The Way of the Spirit

Behold the Man

A Study of Jesus' Humanity

Richard George

How do you think of Jesus? Many Christians understand that Jesus is man and God, yet somehow attribute different aspects of his life and ministry to whichever category seems more appropriate. In other words, we imagine that Jesus of Nazareth was somehow part-man, part-God, the 'God' bit being the element that enabled him to perform miracles, and the man-bit there to feel sad or display other human qualities. Or, even worse, that he was actually God walking around on earth in appearance of a man; that somehow every appearance of humanity, e.g. struggling to carry out his heavenly Father's plan to go all the way to the cross, was somehow put on to give the impression that he was one of us, when all the time he was God 'in disguise'.

These wrong views are perfectly understandable, after all we need to be able to, in some way, reconcile his manhood and divinity, and something along one of these lines is perhaps the simplest way to do it. Unfortunately, if we do we end up with a 'mixed up' Jesus -- one who is half God and half man -- we end up watering down both.

This short course will enable you to engage with Jesus' humanity and see that it was authentic; Jesus was just as human as you or I.

Jesus' divinity will be examined in a future short course.