Who is Jesus? by Caleb Olayiwola - HTML preview

5. Jesus as a man

When we take a deep look at the life of Jesus, we could see that he came into the world as a man because he had to. It was part of the requirement for the work that he came to do on earth. He must be man to save man.

Also, his birth had to be a mystery because the work he came to do required it. He was no man son except of his father (God) alone. During his years on earth, no man knew that he was not Joseph’s true son. The secret was kept between Mary and Joseph as long as he lived.

His appearance as a man does not differ from other men too. It won’t be derogatory to say that he looked just as your neighbor when he was on earth. No special skin tone, no premium-looking golden hair, no superman muscles and laser eye. His physical ability was the same as yours and mine

His humility reflected in all areas of his life, starting from when he was a kid. He was obedient to his earthly father and mother (Luke 2 vs 51); he listened to them and lived under their roof till he became a man that can take care of himself.

We are talking about the creator of “everything” living under the plate and spoon of his creation. What humility can surpass that?

The scripture referred to Moses as the humblest man on earth during his time (Numbers 12 vs 3), but Jesus broke that record during his time. Moses, as a child, was raised as a prince in one of the richest kingdom on earth, but Jesus didn’t chose the palace of Herod but the house of an ordinary carpenter to begin his life.

His background does not reflect his true identity in a tiny bit - he was a king (the ruler of everything) from where he came from, but he chose to settle for a low life and not the life of wealth when he was on earth. He chose to serve and not to be served. He chose to be suppressed and not to dominate.

Jesus is the opposite of what man has become. Man thrive to live the life of luxury and of power, to flaunt their muscles and strength, to be worshipped and to be hailed, to be respected and to be honored, to be pampered and to be clapped for.

It was not so from the very beginning.

Jesus did not live his life to impress, to suppress, to flaunt, and to repress; he was the exact replica of a man that God wants every man to be. He was the exact replica of Adam without the forbidden fruit and its seed. He was a perfect man that God deemed worthy to called his son.

When we talk about Jesus, we can’t but mention “sin” because that is the root of what man has become and that is the (only) reason why Jesus came. We may pretend that sin does not exist, but denying its existence is denying the existence of Jesus.

The primary content of the gospel of Jesus is how to be like him, and to be like him means we must be sin-free.

His life is an example of what God expect from the new man, I mean a sin-less man. He was on that cross because of no crime yet he chose to let go. It was an example that Stephen leant from and held on to when he was stoned to death - he didn’t curse them but instead prayed for them, just as Jesus did. He looked up to Jesus and saw himself.

Jesus lived a perfect life for 33 years, but today, it is hard to see a man that can live perfectly for just a day. We rejoice for his birth. We rejoice for his death. We rejoice for his resurrection. We celebrate it every year as believers from the moment we are born till we die, but our lives are not an exact replica of his. Most are living the lives of falsehood.

We all want that power, to rebuke, to command, to loose, to bind. We all want to turn Garri into Jollof rice, to turn water into gasoline, but practically, we are living a life that does not fit within the purpose of what we were created for. If you want to do what Jesus does, you will have to be like him.

Many Christians misunderstood the Holy Spirit as a power. No, he is the key to that power. The power is Jesus Christ! Christ sent the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit didn’t sent Christ. When we talk about power, we are not only talking about the extraordinary supernatural life of Jesus Christ but about his ordinary life, as a man.

If we overlook his life as a man (which in God’s eye is extraordinary), we won’t get a clearer picture of him “as the son”. God called him his son when he was a man, not before he was a man. Throughout the entire scripture, God did not call any man his son, not even Adam.

There was nothing like “father and son” relationship between God and man until Jesus arrived. He stood in the place of what man should be; through him, we receive son ship.

Jesus is called “the son of man”, not because he had earthly parent, but because he stood for everything that man supposed to stand for. He is the exact copy of a man without sin. His life was the exact copy of a life without sin.

He was not ashamed to be called “the son of man” because he knew that man will one day be called sons in the kingdom of his father “through” him. He accomplished a lot as a man and lived a life that serve as an example for those that will one day choose to walk on his pathway.

Jesus as a man is everything man without sin.