Was Jesus Both Fully God and Fully Man?

Was Jesus Both Fully God and Fully Man?

There are many people in the Bible whose lives and accomplishments can be called incredible. Moses parted the Red Sea. Elijah was fed by ravens directed by God. Many miracles showcase the power of God.

Perhaps the most incredible person to walk the earth was Jesus Christ. He lived a sinless life, died on the cross but rose from the grave three days later, and willingly shed His blood so other people could be forgiven. More incredible than these facts, Jesus was, during His earthly ministry, also fully God. Before He was born to Mary, Jesus existed as part of the Triune God, before the Creation of the world. God’s nature is to be three yet one, one in three. There is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

During His earthly ministry, God the Son chose to live as fully man and have every human experience. At the same time, He remained fully God, able to summon the angels at a moment’s notice and live in perfect righteousness and unity with the Father and the Spirit.

Was Jesus both Fully God and Fully Man?

Jesus’ humanity is seen through the observation of the course of His human life, yet during that life He did things and made claims that only God can do and that only God can make. As a man in his early thirties, He forgave sins. He commanded the elements and performed miracles affirming His deity, but did it while being subject to the same weaknesses of the body as other humans.

“Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19).

“Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).

“Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:13-14).

How Do We Know Jesus Was Fully Man?

Throughout the accounts of Jesus’ life in the Gospel, there are hallmarks of the life of a mortal man. He was born a baby and grew physically; He followed the law during His earthly life; He felt pain and sadness and experienced temptation; He had friendships. The biggest evidence that Jesus was living a life as a man in the truest sense was that He died when the Romans crucified Him. In His existence before His conception, He was not capable of dying.

“And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40).

“And he said, ‘Where have you laid [Lazarus]?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’” (John 11:34-35).

“After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), ‘I thirst’” (John 19:28).

How Do We Know Jesus Was Fully God?

Throughout His time on earth, Jesus would demonstrate that despite taking on flesh, He was not influenced by it in His Spirit, which had not changed. Because His nature before His conception was the same as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, His soul and spirit had not changed. He was God robed in flesh in the same way humans are soul and spirit enrobed in flesh. His deity was affirmed by His own words and actions, as well as by the Apostles.

“Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:28).

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority” (Colossians 2:8-9).

Was Jesus Fully Man before Being Born to Mary?

There are some skeptics and sects of Christianity who argue that Jesus may have been granted deity after living a perfect life on earth, but that He did not exist before His conception. The Bible does not support this interpretation. Jesus openly contradicted this idea when speaking to the Pharisees, as recorded in the Book of John:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me’” (John 1:1-5, 14-15).

Was Jesus the Only Person Who Was both Fully God and Fully Man?

If anyone who walked the earth had the same authority of God, it would be an incredible thing, and it would directly contradict the Bible. Understanding that Jesus was the only person who walked the earth as a man, but with the power and authority of God, can help someone identify a false teacher, someone speaking with the spirit of antichrist, or avoid a cult.

Why Does It Matter That both of These Are True?

If Jesus came in full power as God, He would not have had the experience of living a sinless life, because He could not suffer as men suffer. If He came as fully man, but without His righteousness, His death would not have served as the perfect sacrifice to pay the price for humanity’s sins. Jesus had to be both to fulfill God’s sovereign purpose of bringing humanity back to Himself, redeeming anyone who will accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Casey, Michael. Fully Human, Fully Divine An Interactive Christology. Liguori/Triumph, 2017.