What We Lose If Jesus is Not Human as shown by Jesus’ Preparation for his Ministry

If Jesus is not human, like us, we also lose the promise of the Holy Spirit, the invitation to live by the direction and power of the Spirit like Jesus did while he was here, and everything that flows from that. Fully discussing this topic will require several posts.

While Jesus lived among us bodily, he did not rely on his knowledge and power as God. Instead, Paul writes that, though the underlying reality was that Jesus is God (being God was Jesus’ inherent “form,” morphē), when he came among us, he did not cling to or make use of his equality as a member of the Godhead, but voluntarily emptied himself to become like us. Paul actually finds three different ways to say that Jesus became like us–i.e., that he took the “form” (morphē, again) of a slave, and the “likeness” (homoiōma, compare Genesis 1:26 LXX and NIV, where Adam was created in God’s “likeness,” homoiōs ) and “appearance” of a man. Philippians 2:6-8. Having become one of us, Jesus became so obedient to his Father that he submitted to death by the most hideous form of execution known to the Romans–crucifixion. Being thus publicly humiliated and executed as a criminal was, as Paul writes, the ultimate step of humbling that Jesus, as God, could possibly have taken, showing himself to be totally like us in suffering a cruel and unjust death. Philippians 2:8.

In the passage just quoted, Paul points out Jesus humiliation in becoming completely human and dying in this way to make two separate points. First, because Jesus humbled himself in this way, each of us should take the same attitude of humility and service toward each other that Jesus had toward us, doing “nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but [instead] with humility of mind regard[ing] one another as more important than yourselves,” looking out for each other’s interests. Philippians 2:2-5. Then Paul tells us that, because Jesus humbled himself in becoming one of us and dying in this way, God has now “highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,” so that one day every knee will bow to him and every tongue will confess that he is Lord. Philippians 2:9-10.

Jesus choice to give up his divine powers to rely instead on the Holy Spirit as we can is visible even before his birth. He chose to be born into the family of an ordinary craftsman, a carpenter, not that of a king. His birth, with a human mother but no human father, required the power of the Holy Spirit at his conception. It also placed him, from the start, in a very dishonorable position in his society–that of an (apparent) illegitimate child. It took great faith for Mary to submit to the word brought by the angel, and permit the Holy Spirit to work as the angel said he would. Luke 1:26-38. It also took great faith for Joseph to believe the child he knew wasn’t his was really the son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and accept Mary as his wife. Matthew 1:18-25. The whole situation would have brought shame on both of them, and on the baby Mary bore. The people of his home town, Nazareth, could certainly count to nine months on their fingers, and “knew” Jesus was the dregs of society. They showed it in the way they twice dishonored him thirty years later, during his earthly ministry. Matthew 13:54-58; Luke 4:16-30.

To be sure, Joseph had a claim to royal blood, as a descendant of King David by two different lines of descent. Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38. But this didn’t make Jesus unique–by the time he was born, about a millennium after David, a large proportion of the Jews in Palestine were of royal blood. However, the baby Jesus’ potential claim to royal blood, added to the announcement of the Magi that the star of the great King of Israel, the Messiah, had risen, made him an enemy of both the then-King of Judea, the paranoid Herod the Great, and his successor Archelaus. Matthew 2. So, Jesus was simultaneously a powerless peasant and an enemy of the State from his birth. Far from looking like God as a baby, he instead looked like he had everything against him. His survival depended on the Holy Spirit speaking, not to him, but to his earthly father, Joseph, telling him when to move his family (usually urgently) and where to go. Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23. So, like any child, he was dependent on his human parents.

This obscurity continued almost unbroken throughout his childhood. The only things we are told about Jesus’ childhood concern an incident when he was twelve, approximately the age manhood began in his culture, and two half-sentences describing the eighteen or so years after that incident. When Jesus was twelve, his extended family went to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of the Passover. Unknown to them, when they left for home, Jesus remained in the Temple talking to the teachers of the Law there, “both listening to them and asking them questions.” The people who were present were “amazed” by Jesus–not by his (obviously nonexistent) halo or his divine powers, but by “his understanding and his answers.” It obviously took Joseph and Mary a day or two to realize Jesus wasn’t in their traveling party, because by the time they returned to Jerusalem, Jesus had been in the temple three days. Luke 2:41-48. When they asked him why he had treated them so badly, by staying at the Temple when it was time to go home, Jesus made his first recorded declaration of his dependence on his heavenly Father: “Why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” Luke 2:49.

The two half-sentences Luke gives us about the years between the Temple incident and the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry also show him to have been fully human. The first says that, after the incident at the Temple, Jesus returned with his parents to Nazareth and “continued in subjection to them.” Luke 2:51. Jesus’ parents did not submit to him as God, he submitted to them, as was right for a human child under the Law.

The second half-sentence tells us that, during the next eighteen or so years, Jesus “kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” Luke 2:52. Like any successful human, Jesus kept growing and learning, and even grew in favor with God during these silent years. This growth also continued during Jesus earthly ministry: as the writer to the Hebrews explains, Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered. Hebrews 5:8. Jesus never disobeyed His Father, but always did only those things He saw His Father doing. John 5:19. Yet, though He was without sin, He had to learn obedience like us. Ultimately, he became obedient, even to death on a cross. Phillipians 2:8. This growth would not have been possible if he had come to earth as God, already complete and perfect. It was only possible because he came to earth as a human, like us.

Observation of Jesus’ earthly ministry through the four Gospels also demonstrates what Paul meant when he said Jesus had emptied himself of his divine prerogatives and become like us: instead of living independently, as he could have, on his divine foreknowledge and powers, Jesus did and said only what the Spirit was saying and doing. To begin with, Jesus did not begin his public ministry until he had, in a visible and acknowledged way, received the Holy Spirit and his divine commission at his baptism. This is one of only a very few incidents all four Gospel writers discuss. See, Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:19-34. Although each of the Gospel writers has a different emphasis, all of them report that Jesus went to John to be baptized, that John baptized him in the Jordan, and that the Holy Spirit descended from the heavens in a form that looked like a dove and rested on Jesus. Matthew and Mark also report that, after the Holy Spirit rested on Jesus, there was an audible voice from the heavens that said: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11. Luke reports an audible voice from the heavens, which those present could hear, speaking directly to Jesus: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” Luke 3:22.

From this shared set of facts, the divergent emphases of the four Gospel writers tell us a great deal about the man Jesus’ dependence on the Holy Spirit. Mark’s account of the baptism itself is the shortest, consisting only of the baptism, the Holy Spirit descending and the voice from heaven. However, the preceding eight verses of Mark describe the ministry of John. John, we are told, came as God’s messenger, to prepare the way for the coming of God among the people and to “make his paths straight.” Mark 1:2-3; quoting Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3, both of which in context clearly refer to events leading to the coming of God to earth to restore all things. John preached a baptism of repentance “for,” possibly better translated because of” (eis), the forgiveness of sins. Mark 1:4. And many people came to John, confessed (i.e., agreed with God about) their sins, repented of them, and were baptized. Mark 1:5. Jesus had no sins to forgive, and John, in himself, had no authority to forgive the sins of the people. But John consistently told the people that the proof of their forgiveness and reconciliation with God would come later:

After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

Mark 1:7-8

Thus, John’s message to the people tied forgiveness of their sins to Jesus’ subsequent receipt of the Holy Spirit at his baptism, whom he later passed on to us.

Matthew’s version the baptism narrative adds two emphases not found in Mark. The first is John’s warning that the repentance of those coming to him for baptism must be real repentance–a real change of life direction–not like that of some of the Pharisees who were coming to him merely wanting to look good. This was combined with a warning that the one who came after him, who would baptize with the Holy Spirit, was coming as a judge who would also baptize his people with fire. Matthew 3: 1-12. (I will discuss repentance, sin and sins, and forgiveness in later posts).

However, Matthew’s second added emphasis is the one that most clearly demonstrates Jesus’ determination to do only what the Father told him to do in dependence on the Holy Spirit. When Jesus came to John to be baptized, John protested “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” Jesus’ reply to this was “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Matthew 3:14-15. Even though Jesus knew no sin, he went through everything we must go through–including a baptism of repentance because of the forgiveness of sins (a forgiveness he brought to us!)–in order to “fulfill all righteousness.” Even in this particular, he became human. And, as a result, he received a visible outpouring of the Holy Spirit, confirming to everyone present the source of his power. Matthew 3:17.

Luke reports the preaching of John preparing the way for Jesus in a manner very similar to Matthew, with two interesting additions. First, as Luke relates, John called all who were coming to him (not just the Pharisees) a “brood of vipers” in need of repentance. Luke 3:7-9. Then, when various groups of people asked what they needed to do to show works in keeping with repentance, John’s answers always dealt with how they treated each other, not with formalities of their devotion or worship. Repentant people cease exploiting others and treat others well, being content with what they have. Luke 3:10-14.

Luke adds only one detail to the account of Jesus’ baptism: the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus “while he was praying.” Luke 3:21. The point made by this is not that we must beg God to send his Holy Spirit (which is something he has already done) but that Jesus, as a man, had to approach his Father the same way we do–through prayer, through talking with the Father–to receive the Holy Spirit and his commission.

The Apostle John’s account of Jesus’ baptism is not a contemporaneous account, but an account as told at a later date by John the Baptizer. John recalled Jesus’ baptism when Jesus later came to visit him, and to call some of John’s disciples into his own service as disciples:

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.”  John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.  I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.” Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

John 1:29-37.

John had been told that God’s ultimate sacrifice, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” was soon to come, and that John would recognize him because he would be the one on whom John would “see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him.” He had seen this happen at Jesus’ baptism, as recounted in Matthew, Mark and Luke. On this second occasion when Jesus came to him, apparently at some time after his temptation alone in the wilderness, John told those around him to look to Jesus (“behold”) because he is the Lamb of God, of whom God had spoken to John. John also called him the “Son of God,” and said had higher rank because he “existed” before John (though humanly John was six months older), pointing to Jesus’ divinity. Then, most relevant to our topic, John said that Jesus, the one on whom the Spirit had descended and remained, is the one who also “baptizes” (immerses) others in the Holy Spirit. That is, by receiving the Holy Spirit as a man, Jesus now is able to give other humans the same active presence of the Spirit in their lives that he has. (For a longer discussion of this, click the link in the previous sentence).

Immediately after Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness for forty days of fasting, solitude, and temptation by the devil. Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13. We are told elsewhere in Scripture to pray that God will “not lead us into temptation,” and that we are not to lead ourselves there. Matthew 6:13; 2 Timothy 2:22 James 1:14. To be quite clear, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness for a time of solitude, preparation and growth (remember that, as a human, Jesus was still growing), to learn greater dependence on the Spirit. However, this period of growth was also a situation in which the devil could tempt him. It was only at the end of the forty days that Jesus “began” to feel hungry.

At that point, the devil came to tempt him–specifically, to tempt him to use his powers as God to get what he wanted, outside of his Father’s will. The fact that Matthew and Luke recount the same three temptations in a different order likely shows that the devil came to tempt Jesus more than once (as he normally does with us, as well), and varied the order of his attack each time.

In both Matthew and Luke, the first attack was to try to exploit Jesus’ hunger–after forty days fasting–to convince Jesus to miraculously feed himself. This corresponds exactly to the temptation we very often face when we feel deprived of one of our physical or psychological needs or desires, and feel an urge to satisfy it in our own power outside of God’s will. The only way in which Jesus’ temptation differed from most of our temptations in this area was that it was stronger–we usually have to hurt people to take what we want, but Jesus could have said, with some honesty, that he didn’t have to take the stone he would make into bread away from anyone else. However, Jesus successfully resisted this temptation by quoting the devil his Father’s statement, from the then-existing Scriptures, that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4. In saying this, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3, in which Moses explained:

He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.

Note that Jesus did not deny his need. He did not deny that he had to eat. Instead, he declared his faith in his Father. He said that there was something more fundamental than bread–the words of God–the same words which provided the manna in the wilderness, and were now to provide Jesus himself as the true bread out of heaven, which gives life to the world. John 6:32-33. We can, like Jesus, overcome, under the Spirit’s power, temptations to improperly satisfy our our own desires by reminding ourselves that what God says is more real than what we see and feel.

The next temptation reported by Matthew was a temptation that asked Jesus to accomplish one part of God’s will–the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel–in his own power, and simultaneously build his own ego, by doing a great sign miracle that everyone would acknowledge. Matthew 4:5-7. If the people were to see Jesus being caught by the angels after throwing himself off the pinnacle of the Temple, this would certainly get him a great following. This temptation corresponds directly to our more mundane temptations to build our own egos, and to use God, and what he is and is not going to do, as a tool to manipulate others and build our own kingdoms. In presenting this temptation, the devil quoted a scripture out of context to suggest to Jesus that his Father would respond positively to Jesus building a kingdom his own way. I quote the full context below, with the three lines the devil quoted underlined:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!”
 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper
And from the deadly pestilence…

For you have made the Lord, my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place.
No evil will befall you,
Nor will any plague come near your tent…

For He will give His angels charge concerning you,
To guard you in all your ways.
They will bear you up in their hands,
That you do not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you will trample down.

“Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.
“He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
“With a long life I will satisfy him
And let him see My salvation.

Psalm 91:1-3, 9-16; Matthew 4:6.

Taken in context, this Psalm is God’s promise to protect those who love and trust him, and who therefore let God lead them, live in his shadow and permit him to be their fortress. It teaches the futility of our attempts to manipulate God and others. But the devil. as he often does, tried to twist a few lines of this Psalm into an excuse to manipulate, because (he implied) it would make the work the Father sent Jesus to do so much faster and easier, and God had promised to respond positively to it. Jesus answer to this temptation was a command from the Torah: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Matthew 4:7; Deuteronomy 6:6. The verse in Deuteronomy gives an example of what it is to “test” God–“as you tested him at Massah.” At Massah, the people were thirsty, and, instead of trusting God to provide, they grumbled against God and put pressure on Moses to provide them water to drink. The people were asking “Is the Lord among us, or not?” Exodus 17:1-7. God ultimately provided the water, his own way, but commanded the people never to test him like that again.

It was just this kind of test the devil was asking Jesus to place before his Father by jumping off of the pinnacle of the temple. And Jesus’ answer to the temptation was perfect–I have been commanded to trust my Father, not test him. We, by the Holy Spirit within us, are also able to give the same response to the temptation to manipulate, and to live out that response, just as Jesus, the man, did.

The devil’s last temptation, in Matthew’s order, is the most blatant. The devil showed Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world and their glory, in a single instant, and then told Jesus “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Matthew 4:8-9. Luke’s account adds that, after showing Jesus all earthly kingdoms and their glory, the devil said that all of “it has been handed over to me,” falsely implying that the Father had handed it over to him, “and I give it to whomever I wish.” Luke 4:5-7. This was a temptation asking Jesus to avoid all of the suffering of his earthly ministry, and of his horrid sacrificial crucifixion, and to accept the kingdom from the enemy who temporarily controls it–for a price. All Jesus had to do was to change his allegiance from his Father to the devil!

This temptation corresponds directly to our temptations to seek and use power–economic, social, political and even ecclesiastical–to accomplish our own ends, or even (in our own minds) to build God’s “kingdom,” at the expense of giving our first allegiance to the giver of that power rather than God. It is an all too common temptation for Christians and churches in our world, and one to which we have frequently succumbed. Jesus did not dispute that humans had given over the control of all of their kingdoms to the devil, who therefore had the power to give them to whomever he wanted. Instead, Jesus gave an answer from the Torah about his where his–and our–true allegiance must remain in this demonized world: “it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.'” Matthew 4:10; Deuteronomy 6:13. This is still the only adequate answer to the temptation to seek, or use, worldly power to accomplish our own, or even God’s, purposes, at the inevitable cost of shifting our allegiance to the source of that power. And we can give this response, and live it out through the Holy Spirit, Just as Jesus, the man, did.

So, even from the events of Jesus’ birth and preparation for his earthly ministry, we can see that, if Jesus was not human like us, but instead something superhuman, we would lose the promise of the Holy Spirit and, with it, the ability to know God, the forgiveness of our sins, the power to live humbly and unselfishly as Jesus did, the promises of growth in grace and heard prayers, and the power to overcome temptation. I will develop further implications from the events of Jesus’ earthly ministry and from his direct statements about his dependence on his Father and the Holy Spirit in the next two posts.