Jesus Was (And Is) a Real Human Being

Theological disputes are not something unique to our time, or even the time of our ancient relatives.

Reaching all the way back to the first century we can find disagreements about important theological matters. Jesus had his arguments with the Pharisees and Sadducees, not to mention those with the religious leaders of his day. Paul had to deal with controversies with church members as they were still learning what it meant to live in this new kingdom with its new covenant. And John felt pushback from those who insisted that although Jesus may have been God (there were definitely some who thought he wasn’t), he surely wasn’t a human being.

And so, one of the main motivations for John writing what we call “1 John” was to remind those early believers of what had been true and what they had been taught since the beginning. Namely, that this Jesus—whom they rightly worshipped as their Lord and God—was a real human being.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.” (1 Jn 1:1-4, NIV)

John hits all the markers here for an accurate eyewitness account. That…which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched. Seeing, hearing, and touching.

In other words, John was reminding those early believers that people had really come into contact with the human being called Jesus—John himself being one of those early eyewitnesses! Their experiences were not dreams, nor were they delusions. They, instead, were real encounters where they saw him heal another person, they saw him walking down the road, they listened to him teach to the masses, and have private conversations with individuals. And not only that, but they placed their hands on him. They even had times where they placed their hands on him.

To be sure, people of John’s day believed in ghosts. Not so different from us, today. Jesus, though, was no ghost, or phantom, or apparition. In fact, on more than one occasion Jesus’s disciples thought he was a ghost. During one of those times they were in a boat in dangerously choppy water, and they saw someone coming at them, walking on the water. Their first inclination was that this someone was a ghost, and they were naturally terrified. It wasn’t until he spoke to them that they realized this someone was no ghost, but Jesus in the flesh. (Mt 14:16-26)

We cannot separate out or compartmentalize Jesus deity from his humanity. Jesus was not and is not some part God and some part human. He was and is one individual. And this one individual was and is God and man.

John wanted his readers then and us today to remember that. The world’s views will no doubt change over time—as they already have. We’re called to hold on to what was witnessed and taught from the beginning. And what was taught was that Jesus was a real human being.

A Church Called Love (Part 3) Love Reigns Supreme

what we have so far

We’ve looked at two ideas so far in our walk through 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13. The first that it doesn’t matter what we do (speaking in different languages (human and/or angelic), prophesying, understanding all there is to know, or giving all we have to the poor), if we do not have love it’s nothing and our “service” is nothing. The second idea was that love is fundamentally and foundationally others-focused. We are called to love God and love our neighbors (Mk. 2:30-31).

Now we come to the end of this short section of 1 Corinthians and find that Paul is circling back to one of the main themes that started this entire discussion: love reigns supreme.

Is this loving?

What would you consider to be the guiding principle of your life? Before you say or do anything is there something, some sort of filter, you automatically process any and all situations through? If you were talking to Paul about this, I think he would say that the filter for everything you and I say or do ought to be love. Paul would hope we’d be consistently asking ourselves: Is this loving? But why is this the case? He tells us.

Love never ends.

As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13:8-13, ESV)

not everything all-important, some things come to an end

I like to chew gum. It’s important for me to have some gum ready to go at all times (even while playing the drums). I also like to breathe. And, it’s also important for me to be able to breathe at all times. So, if I had to choose, would I pick chewing gum or breathing?

You know the answer.

You know the answer because you know that even though a lot of things can be really important, not everything is all-important. This is clear in the way Paul sets up his argument from verses 8 to 13.

Paul begins with a statement I’ve far to easily breezed over in the past: Love never ends. For you Greek lovers (like me) out there, Paul said that love never katargeō. It could be translated as never dies or never comes to an end. To put it positively, love lasts forever—it’s eternal.

There are things that will come to an end, though, and Paul gives us three: prophecies, tongues, and knowledge. These won’t last forever—they’re not eternal. Aside from tongues, which Paul says will cease, he uses the same Greek word as he did for the never ending nature of love. Prophecies and tongues will katargeō—they will come to an end.

Why, though? Why is it that prophecies, tongues, and knowledge will stop? Why will they not go on forever into the new heavens and new earth?

the partial must give way to the complete

Paul anticipates this question (as he often does throughout his letters) and explains why some things will end in three different, but related ways.

1. Some things will end because they are not complete, and what is not complete will not last.

2. Some things will end because, just as adults need to let go of childish things as they mature, some things need to be left behind for better things.

3. Some things will end because what we see now isn’t as clear as it will be one day.

We know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. There is coming a day in which all that is left to be completed will be completed. This is (in my understanding) the second coming of the Son of God and the restoration of all things. This is the day in which the Lord will return to rule here on earth as he has been ruling from his throne, but in a more perfect sense. One of the big differences between now and then will be that this rule will take place on a new earth as it is joined with a new heaven (i.e., realm of God). This new home will be one without corruption; this new home will be perfect—it will be complete. And, so, what isn’t perfect will come to an end.

The point must be made, however, that this is not the same thing as saying that prophecies, tongues, and knowledge are not worth valuing or pursuing today. They most definitely are as Paul makes clear elsewhere in 1 Corinthians. Prophecies are real today. Tongues are real today. Knowledge is real today. They are are useful, but none of them are complete; they are partial. This situation is not dissimilar to the way in which the Old Covenant gave way to the New. The Old was not made obsolete (as the writer to the Hebrews said) because there was anything wrong with it. On the contrary, it was holy. It was made obsolete because something better came along (the incarnate Christ and the New Covenant).

Prophecies, tongues, and knowledge are important, but they are not all-important and so they must give way to what is.

faith, hope, and love remain

How then shall we live?

And, of course, Paul helps us here as he writes: “And now remain: faith, hope, love--these three. But love reigns supreme.” (1 Cor. 13:13) In comparison to prophecies, tongues, and knowledge that will not last forever, faith, hope, and love—these three, together—will go on forever. At the completion of all things our faith, hope, and love that we have now will expand and continue forever. Any trust you have in God today will expand when forever gets here. Any hope you have in God will grow when forever gets here. And any love you have for God will increase when forever gets here.

So, then, why not live like that’s actually true today? Why not practice now what we will be doing forever?

Those are the questions for us. You may want to prophecy—God bless. You may want to speak in tongues—God bless. You may want to know all there is to know—God bless. But let’s not pursue those wonderful and good gifts at the expense of those that will last forever: faith, hope, and the greatest—love.

Why is love the greatest?

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40, ESV)

Let all that you do be done in love. (1 Corinthians 16:14, ESV)

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Galatians 5:6, ESV)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12, ESV)

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16, ESV)

Do you see the persistent theme throughout these portions of the Bible? Love reigns supreme.

Whether it be the truth that the entire Old Covenant law is dependent and fulfilled in love. Or whether it be that in everything Paul insists we do it in love. Or whether it be that neither circumcision or uncircumcision is greater than love. Or whether it be that God’s love for us is perfected in us as we love. Or whether it be that God is love and if we make our home in love we live in God and God in us.

In all of these, love is the greatest.

This will be the major reality of the new heavens and new earth. The eventual home of God on this planet with his people like it has never been before.

It will be a world ruled by love, through the one who is love, with those who live in love.

A Church Called Love (Part 1): “…but have not love.”

without love, nothing

Burgers or pizza tonight?

What about burgers or pizza for the next 40-nights? What about for the next 10-years? Or, what about for the rest of your life?

At first the question is simple, because not much rides on it. It doesn’t really matter if I have burgers or pizza tonight, because I could have the other one tomorrow, or something else entirely. Now, if I had to choose one of those foods for the next 40-nights, things get more interesting. Further, if I had to choose one for the next 10-years, or the rest of my life. Now, we’re talking about a big, life-changing decision.

Let’s try another one.

If you could pick only one characteristic for your local church to be known by, what would it be?

Acts of service?
Generous hospitality?
Miraculous healings?
Sound teaching?
Unwavering faith?

I know what I’d choose from those five options. I know what I’d choose because of how incredibly important I believe it to be. Churches live or die based on what is taught and, ultimately, lived-out by those who make up a church. It’s not a far walk from believing that Jesus isn’t really God, to believing that salvation isn’t really possible, and so believing that these “stories” of Jesus in the Bible aren’t worth your time.

That being said, if I had to choose just one characteristic for my local church, it wouldn’t be on the list above. I know, I know, it wasn’t fair how I framed the question, because you didn’t know picking your own characteristic was actually allowed. A thousand pardons, please.

If I had to pick, it would be what Paul considered to be the most important. It would be what he, in 1 Corinthians, exhorts his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to make the foundation of all they do. It would be what Paul believed gave meaning to everything else.

The apostle writes this in 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:3:

And I will show you a still more excellent way.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

The message seems to be pretty straight forward. If Paul (and by application, you and I) doesn’t have love, it negatively affects all he does. It doesn’t matter if he can speak in different languages (humanly or angelic). It doesn’t matter if he has prophetic powers, or if he is able to understand all mysteries and all knowledge, or if he has total trust in God. It doesn’t even matter if he gives up his own body. If he does not have love, whatever he has said or done has come to nothing.

The message is clear: without love we are nothing, and there is nothing.

Why is this so? Why is it that without love, it doesn’t matter what we do? To answer this, we must first take a step back.

you are not far from the kingdom of god

In one sense, what Paul just said there in 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:3 doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter to us, nor does it matter to the world, if we have not considered ourselves to be living in the same world as Paul. For Paul, the world as we see it now, was not all there is. There were other things going on that weren’t readily visible to everyone. To put it another way, Paul really believed that God was doing something in this world that really changed the way those who followed him could and ought to live. This thing that God was doing is commonly called the kingdom of God (or heaven).

The kingdom of God was (and is) the reign of God in and through this world that Paul, you, and I live. It is the place within the world where God’s rule, influence, and way of life is being practiced and experienced. The kingdom of God is not some far off dream of an escape one day; it is the actual present-day reality of those who bow the knee to Jesus. And both of Paul’s knees hit the floor in front of Jesus.

Jesus talked about the practical reality of the kingdom of God like this:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. (Mt. 4:43-45a, ESV)

He was confronting this convoluted half-truth that God had called his people to love their neighbors and to hate their enemies. This was never what God had called them to do; instead, it was a manipulation of the real request God had made for his people: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” (Lev. 19:18, ESV)

And so, Jesus being Jesus, he announces to those who had been following him that if they are going to be a part of his kingdom then they are going to live in the truth of who God was and continues to be: love. Those who live in the kingdom of God (Jesus-people) are going to live like their king, and their king does not hate his enemies. In fact, he died for them (Rom. 5:10). So, his people are not going to hate them; instead, they are going to love them as their neighbor, because the kingdom of God is a place where love reigns supreme.

One day, as was pretty typical, someone came up to Jesus with a question about what type of life God had actually called his people into:

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. (Mk. 12:28-34, ESV)

The scribe knew what he was talking about, but I’m not sure he knew the implications of what he was talking about, or he at least didn’t want to fully accept them. There is nothing more that God asks of his people than to love those who were made in his image. This is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. In other words, there is nothing more special to God that you could offer him than to love other people. The implication, however, of agreeing with this is striking. If you trust Jesus and you trust what he has said then you are not far from the kingdom of God. You’re right there. You’re at the doorstep of living in the reality of God being king; the reality of Jesus being king. The next step is to move forward from mere agreement to living it out.

called to love

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn. 13:31-35, ESV)

One of the last things Jesus tells his disciples, before his eventual crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, is to love one another. Now, on one level this is not a new command. This had been given ages ago. God’s people were always instructed to love one another. However, on another level, this command from Jesus was as fresh as could be. Here he is, the king of the kingdom of God letting his disciples know that he is going away and there is but one thing they are to do: love one another. The reason, as Jesus says, is that by their loving one another the world will know that they are his disciples. And, as a result of the world knowing that they are Jesus’s disciples, the world will have a chance to know Jesus. That’s how love works in the kingdom of God. It is given to others, so that others would know God.

The Apostle John drills down on this point in his epistle to an early church body when he writes that, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8, ESV). It’s not hard to see how Jesus’s words in John 13 still hung in the ears of John years later. He took to heart what Jesus meant by calling his disciples to love one another and that was worked out for a group of early Jesus-followers through John explaining that those who don’t love, don’t know God, because God is love. It’s pretty cut-and-dry. They (and we) could not call themselves disciples of Jesus (i.e., God) and have no love for others. The two are (and continue to be) mutually exclusive realities. They either do not love others and thus prove that they don’t love God. Or, they love others and thus prove that they actually love God.

John naturally continues this line of reasoning in writing that, “…we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn. 4:16, ESV). Those who remain/live in love, remain/live in God. The two realities go hand-in-hand. It’s not like there are a bunch of hoops to jump through in order to be connected to God and helpful to the world. The calling is simple: love.

okay, but, what is love?

Now, although the calling is simple, the practicalities and real-world application of that calling bring with it all the complexities we could imagine, which is why we ought to be so thankful for Paul because of what he wrote down for the Corinthian church (and us, two-thousand-years later).

Paul began with the truth that our speech and our actions are meaningless if we do not have love. Next, he will continue down this road by describing to us some of the characteristics of this slippery word love. Because, if you’re anything like me, the question that’s been buzzing around your head throughout this article is: what is love?

A Moment on the Scriptures: The Theology of Christmas (3)

In the Athanasian Creed, the writers were doing their best to describe the Jesus found in the New Testament with as much clarity as possible. They did this by means of introducing a description that we may have never used when thinking or talking about Jesus.

He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time;

What makes someone or something who they are? Their essence. By way of a somewhat silly example, it may help to consider a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

What is the essence of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? It can’t be the bread, because other types of sandwiches are made with bread. The essence of that particular sandwich is the peanut butter and jelly. The way you can tell the difference between a ham and cheese and a PB&J is not by the bread, but by what’s in between the bread.

The same type of thing can be said about Jesus.

He is who he is because of the Father. That which makes the Father God, is what makes Jesus God. Note, the specificity with the creed. Jesus is God from the essence of the Father. It does not say that Jesus is the Father from the essence of the Father. There is no confusion with the creed as to who Jesus is and to who the Father is. Jesus and the Father are two of the three unique persons of the divine Godhead—the Trinity.

Furthermore, Jesus comes from the Father. More precisely, the creed says that Jesus is begotten before time from the Father. In other words, Jesus is and has been—for all of eternity past—coming from the Father. You could say he has been proceeding from the Father for all time.

It must be stated, before going further, that this idea of the Son eternally coming from the Father is not one that is held by all believers. It is a belief I hold to and one I, of course believe is biblical, but there would be others who would disagree. That being said, let’s move forward.

This is where your head could start to hurt, but the Scriptures present a Jesus who has been the Son of God forever. God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—has existed forever and for as long as God has existed, the Son has been coming from— or in using the language of the creed, begotten of—the Father.

This is, of course, exactly what is said in the letter of 1 John: “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 Jn. 4:14, LEB).

By the Numbers: "Love" in 1 John 4:7-21

1 Corinthians 13 is often referred to as the “love chapter” in the New Testament, and rightfully so. What Paul says about love in that part of his letter is worldview altering. We all ought to come to 1 Corinthians 13 ready and willing to be examined by God through Scripture because what Paul says there is no less than definitional about love.

That being said—and you should have known an exception was going to be made from the title of this article—if we’re going by the numbers there’s one section in the New Testament that really ought to be considered a primary authority on love. And that section is 1 John 4:7-21.

In those 15 verses love (or loved, loves, and loving) is used a total of 27 times. That’s roughly 1.8 times per verse. To put it into a bit of perspective, love, loved, loves, and loving is used a total of 46 times throughout all of 1 John. That means 58.7% of the usages of love, loved, loves, and loving throughout the entire letter is found in 1 John 4:7-21.

To add more perspective to the matter, love (and its different forms) is used 56 times throughout the entire Gospel of John. This means that in 1 John 4:7-21, love makes up 26.4% of its usage in 1 John and the Gospel of John combined.

In comparing 1 John 4:7-21 directly to 1 Corinthians 13 we something pretty interesting. In 1 Corinthians 13, love (and in context, “it”) is used a total of 17 times in just 13 verses. That’s roughly 1.3 times per verse. Compared to that of 1 John 4:7-21’s 1.8 times per verse, we see a difference of only 0.5 usages per verse.

For even more perspective—just because it’s fun—love shows up a total of 316 times in the New Testament and 751 times in the entire Bible. This means that in 1 John 4:7-21 we find 8.5% of its usage in the New Testament and 3.5% in the entire Bible.

By the numbers, 1 John 4:7-21 is definitely the authority on love for John’s writings. Whether it really is the authority over that of 1 Corinthians 13 is up for debate. But, if we’re going by the numbers, 1 John 4:7-21 wins in a close one.