Day 11

“Jesus continued, ‘You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world’.”

—JOHN 8:23

What is so special about Christ? The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 1:3 “...as to His human nature [he] was a descendant of David... He was human, just as you and I are, with a mother, grandparents and great-grandparents. The long line of his human ancestry is given to us twice in the New Testament.

Then in verse 4, Paul says, “...and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God.” Paul moves from His humanity to His deity.

 If we are to understand Jesus Christ and know what He can do for us today, we have to understand His humanity as well as His deity. Jesus Christ was born as a real human being. He was a fetus in His mother’s womb. He was born by the ordinary means. They had to cut His umbilical cord. He had to learn to eat, crawl, walk and talk. He had brothers and sisters. He ate, drank, slept, grew and He got weary. He endured pain, and He died. All these are human activities, and He was every bit human.

But He was also God. Some have claimed that Jesus never actually claimed to be God; that it was His followers who made that claim for Him later, and developed it into something Jesus never claimed; but I would dispute that. Jesus made many statements that are inexplicable if He was simply a human being. In just two examples, He said, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world” (John 8:23). And then in verse 42, He said, “... for I come from God...I have not come on my own, but He sent me.”

Paul summed up the nature of Jesus in Philippians 2:6, ‘Who, being in very nature God … made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!’ The truth boggles the mind, but is the grounds of our worship of Him and love for Him. As God incarnate in human form, He rescues and saves us.

PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for the humanity of Jesus which identifies with all that we are subject to, and for His deity that not only saves us, but lives in us and makes us one with Him.

TO REFLECT UPON: Has Jesus taking upon Himself the very nature of a servant changed the way I live my life?