The deity of Jesus is the second in an eight-part series. The deity of Jesus is a uniquely Christian doctrine. It refers to Jesus being fully God and fully human.
Jesus needed to be a perfect human to sacrifice himself in our place. That way, he could take our sins and God’s anger at those sins. He also had to be God to have the power to save us.
The deity of Christ is a mystery that finite human minds cannot understand. The more you know about the deity of Christ, the more you appreciate how much God loves every one of us (John 3:16)
0:00 – Introduction
0:18 – Welcome and Introduction
0:30 – Jesus has two distinct natures. He is both fully God and fully human
1:25 – “Deity” means “having the nature of God.” Christians believe Jesus is “God the Son,” the Second person of the Trinity
1:47 – A triangle can is a useful analogy for the Trinity.
- This illustration shows how three distinct persons can share one divine essence.
3:26 – But Jesus is completely God (Col 2:9) and fully Human. This doctrine is a “mystery” our finite human minds cannot comprehend.
4:19 – We cannot wholly “comprehend” Christ’s deity. We can still “apprehend” enough through an analogy to show it is not a contradiction
5:24 – Return to the triangle representing the Trinity. Draw a circle touching the corner labeled “Son.” The circle represents Jesus’s perfect human nature.
6:09 – A nature is all the attributes or characteristics that make up a being, whether God or humans.
- God’s divine nature would be all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal, and infinite.
- But a finite human nature has limited knowledge, power, and abilities.
6:48 – Jesus is God with a divine nature. He took on a second perfect human nature through the miracle of the virgin conception (cf. Phil. 2:5-8).
7:03 – The illustration demonstrates is that the one person with two natures.
Jesus has both fully divine and fully human natures united in Him!
9:14 – Whenever you ask a question about Jesus’ nature, you are asking two separate questions! One refers to Christ’s human nature and the other to His divine nature.
- “Did Jesus get hungry or tired or suffer?”
- As a human, “Yes.”
- As God “No.”
- “Did Jesus know all things?”
- As God “Yes.”
- As a human, “No.”
12:12 – In John 14:6-7, Jesus claims that he is God. But he was eating dinner as a human while making this point.
13:33 – Being sinless, Jesus died in the place of sinful humans as our substitute. Jesus’ took on our sins and spared us from God’s anger and punishment.
14:35 – Jesus is mediating between God the Father, him and humans (1 Tim 2:5). Jesus needed to be fully human to be our substitute and suffer for humans, and fully God to have the power to save us!
15:57 – So What? Christ’s two natures practically apply to us:
- We can have complete confidence that Christ’s sacrifice is enough to save us.
- We have a sympathetic God who hears us and understands the human experience first-hand (Heb 4:15). And he has the power to help.
17:37 – Thank you and wrap up.