Jesus the Son of Man part three

 
 
 
 

Jesus the Son of Man part three

 
 

Was Jesus God incarnate?
 

Why is it important that Jesus was incarnate?

 

While on earth Jesus was 100% God and 100% man. This is what the church calls the “mystery of the incarnation” of the “hypostatic union.” The union of the Godhead and humanity in one person or God, the Man Jesus Christ.

1. Let’s discuss Jesus as the incarnate God

Regarding the divinity of Christ, we mention only a few aspects, on this subject, as we have another article about this topic entitled: “Is Jesus the Son of God and God the Son” In the book of Colossians 2:9 it is written:

Colossians 2:9-10
“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”

2 John teaches:

2 John 5:20
“This is the true God and eternal life.”

The divinity of Jesus is affirmed and sustained from the hundreds of prophecies made before His birth, the authenticity of which can hardly be disputed. His whole life was wholesome in holiness and abounding in the deeds of the “powers of the age to come,” which is a strong source of evidence confirming His divinity. Jesus belonged to the spiritual world like the fallen angels, as the “Son of the Most High” and the Supreme Authority in both realms. We conclude this vast theme by mentioning only the acknowledgement of His paternity by God as “My Beloved Son, in whom I find My pleasure,” and to emphasise at the same time, the reality of His resurrection from the dead, a realism confirmed by historical scholars of old and new.

2. Can we affirm that Jesus is fully God and fully Man?

Jesus was truly God confining spiritual nature from conception by the divine “seed.” He was also completely man taking on human nature with a body, soul, and spirit as one being. From the beginning, it must be emphasised that the mixture of God’s nature and human nature does not rise to the moral standard of holiness. This truth should be at the heart of thinking, and be the starting point for those who ask more or less biased questions. At the same time, our common thinking cannot understand the coexistence of two identities, one divine and one human, in the same body. This idea is a challenge to thinking, to human logic, a test that pushes human logic beyond the boundaries. However, accepting the existence of limits in our capacity for knowledge or understanding protects us from the arrogance of competing with an omniscient, omnipotent God. Yes, this does not follow our usual logic that requires either one or the other, either the Son of Man or the Son of God. Therefore, it is not surprising that people’s opinions vary. Jesus was well aware of this situation, and said “How do you say that I am blaspheming, the Father has sanctified me and sent me into the world?
And this is because I said:

John 10:36-37-38
“Do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’ If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;? but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”

John 14:10-11
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.”

At one point, Jesus openly said:

John 10:30
“I and My Father are one.”

3. Was Jesus truly God and truly man?

The birth of Jesus was an unusual entrance into the world and is the mystery of the incarnation. A lamb brought as a sacrifice was to be without blemish, without reproach. The Lamb of God had to be far above an ordinary lamb sacrifice, it had to be spotless from birth. Moreover, even before birth as we are born into sin. These various sacrificial practices in Jewish culture often involved lambs; this animal had a very important place in Jewish culture. Lambs are known for their white coats, and white is a symbol of purity and cleanliness.

So the Lamb of God Jesus had to be perfect from the beginning of His coming into the human world, right up to the end of His earthly ministry.

Objections to the narrative

From this perspective, the subject of Jesus’ birth, conception and supernatural nativity did not escape the objections and negative opinions of many Jews, scholars, atheists and sceptics. In the Bible, we find written that Jesus had human nature, human parents and a line of ancestors. In the first chapters, the evangelists Luke and Matthew introduce us to Jesus’ family:

Matthew 13:55-57
“Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? “And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” So they were offended at Him.”

John 1:10-11
“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.”

Knowing His human origin, family, and place of birth was, and still is a problem for many to accept Him as the Messiah and the Son of God.

John 7:27,41-42
“However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from.”

Others said:
“This is the Christ.” But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee? “Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”

Jesus’ answer was direct and prompt:

John 7:28-29
“Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, “You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. “But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me.”

According to the prophecies told long before he was born, Christ was to be born in Bethlehem in Judea.

(Prophecy of Micah 5:2 / Matthew 2:1)

Another problem that required the full common understanding of man was the supernatural birth of Jesus Christ.

One atheist said: Fairy tale.

“Or, if you prefer, propaganda for a new religious cult, written by people who weren’t there about an event that never happened (as described in the gospels). If I am forced to think about Jesus the man, who was an itinerant preacher in the first century CE, I’d say he was born in Nazareth to the parents who had conceived him, with no wise men, shepherds, or angels in attendance.”

The Bible portrays a few clues, but it does not want to satisfy our limited curiosity:

Luke 1:34-35 ”
“Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”

The biblical word for conception is the word “to shade.” What does the word “shadow” mean when we talk about the conception of Jesus?
Humans have limited our understanding of Jesus with deception and lies, to a mere mortal man who was born, lived and died at a particular time in history. Many believe he never existed at all which is the saddest view. While He was born in Bethlehem, lived in Galilee and was crucified outside Jerusalem, He was far more than anyone understood and understands today. Humanity thinks it knows everything when in fact it knows very little through the propaganda, lies and deception of the elites:

1 Corinthians 13:12
“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”

Even if the incarnation remains a mystery, there are still a few things that can be said, keeping us within the confines of our limited knowledge.

A scientist has calculated that there is a 67% chance that God exists.
Dr Stephen Unwin has used a 200-year-old formula to calculate the probability of the existence of an omnipotent being. Bayes’ Theory is usually used to work out the likelihood of events, such as nuclear power failure, by balancing the various factors that could affect a situation.

Other Christian scientists and there are hundreds state 100% that God exists. We can say that God is omnipotent shaping the material and spiritual worlds, possessing the aptitude to manage and control them according to His will.

If the Creator is omnipotent then He knows everything He is not limited and conditioned by either the spiritual or the material world.

Rene Descartes argued that God’s supreme perfection entails omnipotence to the point whereby God could make 2+2=5 if He so wished, suggesting that God can do the logically impossible, such as by creating a stone too heavy for him to lift, and then lifting it anyway. We know one important thing God is not matter.

John 4:24
“God is a Spirit.”

No spirit can be human, that is, it cannot be matter. He remains a spirit, even if he can make His ”dwelling” inside a man. He can use the human body, or the animal body, as a (tent). God is the Father of spirits:

Hebrews 12:9
“The only God, who is also the “Father of spirits.”

Only the Almighty can interpenetrate with the material universe and a human organically, yet still, maintain 100% of His own spiritual identity. In the special case of Jesus’ birth, the biblical word used for “fertilisation” is “to shade.”

Questions

Question:
Who put the genetic material and the genetic information into sperm the human seed?

Answer:
It has to be God, nothing that created something so complex is just illogical.

Question:
Who is the “Father”?

Answer:
There is One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Today you can know God the Father through Christ the Son. Through Christ alone, you can find meaning in your life through the new birth. In addition to the sense God “fathered” the world, the same God is also uniquely the law-giver to his chosen people.

Question:
How did He create the “seed”?

Answer:
By His authoritative power!

Question:
What does the word “seed” mean?

Answer:
John 1:14
We know that “the Word was made flesh”

The Word or Logos is not material but belongs to the spiritual world, or as others might say, it constitutes quantum nature, belonging to the area of electromagnetic waves. At risk, through a limited explanation, one could say that the “seed” of spiritual nature was converted, interfered, intertwined, and took a reversible root into human nature.

Question:
Who gives abundant life to the “seed”?

John 5:26
“For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.”

Question:
How does it come to life?

Answer:
By His Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of life. If we comprehend the idea of God, especially the Holy Spirit, being like a breath or wind, we can grasp the meaning of the Hebrew word “Ruach.” This word refers to God as a breath, a wind, or a life force that sustains all living things:

Luke 1:30-35
“Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. “And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom, there will be no end.” Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”

In the case of Mary, the conception, or planting of the “seed,” was accomplished by “power,” not by an ordinary act of impregnation. The word “overshadow” reminds us of light, while the word “power” is reminiscent of “the powers of the age to come:

Hebrews 6:5
“And have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.”

God’s power binds all things together in heaven and on earth, power without limits in the hands of an omnipotent and omniscient God. Jesus had access to this power in His miraculous healing work of the material body of many people, the same power by which He rose from the dead. The woman in the crowd accessed this power through faith, by touching the garment of Jesus and was instantly healed. This was accomplished without Jesus’ intention.

Mark 5:27-29
“When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well. Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.”

This power was also granted to the disciples of Christ:

Acts 5:15-16
“So that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also, a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.”

Even Jesus taught:

John 14:12
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”

Whoever believes in the first chapters of the book of Genesis, where God creates out of nothing, will have no problem believing in the power that created everything. The power is valid at all times, in all forms, not limited by time and space as He wills. The One who said, “Let there be light, and there was light”, He could also “overshadow” a man too. God fashioned man out of the dust of the earth, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. The book of Hebrews continues with the Angels:

Hebrews 1:7
“And of the angels, He says: “Who makes His angels spirits
And His ministers a flame of fire.”

If this is the case it proves that God is omnipotent and omniscience.

4. Why is mankind made directly by the hand of God and not by the Word, like the other creations?

Mankind is a created being made of the “dust of the earth” that is material. The elements found in man are the same as those established on the earth. The Lord God breathed into his nostrils the (breath of life), and man became a living soul. Jesus created things as the Word and it was (done). The word “done” should be emphasised, unlike other things that were done by the Word God, Who said” “And so it was.”

But humanity had this honour because he is the only being created “in the image and likeness of God. God desired His Holy Spirit to be an intrinsic, and inherent part of the human being, deifying man, elevating him to the rank of God, in His image and likeness. Man is a trinity of body, soul and spirit mirroring the divine Trinity of Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The human body the earthly space suit is exclusively material. The soul, however, comes from God which we call generic. The soul embodies all the informational dowry that will define each person who will come into the world. This contains personality, reason, affection and will.

The human spirit is related to the metaphysical and is the meeting place with the Spirit of God, the channel through which the Spirit of God speaks to man and the human soul.
It can be largely identified with the human consciousness. The spirit of God and the spirit of man each claim the right to rule the whole human being.

After Adam and Eve fell into sin, the spirit of man died as God had previously warned. At the moment of being born again, the dead spirit of man is rewired by the Spirit of God who is the Spirit of life. The human-God relationship is restored. Man is guided by the Holy Spirit again, the Spirit who begins the process of sanctification and spiritual growth of the new convert. This is possible as long as the meld is not interrupted again by lapses into wrongdoings and unconfessed sins, unforgiven and unwashed by the blood of the sacrificial Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died just to be forgiven and cleansed from the guilt of mankind’s sin. After death, the body returns to where it came from the earth, while the soul returns to where it came from back to God.

This is the Christian teaching.

Man is made by God but He does not make or create His only Son. He does something unique, unrepeatable, He “gives birth.”

In the limited sense of human thinking, He provided ”spiritual genetic information” directly from Himself to the material world. He provided not just information about Himself but from Himself.

Jesus existed before the world and before He came into our world.
Here are just two verses from the Bible that explain this:

John 1:1
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Revelation 1:8
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

The phrase “the only begotten” is the translation of a Greek word. It can be translated as “the only one”, “the only one of this kind” and “the only one born.”

Humans are material beings that multiply themselves. When it comes to God He does not multiply Himself. He can take whatever shape or form He wants we see many times in the Bible, for example, the burning bush or a cloud. The Godhead is a trinity Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
When it says “His son”, the spot is placed primarily on paternity, or motherhood, with offspring in mind in an attempt to highlight the relationship of succession between the two.

The Son is like a branch sprouting from an existing established tree. Even though most people have rejected the divine offspring of Jesus, His paternity however has been recognised by God the Father.

This emphasises that Jesus was 100%, God.
God recognised His paternity hundreds of years before Jesus was born!
We mention only a few verses here, leaving the possibility that this subject, of the divinity of Christ, can be found in another article and video. These verses were written hundreds of years before Jesus Christ walked the earth:

Psalms 2:7
“I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”

Isaiah, guided by the Spirit of God, says in a prophecy over 700 years before Jesus was born:

Isaiah 9:6
“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us, a Son is given, And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

This paternity is publicly reconfirmed during the life of Jesus, at His baptism:

Matthew 3:16
“And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Hebrews 1:5-6
“For to which of the angels did He ever say: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You”? And again: “I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son”? But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all the angels of God worship Him.”

And it’s reconfirmed at the equally special time, that of His face being transfigured:

Matthew 17:2,5
“And He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”

There is a verse in the Bible that should give us food for thought:
1 John 5:10
“He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.”