Jesus, fully God and fully man

DAILY BIBLE READING:

Job 8:1–11:20 
1 Corinthians 15:1-28 
Psalm 38:1-22 
Proverbs 21:28-29

TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE(S):

1 Corinthians 15:21-22 (NLT) "So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life."

REFLECTIONS ON TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE(S):

The verses I have chosen as the Verses for Today aren't the fuzzy type that will warm your heart. They are the theological type that will rev up your brain.

However, rather than dive into the depths of these verses (which would require a post the length of a book), let's just skim the surface.

When many Christians read the Gospels and observe Jesus, they see God in the flesh. That is an accurate assessment. Jesus was fully God (John 10:30; John 14:9). While there were rights and privileges that He laid aside when He came to earth (Philippians 2:5-7), He fully maintained His deity.

Yet, it is also true that He was fully man. However, while we also acknowledge that Jesus was fully man, we don't really see Him that way. When we look at Him in the Gospels, we see God with skin on but we just can't see Him as fully human like us (yet without the sin nature). With our flawed view of Jesus' humanity, we struggle to justify things such as how God could get so exhausted that He fell asleep in a boat during a torrential storm (Luke 8:22-25).

Jesus was fully God but He was also fully man.

He was just as much God as if He were not man and He was just as much man as if He were not God. He was fully both!

Why was it necessary for Him to be fully man (and not just God with skin on)? We read the answer to that in our Verses for Today.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22 (NLT) "So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life."

Simply put, since a man (Adam) sinned against God and brought death upon all of his descendants (the whole human race), so another man (Jesus) defeated death at His resurrection and passes on this victory over death to all of His posterity (all who are saved).

What the first man (Adam) lost, the second man (Jesus) regained. Paradise was lost by a man so it had to be regained by a man. 

This is why it isn't simply a good story that Jesus became a man and died for us. It was essential. He had to rightfully gain back what the first man lost.

This conversation could keep going but let me end it by encouraging you to begin looking at Jesus a little differently when you read the Gospels. Continue to recognize Him as fully God but also view Him as fully man. He was human just like you and me (yet without the sin nature). And when you see Jesus as fully man, how he lived his life will become much more fascinating and relevant to you.