Because the Man-Savior’s divine nature with the divine attributes was expressed in His human nature with the human virtues, it is difficult to say when He was living on earth whether it was God loving others or a man loving. In the life of the Man-Savior we see a love that is the love of a God-man, the love of the One who lived a human life filled with the divine life. Because the Lord lived in this way, His love was the human virtue of love filled with the divine attribute of love.
Certain cases recorded in the Gospel of Luke illustrate the fact that the Man-Savior’s love was a love in which the attribute of divine love is expressed in the virtue of human love. We see this love in the case of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), in the case of the sinful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee (7:36-50), and in the case of the thief on the cross who asked the Lord Jesus to remember him (23:39-43). In each case the Lord Jesus exercised a genuine human love. However, His love was not merely human; it was a human love filled with the divine love and also strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by the divine love.
In reading the Gospel of Luke, we may not see that with the Man-Savior we have human love filled, strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by the divine love. Readers of the New Testament can easily realize that the Lord Jesus loves others. Children are even taught to sing, “Jesus loves me, this I know.” But what kind of love does Jesus have? Is His love human or divine? His love is not merely human love nor merely divine love; His love is human love filled, strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by and with the divine love. This wonderful love is a composition, a mingling, of the divine love with the human love. This love was the living of the Man-Savior, the living of the God-man. The Lord’s living was a matter of the human virtues filled, strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by the divine attributes.
It was this kind of living that qualified the Lord Jesus to be our Man-Savior. He saved sinners by such a human-divine living, by a living that was humanly divine and divinely human. The living of the Lord Jesus was not merely human nor merely divine; it was humanly divine and divinely human. His living was the dynamic power by which He saved pitiful sinners.
If we understand this, we shall realize that the divine love merely by itself could not save us. Of course, mere human love could not save us. The love that saves us must be a composition of the human love and the divine love. The mingling of these two loves is a saving love.
A living where the human life is filled with the divine life and the human virtues are strengthened and enriched by the divine attributes is what we have called the highest standard of morality. In the Gospel of Luke we see a life filled with human virtues that are strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by divine attributes. In such a living we see the composition, the mingling, of God with man. This living is both the saving power and the qualification of the Lord Jesus to be our Savior. In His status as a God-man the Man-Savior is qualified to save us.
As sincere Christians following the Lord Jesus, we need to know Him to the extent that we know Him as the One who lived a life in which the human virtues expressed the divine attributes. Our Man-Savior is such a man. Because He lived in this way, He was able and qualified to save us.
This One, our Man-Savior, accomplished an all-inclusive death on the cross for our redemption. Then God raised Him from among the dead as God’s verification of and God’s sanction to His life and work. This resurrected God-man has ascended to the heavens, has been enthroned and crowned with glory and honor, and has been made the Head of all. Oh, we all need to know this wonderful Person!