In Christianity, there are two extreme views concerning the Person of Jesus. The modernists talk much about Jesus as a man. They say that Jesus was only a Jewish man, denying the Lord’s divinity and not recognizing that He is the very God incarnated to be a man. In other words, they do not recognize the incarnation. Of course, this is not just an extreme teaching, but the greatest heresy on the earth and in the universe. Not to recognize that Jesus was God incarnated to be a man is the greatest heresy.
Due possibly to the heresy of the modernists, the fundamental Christians have gone to another extreme. They preach and teach so much concerning Christ as the Son of God. There is nothing wrong with this, but they have neglected the humanity of Jesus. They stress the divinity of Christ so much, but they teach and preach very little regarding the humanity of Christ. This is the hidden subtlety of the enemy. On the one hand the enemy would not let people believe that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God, and on the other hand the subtle one would have us preach concerning His divinity while neglecting the Lord’s humanity. We must realize that although Christ is the Son of God, whatever He did, and all that He is today depends not only on His divinity, but even more on His humanity.
We have mentioned that the basic framework and structure of the ark and the tabernacle was not gold, but wood. This signifies that what Christ is and what He has done does not depend on the divine nature so much as on the human nature. The humanity of Christ is the main structure. He is God, but whatever He did and whatever He is today requires His humanity.
We must be clear, however, that His humanity is not of the same source as ours. This is why we were born of men and He was born of a woman. We are the descendants of man, but He was the seed of a woman. Both He and we are human, but the sources are different. He is a man, but He is a man of a different category. Yet it is meaningful and wonderful that these two sources are very much related to one another. Only the Holy Spirit can make this matter clear to us. The woman was also a descendant of our source, but Jesus did not come from that source. Jesus came from the woman, from another source. This other source has something to do with our source, yet the two are different.
He took humanity upon Himself, and this very humanity is the main structure for Him to destroy the serpent, the enemy of God. It is by this structure, this humanity, that God could bring the blessing upon all the nations of the earth. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). “And in thy [Abraham’s] seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22:18a). “But to Abraham were the promises spoken and to his seed. He does not say, And to the seeds, as concerning many, but as concerning one, And to your seed, Who is Christ” (Gal. 3:16). Satan, the serpent, was bruised and destroyed by this humanity, and the blessing of God came to all the nations on the earth through this humanity. Even the grace with all its gifts abounded by this humanity. “For if through the offense of the one the many died, much more the grace of God and the gift in grace of the One Man Jesus Christ have abounded to the many” (Rom. 5:15b).
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