This article is a summary of the following episode: Stop Dehumanizing Jesus
Many Christians affirm that Jesus is God but struggle to grasp that he is also truly human. Scripture tells us that he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. That single verse can unsettle us because it reveals that the Son of God did not only take on flesh. He lived the full experience of human life.
If that thought feels uncomfortable, we need to pause and consider what the Bible is showing us. Jesus of Nazareth is not a distant figure of divine power. He is a man of feeling. He is compassionate, merciful, and gentle. And the reason he can meet us with such sympathy is because he is one of us.
The Humanity of Christ Matters
The church throughout history has often emphasized the deity of Jesus when it was being denied, and that emphasis was right. But in doing so, many have forgotten to speak clearly about his humanity. Jesus is not part God and part man. He is fully God and fully man, two complete natures united in one person.
Luke 2:52 tells us that Jesus grew in wisdom and favor with God. Hebrews 5:8 says he learned obedience through suffering. These verses do not lessen his divinity. They reveal the depth of his humanity. As a real man, he walked the road we walk, faced the trials we face, and endured every kind of sorrow.
He knows what it means to be tired, hungry, betrayed, and grieved. He knows temptation. He knows pain. He knows the burden of obedience. Yet he never sinned. He lived as the true man who loved God perfectly and loved others completely.
The God Who Humanized Himself
Sometimes people worry that talking about the humanity of Christ will make him seem less divine. But God himself chose to take on human flesh. The eternal Son entered time and space to redeem those who bear his image. There is now a man who sits on the throne of God.
Through the incarnation, God revealed his heart in human form. “No one has ever seen God,” John writes, “but the one and only Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” We know what God is like because we have seen Jesus.
The one who walked among us shows us the heart of God. He healed the sick, forgave the guilty, touched the unclean, and wept with the grieving. He came to those who had been forgotten and broken. He spoke words of life and compassion to those who thought they had no hope left.
A Compassionate Savior
From the beginning, God has revealed himself as merciful. In the garden, when Adam and Eve fell, the Lord came to them, spoke promise to them, and clothed their shame. To Hagar, abandoned in the wilderness, he came as the God who sees. Throughout Scripture, God is shown as one who comes to sinners and sufferers with compassion.
That same God came to us in Jesus Christ. He did not simply watch human sorrow from afar. He entered it. He lived among pain, loss, betrayal, and death. When he saw Mary and Martha weeping for their brother, he was deeply moved. He wept with them. That moment in John 11 is not incidental. It reveals the heart of the Savior who grieves with those who grieve and loves those who suffer.
He is not cold or detached. He is the Lord who feels deeply for his people. His compassion is not theoretical. It is personal. He sympathizes with us in every weakness and meets us with grace.
Forsaken for Our Sake
At the cross, Jesus endured the full weight of our sin. As God, he remained one with the Father. As man, he was forsaken for our sake. He bore the curse that belonged to us so that we might never be separated from God.
When he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he was entering into the deepest human despair. He was standing where we should stand, feeling what we should feel. And because he was forsaken, we will never be.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus because he has already carried that separation for us.
The Humanity That Comforts Us
We need a Savior who is both divine and human. As God, he is able to save. As man, he is able to sympathize. He is the one who obeyed perfectly in our place, and he is the one who understands every weakness we face.
When we grieve, he knows what grief feels like. When we are tempted, he knows the struggle. When we pray in confusion and pain, he listens as one who has lived in our world and suffered for our redemption.
Christ is not distant from our suffering. He meets us in it. He weeps with us, carries us, and comforts us.
The Wonder of the Incarnation
The incarnation is not only a doctrine to defend. It is the heartbeat of our comfort and assurance. The eternal Son became a man to reveal God’s love in a way we could see, touch, and understand.
Our Savior is divine, holy, and sovereign. He is also human, gentle, and near. He understands the pain of this world and has conquered it.
So when you are weary and heavy laden, hear his invitation: “Come to me, and I will give you rest.”
The one who calls you is God himself, and he is also the man who knows your pain.
That is the kind of Savior we have.
