Reflecting on humanity of Jesus Christ

The divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ are the two fundamental Christian doctrines. This article concerns the humanity of Jesus Christ.  There is ample materials and teachings concerning the humanity of Jesus in the Bible. In the New Testament both the gospels of Matthew and Luke commence with the human genealogy of Jesus. Though he had miraculous conception his was a normal human birth. His life, from the “womb to the tomb” Jesus had normal human growth and development; he was totally a human person, but without sin.
The Old Testament anticipates that the redemption of Man from the bondage of sin would be in and through one who is both God and Man. The teaching of the New Testament is very clear also that Jesus Christ is this divine-human person, who is Jesus Christ the incarnation of God in human flesh. Throughout the entire conception of his life, his obedience, his conception, gestation, birth, development as a full human person, his limitations, sufferings, death, burial and resurrection, without, in any way, surrendering his divinity so that he might serve as humanity’s representative, substitute and model.
Jesus as we find portrayed in the Gospels had physical limitations.  He experienced hunger, thirst. He was agonized in his body and soul before his death. He also had the normal human emotions. He had joy, sorrow. He had love and compassion, anger and the like. A deep study of the New Testament reveals the depth and intensity of Jesus’ sufferings and emotions. The Bible is clearly telling us that Jesus Christ came to suffer all pains and agonies and gave his life as a ransom-price for human sin and salvation. To quote Isaiah 53: 4-5 “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered him as stricken by God and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed.” The great Old Testament prophet Isaiah, known among Christian Theologians as the most Christian prophet in the Old Testament made his prophecies about Christ in 8th century B.C. in what is called ‘the prophetic past tense’.  It is pertinent to note that John Calvin, the great Church reformer in the 16th century remarked about Christ: “Those who imagine that the Son of God was exempt from human passion do not truly and seriously acknowledge him to be a man.”
Jesus’ humanity means that he is the representative of fallen humanity. Sin entered human race through the first human Adam in the Garden of Eden. It was so eternally decreed by God that the redemption from sin should come from one human person, Christ Jesus called ‘the seed of the woman’ (Genesis 3:15). “Seed of the woman”, because he would be born of the Virgin Mary without any connection to any human father.  Jesus is the last Adam or the New Adam. He is the true human in who fallen humanity is reconciled to God. To quote St. Paul: “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons”. 
Christ is the Model before the redeemed humanity. St. Peter wrote to the suffering Christians in the first churches: “But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:21-22). 
Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness after he had fasted for 40 days after his baptism, his normal religious life following the Old Testament, his limited knowledge as shown sometimes in the gospel narratives, his submission to the will of God, the Father, his life of prayers to the Father should make it clear about his humanity. 
Jesus Christ became man to meet man, to redeem man from the bondage of sin. If a king wishes to conquer another country he or his representative must enter into that country. Christ came to free the sinner from the shackle of sin. 

The writer is a Christian Theology teacher and Church leader