by Tim Reeves
Synopsis: Remembering that Jesus left His glory to suffer humiliation as a man should move us to serve Him lovingly and faithfully.
“In the beginning was the Word. . . and the Word became flesh.” With these two declarations, John asserts the truth of Jesus’s prior existence, and that He later entered the world as a man (1:1, 14). His preexistence goes hand in hand with the fact of His deity. Hence, John also asserted, “the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” So begins the fourth gospel account, which emphasizes the deity of Jesus while bearing out his true humanity.
John used the Greek imperfect tense when stating that in the beginning Jesus “was being,” or “was (already) existing,” and not that He “came into being” then, as the Greek aorist would signify. In contrast, when stating that the Word became flesh, he used the aorist tense because that was a one-point-in-time event. Jesus referenced His prior existence in heaven when He prayed the Father to glorify Him “with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (John 17:5). This eternal condition that He shared with the Father is what Paul referred to, saying, “although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,” that is, to be held on to at all costs. Instead, Jesus “emptied Himself,” leaving that glorious condition, “taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6-7). Moreover, “though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).
When antagonistic Jews wished to kill Him while claiming to be children of Abraham, Jesus retorted, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. . . this (i.e., desire to kill Me) Abraham did not do.” In fact, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” When they misconstrued that to mean Jesus had seen Abraham, Jesus made the even more startling assertion, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). That may not make for good English, but it is precisely the way to express and emphasize, not only the preexistence, but also the eternal existence of the person of Jesus. Jesus used the aorist when saying that Abraham “was,” that is, “came into being” at a point in time past. Jesus did not merely assert, “before Abraham was, I was.” Rather, He affirmed, ”I am.” He used the present tense of His own existence. This can only signify the timeless, eternal nature of His person. Further, by saying,”I am” (as also John 8:24, 28) Jesus no doubt intended to identify Himself with Jehovah, who revealed Himself to Moses, saying “I am who I am. . . say, ‘I am’ has sent me to you” (Exod. 3:14). These Jews evidently understood Jesus correctly to be claiming to be God, “Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him” (v. 59).
His incarnation fulfilled several purposes in God’s scheme. By coming in the flesh, Jesus was the best manifestation of God to man, and “we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” Since the Son “is in the bosom of the Father,” He is in the best position to reveal Him to man. So John declares, “He has explained Him” (1:18), not merely by words, but showed by His very manner and personality the true nature and character of God. He is not just an impersonal, impressive force, but a powerful, personal God—holy yet loving—who longs to redeem man so that He might enjoy a relationship with man now and in eternity. That is what we see in Jesus and His lifestyle. In this way, Jesus could reply to Philip’s sincere but uninformed demand to “show us the Father” by saying, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-9). At His incarnation, Jesus fully became “Immanuel,” i.e., God with us!
The writer of Hebrews gives several reasons for the incarnation and explains that, in becoming a man, Jesus “has been made for a little while lower than angels. . . that, by the grace of God, He might taste death for every one” (Heb. 2:9). God, as God alone, cannot die; yet, in becoming man, Christ could and did. “Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. . .” (vv. 14-15). For God to forgive sin righteously, His decreed penalty for sin (i.e., death) had to be paid, and only by a sinless One whose death would not be for His own sin but could serve as a substitute for that of others. Consider the writer’s explanation in chapter 10:
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, but a body Thou hast prepared for Me. . . Behold I have come. . . to do Thy will, O God.” By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (10:4-10).
Further, he states, “it was fitting,” (i.e., exactly appropriate to the demands of God’s purpose) “in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings” (2:10). The Son of God became man, so that men may become sons of God. Suffering perfects as it tests and “teaches” obedience: “although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered; and having been made perfect, He became, to all those who obey Him, the source of eternal salvation” (Heb. 5:8-9). Similarly, Paul emphasized that His humiliation involved “becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). One does not learn obedience from doing what he already wants to do, but from what he does not want to do in his own will and desire, and yet doing it because it is God’s will.
We must appreciate Jesus’s willingness to identify completely with the plight and experience of man: “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted” (Heb. 2:17-18). Being as He was (i.e., an older brother), the writer of Hebrews urges us to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace” appealing for help from our sympathetic high priest (4:14-16).
By referring to the Lord Jesus as the “last Adam” and the “second man” (1 Cor. 15:45, 47), we understand that He became a man to demonstrate and fulfill God’s original intention for a man. That intention involved never acting independently from God, but only always living in fellowship with God, and with His help. Jesus could assert, “He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him” (John 8:29). Paul said that Adam is a “type of Him who was to come” (Rom. 5:14). This implies, at His coming, that Jesus was the antitype of Adam; that which accurately corresponds to Adam, without, however, the curse and consequences of personal sin. Hooray for this Man who fulfilled God’s plan!
Interestingly, we never read of Jesus “emptying Himself of His humanity,” or something to that effect, when He ascended back to Heaven. Rather, Paul continues to speak in present tense of the “man Jesus” in His current role, saying, “There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). This likewise fits with the statements that Jesus presently exists in bodily form (Col. 2:9), albeit with a glorified, heavenly body (Phil. 3:21; 1 Cor. 15:49). Now, He underwent this change to man without ever abandoning His deity. There is something very profound in the apparent fact that Jesus was willing to take on this change permanently; all for the purpose of redeeming man to God.
