THE HUMANITY OF THE MESSIAH

In the beginning God brought forth His Son, as the firstborn of all creation. (Colossians1:15) “These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” (Rev.3:14) In Proverbs 8, the Son of God, the Word, is characterised as “Wisdom” This is also carried through in the new covenant writings (Luke11:49). “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God”. (I Corinthians 1:24) Christ (Wisdom) was with God as a “master craftsman” while He created the universe (Proverbs 8:30).

“YHWH possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.” (Proverbs 8:23)

The verb (QANANI) which is translated as ‘possessed‘ also means to acquire, or create, as the RSV translates it. “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth” (Proverbs 8:22-23 RSV)

“When there were no depths I was brought forth,” (Pr.8:24)

Yahweh God, in whom are corporate male and female characteristics, brought forth His firstborn Son. He then created the angels, who are also referred to in scripture as “sons of God”. But He only has one Son who is begotten of Him and He is of a higher order than the angels. “For to which of the angels did He ever say: You are My Son, today I have begotten you" (Hebrews 1:5) ”Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the Word of His power ...” .....  :having become so much better than the angels as he has by inheritance a more excellent name than they” (Hebrews 1:2-3, 4; see also Hebrews 1:8) He was in the form of God, of the same substance and having the same nature as Him, but not co-equal to Him. Because He has the same nature as God and was born from God, He is divine by nature, but He is not the One who is the Supreme Being in the universe, who alone is God.

Note: Of the 1,354 times the word “God” is used in the New Testament, more than 99% of the time it refers exclusively to God, the Father, while it only applies to His Son four times. (John 1:1; John 20:28; Hebrews 1:8; 1 Timothy 3:16)

“For as the Father has life in himself; so has He given to the Son to have life in himself.” (John 5:26) He was created to be of the same substance and nature as the Father and therefore, although he was a separate entity,having individuality (a mind,will and emotions of His own), yet He was in complete unity with the Father as a self-existent divine Being. He is always referred to as the “Son of God”, the highest of all creation.

When the Father brought forth His Son into the world, He prepared a human body for him through the implantation of His ‘seed’ in the womb of Mirium/Mary by the Holy Spirit.

"Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, "Sacrifice and offering you didn't desire, but you prepared a body for me" (Hebrews 10:5) How could such a thing be? ... ... ... “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you: wherefore also the holy one who is to be born shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35 )

Yeshua was born into the human race bypassing fertilisation by human sperm. The sperm or ‘seed’ was supplied by the Father according to the “DNA” of His Son. He therefore, He did not inherit the human blood-type which was the result of Adam’s fall. Being without inherited sin, He was in the same state as Adam when he was created. As a human, His spirit, soul and body were undefiled and at their full potential, unlike the diminished capacity of man’s soul after Adam’s fall into spiritual death. Yeshua was spiritually alive unto God, His Father. Therefore the faculties of His human spirit were receptive and in union with the Father. The faculties of His soul, His mind,will and emotions, were pure but capable of sin, as was Adam in his original sinless state.

The scripture tells us that He was in all points tempted as we can be (Hebrews 4:15). If that were not so, He could not be able to succour us in our need. Through enduring temptation and not yielding to sin, He perfected His human nature. A tested and proven sinless life was required to redeem mankind from Adam‘s failure and be the prototype of a new ‘race’, a “second man” (1 Corinthians 15::47-49). “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” Hebrews 5:8-9

Yahweh needed a man, a complete human, to substitute for Adam’s race. For that purpose, the Son had to divest Himself of all his heavenly glory and power and become limited to the faculties of the human body (Phil.2:6-7).

”Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He himself shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14)

His divinity was laid aside and He took on humanity albeit in its original uncorrupted state. (John 17:5)

“Therefore in all things he had to be made like his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.”

For in that He himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” (Hebrew 2:17-18)

“All things" means ALL things.

It needed a man to die for the sins of the whole world. But it needed a sinless man, not of Adam's blood line to die as a substitute for the Adamic race. Because the blood came from the Father and not the mother, He was able to be born of Mary/Mirium by the Power and the Spirit of His Father.

Although he was the Son of God in a human body, he repeatedly called Himself the “Son of Man” - it was a fully human man that died in our place - God didn’t die on the execution stake. He had a human spirit, because human beings are spirit, soul and body. He was the Son of the Father contained within a human spirit. Therefore it was his own human spirit that He gave up in death. (Luke 23:46; Hebrews 2:9)

EVIDENCE OF HIS HUMANITY

Those who knew Him as he was growing up did not attribute anything special or divine to Him. In fact, they rejected His proclamation of having a divine commission. The people of Nazareth reacted by saying, “where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works" ... “so they were offended at Him" and Yeshua said, “A prophet is not without honour, except in his own country and in his own house." (Matt. 13:54, 57; Mark 6:1-4))

Not only in the small community in which He grew up was there nothing which had attracted special attention, but also in his own household. Those who lived with him day by day, did not see evidence of anything divine. It is to be understood here that Mirium was chosen for her godliness and therefore her other children would have been brought up in the ways of Yahweh to walk in godliness and that was the norm in their household.

We see the reactions of his family when He first begins His ministry: Using the Aramaic Peshitta text... “And they came to a house. And the crowds gathered again so that they were not able to eat. And when his own family heard, they went out to seize him, for they were saying that he was crazy.. And those scribes who came from Urishlim were saying, “Beelzebub is in him” and “He casts out demons by the chief of demons”. (Mark 3:19-22)

and continuing in verses 31-35 (the same event in recorded in Matthew 12:46-50) “And came his mother and brothers standing outside. And they sent someone to call him to them. Now a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Behold your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.” And he said to them, “Who is my mother? and who is my brothers. And he gazed at those who sat among him and said, “Behold my mother and my brothers. For it is he who does the will of Elohim is my brother and my sister and my mother."

When the family was going up to the feast Yeshua declined going with them and it is recorded : “For not even his brothers had believed in him, in Y’shua” (John 7:3, 5)

ANOINTED TO BE THE MESSIAH

Yeshua had the personality of the Son imparted into his human body by the Father but He had no resources that were not available to a sinless man. At His Baptism He received the fullest measure possible of the holy Spirit that can dwell in a human being. That is, He had the fullness of the godhead within Him. He had the fullness of God’s nature and power dwelling in him as a human. ‭“For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 3:8,9)

He did not use any divine power in His life other than that which he had through His baptism in the Holy Spirit that is not available to us through the same baptism in the Holy Spirit. He constantly said, that all He did and said was from the Father, that He did nothing of Himself - that is, it was not the extent of power which He had previous to His incarnation, but that which came from the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

He constantly said that He did nothing of Himself and all that He did and said originated from the Father "Then Yeshua said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am [He], and [that] I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. “ (John 8:28) "For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does;” (John 5:20)

“I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” (John 8:38) “For I have not spoken on My own [authority]; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.” John 12:49 “Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” (John 12:50) “ for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15)

"But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish--the very works that I do--bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. (John 5:36)

"Yeshua answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father.” (John 10:32) "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;” (John 10:37) “Yeshua answered them, “The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. (John 10:25)

NEW CREATURES IN CHRIST

His perfected life as a human being is what is imparted to us when we lay down our lives and die to our fallen sinful nature by identification with Him in His death, burial and resurrection (Romans 6:3-5). “The first man (Adam) was of the earth, made of dust, the second man is the Lord from heaven.” (1 Cor. 15:47) “As we have borne the image of the man of dust, so we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man” (v.49)

Yeshua created the prototype for a ‘second man’ to supersede the first fallen man. He, as a “last Adam”, became a life-giving spirit to all who receive His propitiatory work of atonement for their sins (1 Corinthians 15:45b).

The spirit of life in Yeshua the Messiah has made us free from sin and death, in that He overcame the same as a complete human being for the whole Adamic race, so they also can overcome the fleshly nature (Romans 8:2).

He imparted His life to His consecrated disciples through the holy Spirit which was in Him, in John 20:21-22. Notice that He breathed it from Himself into them and told them to await the greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit (the Presence and Power of the Father) which would be a complete immersion in holy Spirit (Acts 1:5; 2:4).

By this means, both the spirit of Christ/Messiah (the anointed One) and fifty days later at Shavout/Pentecost, the spirit of the Father came to dwell in the disciples ,as He had said to them on the night of His crucifixion (John 14:15-18, 20, 23). Both were imparted through the agency of the holy Spirit, demonstrating two aspects and measures of the diverse manifestations of the same holy Spirit - that which had been resident in Yeshua and of that which came directly from the Father.

This impartation of His Spirit has raised us up to be enthroned with Him in the spiritual realm, partakers with Him of His glory and ambassadors with Him in His ministry - heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ according to the revelation given to His apostles. (John 17:24; Romans 8:17 Eph. 3:5-7; 2:6-7; Colossians 2:12)

He died and was buried as a mortal man but was resurrected by the power of the Father as an incorruptible, immortal spirit-man; entering back into the glory which He had with His Father prior to His incarnation, in this new form as a divine spirit-Man. “Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed." (John 17:5; Rev.1:5, 13-16, 18)

He now sits at the right hand of the Father interceding on our behalf until His Body has been brought to completion. Then the Head will unite with His spirit-Body to become the corporate “Christ” (Eph.1:22-23)

“Now the main point of the things we are saying is this: we have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the temple which Yahweh erected and not man.” (Hebrews 8:1-2)

We are that temple of living stones and shall be raised immortal and incorruptible in spirit-bodies, like unto His. (1 Peter 2;4-5; Rev.21:9-11; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53; Luke 24:39)

His life and His death, partaking of the same form and the same nature of mankind, “like unto His brethren”,was to fulfil the Father’s pleasure in having many sons enter into His glory.

He who was in the form of God, thought it not something to be grasped at and to hold onto, but instead emptied himself of His divine glory which he had received from the Father and took on himself the form of a servant to enter into the human race and be the substitute Lamb for their salvation. Wherefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him a position and a Name above all authorities and powers in heaven and upon earth that all heaven and earth might honour Him as Lord, to the glory of God, the Father . (Philippians 2:6-11) .... Amen!!!