In what sense was Jesus a man as we are? We read that he was tempted in
all points like as we are, yet without sin. But have you ever asked, Of
what comfort or strength is it to me that he was tempted in all points
as I am, _if he was without sin_? It is just because _I am not without
sin_ that I fall before these temptations.
Is it true after all that the Lord Jesus was a man as I am?
Was not the real secret of his victory over sin the fact that he was
God?
Is not the secret of my defeat the fact that I am just a man and not
God?
The answer to these questions reveals one of the richest secrets in the
Word concerning the real meaning of the Victorious Life. For we shall
find this startling truth, that if we are to live the Victorious Life
at all we must live it by the same rule as Jesus of Nazareth lived it.
Christ had to come to earth to show us what man is like. A needed
emphasis has been put upon the truth that our Lord came to earth to
reveal the Father,――to show men what God is like. But it was just as
necessary that our Lord should reveal what God intended _man_ to be.
If we wish to know what God is like there is but one thing to do: look
at Jesus. So there is no way of discovering what a true man is like
except by looking at Jesus. He is the only “man,” in the true sense of
the word, who has lived since sin entered the human race. Through the
fall man lost the image of God, and from that day until our Lord came
there was no example of man as God intended him to be.
A mistaken notion, encouraged by the poets, prevails quite commonly,
that to sin is human; to forgive, divine. Whatever the measure of truth
in the little sentiment, the error in it is more dangerous. To sin is
not human; it is devilish. Sin is no part of man as God planned him to
be. And so our Lord represents in himself what God intended a man to
be, and he lived according to that plan.
The One True “Man”
The name for himself most often upon the lips of our Master was “the
Son of man.” A notable Greek scholar has recently pointed out that
this expression means far more than a son of a human parent. It rather
suggests that gathered up into this Son of man are all the qualities of
what “man” is. So, may we not say that as the fulness of God dwelt in
him bodily so did the fulness of man dwell in him?
Some one has suggested that God did wonderful things through the Lord
Jesus not because Jesus was God, but because he was perfect man. What
does this really mean in terms of our everyday life?
Nowhere in Scripture is there such a remarkable setting forth, first of
the deity of our Lord, then of his humanity, side by side, as in the
first and second chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews. “God, having
of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions
and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in
a Son.”
“Very God of Very God”
Thus the wonderful epistle opens; and then that Son is presented first
as one who expresses the very image of the substance of God. He is
compared with angels, and shown to be infinitely above them. God the
Father speaks of his angels as messengers; he addresses the Son: “thy
throne, _O God_.” In the second chapter again are angels compared, this
time with man. The same Son is shown to be made for a little while
lower than the angels, taking the form of man.
In this first chapter of Hebrews the Holy Spirit, when he seeks to
attest the truth that Jesus is God, calls the Old Testament to witness,
and two groups of three quotations each are made, each time the words
being put in the mouth of God the Father. In the second chapter when
the Spirit seeks to press home the parallel truth that Jesus is a
man, one with us, he uses a group of three quotations from the Old
Testament. In these quotations we shall discover something of the
preciousness for us of the truth that the Lord Jesus was a man, one
with his brethren. “For both he that sanctifieth and they that are
sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call
them brethren, saying ...” (Heb. 2:11).
Then there follow in the twelfth and thirteenth verses of the second
chapter of Hebrews the three quotations from the Old Testament.
This is the first:
“I will declare thy name unto my brethren,
In the midst of the congregation will I sing thy praise.”