The Humanity–Deity Relationship Of Jesus Christ
We worship Jesus Christ as the only God-Man who was born on earth to provide salvation. Jesus Christ was truly human in every way. Jesus Christ also was and remains truly God, and as such He existed forever as a member of the Trinity. At birth, Jesus Christ became true humanity and was at that moment also the same God the Son who had existed eternally. Jesus Christ was not something halfway between God and man, some demi-god or angel or superman or anything else. He was fully human and truly God, having the consciousness of both in one unique person. The interaction between the two natures of Jesus Christ during His time on earth was personal, not simply an indwelling of deity inside His human body, or deity possessing His humanity. His humanity and deity were interactive yet not mixed. However, there was a limitation placed on the interactions during His earthly ministry to ensure Jesus Christ was able to experience true humanity, including suffering. His humanity had to be completely human in every way to provide salvation, and His deity could not be less than perfect God. Yet these two came together in the unique God-Man Jesus Christ for the purpose of providing salvation for sinful mankind.
Jesus was born just the same as Adam was created by God, perfect humanity with no sinful nature. Every other human throughout history has been born with the sinful nature passed down from Adam as a curse given to him by God after his fall in the Garden. That is because Adam sinned knowing what he was doing, but Eve sinned after being deceived by Satan. Therefore God made Adam the responsible party and the source of passing down the sinful nature. Adam's sinful nature was passed down to all his descendants except for Jesus Christ whose birth was not tied back to Adam. The supernatural conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit meant He had no human father (no male DNA was involved in His conception) so He was not a descendant of Adam for the purpose of passing down a sinful nature. Romans 5:12 says: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people.....19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous." Jesus did not receive the sinful nature passed down from Adam. Jesus is called the “Last Adam” as I Corinthians 15:45 says: “So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.” And Romans 5:18 says when Adam sinned all sinned: “Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.” Therefore the first thing we know about the humanity of Jesus Christ is that He was perfect humanity without a sinful nature, but otherwise His humanity was just like any other human being. In other words, He was fully human, but capable of avoiding sin unlike all other humans since He had no sinful nature. Even so, He was capable of sinning if He would choose to do so, although an extreme temptation would need to come from outside of Himself, not from a sinful nature on the inside. Every other creation of a souled being from God had fallen through sin apart from a sinful nature, both angels and man. A key to the salvation of man was, would Jesus Christ do the same and choose to sin and therefore fall, or would He remain sinless and choose to go to the cross and pay the price required by God to redeem mankind from sin? Fortunately for us, Jesus Christ did not fall, and He also chose to sacrifice Himself for all mankind on the cross.
One of the deeper issues regarding Jesus is that His humanity side did not have access to His deity side in some key aspects. Even though the union was personal, it was walled-off in many ways. Philippians 2:7 says Jesus “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of men.” The “emptying” refers to the deity of Jesus Christ, although fully part of the complete person of Jesus Christ, and personally interconnected with His humanity into His single personage, the deity side was "emptied" and remained in the background during His time on earth and did not participate in any part of His human existence except to commune with the humanity side, but without helping it. Therefore His deity side was personally in union with the humanity side, but did not interfere with or assist the humanity side. This is the most important issue to understand with regard to the humanity-deity relationship of Christ, that although it was personal, it was limited in transference of information and power from the deity side to the humanity side.
Therefore the humanity side of Jesus did not know what His omniscient deity side knew during His earthly ministry. His humanity was therefore not omniscient since it did not have access to the omniscience of His own deity. This is because the deity side was "emptied" from Jesus Christ for the purpose of ensuring Jesus Christ would be truly human in every way so He would be qualified to provide salvation. Any information of a non-human knowledge type came through the Holy Spirit, but that was measured out on an as-needed basis, generally as prophesies and other important information. Only His deity side was omniscient, knowing everything about everything. On His humanity side He was born a blank slate, with no knowledge about anything. Jesus was born with no knowledge just as with any newborn baby, and His human brain needed to develop to a certain level before it could have advanced levels of understanding. He was born needing to learn everything He would come to know as a human being, and His deity never imparted any information at any time directly to His humanity. His humanity and deity never mixed. And neither side was diminished. Therefore He had to learn everything just as any other human does. Jesus had to learn about the Old Testament scriptures and was taught by others and even by angels as occurred for prophets during Old Testament times. At age twelve He was viewed as precocious but not omniscient in His humanity. Luke 2:46 says: “After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished.” But Jesus was not conversing in the Temple from His omniscient deity side, but from His humanity side, as Luke 2:52 says "And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." Deity never learns anything or grows in knowledge or wisdom. Jesus also had to learn all the human skills he acquired. He learned to walk and talk and tie on His sandals and read and so on just like any other human must. He learned carpentry from his step-father Joseph. He grew up and learned most things as any person does. Everything He knew He learned from sources other than His own deity since His humanity did not have any co-knowledge from His deity side. But He did have knowledge not possessed by most humans. Angels taught Him some things, and the Holy Spirit revealed certain information to Him just as with the prophets of the Old Testament. But He never learned anything from His own deity. Nothing.
There was a reason for that, of course. His deity remained in the background during the life of Jesus so salvation could be accomplished by a true human as was required to meet the demands of God the Father as payment for the sins of mankind. Recall that Jesus “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of men.” The deity of Jesus Christ remained in the background during His time on earth and did not participate in His human experience, however His deity was there as a part of Him and the two natures communed on a non-interference level. This was not limited to omniscience, but also included all other powers of deity including omnipotence. The human side of Jesus Christ needed to be in all ways truly human, suffering all things humans suffer, needing to learn everything He would know instead of being omniscient from His deity side, making His own human decisions to refrain from sin, having to live under His own human powers except for what the Holy Spirit authorized, and ultimately to accept the guilt of sin for all mankind and go to the cross to pay for those sins as a true human who could fully suffer. The omnipotence of His deity could not interfere. He also had to be able to fail and sin, meaning He had to be allowed to choose for or against God's plan for Him. He could not be unduly influenced by His deity in any way, otherwise the free will of the humanity of Jesus Christ would have been compromised. The mission of Jesus to provide salvation for the human race required the deity side to remain out of sight, in the background, and not influence or assist the human side in any way that might push or aid His volition to make any decision regarding fulfilling the Father's mission for Him, and especially the salvation mission which was the highest priority for Jesus Christ while on earth.
His deity was not allowed to lessen the suffering of Jesus during His life, including all forms of normal human suffering, and especially the suffering which occurred while on the cross providing salvation. The full wrath of God the Father had to be experienced by the humanity side, and the deity side could not interfere. Without the actual suffering of Jesus Christ there would have been no redemption, since the perfect righteousness of God required full payment in suffering for all the sins of humanity. It could not be a pseudo-suffering where the deity of Jesus Christ shielded His humanity from actual suffering from the torture imposed on Him by God the Father while He was on the cross. The same was also true for daily issues such as hunger, thirst, cold, heat, fatigue, or common pains, whereby His deity was not allowed by the plan of the Father to interfere. Jesus had to be allowed to suffer as a true human. Hebrews 4:15 says "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin." Jesus Christ could use His humanity to influence His deity in certain restricted ways, but not vice versa. His deity remained out of the way, in the background, uninvolved, but still personally present as an integral part of the whole Person of Jesus Christ.
The deepest questions about the interactions of the humanity and deity of Jesus Christ revolve around whether the deity of Jesus Christ performed any actions while Jesus Christ was on earth, most specifically, did His deity do the healing or perform the other miracles? Or were these accomplished by the Holy Spirit who also indwelt Jesus Christ? The humanity of Jesus was indwelt by the Holy Spirit, which was not like the deity of Jesus Christ which was truly part of His whole person. We know that as the God-Man, Jesus was sustained by the Holy Spirit, not by His own deity. And regarding the power behind the miracles and healing, sources in the Bible reveal important clues. Jesus declared that He was unable to accomplish miracles on His own. In John 5:19 Jesus said “The Son can do nothing of Himself”; and in vs30 He added “I can of myself do nothing.” Jesus also made it clear He cast out demons using the power of the Holy Spirit, not His own divine power when he said “But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come to you.” (Matthew 12:28) Other passages also show the power used by Jesus Christ while on earth was the power of the Holy Spirit. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed...” (Acts 10:38). John the Baptist said of Jesus “For God does not give [Him] the Spirit by measure” (John 3:34). John 14:10 says “But the Father who dwells in me does the works.” Acts 2:22 “a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know”. Therefore God the Father did the works through the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:20). After the earthly ministry of Jesus was finished, the disciples healed, cast out demons, and performed miracles in the same way Jesus Christ had done, also using the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His disciples they would do even greater works than He did (John 14:12). Jesus said His disciples would have the same Holy Spirit to work in their lives (John 16:7). Peter raised Dorcas from the dead using the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:36-41).
Therefore we know that the power of the Holy Spirit was the source of power for Jesus, and also for the disciples and Apostles. Jesus did not use the power of His own deity to perform any miracle, or to know anything which was not humanly knowable. Whenever Jesus healed others, performed miracles, cast out demons, prophesied, had knowledge not available to His humanity and accomplished many other divinely powered acts He was using the power of the Holy Spirit, not using His own deity. Remember, Philippians 2:7 says Jesus “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of men.” The “emptying” means that He did not use His own deity in any way at any time for any purpose while on earth. He was empowered and sustained by the Holy Spirit, performed miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit, healed others by the power of the Holy Spirit, received prophetical information through the power of the Holy Spirit, and knew unknowable things by the Holy Spirit. None of these were accomplished using His own deity. This was absolutely necessary to ensure He lived a fully human life so He could provide our salvation as a true human. His deity could not interfere or aid His humanity in the process. But this does not diminish the fact that He was fully deity as well as fully human. His deity simply remained in the background and did not interfere.
An instructive Bible reference described how Jesus felt power going out of Him when a woman touched His clothes and was healed without His knowledge:
Luke 8:40 “Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. 41 Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house 42 because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. 43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. 44 She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. 45 “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” 47 Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48 Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
This reveals some clues about the interrelationship between His humanity and deity, and how His humanity knew power had gone out from the Holy Spirit, but Jesus' humanity did not know why or where or for what reason. He had to ask others around Him and be told who received the results of the power. The humanity side of Jesus was not omniscient, and only knew what He learned in a human way or when the Holy Spirit revealed something to Him which was otherwise unknown. This is a glimpse into how the deity and humanity of the God-Man interacted without the deity side providing any information or power to His humanity side.
Late in His ministry Jesus told His disciples about the timing of the Second Advent: "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Jesus admitted that He did not know the timing of His own Second Advent, which His deity side certainly knew. Once again we see how the human side did not have access to the knowledge of the deity side. When prophetical information was revealed to Jesus, it came from the Holy Spirit as such information was required, and He was not told everything. And nothing came from His own deity.
Jesus knew He was deity and stated so, but He refrained from ever directly saying “I am God” because that would have brought on instant stoning from the Jewish religious leaders of the time, and He could not die in that way. He had to get to the cross and provide salvation, and therefore had to avoid being stoned to death, as will be explained further shortly. Jesus stated His divinity in the following ways:
John 8:58: "Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
John 10:30: “I and the Father are one.”
John 17:5: “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was."
John 17:24: “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."
Mark 14:61: "But He kept silent “Again the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”
We know that Jesus Christ was deity because He said He was, because the name of God is attributed to Him, because the attributes of God are assigned to Him, because He was to be worshiped as God, and because Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies and references to the Messiah who was prophesied as the God-Man.
As the God-Man Jesus lived a fully human experience and did not use His divine nature to improve the quality of His life or reduce the suffering on His human side. Jesus needed to experience what other humans experience, namely pain, hunger, need, neglect, and all types of human suffering, both physical and mental. “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Hebrews 2:18). “And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt? ” (Mark 9:12). “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." (Luke 4:1-3). “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” (I Peter 2:21). “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” (John 12:27).
The ability of the humanity of Jesus to choose against God’s plan was shown by the temptations of Satan which He refused, but the main test was going to the cross to be judged for the sins of all mankind, for which He was not guilty. His internal anxiety over the cross and the prayer which He prayed on the Mount of Olives in the days before His crucifixion showed the cross was not an absolute certainty for Jesus, but rather a choice Jesus had to make for Himself from His own humanity:
Luke 22:39 “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”
Jesus knew what was required of Him, and that it would be the hardest thing anyone was ever required to do in all history. Jesus had to do this willingly, of His own human volition, and apart from His own divine nature's influence or interference.
So why was this limited interaction and lack of knowledge sharing between His two natures, divine and human, necessary? Until Jesus Christ fulfilled His salvation ministry, He was fully free to reject the cross. The humanity of Jesus Christ was fully capable of sin and rejection of God’s will and plan for Him, even though it would take an act of extreme will on His part. Therefore the deity of Jesus Christ could not be completely fused with His humanity in every way until after the cross since the humanity could have rejected the plan of God, which would have required His deity to separate from His fallen humanity. The humanity of Jesus having truly free will had to make every decision without undue influence from His deity. This was because the salvation mission was an essentially human one, not one of His divine nature. The divine nature of Jesus Christ had to remain "emptied" and in the background and therefore not unduly influence the humanity’s free will. Salvation depended on this separation.
Therefore, the interaction between deity and humanity was very limited while on earth until after the cross which was His main mission, and then resurrection provided a body suited for a fully integrated humanity and deity. While on earth and until His resurrection the interrelationship between His humanity and deity remained as described above. But after His resurrection the "emptying" of His deity ceased, and interrelationship between the humanity and deity sides changed to become fully interconnected, with both sides being in unison on all areas of knowledge, power, capabilities, decisions and thinking. Once salvation was a completed task and Jesus Christ was resurrected into an eternal body the restrictions on the interactions between His humanity and deity were removed, although His humanity and deity will always and forever be separate consciousnesses since they cannot be mixed. Before the cross the deity of Jesus Christ had to remain in the background, a part of His person but also potentially separable from His person. But once salvation was a completed fact, and therefore His mission was completed, the two natures of Jesus Christ, although forever remaining humanity and deity, became fully fused and totally intertwined in an unrestricted manner in His resurrection body. After the resurrection, the fusing of interactions between humanity and deity in the person of Jesus Christ became complete, total and forever, since His new body was now capable of supporting a fused deity and humanity. After resurrection His divine consciousness and human soul remain unmixed but now completely interconnected in every way. All thoughts of the resurrected Jesus Christ are now one thought, and all actions are now one action, and all power one power from a fully integrated deity and humanity acting in complete harmony, meaning at resurrection He became the unrestricted God-Man Jesus Christ, glorified in a resurrection body, forever.
It helps us understand the interrelationship between the humanity and deity sides of Jesus Christ if we look at His two advents, which have two types of deity-humanity interactions. During His First Advent His mission was to provide salvation, which required His deity to remain in the background while His humanity completed the mission. After salvation was completed and He was in His eternal resurrection body, the interrelationship changed into the eternal status where the two natures, although eternally separate, became fully fused and completely interconnected. Jesus Christ will return to earth at the Second Advent and institute the Millennial Kingdom and reign as King of the earth for 1000 years. During this second time on the earth Jesus Christ will not have the restrictions put on Him during the First Advent, when His mission was to provide salvation and required Him to suffer as a true human. During the First Advent He was the suffering servant, but when He returns He will be the King of Kings during the Millennium and will use His fully integrated God-Man powers, knowledge and capabilities. There will no longer be a need for the Holy Spirit to perform the divine acts for Him or to sustain Him, since in His human resurrection body His deity is already fully fused and completely integrated with His humanity. So we see that the interaction between the humanity of Jesus Christ and His divine nature has permanently changed since His resurrection and ascension to heaven.
This understanding of our Lord and Savior enhances our appreciation for what He did for us while on earth during the First Advent. His suffering before the cross was very real and fully human since His deity did not interfere. His suffering on the cross, the worst suffering of all time by any human, was very real and fully human. He did not pretend to suffer while using His deity to diminish it or separate Him from it. Rather, His salvation ministry was based on bearing the totality of suffering for the sins of the entire human race, and suffering the complete unfiltered wrath of the Father “in His own body on the tree.” (1Peter 2:24) The interrelationship between His humanity and deity, although personal and intimate, was very limited until after salvation was completed. This is because Jesus Christ had to be fully human and experience the cross as fully and truly human in order to provide salvation for mankind. After the cross and resurrection the limitations on deity-humanity interaction were lifted, and although He will always have both natures, the humanity of Jesus Christ in resurrection body and His perfect undiminished deity became fully interconnected and completely fused for all eternity, including during His return to earth to rule during the Millennium.