THE HUMANITY OF JESUS THE CHRIST

Let us now expand our discussion to the factors which display the humanity of Jesus the Christ. Luke 2:6 & 7 tell us that Jesus was born into humanity, often referred to as the incarnation of Christ. He came into human form as any other human is born, after a proper term of pregnancy and development. He was made of the same tissue, bones and teeth that all normal healthy babies are born with. He continued to grow and mature with the normal cycles of age. Luke 2:52 states very clearly that Jesus “kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”

                He developed social relationships with family and community just as all people do. In Mark 2:15 Jesus has dinner with a variety of social figures such as tax-gathers and “sinners” (sometimes interpreted as prostitutes). His scope of friends and personal contacts was not limited to a select religious community. We can even see this evidenced as he initiated new friendships with the likes of a man in Jericho named Zaccheus. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, "Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house." And he hurried and came down, and received Him gladly. Luke 19:5-6

During His earthly ministry we find Him attending weddings such as the one described in the second chapter of the Gospel according to John. He also attended a couple of funerals during His ministry that is recorded in the four Gospels. In John 11:35 we see Jesus expressing His emotions as He grieved the death of His friend Lazarus.  

He lived in His culture as a human and saw their human issues. Author John Dominic Crossan writes “Jesus lived against the systemic injustice and structural evil of that (the Roman Empire’s) situation, an alternative open to all who would accept it; a life of open healing and shared eating, of radical itinerancy, programmatic homelessness, of human contact without discrimination and of divine contact without hierarchy.” [1] Jesus, the Christ was a unique human being.

 The Gospels show Jesus of Nazareth dealing with a range of problems such as the Old Testament Patriarchs never knew and could not have understood.[2]   Nevertheless, He dealt with life’s daily issues that affected Him and the culture He experienced. He physically aged in the environment He was born into. He was a splendid picture of humanity. Even the Lord’s mortal death by Roman crucifixion displays His humanity. Had He not been a human being His death and the shedding of His blood would be meaningless to we who are encased in humanity. When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit. The Jews therefore, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high {day} , asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and {that} they might be taken away. The soldiers therefore came, and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other man who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs; John 19:30-33

To pay the penalty of death that we deserved because of our sins, Christ died as a sacrifice for us. [3]New Testament Scripture records His mortal death in all four of the Gospels. It is not left to conjecture. Jesus faced mortal death just as we all will and do.  It was part of His human experience.

THE PURPOSE OF JESUS THE CHRIST

In our last section of this study we will examine the primary purposes of Jesus the Christ. These five key purposes show us the ministry of Jesus and the plan of salvation. They will not be discussed in order of importance, but rather in somewhat of the sequential appearance in the Gospel’s text. The first purpose we will discuss is that of His exemplary life. We discussed earlier in this document the Lord’s faultless sinless life.. Now we see the reason for that life. It was so we could have a perfect example of how to live our lives in this world. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15

Because Jesus can sympathize with all of our weaknesses and temptations and yet He endured sinless to His ascension and exaltation, we have a complete example of how we should live our lives to do His will, advance His Kingdom and bring Him glory.

The second purpose I will state is that of His teachings. The four gospels show us a Christ that is concerned with our moral behavior and how we ultimately represent His church on earth. Jesus went about teaching people how to serve God and live in favor with God. He taught in two venues; sermons and parables

The characteristic image of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel is that of the teacher. Jesus is not just another teacher or rabbi, but teaches as the risen Lord of the church.[4] Looking through chapters five through seven of the book of Mathew, we find an account of His interpretations and applications of common laws and behaviors that had been decreed throughout the Old Testament.    

Another purpose for the life and ministry of Jesus was for Him to be able to define Himself. We see this in the most obvious way in the following passages of New Testament scripture: "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Matthew 5;17 The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have {it} abundantly.   John 10;10.

The combined message of these to verses is powerful. They communicate the purpose Jesus rendered as His own definitive. In His ultimate purpose He came to fulfill the promises of God and as a result of that, He provided a restored relationship between mankind and God that would yield the highest quality and form of life available. 

The key purpose of Jesus the Christ was to provide for our atonement - to pay the price for our sins by His sacrificial death on the cross. Grudem says “Both the love and justice of God were the ultimate cause of the atonement.”[5] Without this act as His primary purpose for coming to earth Jesus would simply be another moral teacher, whose instructions we would be continually failing to live up to. The Apostle Paul teaches this truth repeatedly throughout His canonical correspondence to the earliest churches. The atonement of Jesus the

Christ is the mandate for our salvation and acceptance by God.    

And finally our last purpose to discuss is that of His commissioning of the church (His followers) to perpetuate the Gospel and advance His Kingdom throughout the entire earth. In Matthew 28 we are told to “make disciples of all the nations”. In Mark 16 we are told to preach the Gospel to all creation.

The church of today ought to lift up her eyes upon the fields and see how far and how faithfully she has fulfilled this commission with respect to neglected nations and unevangelized races of people.[6] If  Jesus provides our salvation and redemption to right relationship with God, and commissions us to take this beautiful  message to our neighbors friends and family, as well as the rest of the world, we have a lifelong love based obligation to fulfill this commission in our own lives as He so empowers us to do so.