The Saviour of the World

The God-Man Christ Jesus

I frankly confess that I take up this subject with a deep sense of my inability to deal adequately with it. How can I expound this mystery of God? I cannot explain it. and I must not attempt to do so. The statement is so simple, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14); the mystery is so overpowering: “Great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh.” 1 Timothy 3:16. But I cannot discount the fact. I cannot agree with those who affirm that Jesus was a man, and only a man; the flower of humanity, but only the flower and not the Author. Let us face the inspired record, and make reason bow to revelation. SOTW 24.1

I cannot read the four Gospels, the straightforward record of eyewitnesses, without beholding Jesus the man. He was born of a woman. Galatians 4:4. He was the normal child. When He had grown to manhood, He exhibited the usual characteristics of other members of the human family. He experienced hunger (Matthew 4:2), required sleep (Matthew 8:24), became weary in journeying (John 4:6), and was moved to tears by human sorrow (John 11:35). The designation which He applied to Himself, and to no other, and which no other applied to Him, was “the Son of man.” Matthew 8:20. Wholly apart from any revelation upon the subject, it seems evident that He had the same flesh and blood that I have, and His genealogy shows that His ancestry was not spotless. All this is easy enough to understand, but this is not all. SOTW 24.2

While the evidence is clear and convincing that Jesus of Nazareth was a man, a true member of the human family, there is equally clear and convincing evidence that He was more than a man. He who was the Son of man was also the Son of God, and the two natures were united in the one indivisible person. What ground do I have for such statements? Well, we have already found that Jesus of the New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old Testament manifested in the flesh, and this simple fact marshals the whole Old Testament as evidence that “God was in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 5:19. SOTW 25.1

The Son was and is the exclusive revealer of God, as is clearly stated: “Neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him.” Matthew 11:27. It seems perfectly clear to me that there were temporary revelations of the second person of the Godhead in human form before He took the flesh as the Son of man. I only need to cite some of the definite cases to show this, simply calling attention to the fact that “the Angel of Jehovah” (Exodus 3:2, 4, 16) was often used to designate the person thus manifested. Those who are reasonably familiar with the Bible can readily call up the experience of Abraham with “three men,” one of whom was later designated as Jehovah. Genesis 18:1, 2, 16, 17. Then there is the case of Joshua before Jericho, who looked, “and, behold, there stood a man over against him with His sword drawn in His hand.” And then we read, “And Jehovah said unto Joshua.” Joshua 5:15 to 6:2. Later the Angel of Jehovah appeared to Manoah and his wife in human form and was recognized as a man, but when asked His name, replied: “Wherefore askest thou after My name, seeing it is Wonderful?” (Judges 13:3, 9, 10, 17-20), assuming the same name which was afterward applied by the prophet Isaiah to the One who was to establish the throne of David forever (Isaiah 9:6). SOTW 25.2

There are other instances, but these are sufficient. They are fact prophecies of the permanent incarnation of the Son of God, and they testify that Jesus of Nazareth, while He was truly man, was in reality a manifestation in the flesh of Jehovah of the Old Testament. SOTW 26.1

“The God of the Old Testament, the Jehovah of the law and of the Psalms and of the prophets, reappears and comes nearer to us in the Lord Christ: the same in all holiness, whether the holiness of severity or of love, whether the holiness that communicates Himself or that guards His rights. But then in Him this goodness is placed before us in a strictly human presentation.” SOTW 26.2

Jehovah-Jesus is also the God-man. SOTW 26.3

But why, I ask, was it necessary for the Son of God to assume human nature and live among men? There are several reasons: First, to minds darkened by sin it was impossible to convey in language an adequate revelation of the character of God, and so “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.” John 1:14. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” John 1:18. So completely did Jesus of Nazareth reveal the Father that He could say to Philip, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” John 14:9. As the curtains of the ancient sanctuary veiled the glory of the indwelling God, and thus made it possible for sinful men to draw near without being destroyed, so in Christ divinity was veiled in humanity, and in Him the people could come into fellowship with God, could behold His character, and could find blessing. SOTW 26.4

Furthermore, in Jesus of Nazareth, who assumed our nature and partook of our flesh and blood, God’s definition of a man was given to us. He is rightly called “the second man.” 1 Corinthians 15:47. From the time of Adam to the time of Christ, man had been revealed, not as originally created in the image of God, but as begotten after Adam’s likeness, and after Adam’s image (Genesis 5:3), bearing the marks of sin both physically and spiritually. When the Son of God became flesh, He declared to the world in living characters, so simply and so plainly expressed that a child could read and understand, the Godhood of God and the manhood of man. In His life of compassion for, and devotion to, others, He translated into the language of human experience the wondrous truth that “God is love.” 1 John 4:8. In the loftiness of His ideals and yet in the simplicity of His intercourse with the common people who heard Him gladly, He was constantly revealing the greatness of true humility and the humility of true greatness. He glorified both Godhood and manhood. SOTW 27.1

We cannot repeat too often, and we cannot emphasize too strongly, the great saying which has been given to us through the apostle Paul, a personal testimony arising from his own experience; “Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 1 Timothy 1:15. The keynote of this saving work is struck in these words; “Christ died for our sins.” 1 Corinthians 15:3. But God as God in His absolute deity could not die, and therefore the moral necessity that He who “was with God, and ... was God” (John 1:1), should take the flesh in order that He might lay down His life. SOTW 27.2

Such is the plain teaching of inspiration, as we read: “Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. ... Wherefore it behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren.” Hebrews 2:14-17. The Son of God partook of the same flesh and the same blood in which we share, in order that as man, the God-man, He might lay down His life, and through His death bring deliverance to those who fear death. Inasmuch as the death of Christ for our sins is the central feature of the good news, His assumption of humanity is necessarily an essential feature of the gospel of the grace of God. SOTW 28.1

This same general purpose of the incarnation, when viewed from another angle, is thus expressed; “To this end was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8. “And ye know that He was manifested to take away sins.” 1 John 3:5. The Son of God who in His absolute deity could not be seen with the natural eye, was manifested in human flesh, that through His death He might destroy both the devil and his works. But we must remember that He was the Son of God before He was manifested in the flesh (Galatians 4:4), and that He did not cease to be the Son of God when He assumed humanity. John 9:35-37. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and forever.” Hebrews 13:8. His own testimony to the apostle John more than sixty years after His death and resurrection is to the same effect: “I am the first and the last, and the Living One; and I became [margin] dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” Revelation 1:17, 18. SOTW 29.1

During His life upon earth, Jesus of Nazareth identified Himself with the Jehovah of the Old Testament by affirming that He was I AM (John 8:58), and again after His return to heaven, in declaring that He was the first and the last, He adopted and applied to Himself the words of Jehovah as given to us through the prophet Isaiah: “Thus saith Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last.” Isaiah 44:6. “The New Testament represents our Lord as a conscious, intelligent agent, who preserves from eternity into time and onward to eternity His unbroken identity.” It is conscious union with such a Saviour as this which brings to us the positive assurance of eternal life. SOTW 29.2

The assumption of human nature by the divine Son of God is the foundation miracle of Christianity; or, to put it in other words, Jesus of Nazareth in his twofold nature is Himself the all-inclusive miracle. This is clearly indicated in the prophetic announcement that “His name shall be called Wonderful” (Isaiah 9:6), or Miracle. Through the miracle of the incarnation He has lifted humanity to the divine plane, and through our union with Him we become partakers of the divine nature. 2 Peter 1:4. He is Himself “the mystery of God” (Colossians 2:2) and through His manifestation in the flesh He became the solution of the mystery of redemption. SOTW 30.1

How encouraging is the thought that our Mediator in the heavens, who “ever liveth to make intercession for” us (Hebrews 7:25), is “Himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.” 1 Timothy 2:5, 6. “We have not a High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need.” Hebrews 4:15, 16. SOTW 30.2

“Since Jesus came to dwell with us, we know that God is acquainted with our trials and sympathizes with our griefs. Every son and daughter of Adam may understand that our Creator is the friend of sinners. For in every doctrine of grace, every promise of joy, every divine attraction presented in the Saviour’s life on earth, we see ‘God with us.’ ... By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God. As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey.... ‘God with us’ is the surety of our deliverance from sin, the assurance of our power to obey the law of heaven.” SOTW 30.3

“Behold, the man.” John 19:5. “Behold, your God.” Isaiah 40:9. SOTW 30.4