11 Sep 2025

Jesus Christ: Revealing the Character of God

Steve Copland

I. Introduction

Trinity: The Biblical Evidence

In this video/article I want to examine the biblical evidence for the doctrine of the trinity. In the first video/article on this topic entitled ‘Denying the Trinity’, I dealt specifically with the deity of Christ, so I won’t repeat that material here.

One of the most common objections to Trinitarian doctrine comes from people ignorant of the words of Jesus concerning His relationship to the Father during His life on earth. The claim is that when Jesus states that ‘the Father is greater that I’ (John 14:28), or ‘without the Father he can do nothing’, this indicates He is not God but just a servant of God.

Philippians 2:6-7 tell us that Jesus Christ ‘who being in very nature God, emptied Himself and took the very nature of a slave and became obedient to death, even death on a cross’. How and what Christ emptied Himself of is not clear, however, the fact that He remained ‘in very nature God’ is not debatable, for no one can change their primary nature. It is obvious when we read the gospels that Jesus never used His divine nature throughout His temptations, but submitted Himself completely as a vulnerable human being. Had He not done so, He could not have made atonement for our sins. Hebrews chapter 2 explains this well, firstly by telling us that Jesus was ‘made lower than the angels for a little while’ (2:9) but is now crowned with glory and honor. 2:14-18 explains that Jesus had to be made like his brothers in every way in order to make atonement for sin.

In essence, the Logos the ‘Word’ who is the pre-incarnate Christ, became flesh (John 1:14), denying Himself access to His divine power, united humanity and divinity in His birth, death and resurrection, and returned to His heavenly throne as the Lord Jesus Christ. Before the incarnation and resurrection, God the Son, the eternal Logos sat at the right hand of the glory of the Father who is ‘spirit’ and He (the Logos) was the physical manifestation of the Godhead, but now the Lord Jesus Christ sits on that throne, the Logos and humanity united as one.

So…to the biblical evidence. For brevity, I will just offer a sample of verses.

Firstly, the Old Testament.

In Genesis 1:26 we see the plural form for God used in the words ‘let us make man in our own image’. The word Elohim is plural, but has multiple meanings, therefore many argue it is not definitive evidence for the trinity.

In Genesis 3:8, we read that, after they sinned, the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day and hid from him amongst the trees. We know that the Father is spirit, (John 4:24) and this was a physical presence, so it was not the Father, who is invisible to us, walking in the Garden of Eden. The word Yahweh is used twice in the verse.

This is the first christophany recorded in Scripture, the pre-incarnate Logos appearing in physical form. A christophany is not the same as a theophany, where God makes His presence known in nature, such as the burning bush, but rather, a christophany is God the Son prior to the incarnation for, as we discussed in the previous video on the trinity, He is the ‘image of the invisible God’ (Colossians 1:15) the ‘radiance of God’s glory and exact representation of his being’ (Hebrews 1:3).

There are other christophanies such as when the Lord visited Abraham accompanied by two angels (Genesis 18). On this occasion they appeared as ‘men’, however the text makes a definitive distinction between the angels and the Lord, and the Hebrew of verse 1 specifically says that Yahweh appeared to Abraham.

In Psalm 55 David is crying out to God for forgiveness after being confronted with his acts of adultery and murder. In verses 1 and 10 he uses the plural elohim to address God, and then in verse 11 prays, ‘do not cast me from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me’. The presence of God was usually connected to His presence in the Tent of Meeting, specifically in the Holy of Holies, but here David makes a distinction between God’s presence and the Holy Spirit being upon Him as an anointed King.

Isaiah 9:6 is profound verse about the person of Jesus Christ who is to come into the world, and His names within the Trinitarian Godhead.

‘For unto us a child is born, to us a child is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’.

In this verse we see both the indivisibility and individual qualities of the triune God. God is one God, in three persons, but these persons, although individual, are also indivisible. This is an impossible concept to grasp for mere human beings. When Jesus said ‘the Father and I are one’, and ‘when you have seen me you have seen the Father’ He was expressing this profound truth, a truth beyond human comprehension.

And to the New Testament

At the baptism of Jesus we read that God the Father spoke saying ‘this is my Son’ and God the Holy Spirit came upon Him (Matthew 3:16). John the Baptist testified that God gave him this sign that the one on whom the Holy Spirit came and remained was the Lamb of God (John 1:32-34). Father, Son and Holy Spirit are present at Jesus’ baptism.

Throughout the gospels we read Jesus identifying Himself as the ‘I AM’ who knew Abraham in John 8:58, and in the verses mentioned later, tells His disciples that He and the Father are one (John 10:30). He and the Father states two individual persons, and the phrase ‘are one’ echoes the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4, that the Lord our God is One, indivisible.

In answer to Philip’s question, Jesus told the disciples that in seeing Him, they had seen the Father (John 14:9) and then went on to explain that when He returned to the Father He would send the Spirit who was presently ‘with them’ and ‘would be ‘in them’ (John 14:17). The Holy Spirit is spoken of as a person with specific roles and not some divine energy or other heretical view.

The gospel of Matthew ends with the command to make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). The word ‘name’ is singular, but three names are given. Again, here we see the One God, in three persons.

In Acts 7 we read of the murder of Stephen by stoning. Moments before he died we are told, that ‘Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God’ (Acts 7:55-56). All three persons of the trinity are mentioned here; the Holy Spirit within Stephen, the Father who is the glory of the Godhead but without physical form, and the Lord Jesus Christ standing at His side, the Logos returned to His rightful place.

Then in Romans 8:9-11 Paul writes of the Spirit of Christ living within us, the Spirit of God within us and the Spirit of He who raised Christ from the dead living in us’, all three persons of the trinity are mentioned here as the Godhead we receive, One God indivisible and individual.

In 2 Corinthians 13:14 Paul ends his letter with these words.

‘May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all’.

Grace, love and fellowship are ascribed to the persons of the trinity.

In conclusion. There are people who ignorantly claim that the doctrine of the trinity is a human idea invented in the 4th century by the emperor Constantine or some such thing. These kind of statements show an incredible ignorance of Church History. For the first 250 years of Church history the majority of Christians and Christian leaders were trying to spread the gospel and keep from having their heads chopped off by gladiators, thrown into prisons, or thrown to lions to entertain Roman crowds. When heresies arose, they confronted them, and such is the reason we have Irenaeus, one of Christianity’s first theologians, writing his comprehensive work called ‘Against Heresies’, a refutation of Gnosticism. However, in Irenaeus we also see passages related to what we call an ‘economic trinity’ meaning, a form of practical application of the roles of the divine persons.

Christology, and Trinitarian doctrine developed during the first two centuries with men such as Clement of Alexandria and Origin. The issue for these writers was similar to our own, namely in what words to describe profound concepts which are fundamentally beyond human understanding.

Tertullian, who lived from 160-240, was instrumental in using words such as substance, essence, and personas in an effort to explain what was obvious in Scripture, but not explained in Scripture. Tertulliun concluded that there was one divine substance (substantia), subsisting in three persons (personas) which is best described with the word trinity (trinitas). All of this was considered the norm of the biblical evidence long before Constantine was even born.

From 312-318 a priest called Arius came into conflict with his superior for teaching that Christ was not God, but rather an honorary creature, an idea he had developed from Origen’s ideas regarding the Logos. Incidentally, all of this happened at the time when Constantine had his so-called conversion and persecution ended. It was during this time of peace that these issues were debated and formulated in the creeds.

The doctrine of the trinity is the best explanation of a revealed truth about the nature of God that mere human beings can put into words. Can any of us ever fully understand how the Creator of the world became a man, can we explain exactly how He walked on the Sea of Galilee or turned water into wine? We do our best to understand and explain these revealed facts, but let’s take a spoon full of humility before condemning those who, in their passion for Christ and love of truth have tried to put profound truths into basic human language.

Steve Copland

Denying the Trinity: An Age-old Heresy

Old heresies seem to never die, and one of the oldest is a denial of the doctrine of the trinity, which in essence is also a denial of the divinity of Christ. These days on social media there is something of an epidemic of people who call themselves Christians and yet deny the doctrine of the trinity.

Their argument is that if the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all God, then we have three gods. Logically then, by that reasoning, if the Son is God we have two gods, therefore they have to deny the divinity of Christ also. The doctrine of the trinity and the dozens of passage of Scripture which declare it, is discussed in depth in chapter 6 of my Practical Systematic Theology, so here I will simply give a short answer specifically on the divinity of Christ. But first a short statement.

No Christian theologian worth his salt teaches that there are three Gods, that is the heresy of tritheism, and neither do they teach that we have one God acting in either 2 or 3 different ways. That is the heresy of modalism. Neither of these heretical views can be supported in Scripture. What Scripture reveals is that God is one God in three persons, individual, and indivisible and this is the foundation of the doctrine of the trinity. In order to prove the doctrine of the trinity we simply need to prove that Jesus Christ is God the Son who became the Son of God.

Frankly speaking, one can only begin to deny the divinity of Christ by refusing to believe the entire New Testament. Now a Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist may do that, but if a professing Christian refuses to believe the New Testament, then by what criteria can they be even remotely called Christian?

Let’s begin this refutation with John’s gospel. Most people are aware of the first verse, but few are aware of the word order in the original Greek.

‘In beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word’. Yes, the last phrase is emphatic. It does not say and the Word was God, but God was the Word. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, with their perverted New World Translation, translate the last phrase as ‘the Word was a God, inserting the indefinite article ‘a’ into what was obviously a translation from English. This interpretation is impossible. Firstly, there is no indefinite article in Greek, and secondly, the word order John uses is emphatic that ‘God was the Word’.

Word is Logos in Greek, and heretics try to give explanations that Logos is simply reason, or creative knowledge or some such thing. John refutes this idea completely.

Verse 2-3 states ‘He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made’.

Obviously, John is referring to creation as the word translated as ‘made’ (egeneto) means to bring into existence. Here we have the words God, beginning, and create, directing us to the first verse of the Bible in Genesis, ‘in beginning, God created the heavens and the earth’.

Heretics claim the Logos is a what and not a who, not a person, but merely the rational and creative force of God. Again, John absolutely refutes this foolishness. Verse 4 begins to describe this person.

‘In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind’.

John then speaks of the Baptist who came to testify of that light so that we might believe. The Baptist, he says, was not himself the light, he only came as a witness to the light (v8).

Now we get to the heart of the matter (v9-10).

‘The true light that gives light to the world was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him’.

Who exactly is John referring to? If we are so dull that we still haven’t figured it out, then now the apostle spells it out precisely.

‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth’.(John 1:14)

The Word, or Logos, who is the subject of the first verse, became flesh and dwelt among us. John claims that he has seen His glory, He is the one and only Son who came from the Father. And if we still needed more explanation we are given it in verse 18.

‘No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God…has made Him known’.

In the original text it states ‘the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, has now made Him known’.

How could John have made this profound mystery any clearer? We may not be able to understand how the creator of the world became a human being and walked among us, but we can never deny that this is exactly what the Scripture declares. And how does John’s testimony, given under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, compare to other apostles?

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul writes these words.

‘The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together’. (Colossians 1:15-17)

Firstly, Paul writes that He is the 'image of the invisible God'. Our English word 'image' may suggest a copy, something less than perfect, but the Greek text means something closer to 'revelation'. Jesus Christ is the physical manifestation of God, the Father who is invisible to human eyes. As we previously read, John tells us that 'no one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made him known' (John 1:18), and Jesus Himself stated 'anyone who has seen me has seen the Father' (John 14:9). The writer to the Hebrews (1:3) puts it this way, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word”.

These words are very clear, but the fact which they state is impossible for us to comprehend. How can someone who created this incredible universe, with all of its complexity, its infinite detail and perfect design, then become small enough to be a part of it. Paul would answer such a question by referring to Christ as the 'mystery which has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints' (Colossians 1:26).

Paul calls Him the ‘firstborn of all creation’ (prototokos pases ktiseos). This term ‘firstborn’ (protokos) has several meanings. The Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that this phrase proves that Jesus was the first created being. They are absolutely wrong. In Greek the phrase literally means ‘begotten before all creation’. This word does not mean to be created; rather, it means to exist eternally in a physical form. This term is Paul’s explanation of the first words, the ‘image of the invisible God’.

Notice also that the word firstborn is connected with being 'over all creation'. This is another meaning of firstborn, signifying dominion over all things as the firstborn member of the family was heir and lord of all, the one with supreme authority. Christ's authority is not something given to him by a higher authority, but rather it is absolute. Paul is never suggesting that Christ is the first of all created beings, but rather that He is unique, being distinguished from all creation, because, as he tells us in verse 16, He is the creator Himself.

From a human perspective, the doctrine of the trinity defies human logic. But consider this. From ancient times people have created gods and idols, gods of weather, fertility, fate, etc. People could understand these so-called gods and explain their functions. But what human being could create an idea of God which is impossible to explain logically, mathematically, or existentially?

When human beings refuse to accept a God they cannot intellectually explain or comprehend, they are bringing the Creator down to their pathetic level of intellect. Such is both arrogance and ignorance.

There are obviously many difficult questions regarding how we understand the divinity and humanity of Christ. Philippians 2 states that Christ, being in very nature God, emptied Himself and took the form of a slave. How the Creator of the world did that is one of the greatest mysteries, however, why He did it is not. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three persons, individual and indivisible, each fulfilling their roles within the Godhead for our salvation.

Understand this basic fact. If you deny the doctrine of the trinity you are denying the divinity of Christ, and in doing so, denying your own salvation.

Steve Copland

The Desire for Perfection

In the previous video about what motivated the fall I mentioned the desires for knowledge, perfection and autonomy. In this article/video I want to explore the topic of perfection and try to answer the following questions.

1. Do human beings display a desire for perfection?

2. What does Scripture have to say about perfection?

To our first question: Do humans display a desire for perfection in relation to us being made in God’s image?

In everyday life we see this unconscious desire for perfection manifesting itself in a variety of ways. A little boy making sandcastles on the beach works to make every one of them without defect. He fills a mould with sand, pats it down, turns it over, but if the corner breaks off he starts again. A little girl rejects every flower with a flaw when picking a bunch for her mother, whilst an atheist cleaning his car inspects the final product to check if he missed a tiny spot of dirt.

And, many people become obsessed with what they perceive as their imperfections. The nose is too big, the eyes too narrow, the lips need to be more full! How about a nip and a tuck, a few lumps of silicon, and while we're at it, remove the moles, the scars, that weird birthmark and get the teeth straightened and whitened. The cosmetics, fashion, beauty treatments and cosmetic surgery industries can testify to our obsession to trying to look perfect.

Also, we witness this drive in the elevation of self. There are literally thousands of self-development courses and spiritual growth movements about finding our full potential. People seek the perfect holiday, perhaps on a tropical paradise or getting back to nature, camping in a forest near a lake, or walking through a beautiful botanical garden, as though there is an unconscious desire to be back to the Garden of Eden. Yes, it is also true that as people grow older and the reality of life kicks in that they lower their expectations and give up, and some become bitter with disappointment.

Yet millions are engaged in religions which promise perfection, especially those associated with Eastern forms of self development through countless reincarnations. Hinduism and Buddhism are the most common forms, both teaching a drive towards enlightenment. The message is not that we are made in God’s image, but rather that we are gods, either on our way to rediscovering the divinity we lost on the Wheel of Life, or eliminating karma on a journey to perfect consciousness and unity with the cosmos, or a combination of both. There is no Creator in Buddhism, no God to dictate the terms of how we reach perfection, and in Hinduism, there are millions of gods to choose from, but the fundamental message is always self in the center.

Furthermore, neither the history of modern-day atheist/socialism or the theory of evolution can escape the desire for perfection. The end of the 19th century was excited about the ‘brave new world’ humans would create now that, as Nietzsche claimed, ‘God was dead’. Feuerbach stated that humanity had created an ideal of perfection outside of itself, projected the desire for perfection onto an imaginary being and called it God. This he termed 'wish projection'.

Into the mix came Karl Marx, a German of Jewish descent. Marx, like Feuerbach before him, attacked Christianity as a 'pie in the sky' mentality. 'Religion is the poor man's opium' he claimed, a substitute for those who don't have and can’t get what they want. Eliminate God and human beings would eradicate disease, wars, and create a socialist utopia where everyone was equal.

The desire for perfection is witnessed in those made in God’s image, whether we recognize our Creator or not. But this desire for perfection, which is often an unconscious one, is always coupled with a desire for knowledge and autonomy. All three manifest themselves even when we are children, and as we become more aware of ourselves as individual selfs, the battle becomes either God’s way, or my way. All of us have chosen our way, have chosen to rebel, to demand our autonomy from an early age and, as a result, all have become slaves to self which is slavery to sin. The wise person recognizes the reality of the world around us and understands that the whole creation has been subjected to decay, that the flower dies, the weeds grow, beauty fades, enlightened gurus never reach perfection, and death is a constant stalker.

And to our second question.

2. What does Scripture have to say about perfection in relation to us being made in God’s image?

To answer this question we need to firstly recognize the character of our Creator, and then the goal of creation.

Scripture declares about God that ‘His works are perfect’ (Deuteronomy 32:4) ‘all His ways are perfect’ (2 Samuel 22:31), that He is ‘perfect in knowledge’ (Job 37:16), that He is ‘perfect in love’ (1 John 4) and Jesus summarized all of this in commanding, ‘Be perfect therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48).

Jesus was speaking in the context of sin and loving our enemies, He was calling us to have the character of God. He had just finished speaking about murder, adultery, divorce and revenge and, in my opinion, challenging us to compare our selfish and sinful desires with the One in whose image we are made. Was Jesus ever suggesting that we could make ourselves perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect? No, such as idea is ridiculous…rather, He was laying the ground of teaching that only those united with Him in His death and resurrection, could ever even begin the process of godly perfection.

And what would the perfection of God even look like? Job declares that God is ‘perfect in knowledge’, a statement that means God knows all things, yes, all things.

Imagine being able to understand perfectly the dynamics of quantum physics as though it was a kindergarten class, or to know every minute function of every cell within the human body as simply as understanding a child’s jigsaw puzzle; to know the names of every star ever formed, or the movements of every ant in every place in the world at the same time, or how many liters were in the oceans at any given moment, and to know the actions, emotions, choices and destinies of every person ever born or to be born. These few examples should make us recognize our human limitations and the knowledge of God.

And we could go on to speak of perfect power, or that in all His ways God is perfect, His judgments, His holiness, His infinite creativity and His love. This being we call God revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, the Word, the Logos, our Creator became flesh and dwelt among us. He knew the thoughts of men, He created bread and fish with a word, turned water into wine, He changed people at the cellular level, healing them, giving sight to the blind, sound to the deaf and words to the mute, He commanded the weather and walked on the water.

And He revealed God’s absolute holiness in a sinless life, and even forgave those who flogged Him and impaled His mutilated body on a Roman cross. And in all of this, in His mortal human body, He demonstrated God’s plan and purpose and the means by which we could fulfill why we were made in His image. That is, through absolute and uncompromising submission to the will of the Father, by absolute surrender of self and autonomy to the plan and purpose of the Triune God.

Jesus Christ revealed the purpose for which we were made in His image. That is, to be in an unbroken, holy, loving relationship with Him as Creator and creature, but a relationship on His terms, not ours. Those terms begin with a command to deny self, take up our cross, and follow Him. The desire for perfection, the desire to make ourselves like God our way, must be surrendered to God through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, recognizing that He bore our sinful rebellion on the cross.

When we surrender our will to His will, our self –rule to His rule, we are crucified with Christ and united with Him in His death and resurrection, and we begin a journey towards being perfected His way. In the meantime we are given a declaration of sinlessness, for ‘by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy’ (Hebrews 10:14).

And we of all people are most privileged for we have been granted the opportunity, through the death and resurrection of Christ, to become partakers of the divine nature, something those under the old covenant never experienced.

Hebrews 11:40 states that, ‘God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect’.

They lived under the old covenant and the writer to the Hebrews tells us:

Hebrews 7:19 ‘(for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God’.

And,

Hebrews 10:1 states that, ‘The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming — not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship’.

As Christians we surrender our desire for perfection to the perfection of Christ to be ‘conformed into His likeness’ (Romans 8:29), and to share in His glory, if indeed we are also willing to share in His sufferings (Romans 8:17).

This process of being transformed is in cooperation with the divine nature within us as we learn to know and live in the perfect will of our Lord.

Romans 12:2 commands us: ‘Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will’.

Our sins are forgiven, the old self-rule has been crucified with Christ, but the habits remain and, therefore, it is our minds which must be renewed, for it is in the mind where habits are formed, and new godly habits are created as we no longer conform to the pattern of the world. And we do not walk this path alone, but with the support of the Church, the body of Christ. Paul wrote that: ‘We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ’. (Colossians 1:28)

And if we truly know Christ and have experienced being born from above, then we know that we ‘belong to Christ’ (Romans 8:9) and are ‘God’s own possession’ (Ephesians 1:14). We therefore, do not discipline ourselves out of fear, but out of love, as John tells us,

1 John 4:18 ‘There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love’.

If you still fear eternal punishment, then either you have never truly experienced the grace, forgiveness and love of Christ, or are being taught a form of performance based salvation, which is no salvation at all. Surrender your life to Christ, unconditionally. No person can do that whilst they are still in love with the life they have now. If you are not ready to die to self, it is because you have never seen your sinful self through the eyes of your holy Creator. Ask Him to reveal your sin to you, and when He does, in His time, you will be ready to die in order to be born anew, born again.

In that moment, God in His grace will command that you surrender to Him by faith in the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, an unconditional surrender. He will not take your life from you against your will, and neither will He accept anything less. He is the sovereign Lord who knows how to fulfill His plan for those made in His image, and He alone decides who will be filled with His divine nature and when that occurs.

Once we are regenerated, born again, we begin the process of being transformed to the likeness of Christ, His way. This process will never end, it will continue for all eternity, for the One who created us to know His perfect love, holiness, creativity and knowledge, is infinite in all that He is.

In summary, as creatures made in God’s image we have a desire for knowledge, perfection and autonomy. As young children we desire knowledge, we want to experience everything we see around us, and even to imitate our parents. When we are forbidden to play with scissors, or feel our curiosity is being suppressed, we rebel, that autonomous nature comes to the fore and we sin, that is, once we understand the fundamentals of obedience. As we grow older our sense of identity increases, and at puberty this self-centered focus is in full swing.

But through all of this, we unconsciously portray a desire for perfection in our choices and actions, from making sand-castles, to picking flowers to washing the car. None of us can escape the powerful desires of our inherent natures, and none but Christ has controlled them. But all of this is part of God’s plan for us, a plan to bring those of us who are willing into an eternal, holy, loving and perfect relationship with Him.

Steve Copland

The Humanity of Christ: Like us in Every Way

I. Introduction

In this video/article we will examine the doctrine of the humanity of Christ, comparing the Scriptures with the Early Church interpretation and post-Augustinian view from chapter 7 of my Practical Systematic Theology. The video can be found here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_5C708Wqk0

I have touched on much of this material in my refutation of Augustine’s monergism, especially in regards to it being the foundation of Calvinism, so here I will give a brief outline of that material before exploring the Scriptures in depth. If you already know the history, just skip to the next section.

II. The Issues in Brief

The Arian controversy arose in the late 3rd century and was mostly settled at the Council of Nicaea in 325 with Arianism being declared heretical. Arius, who had been influenced by the writings of Origen, had basically taught that Jesus Christ was a created being rather than fully God, the second person of the trinity.

During this time there was a great deal of debate regarding how the human and divine natures in Christ co-existed. Cyril of Alexandria (375-444), having been heavily influenced by Augustine of Hippo (354-430) offered an idea of Jesus as barely human as he was convinced that human nature is fundamentally sinful.

Gregory Nazianzus (329-390) countered this argument saying that if Christ was not as human as we are, then He cannot atone for our sins, a similar argument to that which Athanasius used to refute Arius regarding Jesus' divinity. If Christ is not fully God, He cannot save us, for only God can save. If Jesus humanity is different to those He offers atonement for, then He cannot atone for them for He is not like them and, therefore, cannot be a fit or perfect substitute.

What is obvious here is that Augustine's idea of original sin/guilt has already taken root and been accepted by many theologians at this time. These theologians were living in the 4th and 5th centuries. Augustine went far beyond the idea of a corrupted nature which leads to death, and introduced the idea that humans are born sinners. For Augustine, this meant that every person is born with the guilt of Adam's sin, a form of inherited sin and inherited guilt. Augustine was using an old, and not very accurate, Latin version of the Bible. He understood Romans 5:12 to mean 'in whom (Adam) all sinned', rather than ‘because all sinned’. In Augustine's words:

...all men are understood to have sinned in that first man, because all men were in him when he sinned.'

C.ep.Pel.IV.7

The earliest Christian writers, such as Ignatius (?-108), Justin Martyr (100-165) and Irenaeus (120?-202) taught that Jesus Christ was born with the same human nature as every other human being since Adam. Both Irenaeus and Justin Martyr write of a ‘corrupted nature’ meaning a nature of death, of mortality, and there is not a hint of inherited sin or guilt until Augustine who introduced this idea around 396 AD.

Irenaeus and Justin argue that Christ had to take upon Himself the same corruption of death in order to free those under that corruption. He joined Himself to our corruption of death, so that we, by being joined to Him, could be freed from that corruption through His death and resurrection. These theologians were simply echoing the clear teaching of Hebrews 2:14-17 which states:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

Irenaeus specifically addressed the issue of what Jesus inherited from His mother Mary. Keep in mind that the heresy of Docetism was spreading at this time, which John refutes in his first letter. That Gnostic doctrine claimed that all of the material world was evil, therefore, Jesus could not have had a real physical body. In Book 3, chapter 22 of Against Heresies Irenaeus refutes those who were teaching that Jesus did not inherit the exact same human nature as Mary, as did Justin Martyr. These theologians use the same Scriptures to prove their claims as we will now examine.

III. The Biblical Evidence

We firstly need to establish if Scripture declares that Jesus was Mary's natural son, a child whose DNA was that of His mother. Genesis 3:15 contains the first prophecy regarding Jesus Christ spoken to Satan.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heal.

The word seed (zera) refers to our natural offspring, 'according to our kind'. In natural conception, a man's seed (sperm) and woman's seed (ovum/egg) bring about conception. But this word 'seed' can also refer to the Holy Spirit as in 1 John 3:9. Matthew tells us that the child conceived in Mary will be from the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18, 20). Notice also, that the Genesis prophesy points to Mary’s seed, Christ as ‘crushing the serpent’s head’, a reference to Satan’s authority over death being destroyed. Hebrews 2:14-15 are expressing the exact fulfillment of this prophecy that:

Jesus was conceived of the natural seed of Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was born with both Divine nature (through the Holy Spirit) and human nature (as Mary's natural son). Paul also refers to the 'Seed', tracing the ancestry of Christ back to Abraham in Galatians 3:16-19.

Romans 1:3 also confirms this saying that regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendent of David.

In Greek, this literally says from the 'genome' (genes) of the sperm (spermatos) of David according to the flesh (sarx). Jesus was born as a natural descendent of David and carried the same genes as His mother, as His mother was a natural descendent of David. Romans 9:6 also states that the human ancestry of Christ is traced back to the Patriarchs.

Furthermore, Luke was a doctor (Colossians 4:14), and in his gospel he makes very clear that Mary was a natural descendent of King David. Both Luke and Matthew's gospels contain the ancestry of Jesus through Joseph. Matthew says that Joseph's father was called Jacob, and Luke says a man called Heli. Matthew's gospel establishes Jesus' royal claim to the throne of David through adoption by Joseph, but Luke's gospel establishes his physical ancestry through Heli, Mary's father and Joseph's father-in-law.

This is to fulfill God's promise to give Jesus the throne of David (Luke 1:32, Matthew 1:1-17). In Galatians 3:16-19, Paul confirms that the 'Seed to whom the promise referred had come', 'meaning one person who is Christ'. Jesus is the Seed promised throughout the Old Testament. He is the natural seed of the woman (Mary) who crushed Satan's authority over death (Hebrews 2:14-15), and the promised Seed of the new covenant so that God's seed may live within us, the Divine nature (1 John 3:9).

Yet Reformed theologians such as Wayne Grudem are willing to blatantly contradict Scripture in order to promote their monergistic Calvinism of inherited sin. In Grudem’s words:

It is enough for us merely to say that in this case the unbroken line of descent from Adam was interrupted and Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:35 connects this conception by the Holy Spirit with the holiness or moral purity of Christ, and reflection on that fact allows us to understand that through the absence of a human father, Jesus was not fully descended from Adam, and that this break in the line of descent was the method God used to bring it about that Jesus was fully human yet did not share inherited sin from Adam.

(Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, England: Intervarsity Press, 2000 p531)

To state that ‘Jesus was not fully descended from David’ is ignorant at best and heretical at worst. Grudem is simply parroting the claims of Augustine which led to the veneration of Mary as a sinless mediator who is Queen of Heaven and Mother of God. Grudem, like Augustine before him, fundamentally denies the entire bloodline of Jesus Christ from Eve to Mary and every prophesy and quote of His Davidic royalty. Christ was of the genome and seed of David according to His ‘flesh’ Romans 1:3, so what does Scripture mean by ‘flesh’?

IV. ‘Sinful Nature’ (sarx)

In the previous video in this series regarding the desire for autonomy, I discussed the term ‘sinful nature’. This term is translated from the Greek sarx which refers to our human nature, bodies and emotions, and is more accurately translated as ‘flesh’ or the ‘flesh nature’.

In keeping with Augustinian tradition, English translations use the term ‘sinful nature’ for sarx when speaking of people in general, but ‘flesh’ when a verse speaks of Jesus’ sarx. The KJV uses flesh for all verses and the NIV is going back to that practice.

There are at least 15 verses which state that Jesus’ sarx was the same as ours.

Luke 24:39. Speaking of Jesus human body after the resurrection.

John 1:14. That Christ was born with a body of flesh as we are.

John 6: 54-56. Jesus uses His physical body to symbolize communion, the bread and wine.

Acts 2:31. Jesus' body did not decay in the grave.

Romans 1:3. Jesus was a descendent of David according to His physical body, translated as 'human nature'.

Romans 8:3. Christ made in the likeness of flesh to save those of the flesh.

Romans 9:5. Christ's ancestry is traced back to the patriots according to His flesh.

2 Corinthians 5:16. When He was a man, we regarded Christ the same as all other men.

Ephesians 2:15. Christ abolished in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.

1 Timothy 3:16. God (Christ) was 'manifest in the flesh'.

Hebrews 5:7. In the 'days of His flesh' Jesus offered prayers to save Him from death.

Hebrews 10:20. The blood of Jesus' flesh open the veil into the Holy of Holies.

1 Peter 3:18. Christ was put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit.

1 Peter 4:1. Christ suffered in His flesh, so we must have the same attitude.

1 John 4:2.Every spirit that acknowledges Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

To claim that Jesus Christ had a different human nature to our own is heretical and denies the clear teaching of Scripture. Yet many evangelicals who reject monergistic Calvinism and its inherited sin/guilt, still use the term ‘sinful nature’ and end up promoting a Docetist Christ who contradicts Scripture. They translate John 1:14 as ‘the Word became flesh’, but Romans 8 as ‘sinful nature’. In doing this, they are fundamentally denying the real possibility of the atoning sacrifice of Christ, an extremely serious denial which is at the very foundation of salvation.

This is the exact message of Hebrews 2:14-17 which I will repeat.

The words ‘had to be made like his brothers in every way in order to make atonement for sin’ are absolutely emphatic. If one teaches anything other than this, they are promoting a Christ who cannot make atonement for sin because He is not like those he is atoning for. Furthermore, if Christ was not exactly like us in His human nature, He cannot be tempted in all things as we are.

Galatians 5:19-20 lists the acts of the flesh, (sarx) sometimes translated as ‘acts of the sinful nature’. But it is in acting out the passions and desires of the flesh (sarx) which is sin, not sarx itself.

V. Practical Application

If we teach a Jesus with a different nature to our own we will end up building a wall between Christ and those we minister to. Scripture states that we and Christ had the same ‘sarx’, the same flesh nature. When we falsely state that we have an inherited ‘sinful nature’ rather than ‘flesh nature’ and Christ did not, then we throw doubt on the fact that he was ‘tempted in all things as we are, but without sin’ and utterly discredit the Lord’s struggles against sin in which He even shed bloody sweat. We are tempted by the desires of our fleshly bodies and became slaves to those desires. Jesus took every though captive and never gave in to His flesh.

Furthermore, we inhibit the prayers of struggling Christians. How do you come to Christ in prayer believing He never struggled with the same desires as we do? Hebrews 2:17 states that He is a ‘faithful and sympathetic high priest’. Verse 18 states that ‘because He himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted’ He is sympathetic because He knows the power of the flesh, He suffered when tempted, and He is faithful to hear our prayers and give us the strength and help to live a holy life.

VI. In Summary

Traditions are powerful things. The Roman Catholic Church controlled the interpretation of Scripture for over 1000 years, banning access to the Bible for all but priests, banning the use of any language but Latin in their services, persecuting and murdering any who dared to translate the Bible for the common people. Any who dared to challenge their dogma concerning inherited sin/guilt, the sinlessness of Mary or authority of the Pope , were labeled as heretics and often murdered and tortured, indeed the RCC had engineers who designed some of the most heinous and barbaric ways of torture and murder during the dark ages.

The Reformers such as Luther and Calvin were Augustinian to the core, Luther being an Augustinian monk and Calvin quoting Augustine over 1700 times. In many respects, although they abandoned the veneration of Mary, they also abandoned the biblical teaching of synergism in salvation. In reality they took Augustine’s monergism to its logical conclusion, denying free will, promoting determinism in double predestination, making God the author of sin and the ‘gospel’ bad news for all but the ‘elect’ who were lucky enough to be chosen by a means known only to God.

But sadly, if one challenges the traditions which led to these heretical views, they are charged with departing from the 2000 yr old traditions of the Church. This is blatantly false! No theologian until Augustine, some 300 years after the resurrection, ever taught inherited sin, that Mary was sinless, or that Jesus had a different human nature to our own.

My challenge to pastors, teachers, lay people, lecturers and seminary students is this: If you are teaching that Jesus Christ was born with a different human nature to our own, you are teaching a heretical form of Docetism. Furthermore, you are denying the clear teaching of the passages we have examined, and that Christ ‘had to be made like his brothers in every way in order to make atonement for sin’ (Hebrews 2:17). Please, have the humility to examine what you are teaching and the courage to stand against any tradition which contradicts the word of God.

God bless

Steve Copland

In the first video/article on Christology we examined the biblical evidence that Jesus Christ is God. In this second video/article on Christology we will explore how Jesus Christ has revealed the character of God. The video can be viewed here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s91fX8lE4eg

This topic is discussed in my Practical Systematic Theology: Reclaiming the Doctrine of the Early Church, chapter seven.

Many Christians have a shallow and distorted understanding of who Christ is. This situation has come about through the fact that many Church leaders are reluctant to teach on what they consider difficult topics such as the triune nature of God. Therefore, we have a multitude of professing Christians who reject Trinitarian doctrine, are clueless about the divinity of Christ and believe all manner of heretical views. To counter this, in my Systematic Theology I have included practical ways to teach on the trinity, Christology, etc which are applied to real-life situations. We should never shy away from teaching the deep truths of Scripture, for the role of a teacher is to make profound truths accessible to every believer.

Too often Christ is portrayed as some kind of secondary rescue plan, but that is far from the truth. The truth is this: The Creator of all that exists became a man, yes, to make atonement for sin, but also to share in our humanity, to grow up as a boy, to learn a trade and fix windows and doors, to destroy the work of the Devil, and even to make His disciples breakfast. This is the God who created us and our role as teachers is to present Him in all His divinity and humanity so that people can approach Him in awe, adoration, humility, and confidence in His love and mercy.

Christ did not simply represent God as a messenger, teacher or prophet, rather, He was the Word, the Logos who became flesh and dwelt among us. Yes, in order to be a perfect substitute for sin He had to be ‘made like his brothers in every way’ (Hebrews 2:17), and this necessitated His laying aside His right to use His divine power and submit entirely to the Father. So…where to begin?

John 1:18 tells us that;

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. (John 1:18)

Angels and prophets spoke messages from God, but only Jesus Christ, God the Son who became the Son of God has perfectly revealed the character of the triune Godhead, for as Hebrews 1:3 states, ‘the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being’.

II. The Holy God

The holiness of God refers to His unchangeable, perfect, moral purity as witnessed in His hatred for sin. God’s standard of holiness and justice are outlined in the old covenant law, and demonstrated in the death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. The life and death of Christ shows us another side of God’s holiness.

He did not sit on His throne in heaven untouched by the suffering that sin brought upon His good creation and those made in His image, but He came into the world to deal with sin, and satisfy His uncompromising demand for perfect justice. Jesus Christ came into the world and lived under the same laws He gave to Moses as the pre-incarnate Logos. He laid aside the right to use His divine power, submitting Himself to the Father in all things, He was ‘tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin’ (Hebrews 4:15).

John 3:16 declares God’s motivation, for ‘God so loved the world’. His fervent desire to be in a loving and holy relationship with us is the reason any of us exist, a love which is demonstrated in the person of Christ.

III. The Seeking God

There are approximately 40 verses throughout the Old Testament commanding or encouraging people to seek God (1Chronicles 16:11, 2nd Chronicles 15:2, etc). Many of these verses speak of the blessings the seeker will receive such as Psalm 119:2, and some come with the condition that we must seek with all our heart (Psalm 119:2, Jeremiah 29:13). Jesus also commanded us to seek the Lord (Matthew 6:33, 7:7) and then told us something wonderful about why He came to the earth He created.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. (Luke 19:10)

God the Father sent God the Son into the world. He came to seek and save us, to find His lost children, to show us face to face who He is and how much He loves us. Jesus told a parable about a shepherd searching for his lost sheep (Matthew 18:1-14). His disciples had just asked Him 'who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven', so Jesus called a little child and told them that unless they change and become like little children they would not even enter heaven.

He said they must humble themselves, and spoke a warning to anyone who causes a little child to sin. While the child was standing there, Jesus warned the disciples about their attitude to the innocence of a little child, and then told the parable of the lost sheep. The end of the parable ends with the words;

In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. (Matthew 18:14)

Is Jesus contrasting the arrogant and the humble? The original question of the disciples seems proud, and His example of the humility of a child would suggest that God does not seek the proud and arrogant, indeed Scripture declares that God actively opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James4:6). Jesus’ constant confrontations with the self-righteous Pharisees confirms His character towards the arrogant

Perhaps we could say that God seeks those who humbly seek Him, for the arrogant seldom seek God until they have been humbled. God seeks us because He loves us and He calls and commands us to seek Him that we might love Him.

IV. The Compassionate God

In Matthew 15:21-28 we read the story of Jesus healing the demon-possessed daughter of a Canaanite woman. The Canaanites were traditional enemies of the Jews, and demon worshippers, yet Jesus travelled about 70 kilometers just to help this woman and then immediately returned to Galilee. She was seeking help, and the Lord seeks for those who seek His help. This is God's heart of compassion, even to those who have served Satan. She knelt at Jesus' feet and pleaded with Him, Lord help me. She knew that the true God had a heart of compassion. Jesus went to find this woman and heal her daughter.

In Matthew 14 we learn of the murder of John the Baptist. Jesus and His disciples left the crowds and went to a solitary place to mourn for John, but when they arrived on the far shore of Galilee there was a crowd of people, about twenty thousand including women and children (14:21). He could have turned away, gone to another place, but Matthew tells us that when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd He had compassion on them and healed their sick (14:14). The Greek word translated as compassion is 'splagchnizomai', which means to be moved in our innermost parts, a 'gut-wrenching compassion'. Jesus felt their pain, their suffering, their hopelessness, and He was compelled by His compassion. He spent the entire day healing them, and in the evening He created bread and fish and fed them all.

In Matthew 8:1-4 we read of a man who knelt in front of Jesus and begged for His help. He was a leper, a terrible disease which was incurable in Jesus' time. Matthew especially tells us that Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. No one would touch a leper, in fact, under Roman Law a person with leprosy must stay about 4 meters away from other people to avoid infecting them, or continually cry out ‘leper, unclean’ to warn people to keep their distance. It appears from this story that Jesus went up to the kneeling man and placed His hand on him, showing the leper that He, Jesus, not only had power over any disease, but that God wants to reach out and touch us with His love, no matter how unclean we are.

Within the gospels, every person who came to Jesus for help received His loving compassion. He also travelled to those who couldn't come to Him, and healed people seven days a week, even on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17, Luke 6), for the Lord never rests from loving us.

V. The Forgiving God

Luke 7:36-50 records the story of a sinful woman who went into the house of a Pharisee to seek forgiveness for her sins. This woman was almost certainly Mary of Magdala. In front of a room full of men, some who may have known her intimately as a prostitute, she stood behind Jesus as her tears of repentance fell on His feet. She then fell to her knees and wiped His feet with her hair, and poured perfume on His feet. Mary never said a word, but Jesus saw her repentant heart in her actions. He told Mary; Your sins are forgiven and Your faith has saved you; go in peace.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). He is a forgiving God, as the entire Bible testifies, but His forgiveness comes with a condition, our repentance must be humble and sincere, a repentance which means we are not merely sorry for our sin, but willing to walk away from it.

The parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32 portrays the forgiving and merciful heart of God to a repentant young man who had dishonored God and destroyed his life. He confessed his sins and received forgiveness, for the Lord saw into his sincere heart. This parable is a powerful example of what Jesus meant when He said we must be born again.

Sin is a willful, lawless act against the will of God, an act which causes spiritual death. God requires perfect justice for He is perfectly holy, and therefore, only death can pay the debt of sin. It is only through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross that we can receive absolute forgiveness and begin an intimate relationship with God, because without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). Through His willing death on the cross Jesus demonstrated God's hatred for sin and love for us, and provided the means by which we can know and experience forgiveness.

VI. The Judging God

Jesus often spoke about judgment, and in order to understand His words we must recognize the context in which He speaks. In John 12:46-48 Jesus speaks these words;

I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. (John 12:46-48)

In this passage Jesus outlines His mission as Savoir and Judge. His primary goal in coming into this world was to reveal the character of God, bring light into a dark world, and then offer Himself as a perfect sacrifice for our sin. He demonstrated this through His seeking the lost, His compassion for the broken, His forgiveness to the repentant, and finally, in His sacrifice on the cross.

However, He also speaks of the future, of those who reject Him, and the 'last day'. Throughout the Bible there is a constant theme that every person will be judged before the throne of God after their life is over (Ecclesiastes 12:14, Romans 2:5). It is Christ Himself who will sit on that throne (Matthew 25:31-46), the one who has earned the right to judge through His obedience to the Father (Acts 10:42).

Many unbelievers have the false understanding that God's judgment only begins at death, but Scripture teaches about 'storing up' God's wrath (Romans 2:5). In John chapter 9 we have the story of Jesus healing a man that was blind from birth. Jesus spat on the ground, made mud with His saliva, rubbed it on the man's eyes and, after washing it off, the man could see for the first time in his life.

Just as God formed Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him, so Jesus used the dust of the earth and gave life to this man's dead eyes. The Pharisees questioned the man. He knew Jesus' name, but not much else about Him, only that Jesus had healed him. The Pharisees called Jesus a sinner and the man replied;

We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. (John 9:31-33)

The Pharisees had the man thrown out of the temple, and when Jesus found him, He asked, do you believe in the Son of Man? The man asked Jesus to tell him who the Son of Man is, so that he could believe, and Jesus replied, you have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking to you (v36-37). Scripture then records this man's reaction and Jesus' words.

Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshipped him. Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." (John 9:38-39)

In the verses quoted earlier from John 12:46-48, Jesus said that He came into the world as a light to bring us out of darkness so that we can live our lives in His light. When a person refuses to come to the light, as the Pharisees did in this story, judgment has already begun, for the final judgment is based on every decision we make. In this context Jesus said that 'for judgment I came into this world'. The blind man and the Pharisees all had an opportunity to believe. The blind man believed and was saved to live in the light from that very moment, but the Pharisees refused to believe and their eyes and hearts entered into an even deeper darkness as they continued to store up God's wrath for that final last day.

VII. In Summary

When we read the gospels we must always approach them from the established fact that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh, revealing Himself to the world He created. In His life we see the holiness of God, the seeking God, the compassionate, merciful and forgiving God, and the one who opposes the self-righteous and arrogant. We also see that He is the one who will judge those who oppose Him, who stand in rebellion to Him. On that Day of Judgment, there will be no excuses, no one who can say, ‘you cannot judge us as you never lived as one of us’. The pre-incarnate Logos gave us the law and then lived among us perfectly fulfilling His own law. Those who refuse His offer of salvation given in holy love, will be destroyed.

Christ demonstrated His love for us and reason for making us in His image, for, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us in order that we might be in a holy and loving relationship with Him, for all eternity.

I pray this video/article has been enlightening for you. Please share it with those you think may benefit from its message.

God bless.

Steve Copland