GAINING AN UNDERSTANDING OF HUMANITY IN CHRIST

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1 Knowing the Christ You Follow: Son of Man Study 6 GAINING AN UNDERSTANDING OF HUMANITY IN CHRIST attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2.2-3) God has been fully revealed in Christ. We must take in the full scope of this revelation. Jesus did not reveal God by himself apart from mankind. He made God known in his relationship with mankind, and this revelation was given in his own person and work. In him God was fully related to human nature. This means that by revealing God he brought out the full truth of what mankind is in relation to God. God, man and the whole relationship between the two were fully made known and worked out in Christ. The significance of this for our understanding is stated in the scripture cited above: in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This is true about our understanding of God as well as of humanity. The OT gives us the revelation of God that leads up to the incarnation. This revelation gives us the foundation for believing and understanding Christ. But, only in Christ is the full knowledge given, both of deity and humanity. This fact points to an important insight for our study on the humanity of Christ. We need the OT foundation to approach our subject, but only through Christ himself can the final truth about humanity be understood. In this study we will outline what the person and work of Christ show about the very humanity that the Son of God took up in the incarnation. A. SKETCHING THE BIBLICAL UNDERSTANDING OF HUMANITY The first truth about man is that God made him in his image. This provides the first principle for a true understanding of humanity: man is in his very constitution related to God and can only be properly understood in this relationship. Man s identity is derivative and can only be ascertained from God s relationship to him. Only as God reveals himself to and in relation to man is the truth of man brought to light. The first revelation is given in creation and the last is given in Christ. These two revelations are the foundation for all that the Bible teaches. We will sketch out what these two revelations show about the humanity Christ took on in the incarnation. 1. The basis for the incarnation in creation We have explored, at some length, the basis for the incarnation in creation. At this point, we will just state the keys that Genesis 1 to 3 gives us for our study of the humanity of Christ. a. The possibility of the incarnation In creation we see man as he is in the purpose and by the creating work of God. Here we see what humanity is from the hand of God, pure and not distorted by sin. The Son of God could only become human apart from sin, and that means that he became human as God created humanity. This point is very important for our study on the humanity of Christ. He could not become human in the way we know humanity, for our very being and knowledge of what it means to be human is distorted by sin. We are a perversion of humanity. The Son became truly human. The first truth of creation is that man was made in the image of God (Gen ). When we looked at this in an earlier study, we saw that this fact made the incarnation possible. Only because God made man to be like him could God become man.

2 The second truth is that man, in the way he was created, is related both to God through the spirit given to him and to the earth through his body made of dust, of which the nature stands in contrast to God who is Spirit (Gen 2.7). We saw that this shows what the Son of God had to become he became flesh. b. The occasion and necessity of the incarnation In the Garden, sin entered the world. This event is part of the formation of our world in which the history that leads to Christ is unfolded. God in creation provided the possibility for the incarnation, but man in sin provided the occasion and necessity for the incarnation. Sin made the incarnation necessary. But, here we must again step back. It is not sin as the sinner understands it but as God defined it through his law and judges it that sets the context for the incarnation. 2. Establishing the central issues in Christ s humanity In creation God is only revealed in his relation to the world. Who he is before creation and eternally in himself is left hidden. Only in Christ did revelation rise above God s relation to the world in time to present God as he is in himself the Father of the Son. With this full revelation, a full disclosure of God s relationship with mankind is made. As God is fully revealed, the full truth of humanity is brought to light. John is the Gospel that brings into the foreground the full revelation of God in Christ. So we will turn to this gospel to see how the truth about humanity in relation to God is fully brought out through the incarnation. a. Man s relationship with God finalized In all of the Gospels we see Jesus acting as a real man. He lined up perfectly with man as the image of God. We also see Jesus exceeding the created capacity of man. He was not just the Son of Man, fulfilling the human role, but the Son of God, carrying out the divine role. John s Gospel brings this divine role into sharp focus. Let s take a brief look at the difference between man s role as the created image of God and Jesus as the Son of the Father. In Genesis 1 God is above the world and is Spirit while man is placed in the world as a physical being. Man reflects God within creation but does not have the divine glory of the creator and is not the life source. As a man in God s image, Jesus only reflected God in this world. He could do nothing but what he saw the Father doing. But, at the same time what the Father does the Son does in like manner, and the Father shows the Son everything he does (Jn ). This gives to the Son the divine roles of life source and judge (vv 21-22). The result is that all will honour the Son even as the honour the Father (v 23). The point is clear. In Jesus, the image of God fully reveals God by being fully divine. In grasping the full force of Christ s deity, we must keep in mind that he carried out his divine role in his humanity. In the fullest sense, humanity was joined to deity. This prompts the question: did the divine Son fit the mould of created humanity (in Gen 1.27) or did he raise the human image of God to fit the higher divine relationship of the Son to the Father? The gospel makes clear that the latter is the case. The relationship of the Son with the Father is in the Godhead and is eternal. It cannot be changed. The incarnation is not (dread the thought) a man taking deity to himself but God joining humanity to himself. We see this as the balance of the relationship between the human and the divine in the exaltation and glorification of Jesus. His humanity was exalted to the glory and position of his deity. He came to carry out the divine role through his humanity. Our reflection on the balance between deity and humanity in Christ leads us to an important insight on the true nature of humanity. Man was created so that his relationship with God was parallel to the Son s relationship with the Father. God made man as his image so that man could be brought into a participation in the divine relationship of the Son with the Father. This was the eternal purpose of God before the foundation of the world (Rom 8.29; Eph 1.4-6) and so was the very reason for creation. The truth we are looking at is profound and hard hitting. Man does not hold his side of his relationship with God. He, by his very constitution, is only related to God in a divine relationship. Jesus, through his signs recorded in the Gospel of John confronted people with the fact that he holds the full relationship between God and man and prompted people to respond to God in their response to him. 2

3 b. Sin and righteousness The incarnation raised the standard defining sin and righteousness. In creation, sin was defined by a law forbidding a certain human action eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Law of Moses worked with the same principle sin is doing what is forbidden by law. Jesus Christ showed sin in another light. In view of the revelation of God in the Son, sin is not to believe in the Son (Jn 16.9). Jesus showed that man in sin will not relate to God as the Father of the Son. Man will not accept that in the flesh he cannot be in a living relationship with God and that God must give to man a relationship in which God carries out the human side of the relationship (Jesus makes this point in Jn ). Man thus denies that in the flesh he separated from God and the fact that God must give him divine life if he is to be related to God. To not believe in the Son is to make the assertion that man relates to God in his flesh. This is the ultimate self assertion against the truth of God and the rejection of God as he relates out of himself to man. The mission of Christ also established what righteousness is. It is the Son returning to the Father and so becoming the invisible object of faith for his disciples (Jn 16.10). The Son accomplished this return to the Father through his cross and resurrection. The world has its nature and source in the flesh, the nature that is in contrast to God who is Spirit. In its sin, i.e., living out its flesh, the world is outside of God s life and in death. The only relationship that God gives to the world is in the Son s exit from the world through death in obedience to the Father s command (Jn 10.18). c. The whole relationship The incarnation and the cross fixed the whole relationship between God and man. God had to carry out the divine role in this relationship by taking up the human side, and he did this in his Son in whom he, from eternity, exists in relationship and relates. The Son s humanity had to function in carrying out the divine role in relation to the world. As such it takes up the fact that man is the image of God who represents God. His humanity also had to function in carrying out man s role in relation to God. 3. Exploring the dimensions of humanity in Christ The apostles proclaimed the final revelation of God in Christ through the message of the resurrection of Jesus. God by definition is the source of life, but the gospel announces that God is the source of eternal life (i.e., resurrection life) in the risen Christ. The fact that Jesus is the source of life shows him to be LORD, i.e., YHWH who carries out all that it means for God to be God in the world. Not only is the divine role carried out in him. His death is the basis of resurrection and carried out God s will for mankind so that people can receive life. The right relationship between mankind and God is in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus is the one through whom God will judge the world. The apostolic proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus put the truth of Christ s deity and humanity into focus for the early Christians. But, the experience of salvation through believing this gospel opened up a whole new level of understanding the divine-human relationship. Through faith people are brought to live within the divine-human relationship established in Christ. But, the full salvation achieved in Christ is not entered immediately. The believers enter the experience of this salvation progressively in three phases justification, sanctification and glorification. First they are justified by faith. They come to this faith from their experience of guilt; and their acceptance by God is experienced in the gift of the Holy Spirit. With the gift of the Spirit, the believers receive the call to holy living or sanctification, but the flesh with its sinful passions and drive is left in them. This means that believers have to experientially enter into the holiness of God s life given to them through a great struggle with sin as a power. The experience of learning the grace of God in sanctification is drawn out throughout the whole Christian life, and the last stage of salvation will only be entered at the second coming. God has parcelled out the experience of entering our salvation so that we consciously appropriate the different aspects of salvation. God wants us to know and consciously participate in all aspects of our relationship and life with him. The learning experience is painful but rich. We learn all aspects of our relationship with God in their proper order, and in this we explore the different dimensions of human life in relation to God. It is not just a matter of understanding the different aspects of human life. All is really 3

4 centered in Christ. He took up the full problem of sin and worked out a full salvation. Only in Christ is the full understanding of humanity found, and we take our understanding of what we are from him. B. UNDERSTANDING HUMANITY IN CHRIST The analysis of the human relationship with God is given to us in Romans. We have already explored the doctrine of sin and salvation in this letter. Now we will look at what this great exposition of human sin and salvation shows about the various sides of human existence as these are brought to light in Christ. 1. The two dimensions of human existence? Paul lays out our salvation in the three themes of justification, sanctification and glorification. He works through these themes in the order in which we enter the experience of salvation in Christ. The first theme, justification, is dealt with in chapters 1 to 5. It deals with our relationship with God. We receive the righteousness of God, i.e., the righteousness which God brings about. This is God s action in relation to us. We respond to God in faith, and God fully accepts us. In Christ we are freed from our old identity in Adam and have a new human identity through his obedience. Through his obedience we are made righteous. The second theme picks up where the truth of justification ended we have our human identity in Christ. From the fact of our identification with Christ, Paul works out the theme of how we are to live out what we are in our body. This is the theme of sanctification. We must keep in mind that through our bodies we are part of this world, so the theme of sanctification is about the way we relate to the world. The third theme of glorification is a continuation and the completion of the theme of salvation in our body. Holiness in our earthly life in the body has its natural outcome in glorification. Paul makes this logical link clear in Rom and This means that in terms of the dimensions of human existence, sanctification and glorification deal with the same side of our being the body. The analysis of human existence in Romans follows the order of creation. In Genesis 1 man s relationship with God as the image is presented first. From man s relation to God, his mandate to relate to the creation in reigning follows (Gen ). The two dimensions of man s being are presented in Gen 2.7. Man is related to God by the spirit given to him directly by God and to the earth through his body. The order of his life is from spirit to body. The spirit makes his body alive. Man is first related to God and is to relate to the world within this relationship. God in Christ saves us in this order: justification leads to sanctification. In salvation, our humanity is given to us as our participation in Christ. This point is at the heart of Romans. We are justified by faith. That means that our relationship with God is only a participation in the relationship God established through Christ. The same is true of our sanctification. Each aspect of our sanctification is derived from what Christ did in his body through the cross. That means that as the relationship between us and God is opened up, the way Jesus in his humanity related to God through the cross is opened up. The whole doctrine of justification and sanctification is an analysis of the person and work of Christ. Let s explore what was involved in Christ s humanity. 2. Christ in God s relationship with mankind (Romans 1 to 5) The setting for the doctrine of justification is provided in the two themes of the glory of God the creator (Rom 1.20ff.) and the truth of God s judgment on all sin (Rom 1.32; 2.2) or the truthfulness of the divine judge (Rom 3.4). Man must give to God his glory as the creator (1.21) and seek glory and honour (2.7); and he must obey God in his judgment on all sin (1.32 and 2.5,8), letting God be true in his judgment (3.4). The law shuts every mouth before God and puts the whole world in the place where God is left to judge ( ). The stage is thus set for God to be the only one, as judge, to carry out and establish justice in his relationship with mankind, and this means that the only right relationship between God and people is one of faith we relate to God by the justice that he, rather than we, has carried out. The divine and the human sides of the relationship between God and mankind are carried out by Jesus. Paul works this out in

5 a. The divine side (Rom ) The apostle first establishes the divine side. The first theme he takes up is the glory of God and the first principle of man s response to God giving God glory. Paul works this out, in Rom through the case of Abraham, the father of believers. God, through the promise revealed himself as the God who gives life to the dead and calls the things that do not exist as existing (v 17). Abraham is dead, but in his childless state is called the father of many nations. By believing God s promise, he gave God glory, ascribed to God the glory of the life giver who makes the dead alive (v 20). For us, this glory of God is established in the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead (v 24). Through the resurrection of Jesus, God s glory as the God of resurrection is established. We must take note of the fact that in Rom 4.24, Jesus is called our Lord. In the language of apostolic confession, this means that he is YHWH. God s divine role and glory as the one who gives life in a world of death due to sin was carried through in the resurrection of Jesus. Faith is always in God as the life source, and Christian faith is in God as the life source for the dead through Jesus Christ. Behind the fact that the LORD was raised from the dead, is the act of God of giving Jesus our LORD up to death for our transgressions (Rom 4.25). By looking behind the resurrection of Jesus, Paul is opening up another view of God s relationship with us. This view is explored in Rom Here the focus is not on the resurrection of Jesus and the glory of God as the reference point for our believing. Rather, the focus is on God s act of giving his Son as the act of his love. The divine love that gave the Son to die for our sins gives all life and glory to us. Romans presents the way God relates to us through Christ. Here we see God carrying out his role through Christ Jesus. The fact that he died and rose makes clear that he was a man, but the role of his death and resurrection show that in him the full divine role is carried through he is the LORD and the Son of God. This shows up the first truth about Jesus humanity. The work of deity was carried through in his humanity. b. The human side (Rom ) In Rom Paul takes up the other side of the relationship carried out in Christ the human side. Since in the one man sin and death were removed, in him the universal identity of the human race in Adam is terminated. Jesus Christ provides a new human identity in which sinners are justified and life triumphs over death. What has brought about this new identity in relation to God? Those who understand the Law know that man must relate to God in obedience, and human obedience in relation to God is what Christ carried out (5.19). His act of obedience is not now the obedience in the way man is to live in this world and secure a blessed life on earth. All life has been forfeited by sin, and, as Paul contended in Romans 2, we must obey God in his judgment on all sin. Obedience must be carried out in death, and this Jesus alone could do. The status in collective disobedience in Adam had to be changed into one of obedience in Christ. Jesus Christ, in his death and resurrection, carried out God s relationship towards mankind and mankind s relationship with God. In this he fulfilled the role as God s image, though he did this in a way that Adam could never have done. He carried the full divine identity in the world and related as a man perfectly to God. But, this is only the beginning of true humanity. Man as the image of God must express God in the world through the body. Paul moves one to open up this side of humanity in Christ. 3. Christ and human life in relation to the world (Romans 6 to 8) a. Aspects of our active being Our earlier study on sin as a power in Romans 6 to 8 has shown that Paul works through the order of our active life. Let us chart this. 5

6 i. Human identity He begins, in chapter 6, with our identity. The old man has been crucified (6.6), we have died to sin and are alive to God (v 11), and we are no longer slaves owned by sin but belong to God (vv 15-22). All of this identity change is a given fact in our union with Christ in his death and resurrection and in the presentation of ourselves by the act of faith through which we have been justified. By faith we gave ourselves over to be what God has done for us in Christ. ii. From identity to the body Paul follows a specific order. Change in identity involves a transfer of the body. The transfer is twofold. It is the presentation of the body to God that we make by faith ( ). It is also a change in the divine law by which life in the body is regulated. We are no longer under the Law, which speaks to man in the flesh, but in the risen Christ to bear fruit for God by the Spirit (7.4f.). The whole point in this transfer of the body is that salvation takes in the body as seen in the resurrection of Jesus. iii. The flesh Sin operates within the body that has been transferred over to God s use and to the Spirit s operation. Sanctification must cut off that feature about our being through which sin has its operating base in our body. This feature is the flesh. The flesh must be cut off in its influence over us so that the Spirit will direct our walk. Paul deals with this in Rom b. Change of humanity in Christ The logic of our active life in the world moves through three realities: our identity, body and flesh. Each aspect of our active humanity is dealt with in Christ s humanity on the cross. So, let us look at Christ s work in bringing about this new humanity in which we are called to participate and live. i. Crucified with him (Romans 6) Paul presents the termination of our old identity in which sin owned us as a slave owner in two terms: the old man was crucified with Christ (6.6) and we are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (6.11). Paul is not speaking about a subjective experience in which sin no longer lives in us. He does not teach a mystical experience. Sin has not died in us, but we have died to sin. The basis for this is Christ s own crucifixion and the fact that he died to sin once for all (6.10). To grasp what Paul is saying we must see the difference between the truth of his crucifixion and his blood. The blood is about Christ s death for our sins, and by the blood we are justified or cleared of our sins before God (Rom 4.7-8; ). The theme of crucifixion in Romans 6 has does not deal with the forgiveness of sin. It is about the termination of the old man. This old man is our human identity in Adam, and in this identity God not only held our sins against us, but by condemning us he left us to be ruled by sin in death. The crucifixion of the old man is not the act of forgiveness but the termination of the identity. This involves a dying to sin ( ). What this means is first of all seen in Christ s death. When he took on himself our sins, sin had its effect of death (and sin reigns in death) in that he died. But, his death was such that upon dying sin lost all hold on him. He did not die to remain dead. He died to rise and live forever. For us this means that in Christ we died to sin so that sin does not own us to bring us to and hold us in death. We have observed that there is a difference between the doctrines of the blood and of crucifixion. The death of Jesus was not one dimensional. His death dealt with every aspect of humanity since every side of our existence was ruined by sin. We must not just see the death of Jesus in terms of the blood the forgiveness of sins before God. The human obedience in the atoning death terminated the old identity in Adam and brought about a new human identity for us, and this is the basis for our sanctification. The next step in our active life for God was also bought about by Christ. 6

7 ii. Died to the law through the body of Christ (Rom 7.4) The transfer of our body from being controlled by sin to being for the use of God has its root in the crucifixion. The very purpose of the crucifixion of the old man in Christ is this transfer (Rom 6.6). But more is involved. The Law imposed God s demand on our life in the body. It commanded and forbade behaviour. More, the Law was a covenant. Under this covenant of the Law, transgression resulted in the covenant curse, in wrath. In this covenant, it is not God s work to carry out the commands of the Law. The duty is ours, in our natural state. Since the Law made demands contrary to our human nature in sin, the Law only aroused indwelling sin and brought about death by condemnation. As long as God relates to people in this covenant of the Law, we cannot succeed in living our life for God. Moses and the prophets pointed out the conclusion of the Law. The people ended up under the wrath of God and the only hope was that God would give his Spirit so that people would fulfill his will by the divine presence and operation within them. A fundamental change in principle is involved in this. The Law made the people in their natural state responsible. In the new state, God would carry out his will within people. This involves a change of relationship between God and his people. It involves a change in covenant. For all the problems involved in being under the Law, we cannot by our own will and act take ourselves out from under it. This would be an act of total transgression and only bring down the covenant curse on us. The change had to be brought about by God in the way he relates to us, and that he did through Christ. In Rom 7.4 Paul says that the transfer of our life in the body from being under the Law to living by the Spirit occurred by being made to die to the Law through the body of Christ. Christ was born and died under the Law (Gal and 3.13). Since there was no sin in him, existence under the Law did not have the fatal effect on him as it does in us. In him there was no indwelling sin to be aroused in transgression and bring down condemnation. But, when he died in obedience to God, i.e., to God s will for mankind in sin, his human existence under the Law came to an end. He arose with a new humanity. Now the nature of his body is not fleshly but spiritual (1Cor ). In the risen Christ we have a humanity in which the body lives by the divine Spirit. Through the death and resurrection of Christ, a change in the nature of the human body took place. The body was transferred from being a body with a nature that in Adam sinned to a body that lives by divine life and glory. Those who are identified with Christ undergo a profound transfer. God no longer relates to us by placing our life in the body under the Law. That state is over. By being in the risen Christ, God claims our body for the operation of the Spirit. This is to take immediate effect in sanctification in which we are not under the law but are lead by the Spirit. The final effect will be that we will receive a glorified body in which the very life and nature of the body will be wholly of the Spirit. iii. Sin condemned in the flesh (Rom 8.3-4) The body is transferred from being under the Law (and held by sin under the Law) to living in union with the risen Christ to be governed by the Spirit. This means that while sin dwells in the body, the body is not the evil to be condemned and brought to an end. What is it in us that is identified with sin? The answer is the flesh. The flesh is the earthly human nature created from dust and weak in itself. This nature has the desires through which sin works. We see this in Eve. Sin worked in her through her desire for food and beauty. In innocence, these desires were good for the enjoyment of creation in obedience to God (Gen 2.9). They were not, however, to be used for man to decide by them what is good and evil. When through the Fall man became self-directing, he became controlled by the nature of his desires rather than by God s word. In this way man who was made to be flesh became in the flesh. Now sin has its hold on us through our human nature with its desires. To be free from the power of sin, we must be free from being controlled by this fallen human nature. In fact, to be finally and eternally free, we need a humanity in which the flesh is completely terminated so that we no longer have a desire of our nature though which sin can work. Here again the death and resurrection of Jesus come in. God brought about the termination of humanity in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (lit., the flesh of sin, i.e., the flesh through which sin operates). He gave his Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin as an offering for sin, and in this offering he condemned sin in the flesh. Let s take a closer look at this. 7

8 Christ took on our human nature. This is the nature which God created, which was vulnerable to sin and through which sin operates in us. Since Jesus did not sin and had no indwelling sin, the flesh in him was not sinful. It remained in innocence, though it had all the natural desires for food and beauty through which sin works. He never gave himself over to be governed by his desires and decide by them what is good. When he took up our sins, as a sin offering, he died in the flesh through which sin operates in the world. Thus, in his death, the flesh nature came to an end in God s judgment on sin. When he arose, he no longer had this earthly and weak nature of flesh. His body had the glory and nature of divine life. The resurrection body has no desires that can be turned into sin. We must grasp the important but subtle distinction made between the body and the flesh. The body was raised. The tomb was empty. But, the weak human nature through which sin works in us, which he shared and in which he died, was terminated. It was not carried over in his new life. Thus in his death in the flesh sin which operates through the flesh was condemned. In Christ it has no nature to work through. The Spirit only puts into effect in us what God has accomplished through Christ. Because sin was condemned in the flesh through Christ s death in the flesh, the Spirit turns our mind away from the flesh. The flesh which works on our mind to make us think that it is our true nature with which we must be preoccupied is judged as evil and alien to what we are in Christ. Our true nature which is to preoccupy our mind and govern our walk is the Spirit in Christ. Our identity has changed. The old man is crucified and we are in Christ. Our life in the body is transferred from under the Law to being in the risen Christ to bear fruit for God by the Spirit. The flesh is to be terminated in its role as the nature that governs us. The Spirit now is to control our mind and walk. All three aspects of our new humanity are worked out in the humanity of Christ on the cross. STUDYING THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST In our study of the humanity of Christ, we have stressed that we cannot take our understanding of the humanity which Christ took on from our experience and how think about what it means to be human. We have to take our understanding from what God made man. We also saw that the problem of sin made it necessary for God to become human to bring salvation. Only in Christ do we see God fully revealed, and in this is fully disclosed what it means to be human. Neither what it means to be human, sin nor salvation is simply one thing. They are multidimensional. God dealt with all facets of what it means to be human in Christ. He did not simply provide forgiveness and acceptance. In Christ he brought about a new humanity in all aspect of what it means to be human. We do not learn this as an academic doctrine. We are drawn into the work of God to participate in what God has done in Christ. In fact, the Spirit works in us to bring us into our salvation by making us see what God has done in Christ and making us take what we are from him. It is ever deeply practical knowledge or wisdom we are finding in Christ. Now as we go on to explore what the Bible teaches about the actual incarnation in the birth of Christ and his real human experience in carrying out the will of God on earth, let us keep in mind the full scope of what it means to be human in Christ George Tabert 8