Fully man

As a freshman in college and not even a Christian, I was given free rein of a junior high Bible study class at a Worcester, Mass., church. It consisted of subjecting the kids to ad nauseam repetitions of a 33 1/3 LP recording of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.To say that the script took liberties with Scripture is an understatement, but by God’s overriding grace He used it to impress on me the authentic mannishness of Jesus.

This Christmas season I am reflecting on the man Jesus—or Jesus the “Son of Man.” If Jesus were not God, the pre-existent (John 1:15, 30; 8:58) one through whom “all things were made” (John 1:3), we would be lost. But we would also be lost if He were not fully man. This is because history awaited a man who would live the way the first Adam was supposed to—in perfect obedience to the Father. Jesus’ obedience did not consist only of dying on the cross but of fighting off every temptation in His life up until crucifixion day, out of love for His Father.

The depiction of Jesus in Hebrews 2 is astonishing. If there were a vertical line drawn down the middle of the page, with God on one side of it and humanity on the other, we see Jesus clearly placed on the humanity side of the great divide, locking arms with other worshippers. He is pictured as one among many brethren caught in the act of praising God:

“… he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, ‘I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise’” (Hebrews 2:11–12, ESV).

In case you didn’t quite get the flavor of that, the writer of Hebrews piles on more description of Jesus speaking in the same way as any human believer would with respect to God:

“And again, ‘I will put my trust in him’” (verse 13).

Here is no less than the one from heaven saying He will put His trust in God, setting us an example to follow. And just to solidify the deal:

“And again, ‘Behold, I and the children God has given me’” (verse 13).

Here is Jesus identifying with His people, with humanity.

In Psalm 40 we see an Israelite man’s consciousness of himself as the one being written about in the Torah:

“In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. … I have told the great news of deliverance in the congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips …’” (Psalm 40:6–9, ESV).

For me the most astounding passage of all is from Isaiah 49. Here is the voice of the very Messiah Himself, describing His peculiar calling from among men, His momentary disappointment at the seemingly paltry fruit of His labor—and His immediate recovery from disappointment and resolve to put His trust in God:

“… The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword. … And he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. But I said, ‘I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God’” (Isaiah 49:1–4, ESV).

Is not our sense of debt to Jesus intensified by realizing that His suffering was as real as any man’s and no chimera only apparently borne by a bloodless God? Praise to the one who did all He did for us as a man in total submission to the Spirit.