Jesus, the Man

It is much easier, in our time, to get an answer to "who is Jesus?" than it is for the question "what is Jesus?" For the former: Jesus is our Messiah, our Redeemer; he is lowly, meek, full of compassion. He is the Coming King, our Good Shepherd, etc. But to the latter question, there has been much debate and confusion. Does he have two wills or one? Is he God, a part of God, or the Son of God? Is he "man," or is he a man?

I think the Scriptures are quite clear, if we let them speak for themselves. The confusion often comes from traditions obscuring the meaning, or from a preconceived notion forcing the text to say what it is not saying. Let's have a look:

What is Jesus?

Genesis 3:15

"I will put enmity between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her Seed;

He shall bruise your head,

And you shall bruise His heel."

Deuteronomy 18:16-19 "For this is what you asked of YHWH your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of YHWH our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die. YHWH said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name."

These are two of the first prophecies of the coming Messiah. Both clearly state that the Messiah will be a descendant of humans. Genesis 3:15 says the one to crush the Serpent will be the "seed" of the woman, and YHWH said to Moses that the next great leader of Israel would be "like [Moses], from among their fellow Israelites." A human, like Moses, descended from Israelites, also human. This prophet will be commanded to speak in YHWH's name, and will be given words by YHWH directly. [Based on the above, this prophet cannot be YHWH.] We know this is speaking of Jesus because Peter connects this prophecy to him:

Acts 3

"The God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus…

But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer…

Moses said,

‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’

God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness."

Peter has no hesitation at all to distinguish God ("the God of our Fathers" = YHWH) from "his servant Jesus." Peter does not give any other qualifiers. He is speaking of one being (God) sending another (Jesus) to Israel.

Isaiah 49:1 "YHWH called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name." [compare Luke 1:31]

Isaiah prophesies that YHWH will name the Messiah from his mother's womb, but not that the Messiah will descend from heaven.

Isaiah 53:3 "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."

Matthew 9:8 "When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men."

Matthew 16:15-17 ‘He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”’

Notice what Peter doesn't say about Jesus...

Luke 7:16-17 "Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country."

Luke 22:69 "But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God."

Notice whenever the exalted Jesus is spoken of, he is sitting at the right hand of "God," rather than of "the Father." This makes sense if the One God is the Father only, but it would not make sense if Jesus was also (a member of) the One God.

John 5:46 "For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me."

[contrast: YHWH told Moses what to write]

John 8:40 "You seek to kill me, a man who told you the truth which I heard from God."

In the very conversation where some claim Jesus calls himself YHWH, Jesus calls himself a man who repeats what he hears from God.

John 11:49-52 "But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad."

The high priest prophesies (from God) that a man must die to save the people. 

John 18:37 "Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” "

John 19:5

So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold the man!"

Acts 2:22-

“Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it…”

Peter, after confessing correctly that Jesus is the Messiah in Matthew 16, preaches to Jerusalem that Jesus is a man sent from God. His miracles were because God was working through him. Jesus was killed, but God raised him. Peter consistently distinguishes God from the man Jesus.

Acts 4:27 [Peter, praying to God:] “For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed…”

Acts 5:30

“The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”

Acts 7:55

But he [Stephen], full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

Notice Stephen does not say "God the Son standing at the right hand of God the Father." He says Jesus is standing at the right hand of God.

Acts 10:37

“You yourselves know… how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. “

Acts 13

The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt…

Of this man's [David’s] offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.

Jesus is a descendant of David (otherwise he would not qualify as Messiah). But in all other usage, a descendant begins existence after the ancestor does. Why would this be different?

Acts 17:24, 30-31

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything… The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Romans 5:12,15,17,19

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life...

For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many...

For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ...

For 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.

Paul spends quite a bit of ink arguing that the Messiah must be a man (in the same sense as Adam) in order to redeem us. He nowhere argues that he must be anything other than a man (ie. must be divine) to redeem us. But he must be perfectly righteous.

1 Corinthians 15:12-14 "Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised."

If Christ was divine, we should think he would continue to live, even if there was no resurrection. Paul argues that if there was no resurrection, not even the Messiah is raised. Paul's argument makes sense only if Jesus is strictly human.

1 Corinthians 15:47‭-‬48

The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.

"From heaven" here should mean approved of God. Think of John's baptism being "from heaven." So also will those who trust in Jesus be considered as "those who are of heaven;" we are approved of God. Notice even with the heaven language, Jesus is a man, according to Paul.

Galatians 4:4 "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law."

1 Timothy 2:5

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

The word in the previous verse rendered "man" is significant. There are two Greek words that can mean man. The first is andros/ἀνδρός, which means more like "male," denoting gender. The other is anthropos/ἄνθρωπος, which means "human," denoting nature. Notice no other nature is mentioned.

Hebrews 2:17

Therefore, he [Jesus] had to be made, like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Hebrews 9:27 "Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment, so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him."

Jesus is like us in every respect. We do not have two natures. We are not part of a trinity. If Jesus had a divine nature or memories of a heavenly pre-existence, he is not like us. He was a man, like us, appointed to die one, and now as a glorified and resurrected man, will never die again. 

Conclusion

The text above lays out a pattern. All the biblical authors, from beginning to end, use the same language to describe what Jesus is. He is a man, descended from men, who was perfectly obedient to God, his Father, and having redeemed mankind with his death, was resurrected to glory at the right hand of God. Any text that seems to disagree with this is the outlier, the exception, and we should be skeptical of our exegesis if it disagrees with the greater narrative.

The bible is clear. It does not confuse a god-nature with a man-nature. Jesus is everywhere distinguished from God, and is many times clearly called a man. Even the word "man" is mutually exclusive from "God" in normal use. Where does the bible explain how or why Jesus could be both? (It doesn't!) I will affirm with Peter that "Jesus of Nazareth" is "a man sent from God," who is now sitting at the right hand of God, "crowned with glory and honor," having been given all authority in heaven and on earth.