The Fountain of Life Church: What happened to Jesus’ Humanity?

“If it’s not about Jesus, it’s not about anything.”

(Motto of the Fountain of Life)

PART 1 OF 2

SPS: To study the humanity of Jesus; its meaning and its value.

INVOCATION: Our Father in heaven, we pray in Jesus’ name that the following message presents the Word of God humbly, honestly and truthfully as it applies to the humanity of Jesus and that it bring glory and honor to Him.

The Vicarious Humanity of Jesus is a thread which weaves its way through the fabric of salvation.* But, practically speaking, 21^st Century Christians don’t think much about it. Although it is given some attention during the Christmas and Easter seasons; nevertheless it is usually not the primary topic, or even the secondary one in those seasonal sermons.

*[For more about Jesus’ humanity see the December 2014 and January 2015 four part series “Freedom in Christ” on this Fountain of Life Web Page]

Jesus was human. The words are easy to understand. We can easily relate to them because, after all, we too are human. But do the words have a deeper, a broader meaning? For the greater part of my life, I would answer, no; there is no need to seek deeper meaning; it is straight forward and means what it says, “Jesus was human.” Why should we seek a subtext or read between the lines for secret or hidden knowledge? After all a rose by another name is just a rose, no more no less. But, Beloved, if Christ’ humanity does have a deeper meaning, what is it? How are we to recognize it? Was he human or is He human? How are we to understand it?

MORE THAN WORDS

Rev. Todd Crouch

Rev. Todd Crouch, Senior Pastor of the Fountain of Life in Washington PA and of sister congregations in Wheeling WVA and Cambridge OH, and host of the Fountain of Life Radio Program on RKP International Radio, tells a story of attending a 2007 Grace Communion International (GCI) conference in Palm Springs.

Dr. Dan Rogers

Dr. Dan Rogers, Director of GCI Church Administration, was addressing the assembled pastors on scriptures concerning the humanity of Jesus. Rev. Crouch remembers sitting in his seat thinking that “These are things we know; things that are already in the Bible.” But then Rogers said something that focused those scriptures for Crouch like the tuning of a kaleidoscope, where many unrelated images unexpectedly snap into a coherent form. The thing that Rogers said was, “Jesus did not leave His humanity in the grave.”

Many in today’s church, consciously or unconsciously think that Jesus left his humanity in the grave when He arose. I once thought that way. A lot of people think of Jesus’ humanity as occurring 2000 years ago when He was here on earth; when He was eating, sleeping, walking and talking and breathing. But once He’s crucified, resurrected, ascended and at the right hand of God, we don’t think of His humanity very much. His humanity becomes ancient history. We may not go as far as to deny His humanity, but we hardly think of it any longer; we hardly believe it relevant anymore. We think of Him as fully God again.

This attitude is more common than might be expected. The statement that this attitude is common is supported by the Christian and Secular preoccupation with things surrounding the last book of the Bible, Revelation. From Christian scholars to Public Television Specials, the End Times are viewed as a period of godly righteous power. Jesus is not a baby anymore, no longer a poor humble teacher, no longer a mild forgiving savior. He is now understood in His new identity as a divine conquering king, an invincible warrior on a great white horse coming to deal divine justice, vengeance and godly wrath against His enemies; sending plagues, woes, famines; hurling lightning bolts to smite the wicked. This is what I had focused upon. It is a story of power, power and more power. And it is divine power in no way to be confused with human power or even to be linked with humanity. Jesus’ humanity has no place in this one dimensional portrait of Christ the conquering King. And the undercurrent in this great story of the conquering Christ is that some special chosen Christians are finally getting validated; are on the winning side; are not left behind.

William P. Young

William P. Young, author of “The Shack” has observed that, “…for a lot of people, they’ve never been able to use any imagery of God other than Zeus. We’ve Christianized Zeus – or (made Him) Gandalf with an attitude (A good wizard character from Tolkien’s “Lord of The Rings”).

In the Americas, we celebrate two important days. Independence Day and Cinco de Mayo. In Europe the signing of the Magna Carta and Bastille Day are important. But let us here consider July 4^th as representative of all important historical events. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. He invested his fortune, time and energy into freedom. Poetically, he poured his life into Independence Day.

Today we celebrate Christmas, Good Friday and Easter in much the same way in which we celebrate Independence Day. We turn the holy days into holidays, into events. The Holidays mark the beginning or the end of something. Perhaps we too often forget what that something was. And the celebration of the event seems to grow more important than the essence of the event itself. This holiday mind set understands the holy days as just points on the time line of history which mark the beginning and end of the humanity of Jesus, and become memorials or symbols of events which happened to Him years ago.

If that is the case then the God is Zeus perception is somewhat understandable. After all, what larger event can be imagined by the mind of man than The End of the World? In the holiday mindset this event overshadows everything or everyone who ever existed. The ancillary events leading to the Final Judgment loom ever and ever larger and take on an importance or a life of their own. The End Times are majestic; they are divine. What God is more worthy to infuse them other than one who throws lightning bolts on the wicked? That worthy God is just waiting His turn on the time line of history to play His part in the greatest event in history. Where do we find the holiday celebration in a terrible Day of Judgment?

It is found in those protected few who recognize the signs and the times and wait eagerly for the anticipated prophesied events to unfold before their eyes. That celebration becomes an acute comfort and driving force in a few minds. The humanity of Jesus is very lacking in this End Time view.

TWO POINTS of DIFFERENCE

But the Independence Day event is not like Christmas in two very important ways. The first and most obvious one is that Independence Day has no meaning or value to anyone who died before 1776. It has no value to anyone living outside the jurisdiction of the United States of America. Whereas Christmas has value to all souls born yesterday, today and tomorrow. There is no time or geographical limit for anyone concerning the value that Christmas has for them. But why or how can this be? The second point, below, answers that.

Let us consider that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and, figuratively, his time, energy and life are in Independence Day; his thoughts infuse Independence Day. However, his lively participation in the July 4^th event began and ended in 1776. In reality he has no active participation in anything. His life infuses nothing, it cannot because Mr. Jefferson is not here today. In reality his incredible life was just a point on the time line of history. His part ended and he moved off the stage. And that is the incalculable difference with Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. Jesus’ part did not end.

The incarnation is not a onetime point on the time line of history. The Incarnation which began at Christmas inaugurated the humanity of Christ. The Incarnation infuses Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. The Incarnation did not end at Easter. Let us rewrite the preceding two sentences for emphasis. The humanity of Christ infuses Christmas, Good Friday and Easter.

The Humanity of Christ did not end at Easter. And, beloved, the humanity of Christ also totally infuses the End Times. But that is a topic for another day.* This continuing Incarnation is so important. Jesus’ continuing humanity labors against people who honestly think that God became a human only for 33 years, and that the Resurrection ended that phase of Jesus’ life when He became fully god again and left His humanity in the grave. Now that view is fraught with theological errors. It is presented here only as representative of common deeply held misconceptions of Jesus. But Scriptures have taught for centuries that Jesus remained incarnate. He remained fused with and into our humanity.

**[For more on views of Revelation see Rev. Todd Crouch’s five part series on “Rapture and History” in the November and December 2014 drop down tags and three part series “The 7 Churches of the Apocalypse” in the August 2014 drop down tags on this Fountain of Life Web Page.]

Theologian Gerrit Dawson

What is the importance of a continuing Incarnation? Gerrit Scott Dawson, theologian, author and pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana has made the following statement which is theologically sound and beautiful; almost poetical: “That means that the same Jesus who gathered the little children in his arms and touched them and blessed them, the same Jesus who accepted the tears of the sinful woman and pronounced forgiveness to her, the same Jesus who was willing to touch someone with a terrible disease and to heal them, that’s the same Jesus that we relate to now. He still has the memory of walking among us on this earth. He still has our flesh. He’s still the Jesus that we meet in the Gospels.”

Dawson continued: “To know His true humanity, that He is both fully God but fully human in the way that we are human, that when the Son of God came to us He penetrated into our lost and forsaken condition, or as Douglas Sparrow says, He pursued us all the way to the place of our fallenness. Not just abstractly in some philosophical sense—He did it by becoming what we are, taking up real humanity, He truly embraced us. He keeps that humanity and remains the one who knows what it’s like to be tempted. He knows what it’s like to have suffered. He knows what it’s like to struggle and have burdens. It is His vicarious humanity which guarantees that He’s no stranger to what we’re feeling.”

Church Father, Tertulliann

Church Father, Tertullian (160 – 220 AD), wrote about the Ascension and saw in Ephesians 1:13-14 what he called a double pledge that the Ascension gives to us. Ephesians 1:13-14 reads: “You were sealed with that holy Spirit of Promise. Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

Tertullian shows that this is where the Holy Spirit of promise is the double earnest, or down payment, or guaranty of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.

We Brethren, you and I are that purchased possession. Jesus’ humanity, today in heaven, is the guarantee or the down payment of that promise in two ways. First: It is the guarantee of our hope of being united to Christ in heaven. Second: Tertullian adds that the body of Jesus in heaven is the guarantee, the partner pledge of how we are united to Christ – Dawson explains this second pledge: “That because He’s holding our flesh in heaven, it’s the down payment that we will not live some airy spiritual existence only, but we will be embodied in a full glorified resurrection body. Jesus is the pledge of that.”

This observation of Tertullian is really important. It touches upon the fact that we have the guaranty of eternal life. That means that Jesus’ mission and ministry continues. His work of redemption did not end at the cross. But by ascending bodily into heaven, He is still continuing to be the God-man. He’s still holding our humanity inside Himself, inside the God-head, continually uniting Himself to us.

What about our humanity in eternity? What about our “airy spiritual existence”? How many of us see our heavenly reward as just sitting on a cloud playing a harp into eternity? Paul writes in Philippians 3:20-21 that He will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body. What does that mean? It means that in your resurrected body you retain your individual identity. That body is not designed to sit on a cloud. You are still you, and I am still me.

I know you and you recognize me. And this is guaranteed by the fact that Jesus retains His humanity in His body; resurrected, transformed and glorified, but still His body in which He was crucified, died, buried, and ascended; the same body which is seated in heaven (Ephesians 2:6); the same body which stands amid the seven candlesticks (Revelation 1:13). In terms of what happens to us in the future, that’s really important; really exciting.

The awareness of His vicarious humanity also impacts how we understand our salvation. As mentioned above, we often think of our salvation as simply an event, a onetime transaction that occurred at and on the cross. Yes, at the cross Christ took the sins of the world, your sins…my sins upon himself. This destroyed our sins and freed us from the penalty of death. But His ministry did not end there. Jesus not only was our atoning sacrifice offered yesterday 2000 years ago; Jesus is our atoning sacrifice today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He reconciles God and humanity by being, in Himself human and divine; the one who brings those two natures together. So our atonement continues because Christ’s incarnation continues.

We find some examples of this atonement in the Old Testament. We see the holy of holies, ancient Israel, the Tabernacle and then the Temple. The Day of Atonement ritual points to the fact that separation exists between God and men, a mediator is needed. Sin is costly, it leads to death. Man is helpless and needs a substitute to provide atonement.

Once a year, the High Priest was able to enter the temple and approach God and perform the ritual of atonement on Yom Kippur. The High Priest would bring a sacrifice to God on behalf of all the people. Exodus and Leviticus record that the High Priest would get dressed with a breastplate upon which were inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.

As Dawson describes it: “That, in a sense, meant that he was writing onto his very heart the names of God’s people and he was, in a sense, bearing all of Israel with him as he prepared to go in to the holy of holies.”

Following the narratives in Exodus and Leviticus we read that firstly he would prepare himself by ritual washing and dressing in the ritual garments. Next he would offer a bull as a sacrifice of sin for himself and his family and enter the holy of holies with a censor of burning coals and incense. After sprinkling the bull’s blood on the mercy seat, he would sacrifice the first goat and bring its blood into the holy of holies, sprinkle it on the mercy seat and thereby make intercession, confessing the people’s sins, acting in their name and on their behalf.

Finally he would place his hands on the second goat, scapegoat – the goat that carried away the sins of the people into the wilderness, and he would bless the people and declared them to be forgiven. On that one day, the High Priest, by acting on behalf of the people, made an atonement for the people through rituals directed and accepted by God. And then acting on the behalf of God through ritual blessings sanctioned by God, he brought God’s forgiveness to the people.

Here we can examine the parallels with Jesus which form the type antitype fulfillment of prophecy. We see Jesus, as our High Priest, clothed in the garment of vicarious humanity; making it our humanity. And, as Dawson points out, “…just as the High Priest carried the names of the people over His heart, Jesus, in wearing our flesh, wrote the name of all humanity into Himself. He bore us in Himself… He was the offerer of the sacrifice, but that sacrifice was Himself. And so Jesus, in making that perfect atonement, then was able to go into the holy of holies bearing our humanity.” In presenting Himself as the sacrifice for the people at the altar of the cross and spilling His blood there for us at the mercy seat of the cross, Jesus became both the priest and the victim.

Dawson continues: “In His ascension Jesus has triumphed, in His resurrection He broke the power of death. But if it just ended there, Jesus would have had to either die again, like Lazarus did, or He’d still be somewhere in the world that we could go to Him and talk to Him, but we’d have to journey to Him and He would only be limited in the access that people would have. The ascension is necessary to complete that story: that Jesus rose went up to heaven, and that signals His triumph as Lord and King of all. He is now the one, as Revelation tells us, who holds the keys of death and Hades in His hands, He is the Lord of the kings of earth – as Revelation tells us. He is the ruler of all things. That means that we have a pretty high claim on who Jesus is and an understanding that all knowledge of God now centers in the person of Christ. All truth about who God is, is shown to us in the face of Jesus Christ.”

In part 2 of 2 we shall consider Jesus’ continuing mission as Mediator, Savior and King.

Benediction: Beloved, may the song of your salvation continue to grow and deepen throughout all eternity. May the grace and peace of God our Father, and that of Jesus our Lord and Savior be with you all.