It has been truly said: “Right views concerning Christ are indispensable to a right faith, and a right faith is indispensable to salvation. To stumble at the foundation, is, concerning faith, to make shipwreck altogether; for as Immanuel, God with us, is the grand Object of faith, to err in views of His eternal Deity, or to err in views of His sacred humanity, is alike destructive. There are points of truth which are not fundamental, though erroneous views on any one point must lead to God-dishonoring consequences in strict proportion to its importance and magnitude; but there are certain foundation truths to err concerning which is to insure for the erroneous and the unbelieving, the blackness of darkness forever” (J. C. Philpot, 1859).
To know Christ as God, to know Him as man, to know Him as God-man, and this by a divine revelation of His person, is indeed to have eternal life in our hearts. Nor can He be known in any other way than by divine and special revelation.
“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me” (Galatians 1:15-16).
An imaginary conception of His person may be obtained by diligently studying the Scriptures, but a vital knowledge of Him must be communicated from on high (Matthew 16:17). A theoretical and theological knowledge of Christ is what the natural man may acquire, but a saving, soul-transforming view of Him (2 Corinthians 3:18) is only given by the Spirit to the regenerate (1 <st2:bcv_smarttag>John 5:20).
“But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7).
The first clause (and the preceding verse) was before us in the last two chapters. The two expressions we consider here balance with (and thus serve to explain) those in verse 6. The last clause of v. 7 is an exegesis of the one immediately preceding. “Made in the likeness of men” refers to the human nature Christ assumed. The “form of a servant” denotes the position or state which He entered. So, “equal with God” refers to the divine nature, the “form of God” signifies His manifested glory in His position of Lord over all.
The humanity of Christ was unique. History supplies no analogy, nor can His humanity be illustrated by anything in nature. It is incomparable, not only to our fallen human nature, but also to unfallen Adam’s. The Lord Jesus was born into circumstances totally different from those in which Adam first found himself, but the sins and griefs of His people were on Him from the first. His humanity was produced neither by natural generation (as is ours), nor by special creation, as was Adam’s. The humanity of Christ was, under the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit, supernaturally “conceived” (Isaiah 7:14) of the virgin. It was “prepared” of God (Hebrews 10:5); yet “made of a woman” (Galatians 4:4.).
The uniqueness of Christ’s humanity also appears in that it never had a separate existence of its own. The eternal Son assumed (at the moment of Mary’s conception) a human nature, but not a human person. This important distinction calls for careful consideration. By a “person” is meant an intelligent being subsisting by himself. The second person of the Trinity assumed a human nature and gave it subsistence by union with His divine personality. It would have been a human person, if it had not been united to the Son of God. But being united to Him, it cannot be called a person, because it never subsisted by itself, as other men do. Hence the force of “that holy thing which shall be born of thee” (Luke 1:35). It was not possible for a divine person to assume another person, subsisting of itself, into union with Himself. For two persons, remaining two, to become one person, is a contradiction. “A body hast thou prepared me” (Hebrews 10:5). The “me” denotes the divine Person, the “body,” the nature He took unto Himself.
The humanity of Christ was real. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also Himself likewise took part of the same… Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren” (Hebrews 2:14, 17). He assumed a complete human nature, spirit, soul, and body. Christ did not bring His human nature from heaven (as some have strangely and erroneously concluded from <st2:bcv_smarttag>1 Corinthians 15:47), but it was composed of the very substance of His mother. In clothing Himself with flesh and blood, Christ also clothed Himself with human feelings, so He did not differ from His brethren, sin only excepted.
“While we always contend that Christ is God, let us never lose the conviction He is most certainly a man. He is not God humanized, nor a human deified; but, as to His Godhead, pure Godhead, equal and coeternal with the Father; as to His manhood, perfect manhood, made in all respects like the rest of mankind, sin alone excepted. His humanity is real, for He was born. He lay in the virgin’s womb, and in due time was born. The gate by which we enter our first life he passed through also. He was not created, nor transformed, but His humanity was begotten and born. As He was born, so in the circumstances of His birth, he is completely human. He was as weak and feeble as any other babe. He is not even royal, but human. Those born in marble halls of old were wrapped in purple garments, and were thought by the common people to be a superior race. But this Babe was wrapped in swaddling clothes and had a manger for a cradle, so that the true humanity of His being would come out.”
As He grows up, the very growth shows how completely human He is. He does not spring into full manhood at once, but He grows in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. When he reaches man’s estate, He gets the common stamp of manhood upon His brow. “In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread” is the common heritage of us all, and He receives no better. The carpenter’s shop must witness to the toils of a Savior, and when He becomes the preacher and the prophet, still we read such significant words as these — “Jesus, being weary sat thus on the well.” We find Him needing to betake Himself to rest in sleep. He slumbers at the stem of the vessel when it is tossed in the midst of the tempest.
Brethren, if sorrow be the mark of real manhood, and “man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward,” certainly Jesus Christ has the truest evidence of being a man. If to hunger and to thirst be signs that He was no shadow, and His manhood no fiction, you have these. If to associate with His fellow-men, and eat and drink as they did, will be proof to your mind that He was none other than a man, you see Him sitting at a feast one day, at another time He graces a marriage-supper, and on another occasion He is hungry and “hath not where to lay His head” (C. H. Spurgeon).
They who deny Christ’s derivation of real humanity through His mother undermine the atonement. His very fraternity (Hebrews 2:11), as our Kinsman-Redeemer, depended on the fact that He obtained His humanity from Mary. Without this, He would neither possess the natural nor the legal union with His people, which must lie at the foundation of His representative character as the “last Adam.” To be our Goel (Redeemer), His humanity could neither be brought from heaven nor immediately created by God, but must be derived, as ours was, from a human mother. But with this difference: His humanity never existed in Adam’s covenant to entail guilt or taint.
The humanity of Christ was holy. Intrinsically so, because it was “of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 1:20); absolutely so, because taken into union with God, the Holy One. This fact is expressly affirmed in <st2:bcv_smarttag>Luke 1:35, “that holy thing,” which is contrasted with, “but we are all as an unclean thing” (Isaiah 64:6), and that because we are “shapen in iniquity” and conceived “in sin” (Psalm 51:5). Though Christ truly became partaker of our nature, yet He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26). For this reason He could say, “For the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” (John 14:30). There was nothing in His pure humanity which could respond to sin or Satan.
It was truly remarkable when man was made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). But bow in wonderment and worship at the amazing condescension of God being made in the image of man! How this manifests the greatness of His love and the riches of His grace! It was for His people and their salvation that the eternal Son assumed human nature and abased Himself even to death. He drew a veil over His glory that He might remove our reproach. Surely, pride must be forever renounced by the followers of such a Savior.
Inasmuch as “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5) lived in this world for thirty-three years, He has left “an example, that ye should follow his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). He “did no sin,” nor should we (1 Corinthians 15:24). “Neither was guile found in his mouth,” nor should it be in ours (Colossians 4:6). “When he was reviled, He reviled not again,” nor must His followers. He was weary in body, but not in well-doing. He suffered hunger and thirst, yet never murmured. He “pleased not himself” (Romans 15:3), nor must we (2 Corinthians 5:15). He always did those things which pleased the Father (John 8:29). This too must ever be our aim (2 Corinthians 5:9).
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