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Napoleon is credited as saying, “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself have founded great empires. But Jesus alone founded His Empire upon love, and to this very day, millions would die for Him. Jesus Christ was more than a man.” For the Christian, comments like this bring a smile to our face because it recognizes the significance of our Savior. But are we the minority? We live in a time of growing intellectual sophistication that defines itself by the logic of its thinking. It is illogical to consider that Jesus Christ was more than a man; therefore, it is rejected in the pursuit of truth. To the unbelieving world, Jesus Christ was merely a remarkable man. For the Christian to accept that Jesus Christ was only a man is to nullify the work of the cross and to invalidate the claim to Heaven. But why? Why must Christ be more than a man and just how does that work?  More Than a Man As Christians, we are taught that the deity of Christ is pinnacle to our salvation, but why? Couldn't a perfect man satisfy the penalty of sin? Yes and no. Sinless man would satisfy the penalty of sin, but a mere man would be finite meaning that he would be limited by time; therefore, his work of salvation could only be finite as well. The one whom salvation was to come through must be not only sinless, but infinite or eternal as well. That way salvation would be extended to all people past, present and future. Why couldn't Jesus have been an angel? Jesus had to be human. Hebrews 2:14 explains it, “For only as a human could He die, and only by dying could He break the power of the Devil, who had the power of death.” The Savior had to overcome death. To overcome death He had to meet death. If Christ had not been a man, He could not have died. | What separates Jesus from any other figure in history is the fact that, in the person of Jesus Christ, deity and humanity coexist. But the greater wonder is found when we realize how they coexisted. The Chemistry of Christ Attempts have been made to explain the coexistence of deity and humanity in such a way that makes Jesus equal part man and equal part God, but this is incorrect. Jesus is fully God and fully man. If Jesus were only part of both, then what part of God is left out? What part of man is left behind? Philippians 2:7 teaches us that Christ emptied Himself to be born in the likeness of men. This is used as evidence that Christ left behind some of His deity. But the text speaks only of Christ taking on the form of a servant. Would it not be better to understand this verse as indicating that Christ left the privilege of Heaven, but never stopped being fully divine? Attempts have been made to explain the coexistence as two strands of rope being wound together to make one cord, but this falls short. People have wanted to understand that the deity of Jesus was added to Him the day He was baptized and taken away when He hung on the Cross. But that corrupts the identification of God with man in that He was born from the womb of a woman and suffered death. Instead, let us use three glasses to picture the impossibility of Jesus being fully God and fully man. Each of the glasses are equal in size. One glass is empty while the other two, containing differing liquids, are full. The wonder of Jesus Christ is grasped when we imagine the two full glasses being emptied into the third glass. No part of either glass is lost; rather the third glass contains fully the contents of the one and fully the contents of the other. Jesus is fully God and fully man with nothing left out. In conclusion, the wonder of Jesus as the God/man goes beyond just a doctrinal position. The combining of deity and humanity in one person represents the thoroughness of God in dealing completely with the problem of redemption. All other religions, all other avenues that men may look to, fail in some aspect regarding the complexity of adequate redemption. God in His wisdom understood fully what was needed. Jesus Christ is the complete answer to the basic problem and to all the problems that humanity can face. |