Saturday 4 December 2021

Fully God Fully Man

 

Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of our Christian faith is understanding how Jesus was/is fully God and fully man. 

Jesus is the third person of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity, another mystery, consists of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. 

All three are God. But each one is a separate living being. The Father is not Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Jesus is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is not the Father or Jesus the Son. Yet each one is separately God.

I accept it is difficult to understand. But let us persevere and try to consider how Jesus is both fully God and fully man; then perhaps some clarity may appear.

Jesus did not start to exist when He was born on earth by the Virgin Mary. He always existed as a Spirit, totally independent from God, Whom we call the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus was, and is, a Spirit and a living God that always existed.

When He was born on earth He took the form of a human being. He was made just like us, flesh, blood, bones and so on. He was fully human from that moment of His birth onwards. And He was fully God from the beginning of time. As long as God and the Holy Spirit existed, Jesus also existed as a Spirit and a God.

When He walked this earth, the body that we saw and recognised as Jesus was fully a human being. Just like us. But the Spirit, the soul, within that body was Jesus, who existed since the beginning of time.

When Jesus performed miracles it was the Divine Godship within Him, His Spirit, who performed the miracles which the human body was seen to perform.

His physical body, which was seen by the people of the time, was a human body like ours with the same feelings, and emotions that we too experience in life.

Let us look at this from a personal basis. We are spirits. Yes, you and me, and everyone else are spirits. We sometimes call this spirit our soul. Although this is not strictly accurate. It is not our soul as such because more accurately we are a soul. It would be more accurate to say that we are a soul, a spirit, and we have a body within which we inhabit.

In a way, we are no different to Jesus in that respect. We are a soul, a spirit, within a human body. 

The very important difference is that we are not a living God, and our spirit has not always existed. It started to exist when we are created by God at conception. And it will continue to exist when our human body dies.

Our spirit, or soul, does not die when our physical body dies and disintegrates. Our spirit/soul continues to live on for eternity.

When we hurt our body, say we hurt our finger or hand, it is the human body, the flesh and bones etc ... which feels the pain and reacts to it.

But when we act in life, when we decide what to do or say, or how we behave, it is us as a soul who decides how to behave. Our bodies may take the actions required, but it is us the "soul/spirit" who controls the action.

That is how Jesus was fully God and fully human. His Spirit was/is an ever existing Godly soul, and His body was fully human. Suffering the pains and agonies of torture and beatings when He died on the Cross. He felt every pain that was inflicted on Him just like any human would have done. Yet, His Divine Spirit accepted it all for our sake. 

A mystery we will never fully understand in this life.

24 comments:

  1. ...life is filled with mysteries.

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  2. Dearest Victor,
    Our entire Faith is based on mysteries and the fact is that we have souls and they will never die...
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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  3. I think you did an admirable job of explaining a complicated topic.

    (That sounds so...Vulcan.)

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    1. Thank you Sandi for the kind Vulcan compliment. I did like Star Trek.

      God bless always.

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  4. I won't pretend to grasp this, but I WILL believe!
    I love what Dr. Wayne Dyer said, "... and infinite spiritual being having a temporary human experience."

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    1. I think this is right. Jesus was always an infinite Divine spiritual being Who existed since the beginning of time. He existed for ever, just like God and the Holy Spirit.

      He had a temporary human experience (about 33 years) in a human body. Yet, this is very important, this human body of His was raised from the dead, seen as a living human body by many, and then raised to Heaven as a human body. As well as the Divine Godly spirit.

      God bless, Mevely.

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  5. It is confusing and probably will always be. I remember being in grade school and listening to someone talking about it. I didn't understand it then and still have a hard time figuring it out. It's a mystery indeed!

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    1. Yes, it can be difficult to understand. That is faith.

      God bless, Bill.

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  6. Ah ha, at times you make sense as I read LOL ;-)
    ..... Mysteries are just that, MYSTERIES. I try to understand, but still find myself in AWE of the BIG Mysteries. I have heard many folks over the years tell folks what God thinks!!! RIGHT. I do know this, GOD KNOWS, I try to ACCEPT.
    Love ya
    Sherry & jack

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    1. Thank you, Jack. I do hope that I talk sense sometimes. Our religion is full of mysteries.

      God bless you and Sherry always.

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  7. You explained it all so well. Great job.

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    1. Thank you so much, Happyone.

      God bless you and yours.

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  8. Victor, you have such a gift for making difficult topics easy to understand.

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    1. You are very kind, Kathy. Thank you for your nice compliment.

      God bless always.

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  9. A mystery for which i am very, very grateful.

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  10. With all three being separately called God, some might now say that there cannot be the one true God, since he is three at once, that we believe in Gods, much as ancient persons believed in Gods (plural) such as Odin, Thor and so on.

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    1. You make a very valid point, River. I have tried to explain it more fully here:

      https://timeforreflections.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-holy-trinity.html

      God bless.

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  11. We were never meant to fully understand these things, Victor, but that's what faith is for. Sorry I'm so late getting to the party, but your blog has failed to show up for the last two days. There's another mystery!!!
    Blessings!

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    1. I wonder if it's something to do with the e-mail system that sends notification of new postings.

      I have made a list of all the Blogs I like to visit and click each link in turn daily to check whether they have posted or not. I find it easier than waiting for e-mails not to arrive.

      Thanx for visiting me, Martha. God bless.

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