When asked most Christian believers will say that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine (or God) – which is good, concerning that that statement is the orthodox belief of Christology.  However, in my experience, the tension of the above statement rarely stays intact once it enters the realm of practice. Instead, people tend to fall to one side of the coin or the other – depending on their background, presuppositions, or experience.

The sad part is that both of these reductions mar the beauty and mystery of the incarnate God.

Today we will look at the first and, in my experience, the most comment reduction (“Limiting the Humanity of Jesus”) while saving the second reduction (“Limiting the Divine Nature of Jesus”) for a future date.

Reduction #1: Limiting the Humanity of Jesus

It wasn’t very long after the death and resurrection of Jesus that people started saying that Jesus was not fully divine – instead, Jesus’ body was simply an illusion created by a divine being. This Gnostic view shot down fairly quickly by the church fathers as being false.

Unfortunately, this view did not quite disappear – instead it adapted and became a tad milder in its claims.

Namely, in modern times, when folks say that Jesus was fully human and fully divine, what they are really saying is that:

“Jesus was fully human in that fact that he walked on two legs, ate food, and existed in history. He was fully divine in that he could heal people, forgive sins, read peoples thoughts, and know the future – just like God does today.”

The problem with this view is that it is not quite Biblical. Hebrews 2:14-18 reads:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

In order to break the bonds of sin and death, God had to become human in “every way” – meaning that Jesus, as the incarnate God, had to rely on the leading of the Holy Spirit and the voice of God to guide him through the crazy, screwed up world.

Jesus did not have a “God card” that he could pull out when things got tough and he didn’t get himself out of a bind. He had to rely on the promoted of the Father:

“”I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ” – Jesus John 5:19

By empting himself and taking on the form of humanity (Philippians 2), Jesus became the model for us to follow. We too can listen to the prompting of the Father and know the hearts of the people (Paul would call it “words of knowledge” or “words of wisdom” in 2 Corinthians).  We too can hear about the future through the Father (i.e. prophecy).  In fact, Jesus told us that we – his followers – would do “greater things” (John 14:12) then he himself did.

Yet, people persist in limiting the humanity of Jesus. In my view, I think they do so because it gives them an escape route.

If Jesus was somehow less then human – or, in different words, if Jesus performed all his miracles due to his divine nature, then – obviously, I don’t have to do them as I am not divine. Instead, all I have do is humanly stuff – like not lying, not stealing, not sleeping around, etc.

The sad part – yes, it gets sadder – is that most folks who limit the humanity of Jesus do so under the claim of protecting the divinity of Jesus. In their view, if you say that Jesus was fully human and had to listen to the Father in order to perform miracles, then you have destroyed the divine nature of Jesus. What they don’t realize is that by denying Jesus’ humanity, they are the ones who are destroying the nature of Jesus and the words of the Bible.

To be Biblical consisted, we must maintain the tension of the incarnate God: Jesus was both fully, 100% human and divine. How that works is a mystery – but that is what the Bible says, and therefore, we should rejoice in the mystery and stop trying to reduce it into something it is not.