Blessed by the Human Christ; Gen 12:3 Saved by the Godly Christ; 1 Thess. 5:9-10, John 10:27-30 One of the enduring arguments over the years has been the nature of the Christ, how was he human and also God? The Apostle John had to deal with much this same problem at the end of the first century in his writings in the three letters of John. The Gnostics were a Greek sect who believed that Jesus could not have been human (fleshly man born of a woman) and still have been the sinless savior. He even starts off his Gospel with the declaration of God becoming man and living amongst us (John 1:1-18), “the Word was God” (1:1) and “the Word became flesh” (1:14). Let us go back to the beginning and look at the first promise of a Savior, in Genesis 3:15 we see the statement of God telling Eve about the enmity he was placing between the serpent and “her seed”, most scholars agree that this is the first prophecy of the Christ because the seed would “bruise his (Satan) heel. One of the primary implications of this passage is that the Christ would be a product of the woman and God as Adam was not involved in this discussion; Adam was not addressed until verse 17. Moving on to the introduction of Abram in Genesis 12 we see that through him all nations shall be blessed in verse 4 and declared a fulfilled prophecy in Acts 3:25 by the Apostle Peter. This specific seed prophecy is answered by the physical birth of Jesus to a descendant of Abram (Abraham). Going to the specific genealogy found in Luke 3:23-38 we can see the relation back through history to both Abraham and Adam. While not going into the details of why at this time, the two genealogies found in Matthew and Luke are different in that Matthew shows the Jews the fatherly relationship and lineage through to Abraham for Jesus’ legal claim of Jewish lineage of heredity (Jews always recognized the male genealogy) while the one found in Luke shows the physical heredity of Mary back through Abraham to Adam (equating Eve). Prophecy is abundant about the nature of the Christ. On the human side are Genesis 3:15; Isa. 7:14; Gen. 12:3; and Psalms 132:11. Some of the divine side are Ps. 2:7; Isa. 9:6; Isa. 25:9; and Jeremiah 23:6. Now it is time to look at the actual birth and life of Jesus. He got his start with the conception of Mary by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:8; Luke 1:30-31), the exact workings of this is a miracle and as such is in the realm of the unexplainable by human reasoning since with God all things are possible. To his humble birth in the manger in Bethlehem during the Caesar’s census (Luke 2:1-7) and life growing up in a large working class poor family (Matt 13:55). Jesus maintained a close physical relationship with his mother who was there at the time of his crucifixion (John 20:25-27) and his disciples who would later become his apostles (1 John 1:1-4). Even after his resurrection he would maintain a physical presence by wanting food during a visit with his disciples (Luke 24:30-35) and having Thomas physically and graphically place his hands on him to know that it was he who had been crucified (John 20:27-29). While fully a physical man and of fleshly birth Jesus would maintain throughout his life his Godly nature. Often speaking of “his Father” who the Jews recognized as the Father of Abraham and by extension the Jews he went far beyond this usage of the term “Father” and in John 10:37-39 the rulers of the Temple sought to put him to death because of the claim of equality. How could Jesus claim equality with God unless he was truly a Godly being? Peter and the other close disciples proclaimed on occasions that Jesus was God’s son (Matt 14:33; Matt 16:13-20) accepting this equal relationship. In Isaiah 53 Jesus is depicted as the Lamb persecuted, prosecuted, and slain for our iniquities to be exalted in Heaven as the worthy one (Rev. 5). It is through the offering he made that we have a hope (Heb. 9:11-28). Do we realize the blessing of the physical Christ who came to give his life for us and by his Godly nature now resides at the right hand of God to be our representative before God. Christ was both God and Man, embodied in one being, at the same time, with God’s full powers subject to all of man’s frailties and did not sin (Heb. 4:15; 2:18). Now he is our finest example, we need to rise to that standard. - Rick VanVoorhis

	Created on Febuary 16, 2003		Page last updated