Humanity of Jesus

Another case people present against Christ’s humanity is the amount of knowledge he possessed. Didn’t Jesus know all things? He knew things before they happened—doesn’t that prove He used His deity to live out His humanity? Not necessarily. Eleven different times in the Gospels it said that Jesus “knew” something that others did not seem to know. On five occasions He “ knew” people’s thoughts: “But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, ‘It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.’ Jesus knew their thoughts”” (Matt. 12:24–25). “Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ‘Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts” (Mark 2:6–8; also see Luke 5:22). “The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking” (Luke 6:7–8). “Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven. Jesus knew their thoughts” (Luke 11:16–17). Do these occurrences mean that He used His divinity to know their thoughts? Couldn’t His Father have revealed their thoughts to Him? Perhaps He sensed them in the countenance of their faces or the posture of their bodies. Doesn’t Proverbs say that the Lord takes the upright into His confidence in Proverbs 3:32? When I meditate on this profound concept, my respect for the Son of Man is greatly deepened. With new insight and profound appreciation, I realize that He learned obedience through His suffering—a suffering that began early in life and went all the way to the cross. So often I have pictured that Christ only suffered when He went to the cross. But when I understand that His obedience throughout life caused suffering for Him, I begin to understand what Paul means when he speaks of the “fellowship of suffering.” He was without sin in a sinful world. That pure conscience and unstained life caused Him to experience deep sorrow and pain as He ministered to people, even as a young child. He obeyed all the way to the cross, even death on the cross. When He cried out, “It is finished,” He had taken on every type of mockery and injustice that sinful man could pour on Him. He suffered when He obeyed (Heb. 2:18) and yet “learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Heb. 5:8–9). I hope that all of these things about Christ, strengthen His case that He is man. That even the people who believe he lost his humanity through His deity, will begin to see that He never had to dip into it. That His well that connected Him to God never stopped flowing, because He was so invested in the word, and in His love of the Father.

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