Each Saturday I enjoy sharing a blog that has been an encouragement to me. I trust that today’s Saturday Share might bless you as well. Today, I’m thrilled to share one of my favorite bloggers, Regi Campbell.
The Split Personality of Jesus: by Regi Campbell
Okay, I know the title of this post makes you want to hit delete, but before you do, let’s take a deep dive into the personality of Jesus. All my life, I’ve heard Jesus referred to as fully man, fully God . . . 100% human and 100% divine at the same time.
Thinking back to my post from Monday, isn’t it interesting that we have both elements, man and God, living in us too? Although the ‘man’ part is a little different . . . a sinless man (Jesus) compared to a sinful man (Regi). We’ll come back to that.
From a ‘human’ standpoint, Jesus was fully human. His mother got pregnant with Him and birthed him the way mothers normally do. We know He physically grew up and aged the way all humans do because we have snapshots from His birth, his childhood and then of bunch of stories from age 30-33. We know He experienced human emotions . . . crying when His friend Lazarus died, getting mad when Jerusalem wouldn’t repent and especially when the money-changers took over the temple. He was riddled with human emotion as He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane . . . crying out to God so intensely He sweat blood (a human medical phenomenon called hematidrosis). In that moment, He was attacked by fear, asking the Father if there was any other way. After struggling, He finally yielded with the very human comment we now often reuse, “. . . not my will but your will be done.” Even after that He experienced frustration when his disciples couldn’t/wouldn’t stay awake and pray with Him. From the cross, He did a couple of plainly human things . . . He made arrangements for His mother’s care and He cried out to God asking, “Why have you forsaken me?” All of these instances provide evidence of His humanity.
But all along the way, Jesus prayed and talked with His Father. He never acted alone. He never took credit for anything He did. He always sought and listened to the Father’s voice. He always obeyed. He had choices just like we do (remember Satan tempting Him in the desert?) but He never gave in to sin. He lived a perfect life as a human being!
From a ‘divine’ standpoint, the Bible offers more examples of His divinity than I can write here (and way more than you would read). Standing above everything else is the way He arrived and what happened when He left. He was born of a virgin, fathered by God Himself. Wow! And in the end, He was brutally killed but supernaturally brought back to life. The things He did while He was here . . . healing the sick, raising the dead, knowing people’s thoughts, casting out demons . . . amazing evidence of both His ‘spirit-man’ and His deity. His wisdom, His understanding of the Old Testament, His teaching of God’s truth . . . all divine.
It’s a great mystery how this could be . . . how Jesus could have been both divine and human. But it’s easier to understand why. Jesus came to show us the way to live. In fact, the earliest group of Jesus-followers were called “The Way.” To me, the way means to live like Jesus . . . constantly seeking the Father and obeying what He leads me to do.
Not only did He show us how to live out our days here on earth, He sent us a version of His spirit to help us live like He did. It’s the Holy Spirit of Jesus . . . the “Jesus living in you” who knows what you’re going through because He’s ‘been there, done that’ and, at the same time, has all the love, knowledge and resources of Almighty God.
He’s living inside you and me right now. His is the ‘still small voice’ urging us to pray. To “seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness.” Will we pause? Pray? Listen? Obey?
I’m not there yet but I’m working on it.
Scripture: Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. (Romans 8)
