How Could Jesus Be God and Man at the Same Time?

When we discussed the attributes of God, we said that one way of discussing Him is to say that He is immortal. He is eternal. In other words, He does not have a beginning or an end. We also said that He is invisible, and then we said that He is described in terms of omnis ("all"). He is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. So the question is really, how can God, who is unlimited, infinite, and immortal, take upon Himself human nature which is finite, mortal, and limited?

One possible clue is to consider that when God created man in His image, there may have been more similarity to the second Person of the Trinity than we have realized. Perhaps the gap between God and sinless man was not as great as we have always imagined. The Bible does tell us in I John 3:2, "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."

Jesus Christ, according to the Bible, is the very essence of God. Jesus is the express image of God, and the Bible says that "in Him all things consist" (Colossians 1:17CloseColossians 1:17 He existed before anything else,  and he holds all creation together. OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt) ). But we are also told that He emptied Himself in order to become a man (seePhilippians 2:5-8ClosePhilippians 2:5-8 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God,*  he did not think of equality with God  as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges*;  he took the humble position of a slave*  and was born as a human being.When he appeared in human form,*   he humbled himself in obedience to God  and died a criminal's death on a cross. OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt) ). He did not empty Himself of His love, His goodness, His kindness, or His gentleness; for His divine nature was undiminished in the incarnation. But to become a human infant He did empty Himself of the eternal majesty that He shared in the presence of His heavenly Father. He went through the teen-age years, grew up to be a man, died, and then came back to life again.

Jesus was a flesh-and-blood man, with all that entails, except for sin. When Jesus died on the cross, it was not an illusion. He really died. He suffered as men suffer. He became tired and hungry. He was not some superman, free from pain and discomfort. The Bible says that He was tempted in like manner as we are, yet was without sin (seeHebrews 4:15CloseHebrews 4:15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt) ). He went through all the problems that man can go through; yet He always possessed His divine nature and His awareness of the presence of the Father and the Holy Spirit.

There are some people who say, "Well, He became God when the Holy Spirit came upon Him." But that is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that He was truly God from the moment of His conception by the Holy Spirit. But at the same time He was fully human (seePhilippians 2:5-8ClosePhilippians 2:5-8 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God,*  he did not think of equality with God  as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges*;  he took the humble position of a slave*  and was born as a human being.When he appeared in human form,*   he humbled himself in obedience to God  and died a criminal's death on a cross. OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt) ,Hebrews 2:14-18CloseHebrews 2:14-18 Because God's children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had* the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the descendants of Abraham. Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters,* so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested. OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt) , Hebrews 4:14-16).

Excerpt taken from Answers to 200 of Life's Most Probing Questions, Copyright 1984 by Pat Robertson.