Sermon Tone Analysis

How is Jesus fully God and fully man, yet one person?

fully man, yet one person?

Jesus was fully and completely human.

He was conceived in the womb of his mother by a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.

This is made clear in Matthew 1:18: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”

While many things could be said about this, one thing is clear: Jesus was born of a human mother.

His ordinary human birth affirms his humanity.

Jesus was fully and completely human.

He was conceived in the womb of his mother by a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.

This is made clear in

While many things could be said about this, one thing is clear: Jesus was born of a human mother.

His ordinary human birth affirms his humanity.

Doctrinal Importance of the Virgin Birth

It shows that salvation ultimately must come from the Lord.

Just as God had promised that the “seed” of the woman () would ultimately destroy the serpent, so God brought it about by his own power, not through mere human effort.

Our salvation only comes about through the supernatural work of God, and that was evident at the very beginning of Jesus’ life when “God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” ().

The virgin birth made possible the uniting of full deity and full humanity in one person.

This was the means God used to send his Son (; ) into the world as a man

If we think for a moment of other possible ways in which Christ might have come to the earth, none of them would so clearly unite humanity and deity in one person.

It probably would have been possible for God to create Jesus as a complete human being in heaven and send him to descend from heaven to earth without the benefit of any human parent.

The Importance of His Humanity

As a child, he “grew and became strong” (), and as he grew older, he “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” ().

He became “wearied” from a journey (); after a fast, “he was hungry” (); and while on the cross, he said, “I thirst” ().

His body was, in every respect, just like ours.

In his human nature he did not know the day he would return to earth, “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” ().

Look at

Emptying himself does not mean he let go of his deity - but that he subjected himself to that of a servant - giving up his status and position in Heaven.

Jesus rose from the dead in a physical, human body that was no longer subject to weakness, disease, or death.

As he told his disciples, who were astonished at the risen Christ, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.

Look at .

Jesus continues to reside in this perfect but human body in heaven.

Jesus had to be fully human to serve as our perfectly obedient representative.

What biblical character is this in contrast to?

His representative obedience as a man is in contrast to Adam’s representative disobedience.

Paul says that “as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” ().

If Jesus wasn’t fully human, his obedience in our place would be meaningless.

Just as Jesus had to be human to live in our place, he also had to be human to die in our place.

This was necessary because of our humanity.

Look at

If Jesus weren’t fully human, his death in our place would be meaningless.

In addition, Jesus’ humanity (as well as his deity) allows him to serve as the one mediator between God and men ().

It also means that as a man, he was tempted in every way that we are.

Look at and

The Importance of His Deity

The Bible clearly says that Jesus is fully God.

For example, Look at what Paul writes of Jesus in

What is Jesus saying in

What is the significance of ?

which is what any self-respecting religious leader would have done if someone claimed to be God.

They understood that Jesus was claiming the same title God claimed for himself in —“I am who I am.”

If Jesus wasn’t fully God, he could not have borne the full penalty for sin for the whole world.

And if he didn’t bear the full penalty of sin for the world as a sinless man, there would be no valid payment for anyone’s sins, and nobody could be saved.

If Jesus wasn’t fully God, he could not have borne the full penalty for sin for the whole world.

And if he didn’t bear the full penalty of sin for the world as a sinless man, there would be no valid payment for anyone’s sins, and nobody could be saved.

Thus, if Jesus is not fully God, we have no salvation and ultimately no Christianity.

Look at and compare it to .

How do these tie together?

John not only calls Jesus “God” but also refers to him as “the Word” (Gk.

logos).

John’s readers would have recognized in this term logos a dual reference, both to the powerful, creative Word of God in the Old Testament by which the heavens and earth were created () and to the organizing or unifying principle of the universe, the thing that held it together and allowed it to make sense, in Greek thinking.

John is identifying Jesus with both of these ideas and saying that he is not only the powerful, creative Word of God and the organizing or unifying force in the universe, but also that he became man: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” ().

Here is another strong claim to deity coupled with an explicit statement that Jesus also became man and moved among us as a man.

What did Jesus mean when He calls himself “the Son of man” ?

This title is used eighty-four times in the four gospels but only by Jesus and only to speak of himself .

Go to

This passage clearly speaks of someone who had heavenly origin and who was given eternal rule over the whole world.

This unique term has as its background the vision in where Daniel saw one like a “Son of Man” who “came to the Ancient of Days” and was given “dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away” ().

It is striking that this “son of man” came “with the clouds of heaven” ().

This passage clearly speaks of someone who had heavenly origin and who was given eternal rule over the whole world.

The high priests did not miss the point of this passage when Jesus said, “Hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven” ().

The high priests did not miss the point of this passage when Jesus said, “Hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven” ().

Immediately they said, “He has uttered blasphemy. . .

.He deserves death” ().

Here Jesus finally made explicit the strong claims to eternal world rule that were earlier hinted at in his frequent use of the title “the Son of man” to apply to himself.

Attributes of Deity

In addition to the specific affirmations of Jesus’ deity seen in the many passages quoted above, we see many examples of actions in Jesus’ lifetime that point to his divine character.

Jesus demonstrated his omnipotence when he stilled the storm at sea with a word (), multiplied the loaves and fish (), and changed water into wine ().

Some might object that these miracles just showed the power of the Holy Spirit working through him, just as the Holy Spirit could work through any other human being, and therefore these do not demonstrate Jesus’ own deity.

But the contextual explanations of these events often point not to what they demonstrate about the power of the Holy Spirit but to what they demonstrate about Jesus himself.

For instance, after Jesus turned water into wine, John tells us, “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him” ().

It was not the glory of the Holy Spirit that was manifested but the glory of Jesus himself, as his divine power worked to change water into wine.

Similarly, after Jesus stilled the storm on the Sea of Galilee, the disciples did not say, “How great is the power of the Holy Spirit working through this prophet,” but rather, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

().

It was the authority of Jesus himself to which the winds and the waves were subject, and this could only be the authority of God who rules over the seas and has power to still the waves (cf.

; ; ).

The omniscience of Jesus is demonstrated in his knowing people’s thoughts () and seeing Nathaniel under the fig tree from far away (), and knowing “from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray him” ().

Of course, the revelation of individual, specific events or facts is something that God could give to anyone who had a gift of prophecy in the Old or New Testaments.

But Jesus’ knowledge was much more extensive than that.

He knew “who those were that did not believe,” thus implying that he knew the belief or unbelief that was in the hearts of all men.

In fact, John says explicitly that Jesus “knew all men and needed no one to bear witness of man” ().

The disciples could later say to him, “Now we know that you know all things” ().

These statements say much more than what could be said of any great prophet or apostle of the Old Testament or New Testament, for they imply omniscience on the part of Jesus.

Finally, after his resurrection, when Jesus asked Peter if he loved him, Peter answered, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you” ().

Here Peter is saying much more than that Jesus knows his heart and knows that he loves him.

He is rather making a general statement (“You know everything”) and from it he is drawing a specific conclusion (“You know that I love you”).

Peter is confident that Jesus knows what is in the heart of every person, and therefore he is sure that Jesus knows his own heart.

The divine attribute of omnipresence is not directly affirmed to be true of Jesus during his earthly ministry.

However, while looking forward to the time that the church would be established, Jesus could say, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” ().

Moreover, before he left the earth, he told his disciples, “I am with you always, to the close of the age” ().

That Jesus possessed divine sovereignty, a kind of authority possessed by God alone, is seen in the fact that he could forgive sins ().

Unlike the Old Testament prophets who declared, “Thus says the LORD,” he could preface his statements with the phrase, “But I say to you” (, , , , , )—an amazing claim to his own authority.