The Humanity of Jesus
(John 1:10-18)
I want us to focus on v. 14, “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us”. Our last study on who Jesus is dealt with the fact that Jesus is God. Now we are going to look at the other nature of Christ, His incarnation, His humanity. At Christmas, I preached on His birth and we saw that through the scriptures that in Jesus' incarnation that He added humanity to His Deity, that in the one person of Jesus is two natures (God and human). We are going to see Jesus' humanity, that God the Son was incarnated. We are going to look at why Jesus became man.
Let look at some reasons why Jesus became a man:
I.1st Reason: To Become One of Us. (Heb. 2:14a, 17-18 - Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same...Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted).
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ knows intimately of our pain, suffering, loss, loneliness, and sorrow because He became one of us. Jesus is ever interceding in the behalf of His children before the Father because He knows our fears and weakness. He is not uncaring or unreachable with our hurts and heartaches because he has felt it also because He became one of us. Heb. 4:15 says this about Jesus, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin”; Jesus knows and feels our hurts and sorrows because God the Son came in “flesh and dwelt among us”. The late W.A. Criswell gave a narrative that is fitting to why Jesus became one of us; let me share it with you:
“On a great and extensive plain, the millions and the millions of the earth were gathered before the throne of God. And there sat the mighty Judge of all the earth. And the crowd on that vast plain before the almighty Judge was belligerent and vicious and critical. One of the women, a dark brunette, jerked back her sleeve and exhibited a number of a tattoo incised in her flesh in a Nazi concentration camp. And doubling her fist, she said, “What does God know about this, living up there in heaven and all of the beauties of paradise? What would He know about this?”And a black man jerked down his collar and exhibited an ugly burning scar, where he had been lynched for no other reason than that he was black. And shaking his fist, said, “What would God know about this?”And all through that vast throng there were those who were illegitimate, and there were those who were slaves, and there were those who in indescribable hurt and poverty lived all the days of their lives. And shaking their fists at the Almighty God they said, “What would you know about us, living up there in heaven, where no sorrow ever comes and no death ever appears?” That vast throng appointed a committee, taken from each one of the suffering sections of humanity. And they presented a list of things that God had to do, and God had to experience, if He was going to be the Judge of us. And that list numbered ten.
Number one: If God is to be a judge of earth, first, let Him be born a despised Jew as those in the Nazi concentration camps. And all the throng shouted approval.
Number two: Let the legitimacy of His birth be doubted, so that none will know who His father is. And again they shouted approval.
Number three: Let Him champion a cause so just, but so radical, that it brings down upon him the hate, condemnation, and eliminating efforts of the establishment and every major tradition and every authority. And they shouted approval.
Four: Let Him be the object of put-downs and ridicule, be spat upon, called demonic and mad. And they shouted affirmation.
Number five: Let Him try to describe what no man has ever seen, touched, or heard. Let Him try to communicate the Almighty God. And they shouted approval.
Number six: Let Him be betrayed by His dearest friends.
Number seven: Let Him be indicted on false charges, tried before a prejudiced jury, and convicted by a cowardly judge.
Number eight: Let Him experience what it is to be terribly alone and completely abandoned by every living being.
Number nine: Let Him be tortured and let Him die. Let Him die the most humiliating of deaths. Let Him die with common thieves and the agony of a cross.
Last: Let His name live on, so that for centuries it will be used as a common curse word in moments of rage.
And suddenly, over that vast throng was a silence that could be felt. No one uttered another word, for they suddenly realized that God had already done just that: God, in human flesh, suffering all of the sorrows and agonies that we know in human life. That God is our Lord, and one day our Judge.”
Is. 53: 2-4 puts it best, “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted”. When read of Jesus weeping over the lost Israel, who would reject Him as Lord or when He is with Mary and Martha when Lazarus lay dead in the tomb, even though He has come to raise him from the dead, He weeps for the loss of their brother, lovingly mourns with them. What love, compassion seen in so many places in the Gospels like when He picked up and blessed the little children. Jesus became one of us to know our every hurt, pain, agonies, and sorrow.
II. 2nd Reason: To Reveal the Heart of the Father. (John 1:18 - No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him).
Jesus came to reveal the Father to us, to reveal the heart of the Father. It clearly says in v. 18 that “no one has seen God at any time”, but the Father has revealed the Son who is the physical revelation of God in flesh. Jesus reveals the Godhead, Jesus reveals the Father, makes Him known. The Old Testament revelations of God are partial, glimpses of His glory. But when Jesus walked on the soil of Judea, here was God in the flesh, all of the tender mercy, grace, and compassion in human person of Jesus Christ. John 14:8-9 shows us that Jesus reveals the Father, “Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?”. Jesus came in human flesh in order to reveal the full revelation of what God is really like.
III. 3rd Reason: To Take Away the Sin of the World. (John 1:29 - John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!; 1 John 3:8 - For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil).
The glorious knowledge of this one, greatest reason of why Jesus came in flesh, it was to save us from sin. We were unable and unwilling to be saved from the destructive power of sin, we were not even able to reach up or reach out to God, but God reached out to us with great mercy and grace through Jesus, the eternal and preexistent Son of God. The Apostle Paul tells us in Phil. 2:5-8 this, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”. Jesus came and added humanity to His deity in order to be able to die for us on the cross. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins by offering Himself as a sinless sacrifice, by His suffering, shed blood, and death on the cross. He came to the cry of anguished human souls trapped in the prison of sin. Jesus didn't come just to minister to the results of sin but He came to destroy the root and cause of our condemnation. To save us and deliver us from the judgment of sin and the sorrow and heartache that follows sin. Jesus did not come to treat the symptoms of sin but to destroy the very cause and root of sin and the power it holds over humanity. But not only save from sin but also to destroy the works of the devil. Satan is the father of sin, the father of lies; Jesus said that Satan “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44). The world is under Satan's control and he sows disaster, destruction and death but we don't have to fear sin, death or the devil if we know that man named Jesus, that suffered, bled, and died in our place.
Christ came to deliver us from the domain of darkness and transfer us into His kingdom by faith in His name. What's the reason why Jesus came onto this world and became as one of us? To give us the final and ultimate victory from sin, self, and Satan. To bring to us salvation.
I hope that now you have a better understanding of your God and Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that you see His humanity made Him the Savior that He is. After Jesus resurrected, He still kept that sinless humanity with His full Deity. When you pray to Jesus, pouring out your heart to Him remember this, because of His humanity he knows and feels your heartaches, sorrows, pain, joys, or happiness. When you repent of your sins, He understands your weaknesses. But the greatest part of His humanity was that it allowed Him to become a sacrifice for our sins to save us. Thank you Jesus, that you became a man.
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