Jesus gave up all of his authority and Godliness to become a vulnerable, weak human. The main consensus for Christ followers at large is that Jesus was fully man and fully human, I'm not here to argue that case. I would like to point out that even though he was God, he chose to assume the human form and live in a way in which we have access. He denied himself daily in order to be our example. Or should I say, he died to his deity daily) There is no other way. If you get too caught up in the idea that he was God, you will likely put Jesus on a pedestal. “He was God!” you will exclaim, of course he could live beyond the natural laws of our earth. He was above nature. If you believe he has special God powers while on earth, you will allow yourself excuses for not doing God-like things as Jesus did.
'Of course, I cannot walk on water, I’m not God.' At that point, you can just explain yourself all the way into a boring little non-miracle life. If you can live with that, then stop reading right now.
Jesus, most certainly, was and is God, but while on earth he willingly chose not to access his divinity in order to show us a new way, he wanted to show us how to truly be human.
Philippians 2:6 points to this beautifully, Paul is encouraging us to "do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others, (Just like Jesus showed us how to do by becoming human) Have this mind among you yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. But emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."
However, I cannot believe that he was born into sin. He was born as humans were meant to be--fully connected to God the Father. Even as a child it is known that he demonstrated exceptional understanding of Scripture and God's meaning behind it. (Luke 2:41-52)
And when Mary prompted Jesus to do something about the wine shortage at the wedding, she must have known from experience the things that he could do. (John 2:1-12)
It is so beautiful that God, the creator God, Logos, Master, and Life giver of everything was looking down on us wanting for us to understand his Truths and promises. He wanted us to learn of his ways, but humanity was not getting it.
So Jesus came down to show us how to be humans. How to embrace a life that seeks the face of God. How to learn about his good character and backwards ways. (Not to diminish his mission to save humanity and restore us to communion with God)
When Jesus came to live among us, the Spirit came down and rested on him. (John 1:32-34)
Jesus showed us that we need to be baptized in water, and then baptized in His baptism—the Holy Spirit. When Jesus received the Holy Spirit, he began to live in the miraculous publicly, not to say that he wasn't already living in the miraculous, his nature simply hadn't been exposed in public yet. He indeed lived beyond the physical boundaries of this world. (an example he wants us to follow)
“And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” Acts 10:38
The above passage, written by Luke, attributes Jesus' powerful ministry to being filled with the Spirit. That is how we have a glimpse of the hope we have in following Jesus in his ministry because Jesus said that he would send the Holy Spirit to us, and we will do what he did.
We all have access to that same power!
When someone in Jesus life called him “good teacher” Jesus corrected him, because Jesus took on human form. He entered the human race and being in the human body on earth he said,
Jesus was the human not given into sin. He upheld the contract of faith with God, he showed us how, and it was not by being a good Levitical priest. It was by pulling away regularly to be with the Father. He connected with the Father and learned the mind of Him. Jesus upheld the contract by allowing the children to come to him, it was by dinning with sinners and healing the masses. By living a life motivated by love, by serving instead of ruling.
Jesus was the second Adam; he came to bring creation into a new order.
“Behold, the old has gone and the new has come.” He said multiple times that we should follow him and do as he did.
Jesus’ new order was uniting the Kingdom of God with the people of the earth. Jesus told us that we could do things like he did. If we could truly follow Jesus, the Son of Man, we would be living in the Kingdom of God.
He was the Son of Man, but the cosmos knew that he had come for a cosmic purpose! His life was going to change everything. This God the Creator, turned human, did it all right and was about to restore the broken and fallen relationship back to order, when the demons encountered Jesus. The demons did not call him Son of Man, they knew him from the beginning. The human disguise was not fooling them.
In Luke 4:34, the demons call Him, the Holy One of God, also in Luke 4:41, demons said, “You are the Son of God.” “On one of the days while Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was with him to heal.” Luke 5:17
Luke had to mention that the power of the Lord was with him to heal, talking about Jesus, would not Luke have to say those same words about anyone who was healing. Luke didn’t say that Jesus was God so of course he healed, but that the power of the Lord was with him to heal.
When Jesus left the earth he said, “And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:49
Then Luke quotes Jesus again in Acts 1:5, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Acts 1:8 “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses.”
Jesus also said about himself, “You may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins.” Luke 5:21. A right that everyone, in that day, believed was God’s alone, but as a reader, we are very comfortable when Jesus forgives sins. But Jesus told the disciples, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
So even forgiving sin was part of the new order, that all the sons of God would be equipped to forgive sins.
My point is that Jesus became a man, willingly putting aside his divinity, showing us how to live. Jesus gave us access to connection with the Father like humans were supposed to have before the Fall of man. We need to learn how to follow him, we need to learn how to die with him.
The the fact that humanity needed to be saved and restored to our relationship with the Father is because God is perfectly Good, he is light, if we enter His communion in our sinfulness, we die. As was demonstrated when priests who were not properly cleansed would die upon entering the Holy of Holies. The ultimate moment is Jesus subjecting himself to the cross--public humiliation and excruciating pain. And very likely a pause in his beautiful and perfect connection with God Almighty. He loved us so much, and wants us in relationship with Himself as he is connected to the Father and Holy Spirit. In that excruciating moment, Jesus still chose to deny access to his deity.
When Jesus cried out on the cross, “I thirst!” John 19:28 The Spirit left him so that he could take on our sins, he could bear the cost of sin in that Holy covenant. He carried our debt to the grave.
Hallelujah!!!
In the phrase, “I thirst”, Jesus was referring to the time that he said he who drinks from me will never thirst again. How is it that God could say, “I thirst” unless he subjected himself to a moment of not having the living water inside him.
God’s great sacrifice was a great sacrifice indeed, he became a human. The first Human to lead us in a new race of man. A race of man that has access to connection to God and his Kingdom.