder of Almighty God.
2. Two thousand years ago, a Divine Person (the second Person of the Trinity, the Son) incarnated, or took
on a human nature in the womb of the virgin Mary, and was born into this world.
a. To incarnate means to take on a human nature. Jesus is God Incarnate, God in human flesh. Jesus
is God become man without ceasing to be God. Paul the apostle (an eyewitness of Jesus) wrote:
1. Phil 2:6-7—(Jesus), 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).
2. The Greek word translated form, when used figuratively as it is here, means nature. The word
translated likeness describes more than mere similarity or resemblance—He became truly man.
b. When Jesus came into this world, He did not cease to be God. He did not lose, or put off, His Deity
(His Divine nature). He took on (put on, assumed) a full (complete) human nature. A human
nature is everything that makes a human being a human being.
1. Jesus was not God living in a human body. Jesus is the God-man. He was and is fully God at
the same time He was and is fully man. He is one Person with two natures, human and Divine.
2. Jesus has two natures, but is not two persons in one body. Neither is His human nature and
His Divine nature intermingled (or mixed). These two natures concur or happen together.
A. Jesus is God become a man—God and man in one Person. He is a Divine Person (the
second Person of the Godhead, or Divinity) with a complete human nature.
B. Jesus was God living as a man, fully God at the same time He was fully man. This is a
mystery beyond our comprehension—God was manifested in the flesh. I Tim 3:16
3. Even though Jesus was God, He was truly man, with all the limitations of human nature. He had to eat,
sleep, could be tempted to sin, feel pain, and die. Matt 21:18; Mark 4:38; Matt 4:1; etc.
a. But Jesus was never just a man. He was and is the God-man, fully God and fully man. Everything
Jesus did He did as the God-man. Jesus was God, living as a man.
1. John 3:13—When talking to Nicodemus the Pharisee, Jesus made this statement about Himself:
A. No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man which is in heaven (KJV).
B. Only the God-man could be physically standing there talking to Nicodemus, at the same
time that He (as the Omnipresent God) He was (is) in Heaven.
2. John 8:58—In a confrontation with a group of Jewish leaders, Jesus said that Abraham saw His
coming. When the Jews answered that that was impossible because Jesus was not even fifty
years old, Jesus responded: Before Abraham was, I Am.
A. The leadership picked up stones to throw at Jesus because He applied to Himself the name
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by which Almighty God revealed Himself to Moses (Ex 3:14). The name is from a
Hebrew word that has the idea of underived existence—God because He is.
B. How could Jesus be standing there that day talking to the religious leaders, as a thirty
something year old man, and yet have interacted with Abraham (1900 BC) and Moses
(1491 BC)? Because He is the God-Man.
b. John the apostle opened His gospel with a clear statement that Jesus is God become man without
ceasing to be God. He identified Jesus (the Word) as the Eternal Creator who was made flesh.
1. 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 anything made that was made (KJV).
2. John 1:14—And 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 (KJV).
A. The Greek word that is translated begotten is monogenes. It refers to uniqueness or one of
a kind. Jesus is unique because He is the God-man, fully God and fully man—one Person,
two natures, human and Divine. Jesus is unique because He is the only man whose birth
did not mark His beginning. He has no beginning because He is God.
B. Because of the value of His Person (Jesus is the God-man) He was qualified to take away
the sins of the world through the sacrifice of Himself.
4. How can the unlimited God enter into the limitation of human flesh? How can Jesus be fully God at the
same time that He is fully man? None of the apostles, made any effort to explain the Triune nature of
God or the Incarnation. They accepted both with reverent awe and worship. Consider two statements.
a. Paul wrote: None of the rulers of this world understood (the hidden wisdom of God), for if they
had, they would not have crucified the Lord (kurios) of glory (1 Cor 2:8, ESV). How can the Lord
of glory be crucified? Because He was fully man at the same time He was fully God.
b. Luke quoted Paul as urging leaders at the church in Ephesus “to care for the church of God, which
he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28, ESV). Yet God doesn’t have blood. How did Jesus
obtain the church with His blood? Because He was fully man at the same time He was fully God.
c. The apostles didn’t try to say if Jesus did what He did out of His human nature or out of His divine
nature. They simply accepted Him as the God-man—fully God at the same time He was fully man.
C. I mentioned earlier in the lesson that this is a mystery beyond our comprehension—God was manifested in
the flesh (I Tim 3:16). And, as with the mystery of the Trinity (God is three in one) any attempt to fully
explain the Incarnation (how God could become fully man and not cease to be God) degrades it.
1. Good men and women sometimes make imprecise or inaccurate statements about Jesus. But, because
we are living in a time of increasing religious deception about who Jesus is and why He came into this
world, these imprecision and inaccuracies leave people vulnerable to false Christs and prophets.
a. For example, it’s not unusual to hear ministers say that when Jesus incarnated, He emptied Himself,
and laid aside His Deity. The problem is that if He laid aside His Deity, then He is no longer God,
1. These good men of God are making a sincere effort to show how Jesus humbled Himself when
He was born into this world, without realizing what they’re actually saying.
2. Yes, Jesus did humble (or lower) Himself when He became man—but not by putting something
off. He lowered Himself by taking on a full human nature. Phil 2:6-7
b. Others (including myself) have said that Jesus couldn’t do any miracles until the Father anointed
Him with the Holy Ghost at His baptism (Acts 10:38). However, that is an imprecise statement.
1. It is true, in the sense that no human being can heal anyone without power from God, Jesus was
truly human, and as a man He had all the limitations of human nature.
2. However, Jesus was never just a man. He was the God-man, fully God at the same time that
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He was fully man. If, at any time while Jesus was on earth, He did not have the power to heal,
then He was not fully God, because the ability to heal is an attribute of God.
3 This imprecision leaves the door open to certain wrong ideas that are prevalent in the culture
and have even seeped into the church—like the idea that Jesus was God living in a human body.
2. Even before the eyewitnesses of Jesus died, challenges to who Jesus is began to arise. False teachings
that denied either the Deity or the humanity of Jesus were developing, influencing people, and even
infiltrating the church.
a. By the 2nd century (AD 100) these variant ideas developed into what is known as Gnosticism.
Gnosticism comes from a Greek word that means to have knowledge. Gnostics claimed to have
special knowledge about God that was not available to everyone.
b. Although there was a wide variety of sometimes conflicting ideas and beliefs under the umbrella of
Gnosticism, here is a list of some of the beliefs regarding Jesus.
1. Some Gnostics viewed the physical world as evil, which led to the claim that Jesus was not a
material, physical being. This led to a denial of the Incarnation and Jesus’ bodily resurrection.
They believed that Jesus only seemed to be man, only seemed to die, and only seemed to rise.
2. Others believed that Jesus was simply an ordinary man who was indwelled by God’s power
at His baptism by John the Baptist. (Note this is very close to what some Christians teach.)
c. New Age spirituality, which is quite popular today, acknowledges the man Jesus, but it’s not Jesus
of the Bible. They teach that the Christ came on Jesus at His baptism. Jesus was an ascended
master, a highly evolved individual who realized His deity, as we can do.
1. Much of this spirituality simply a repacking of Gnostic thought—the idea that people can come
to enlightenment through secret doctrines and mystic practices.
2. There is no mention of sin, or guilt for sin, or the need for salvation from sin through repentance
and faith. Salvation comes through enlightenment. Enlightenment is the realization that we
are of the same essence as God.
A. Through the revelation of hidden knowledge, we can be freed from this illusionary
material, physical world and find our true spiritual identity.
B. They speak of Christ consciousness (a mental awareness or knowing of one’s inner self—
the Christ within).
d. Christ is not an entity or a force or energy. First century believers understood the Christ to mean
the promised Messiah, who is a Being, a Person—Jesus, the Christ or the Messiah. Matt 16:16
D. Conclusion: We have more to say next week, but consider these thoughts as we close tonight’s lesson.
1. In the Christian circles that many of us have been exposed to, we look at Jesus and ask the question:
Did He do what He did out of His human nature or His Divine nature?
a. This question comes up because we’ve been told that Christians can do works Jesus. And we
fear that if He did what He did as God, then we can’t do what He did (such as pray for the sick).
b. But, we can pray for the sick because the Lord Himself, in His written Word, tells us to do so, with
the expectation that He will heal them (James 5:14-16, lessons for another day.) Exalting Jesus by
correctly stating that He is the God-man doesn’t negate that promise from Him.
2. In much of the church today, there is a lack of teaching on sound doctrine (the foundational beliefs of
Christianity). The emphasis is on meeting felt needs and helping people with the problems of life,
through motivational sermons that give practical life skills.
a. Although there is a place for those types of sermons, without sound doctrinal teaching, Christians
are vulnerable to false ideas about who Jesus is and why He came into this world.
b. We need to know who Jesus is according to the Bible. Jesus is the God-man, fully God and fully
man—the One who died for us so that we can be delivered from sin and have life through Him.
