Why is the humanity of Jesus important?
The humanity of Jesus Christ is one of the deepest foundations of the Christian faith. Scripture presents Him as true God who became true Man — and the reasons this matters are woven through every part of redemption.
1. Without True Manhood, There Is No Mediator
F. B. Hole traces the necessity directly to 1 Timothy 2:5:
F. B. HoleThese two passages in Hebrews make it abundantly clear that the truth as to the place of our Lord Jesus Christ as our Mediator and Priest hangs upon the fact of His becoming MAN in the full and proper sense of that word; hence the emphasis placed upon His manhood in 1 Timothy 2:5: "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." He is, indeed, that "Daysman" whom Job sighed for, who "might lay His hand upon us both." He knew that God is not a man as he was, and hence the imperative necessity of One great enough to lay His hand upon God, yet gracious enough to lay His hand upon such an one as Job.
A. J. Pollock puts it in the sharpest terms:
A. J. PollockTamper with the Person of the Mediator, and the approach between God and man is shattered. The fact is, if our Lord were not a Man with human spirit, soul, and body (sin apart), we have no Christ at all.
2. Manhood Was Necessary for Atonement
He took "flesh and blood" so that through death He could destroy the one who held the power of death. A. J. Pollock writes under the heading "Manhood Necessary for Atonement":
A. J. PollockHere we get the assertion of the Manhood of the Lord in a very emphatic way, showing that He must become Man in order to be the Mediator. This is supported by Hebrews 2:14: "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil."
And further:
The true manhood of the Lord is connected closely with the atoning work He came to do. He is made in all things like unto His brethren, in order that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest "TO MAKE RECONCILIATION FOR THE SINS OF THE PEOPLE." It is this thought that makes us so tenacious as to the truth of the Lord's full manhood. Without it we have no true Christ. It is a vital truth, essential to the truth of Christianity.
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3. "In All Things Made Like Unto His Brethren"
His humanity was complete — spirit, soul, and body — not a phantom or partial assumption. F. B. Hole explains:
completeHebrews 2:16-17 plainly states that since He stooped not to take hold of angels but of the seed of Abraham, "in all things it behoved Him to be made like to His brethren." Note those three important words — IN ALL THINGS. If in all things then in spirit and in soul and in body.
Hebrews 4:15 adds a further corroboration of this great fact in stating that as our High Priest He "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." ... Some temptations address themselves to the spirit, others to the soul, others to the body; indeed, it is not difficult to discern that in the wilderness the devil addressed his three temptations in those three directions. ... The Lord Jesus being truly and fully Man, the test was complete. He fully graduated in the school of suffering, and hence can fully sympathize in all things apart from sin.
4. A High Priest Who Actually Feels
Because He became truly man, His sympathy is not merely the knowledge of omniscience — it is the feeling of one who has experienced human weakness firsthand. F. B. Hole draws out the two key words from Hebrews 4:15:
feelingThe Lord Jesus has so qualified Himself by all He has passed through that He actually feels. He entered so truly into human life and human conditions, apart from sin, that He now knows from the human standpoint what He always knew from the divine standpoint. He possessed Himself of human feelings about human needs and human sorrows, and though now glorified on high He is still Man in heaven with all the feelings of a Man on behalf of men.
T. B. Mawson adds warmly:
T. B. MawsonThe great High Priest is Jesus, the Son of God. ... He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities — marvellous thought! It means that every pang in every heart that loves Him is felt by Him. We may not be able to understand it: we are not asked to do so — it is too great for our small minds, but He asks us to believe it.
5. The Second Man — Not Adam Reproduced
His humanity was real yet unique. He was not one more repetition of Adam's fallen race. F. B. Hole explains the contrast of 1 Corinthians 15:47:
uniqueAs a matter of mere enumeration Cain was the second man; from the point of view of this verse he was not: he was only Adam reproduced in the first generation. The people walking the earth to-day are but Adam reproduced in — let us suppose — the 150th generation. But — mark it well — the Lord Jesus was not Adam reproduced at all. He was the second Man. He was Man, indeed, for He was conceived by the Virgin Mary. He was an altogether unique Man of another order, for He was conceived of the Holy Ghost.
Every other man inherits the Adamic nature; Jesus did not. ... In the case of our blessed Lord the entail was broken.
6. Man Forever in the Glory
His humanity is not temporary. He is glorified Man in the highest heavens — and will be so eternally. J. G. Bellett reflects:
J. G. BellettGod and man, heaven and earth, are together before the thoughts of faith in this great mystery. God has been here on earth; and that too in flesh; and Man glorified is there on high in heaven.
He then quotes an older writer:
Sonofgod"Jesus is in the same body in heaven wherein He conversed here on earth. This is that 'Holy Thing' which was framed immediately by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin. ... That tabernacle shall never be folded up. The person of Christ, and therein His human nature, shall be the eternal object of divine glory, praise, and worship."
The humanity of Jesus, then, is not a secondary or ornamental doctrine. It is the hinge on which the whole of redemption turns. Without it there is no Mediator to bridge the distance between God and man, no sacrifice that can atone for sin, no High Priest who can feel what we feel, and no forerunner who has gone into heaven as Man on our behalf. His manhood was full and real — spirit, soul, and body — yet utterly unique, for He was not of Adam's fallen line but "the second Man, the Lord from heaven." And that manhood endures: He remains Man forever in the glory, the eternal link between God and His redeemed people.