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What the Bible says about Jesus Christ as a Flesh -and -Blood Human
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Luke 2:40

Even Jesus, though He was God—Deity—had to increase the same way that we do. He had to study God's Word, to question, to grow.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Nineteen)

John 1:14

Some commentators feel that this is the greatest verse in the Bible because the apostle John is saying that God became a man. The Greeks could have never, not in their wildest imaginations, have thought—with their background of philosophy and with the gods they worshipped—of God becoming a man. Doing so would have been something too far beneath a god to do. They believed that flesh is evil, so they could not associate a perfectly pure and righteous God becoming something they considered inherently evil. Yet, God "became flesh and dwelt among us."

The word "flesh" is the exact same word that the apostle Paul uses in his books to designate human nature. When we remember some of the things the Bible says about the flesh, John is saying that the Word—the Logos, the pre-existent One, the Creator—became subject to humanity in its fullness, in the exact same way that we are subject to humanity.

He was subject to the pulls of the flesh. He could have been influenced by Satan. He had human desires. The possibility was there for Him to have the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. God did not withhold Him from any of these things. It is awfully hard to think of God encumbering Himself with humanity, but there was a reason why it had to be done.

To be the payment—to be man's Savior—He had to be a human (Hebrews 2:14-18). However, He had to be a man who was more than a man. He had to be encumbered with humanity yet be God in the flesh. He had to be both at the same time. So, the pulls of the flesh could not be withheld from Him. He had to endure and overcome those things. He had to rise above the influences of Satan the Devil to become the payment for the sins of the people and also to be prepared to be a merciful and faithful High Priest.

This has a great deal to do with our calling because we have been called to become priests—kings and priests, as Revelation 5:10 says. What we go through during our converted lives is similar to what Christ went through. As He was called to become High Priest, we are called to become priests under Him. So, we have to experience trials similar to what He did. To qualify for what He is, He had to go through what we do. God is preparing us to aid others who will come along later, just as Jesus was prepared to aid us.

Therefore, the Word became flesh and everything that "flesh" might mean.

John W. Ritenbaugh
John (Part Three)

John 17:5

Whatever this glory is that He asks to be restored, it is something He did not have as a human, but He did have when He truly was fully God. He had it before He was born of Mary, did not have it during His physical life, and had it returned to Him upon His resurrection and ascension.

In the New Testament, glory is used in the sense of anything that brings honor and praise upon a person. It can be one's works, attitude, manner of living, skill, strength, wisdom, power, appearance, or status. Some or all of these could be included within the framework of Christ's request. The Bible does not clarify or expand on what He specifically meant, but whatever it was, it was lacking in Him while He was human. Therefore He could not have been "fully man and fully God."

John W. Ritenbaugh
Fully Man and Fully God?

Romans 8:3

Christ came as a human being and had to deal with life as we do. He had the same time, space, and constraints as we do. He became tired and had to eat. Was He not subject to the futility of this world? Was He not subject to decisions made by others beyond His control? Was He not subject to persecution? Was He not subject to pain? Did He not get caught in other people's dilemmas? Did the court system treat Him in an advantageous way? No, He received an unjust trial. He did not receive the decision He deserved, and His life was taken away as a result. On the stake, He suffered pain unjustly. He had to deal with things the same way as we do.

What this does for us is—because of God's calling and the response we have made—God adds to the gift. He not only gave His Son, but now He gives His Spirit. We find in verse 11 that, if we have that Spirit, we have the beginnings, the down payment, on immortality, on eternal life. We become sons and daughters of this great God. We are drawn into a Family, which is not only a family in the normal sense, but we also become brothers and sisters of Christ in another, equally important area. It has something to do with the fact that He, too, was subject to the same kind of sufferings we are—the unfairness of life.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Ecclesiastes and the Feast of Tabernacles (Part 1)

Philippians 2:6-7

Phillips renders this, "For he, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his privileges as God's equal, but stripped Himself of every advantage by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born a man." Moffatt translates, "Though he was divine by nature, he did not set store upon equality with God, but emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant; born in human guise and appearing in human form." As in other scriptures, He was God, divine by nature, with—beside, accompanying—a different personality also called God!

John W. Ritenbaugh
God Is . . . What?

Philippians 2:7

The clause, "He made Himself of no reputation," more literally reads, "He emptied Himself." Instead of asserting His rights to the expression of the essence of Deity, He waived His rights and relinquished them. Compared to the fullness of God, He must indeed have felt empty once He gave up "the form of God"!

The word form in verse 7 is the same Greek word as in verse 6. The grammatical structure of the sentence demands that the "taking the form of a servant" preceded and caused His "making Himself of no reputation." Remember, form is the outward expression of inner nature. The sentence, though, indicates an exchange of such expression. Therefore, being a servant was not something of His inner nature that had been previously expressed. It was not His usual mode of outward expression. Before, He conveyed glory and sovereignty over all things, but afterward, He manifested servanthood.

An event in the life of Jesus may help explain this exchange of expressions. What happened in His incarnation was the exact opposite of what occurred at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-5; Mark 9:2-7). Luke writes that His "appearance . . . was altered" (Luke 9:29), and Peter, James, and John "saw His glory" (verse 32). On the Mount of Transfiguration, He was changed from His normal, human outward expression as a servant to the outward expression of Deity.

Of what did He empty Himself? He did not empty Himself of His Deity, but rather the outward expression of His Deity and all it implies. As one author puts it, "He emptied Himself of His existence-in-a-manner-equal-to-God." He set aside His legitimate and natural desires and prerogatives as Deity so that He might express Himself as a servant.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Fully Man and Fully God?

Colossians 2:9-10

At every turn, it seems, the main object of Gnosticism was to twist the nature of Christ. Some Gnostics believed that Jesus was a man, but that Christ entered into Jesus when He was baptized and left Him right before He died. Other Gnostics believed that Jesus did not really die - because, after all, if He died, then He was not really God. Others believed that He could not have been perfect and sinless because He created matter, which Gnostics believed to be evil. And there were also those who believed that Jesus Christ was a created being - an idea that is still affecting the fringes of the church of God today.

So if we want to counter Gnosticism, we must begin with the truth of Jesus Christ. Paul emphasizes this in verses 9-10: Jesus was the fullness of the divine nature in bodily form, and He is the head, the leader, the sovereign, of every principality and power. Though the Gnostics in their various views always twisted or denied some aspect of the nature and role of Jesus Christ, these truths brought out by the apostle are bedrock beliefs for true Christians.

Also foundational to countering Gnosticism is the truth that Jesus brought. To combat the false knowledge that threatens to plunder our spiritual riches, we must take the Bible as the complete and inspired Word of God, against which we can test any concept, tradition, doctrine, or philosophy, no matter how good it sounds on the surface. Gnostics would not readily accept the Bible as God's inspired revelation, or if they did, they also held that other ancient, secret writings were on par with Scripture, and could be trusted to provide greater insight.

In addition, Gnostics were also avid proponents of "progressive revelation," the belief that God is continuing to reveal His will to mankind, but with the implication that Holy Scripture is not as important as hearing directly from the spirit world. Thus, some today, while not entirely rejecting the Bible, believe that "God" is personally revealing things to them - things which often contradict what He has already given to mankind in the His written Word.

David C. Grabbe
Whatever Happened to Gnosticism? Part Two: Defining Gnosticism

Hebrews 4:15

Our High Priest, Jesus Christ, was trained—perfected, as it were—for the position He now holds. The Bible says that we will be priests and kings under Him (Revelation 5:10). A God-being had never experienced life as a human being until the Word became flesh, when He was encompassed with the same kind of frame we are. He then also had a mind that was subject to Satan the Devil, if He would allow it.

He suffered many things: He went through difficulties and angers. He felt and endured pain as we do. He took care of a mother. He worked with a father. He had younger brothers and sisters. When his father died, it appears that He became responsible for the family and running the family business. He ran a business as a stonemason, a construction worker, and He did it, undoubtedly, very well.

He learned to work with His hands. He became hungry. He fasted and prayed. He experienced hatred. He learned to trust God and walked with Him, hand in hand, through His own periods in the valley of the shadow of deep gloom. He experienced, in principle, everything in life.

We have to remember that we are being trained to work under Him. Some of the fruit that is produced as a result of our going through these valleys will be helpful to others, even here and now. However, it will be extremely helpful when we are in the Kingdom of God. We need to understand, however, that always, no matter how dark, shadowy, or painful our experiences, we have the very best management that any spiritual sheep could ever possibly have.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Psalm 23 (Part Three)

1 John 1:1

As a witness to Jesus Christ's entire ministry, John shows how He was not an apparition or a phantom. The apostles had heard His voice with their ears, seen Him with their eyes, and touched Him with their hands. He is writing to leave no doubt that Jesus Christ was a physical human being but at the same time the very Word of God.

Earl L. Henn
For the Perfecting of the Saints

1 John 2:22-23

The denial "that Jesus is the Christ" does not imply that the Docetists thought Jesus was not the Messiah. Rather, the Docetists claimed that Jesus—the Man whom John had heard, seen and touched—was not truly God in the flesh and that the true Christ was an ethereal being in heaven. John argues that such a teaching denies the family relationship of the Father and the Son, obscuring the true nature of God.

Furthermore, John writes, anyone who denies that Jesus was God in the flesh, subject to temptation just like all human beings, "does not have the Father either." Such a person simply does not understand the gospel message that we have the opportunity to become members of the God Family (I John 3:1-2). Jesus says, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). If we distort the image of Jesus Christ and who He was, we end up altering our concept of the Father also.

Earl L. Henn
For the Perfecting of the Saints

1 John 4:2-3

The end of the first century witnessed many heretical teachings. One of these heresies, Gnosticism, taught that Jesus Christ was not really a flesh-and-blood human being but a spirit that was manifested as a human being. This was undoubtedly one of the things John was alluding to when he wrote these verses.

However, there is also a deeper meaning to these words that John was inspired to write. The Holy Spirit inspired John to use the Greek perfect participle for the words "has come" in the above verses. The perfect tense implies not only the historical fact of Jesus Christ having been born as a flesh-and-blood human being but also the present continuance of this fact. John is saying that Jesus Christ is still human in the sense that He is living His life over again in human beings who submit to Him through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The message of this scripture is simply this: A teacher is of God if he teaches that Jesus Christ is coming—living His life over again in the flesh of every true, regenerated Christian—and that a Christian must follow Him wherever He leads and emulate Him in every way. But a teacher who teaches that one does not have to follow Christ and that it is not necessary for Christ to live in the flesh of His disciples is not of God. John says that this false teaching stems from the spirit of antichrist (verse 3).

Earl L. Henn
Was Jesus Christ Born Under the Law?


 




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