Was Jesus both man and God?
Answer:
It seems controversy about Jesus' nature will never cease. Our question, a good one, obviously pertains to the incarnation of the Word or when Jesus was born of a virgin (Matt. 1: 18-25).
Jesus was a man. Jesus experienced a normal, human birth (Matt. 1: 18-25). We do not know much about Jesus' childhood. However, there are statements which describe a normal physical development. At eight days of age, the baby Jesus was circumcised (Luke 2: 21). "And the child grew," Luke tells us of Jesus (2:40). Again Luke writes: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature..." (Luke 2: 52). Jesus the man was not physically dissimilar from other men (see Isa. 53: 1-3).
Jesus experienced normal physical desires. Jesus knew hunger (Matt. 4: 2), thirst (John 19: 28), and physical depletion (John 4: 6). Jesus suffered pain and when lacerated, he bled (1 Pet. 3: 18, John 18: 1-34). Jesus was made a "little lower than the angels" (Heb. 2: 7). Jesus was tempted in "all points" (Heb. 4: 15). Alluding to Jesus' human experience, Paul wrote: "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2: 5, see John 1: 1-14)
Jesus was the Son of God. While Jesus, the Word, experienced humanity, he maintained his deity (conceived of Holy Spirit, Matt. 1:20). Writing of Christ while in the flesh Paul affirmed,"For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2: 9). When Jesus was born, he had the special title of "Son" (Heb. 1: 3-14).
Hence, the angels worshipped him (Heb. 1: 6, angels were not to worship mere man, cf. Acts 10: 25,26). Jesus acknowledged his Sonship (John 10: 29, 36). The Jews understood Jesus' Sonship to constitute blasphemy. They explained, "...because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God" (John 10: 33, see vs. 30).
Jesus, then, was fully and concurrently both man and God
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