Jesus, Humanness, and Sin

This week I received an email asking me for help in responding to a minister's claim that Jesus sinned and was "messed-up" like the rest of us. The minister contended that Jesus could not have been fully human unless he too sinned. I run into this idea every so often and am surprised what a low, and mistaken, view of humans (not to mention Jesus!) it purports. But, how often are we susceptible to thinking that sin is normal? Is sin an essential part of what it means to be human? Was Jesus not quite fully human if he did not sin?

Sinfullness is neither an essential quality of humanness nor is it a normal human condition. Let's start with my first claim. Think about what it would mean for sin to be an essential part of what it means to be human. The first 'humans' who existed before the Fall, were not in fact humans! They would only become human once they rebelled against God. That seems more than a bit odd. Also, redeemed people will no longer be human in the eternal state when sin is finally eliminated from their lives (unless we want to say that we will go on sinning in the life to come!). Simply because all humans (save one important example) do sin, does not mean that is part of what it means to be human. Consider this. All humans have been born on Earth. But, does this mean being born on earth is essential to being a human? Certainly not. Imagine a person being born on a space craft, or space station built on the moon. Would that person be a non-human? No. Furthermore, I would argue that sin actually dehumanizes us. Sin inflicts tremendous damage to the full humanity in people. So, while sin is prevelant among humans, it does not define who or what humans are.

As for my second claim, sinfulness, while pervasively common, is not normal. Sin is abnormal. We must not confuse abnormality with commonality. The presence of sin in humanity is evidence that things have gone wrong, not right. Heart disease and cancer are quite common in people, but we don't take this commonality as normality. We recognize those physical conditions as maladies that are not normal. Though sin is not exactly a disease (though there are similarities), we should understand it in much the same way. It is a malady that is not normal. So, while common, sin is not the normal condition of the human.

Back to the issue raised in the email I received. This minister was wrong to attribute sinfullness and a 'messed-up' status to Jesus because he or she failed to understand that sin is neither an essential nor a normal condition of being human. Jesus was fully human (he had all the essential qualities of humanness) without having the dehumanizing, abnormal quality of sinfullness that all other humans have. In this way, Jesus was quintessentially human! As such, he could take on himself the sin of the world in order to redeem it.

Miracles - There's Much at Stake

We've talked in earlier posts about the reliability of the New Testament documents and found that they are more strongly attested to than any other ancient document we have. But even with the strong case for their reliablility, some people will get hung up on the miracles recorded in the NT and conclude that these show that the NT documents can't be trusted. Theologian Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976) went so far as to seek to demythologize the Bible. Embarrassed by what he believed to be pre-scientific and superstitious accounts of miracles, he thought that the removal of miracles in the Bibles would remove a stumbling block to Christianity for the modern, intelligent man of the enlightened era.

The problem with his theology is that without miracles in the Bible we must do away with the most significant mirace of all - the resurrection. And without the resurrection, death has not been conquered and we have no hope of immortality; moreover, our sins have not been forgiven because God's resurrection of Jesus showed his acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice for us.

The widely known Jesus Seminar followed along the same lines of Bultmann. In their attempt to reform the view of Jesus for  the church, they dismissed any accounts having to do with miracles out of hand. They insisted that any of these accounts were unhistorical. How did they come to this conclusion? They say that the historical Jesus cannot be a supernatural figures. They give no reasons why this must be so...it simply is because that's the way they define it - if it's supernatural, it can't be historical. This is a presupposition. They are saying, "we don't believe in miracles, so any miracle story cannot be true and historical." This will of course lead to a non-supernatural Jesus.

Many people with whom we share Christ may have these same presuppositions. They simply have a problem believing the miraculous events in the Bible. Gently reveal their presuppositions to them and show them that there is no good reason for holding them. Many of the people who have a problem with the supernatural Jesus of the NT will nevertheless believe in God. With these people, you can make them see that miracles are not a problem for Him. This may require correcting their image of God first by making sure their view of God is the Christian God of the Bible. With a non-Christian who is held up by the supernatural Jesus, you can start by showing him or her who God is, then moving on to his ability to perform miracles.
Once you have shown that there is no reason to believe miracles are simply myth, you can back up your argument with the strong historical evidence for the resurrection - which couldn't have been anything but a miracle. You can then show how Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection were God's solution to the human predicament of sin, death, and hopelessness and that the miracles Jesus performed in His ministry were done to show that He was indeed God's anointed One, God's appointed Messiah, and ultimately the very Son of God.

While we may give Bultmann the benefit of the doubt by believing that his intentions were good, there is no need to compromise. We can keep the historical, supernatural Jesus and still show people that a saving faith in Him is reasonable and rational. In fact, without the supernatural, historical events of Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection, we have no Christianity at all. We have no hope.

Reflections on Loving God with Our Minds: Part 5

In the last post of this series I want to say a few things about academics and the command to love God and others with our minds. Too often in Christian circles (predominantly, but not exclusively, evangelical ones), there is great suspicion, if not downright fear and contempt, for serious academics. For many Christians, serious academic study and intellectual development are seen as dangerous and somehow opposed to vibrant faith in Jesus. In my experience, nothing could be further from the truth. I think many people’s faith is stagnant because they do not engage their minds with their faith. The problem with Christianity today is not that there is too much thinking and intellectual work going on, but that there is nowhere near enough. And when this happens, we fail to obey God’s desire that we love him and our neighbor with our minds. Don’t let some Christians’ sour attitudes about academics and intellectual development keep you from heeding the “Great Commandment.”

In times past, Christians were frequently the ones who were recognized as the leading thinkers in various disciplines across the academic spectrum. Today this is rare (one positive example is in the area of philosophy where Christians such as Alvin Plantinga, Dallas Willard, Keith Yandell, William Lane Craig, and J. P. Moreland are well respected in the philosophical community). The Church is looking for a generation of women and men who will take up the challenge to love God and neighbor with their minds by engaging in serious academic study. Can you imagine a society in which Christian thinkers were shaping economics, astrophysics, history, medicine, cinematography, law, ecology, literature, politics, etc.? God would certainly be honored and his image-bearers would be greatly benefited. Or, to be more specific, take our current issue of health care reform. What would it be like if Christian thinkers worked out a health care system that provided quality health care which was financially sustainable, affordable for as many people as possible, and included at least minimum care for those who could not afford any care at all?

Though all Christians are under the command to love God and neighbor with their minds, some have a special calling in this area. Perhaps you are one of them. If you are a student (at any level), I encourage you to apply yourself to your academic work. Your diligence in your class work is not only an expression of your love for God and neighbor, but might be something that God uses to propel you to a life using you intellectual capacities in service to him. Don’t look at your education as merely a means to a job, or meeting the expectations of parents, etc. Consider it intellectual development that will prepare you to make a significant impact for God’s kingdom. If God has called you to the life of the mind, being a top notch mechanical engineer, philosopher, journalist, CEO, teacher, or poet is every bit as important as being a pastor or a missionary.

I would like to end with a prayer penned by Church of England Bishop, H. G. C. Moule. This prayer sustained me through times of intense intellectual work while in graduate school. For high school, college, and graduate school students, may it be your prayer as well as you seek to love the only wise God with your minds.

Lord and Savior, true and kind,
be the master of my mind;
Bless and guide and strengthen still,
all my powers of thought and will.
While I ply the scholar’s task,
Jesus Christ be near, I ask;
Help the memory, clear the brain,
knowledge still to seek and gain.