A Series of Answers to Common Questions
Question:
According to the Holy Bible Jesus manifested human traits not befitting God. For instance Jesus wept (cf. John 11:35), slept (cf. Mark 4:35), hungered and thirsted (cf. John 4:6-7). God doesn’t tire, doesn’t sleep, doesn’t thirst and doesn’t get hungry (cf. Psalm 50:7-13, 121:3-4; Isaiah 40:28). How then can Jesus be God?
Answer:
The above question and statements misunderstand or distort what the Holy Bible and historic Christianity teach about the Person of the Lord Jesus. According to the God-breathed Scriptures Jesus is the Son of God, the eternal Word who is God in nature. The Bible also teaches that the eternal Word became flesh and took on a real human nature (cf. John 1:1-3, 14; 1 John 1:1-3; Matthew 1:18-23).
What this basically means is that Christ is both God and man, having all the attributes belonging to both Deity and humanity at the very same time. Jesus is truly God in every way, and is also a real human being in every sense with the exception of sin. The things he experienced as man did not affect the integrity of his Deity, and yet at the same time his Divine abilities and qualities were not part of his human nature. He had (and continues to have) two distinct natures, two distinct sets of attributes simultaneously without either of them fusing in or mixing with the other.
Thus, since Jesus became a real human being he truly hungered and thirsted like all men. Yet since he is also truly God he is the Bread of Life and the Living Water:
"Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, "Give me a drink," you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ … Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I WILL GIVE HIM will never be thirsty forever. The water that I WILL GIVE HIM will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’" John 4:10, 13-14
"Jesus then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God IS HE WHO COMES DOWN FROM HEAVEN and gives life to the world.’ They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I HAVE COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.’" John 6:35-38
"‘This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I WILL RAISE HIM UP on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, AND I IN HIM. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.’" John 6:50-58
"On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come TO ME and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." John 7:37-39
And being a real human Jesus got tired and slept. Yet since he is also truly God, he is the very Rest and Comfort of all those who are weary:
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30
That is why the Holy Bible has no problem portraying the Lord Jesus as truly human and also as true Deity, as the very Sovereign Sustainer of all creation:
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and IN HIM all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him," Colossians 1:15-22
"For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form," Colossians 2:9
"but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high," Hebrews 1:2-3
Now about Jesus weeping, Christ is only visibly expressing as a man what God himself feels over the plight of sin and human pain:
"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’" Genesis 6:5-7
"How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert!" Psalm 78:40
"Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will (C)loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations." Ezekiel 6:9"My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all. How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath." Hosea 11:8-9
Jesus is basically giving a human expression to God’s emotions, visibly revealing the very heart and deep compassions of God for the plight of fallen humanity.
To conclude, Jesus became a true human being and in so doing experienced the weaknesses, limitations, and temptations that are common to humanity with one sole exception; Jesus was absolutely sinless and perfect. Thus, the statements that speak of Jesus’ human limitations do absolutely nothing to refute the clear Biblical witness that Jesus was also God. The Holy Bible teaches that Jesus is God and man. It is not that Jesus has to either be God or man but that he is both God and man at the same time. What was true of his humanity didn’t apply to his Deity and vice-versa, i.e. as man he tired but as God his energy and power are infinite and inexhaustible.
The testimony of the Holy Bible is clear. It states both, that Jesus is the eternal Son of God (one of the Persons of the eternal Triune God), and that this eternal Word of God, who was involved in all of creation, by whom everything was created, and who sustains all of creation to this day, himself entered creation by becoming a human being.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. …The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-3, 14
Does the Muslim objector really want to say: God is not able to become man? God cannot take on human nature? According to the Bible God is able to do more than many Muslims would want to give him permission for.
A Series of Answers to Common Questions
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