In our last post, we considered the incarnation; God putting on flesh and becoming a man, Jesus of Nazareth. We saw the importance of Christ's incarnation and specifically examined how the scriptural details of Christ's birth provide insight into the nature of His person. We also saw how Christ’s work depends on His person and realized that His death and resurrection were not only preceded by, but predicated on His incarnation. We promise we’ll get to Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, but before we do, we need to explore a less-considered but no less important aspect of Christ’s work. In this post, we’ll examine Jesus’ human life, how he lived, and why. By examining what the Bible presents to us about Jesus’ human living, we’ll gain a deeper appreciation for our unique savior, Jesus Christ.
The four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are the definitive record of Jesus’ birth, life, and death. So let’s consider a simple breakdown of their content. As we saw in our last post, there’s no lack of scriptural detail in the record of Christ’s birth, but it’s worth noting that Matthew and Luke are the only two gospels that discuss the birth of Jesus at length and include a birth narrative. Of the entirety of the gospels, just over a third of the content is concerned with a single week of Jesus’ life; the period leading up to and including His crucifixion. A little more than half of the content of these books is devoted to describing key moments in Jesus’ public ministry. The stories of the miracles that Jesus performed and His divinely inspired teaching are probably what spring to mind when we think about His life. They are, after all, the vast majority of what the Bible explicitly records concerning Jesus. This allocation in the Scriptural record causes many believers to regard only this short period. In their practical consideration, it’s as if Jesus only lived 3 and a half years. But that only constitutes a small portion of the more than 33 years that we know Jesus lived on the Earth. Our intention is not to detract from the importance of what God inspired the authors to write, but to draw attention to some of the less considered details in these records. These passages are in the Bible, which makes them worthy of our consideration.
You’d have a hard time finding someone with no knowledge of the birth of Jesus Christ. It's a historical event that has been ingrained into our culture and calendar. But for all our familiarity, we may never have considered the incredible fact that at the time of the incarnation, God was an infant. God didn’t choose to burst onto the scene as a full-grown man but instead came in a lowly and humble way. The omnipotent and infinite God was willing to be limited to an utterly dependent form, a baby. According to Jewish custom, Jesus was circumcised, named, and offered to God when He was eight days old. And throughout His childhood, Jesus submitted to his human parents and the cultural practices of the day. He didn’t live as a “God among men” but as an ordinary man.
As a human being, Jesus grew and developed. Luke 2:40 tells us that “the little child grew and became strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.” This verse shows us that as a man, Jesus grew, and that as He did, His deity was revealed in proportion to the measure of his bodily growth. Perhaps we’ve had the thought that, as a baby, since Jesus was still God, he could see the future, could heal the sick, and could cast out demons, but probably not. The more Jesus grew in physical stature and human maturity, the more His divine nature, the Deity of God within Him, was manifested. God, incarnated as the man, Jesus, had to grow, develop, and live a normal human life.
In John 1:45, Philip refers to Jesus as “the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” In the gospels, He is often called “this man” by His countrymen, who knew Him as “the carpenter’s son,” Who also had a mother, brothers, and sisters. (Matt. 13:54-56) Our endeavor to prove the mundanity of Jesus’ life may seem counterintuitive to our goal of uplifting our appreciation of Him. But when we realize that He ate, became weary from traveling, was thirsty to the point of asking for a drink, became indignant, and even wept, we realize something astonishing. (Matt. 9:10-11; Luke 7:36; John 12:2; John 4:6-7; John 11:33, 35) Jesus lived a life just like you and me. It’s easy to feel alone and isolated, but our Savior, Christ Jesus, can empathize with us because he can relate to our experiences. Hebrews 4:15 says, “for we do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all respects like us, yet without sin.” Jesus Christ, our High Priest, has firsthand experience with all of our situations and weaknesses. Because He lived on the Earth as a normal human being for a third of a century, He can sympathize with us. He understands what we’re going through. What a comforter we have!
Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29) But this sacrifice didn’t magically appear; God doesn’t take shortcuts. The miraculousness of Jesus' birth is wonderfully balanced by the unbelievable normality of His human life. Pontius Pilate’s declaration that he found “no fault in Him” is all the more striking when we realize that his examination of Jesus Christ is representative of Jesus’ entire life. More than 33 years of perfect living before God and man. And God gave Him to us. We hope this post has uplifted your appreciation of Christ’s human living, and we hope you’ll continue to join us as we endeavor to build “upon the foundation.”
