God With Us

By Heath Jarrett

There's no Christianity without Christ; it stands or falls on who Jesus really is. Nearly every heresy in the early church distorted the Bible's teaching about Jesus.
Is Jesus God? Is he man? YES! Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, one person with two natures. Scripture doesn't see any daylight between the two. John's opening chapter seamlessly affirms both realities.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).

Jesus is God.

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

Jesus is God become man.

John's opening line purposely evokes the first words of the Bible, bringing us to the scene of creation. Jesus was there before anything else existed. And Jesus created everything without exception (John 1:3). He has always been God. But he has not always been man. Note the language of verse 14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” At conception, Jesus gained a completely human nature.

Jesus did not cease to be God. He became man. Jesus did not empty himself of his deity or temporarily set it aside. Jesus emptied himself not by subtraction but by addition. Jesus, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:5–7). He did not subtract divinity or suppress certain divine attributes but added humanity.

Jesus Christ is totally God, "for in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Col 1:19), become fully man, "for in him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Col 2:9). To deny either is to deny Christ.

Heretics of the first centuries weren't the only ones to deny central truth about Christ. All the cults today masquerade as Christians while denying fundamentals of the faith. Often, they attack the two natures of Christ. Beloved, we will forever ponder the grandeur of Immanuel, God with us. No one says this is easy. This is supreme and sublime truth. May the Spirit of God give us eyes of faith to behold Jesus Christ, the unique God-man!