Christology- Lesson 2
Overview
The True Humanity of Christ
Athanasius reminds us that "for salvation the correct faith is necessary not only regarding the divine nature in Christ but also regarding the human." Our three ecumenical creeds bear witness to both. The Apostles' Creed confesses that Jesus was born and buried—two unmistakably human realities. The Nicene Creed declares him "incarnate of the Virgin Mary and made man," who "suffered, died, and was buried." The Athanasian Creed presses further: Christ is "man, born in the world…existing fully as man with a rational soul and a human body." He has taken humanity into himself without confusing or transforming his two natures—truly God and truly man in one person.
Why This Mattered in the Early Church
While modern skeptics often deny Christ's deity, the earliest challenges came from the opposite direction. Some taught that Jesus only appeared to have a body—a celestial specter that looked human but was not—and that his sufferings were mere fantasy. Scripture itself anticipates and refutes this. When the disciples mistook Jesus for a ghost on the sea, he insisted, "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid" Matthew 14:26-27. After the resurrection he was even more emphatic: "See that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have" Luke 24:36-39.
The Biblical Witness to His Humanity
Scripture is saturated with evidence that the Son of God truly took on our flesh. "The Word became flesh and lived among us" John 1:14. He was born Luke 2:6-7, circumcised and named Luke 2:21, and grew through childhood Luke 2:40. He hungered and was tempted Luke 4:1-2, wept at the death of his friend John 11:33-35, and ate with sinners Mark 2:16. Isaiah foretold a man without majesty in his appearance, "a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity" Isaiah 53:2-3. Hebrews declares that because the children share flesh and blood, "he himself likewise shared the same things" Hebrews 2:14. Paul testifies that God's Son was "born of a woman, born under the law" Galatians 4:4 and "descended from David according to the flesh" Romans 1:1-3.
Even outside the Bible, non-Christian historians corroborate that Jesus walked the earth. The Roman senator Tacitus records that "Christus" was executed under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. Josephus, a Jewish historian, refers to "James, the brother of Jesus who is called Messiah" and to Jesus himself as a teacher condemned by Pilate. Pliny the Younger, Suetonius, Celsus, and Mara bar Serapion all attest in their own ways to a real man whose followers continued to worship him.
A Faith Worth Confessing
We are heirs of the creeds for good reason. Whether the Apostles' Creed in the baptismal liturgy or the Nicene Creed at the Lord's Table, these confessions unite the church across time and place, summarize what Scripture teaches, and guard us from error. When voices in our own day suggest that believers should bow out of conversations about who Jesus really is, the church responds by stepping more deeply into them. The flesh-and-blood Christ—born, hungry, weeping, crucified, risen with hands and feet his disciples could touch—is not a figure we leave to skeptics. He is the Lord we confess. And as we will see, his true humanity is not merely a historical curiosity; it stands at the very heart of our salvation.
Transcript
Lord, we thank you for calling us and gathering us here together to hear your 0s
word preach to us and receive your sacrament. We thank you for this 5s
designated time to learn more about about your doctrine and the word that 10s
you've given us. We ask that you would bless this time together, that you would 16s
use your spirit to guide the teaching and the the conversation that you would 21s
open our hearts and our minds to receive the word that you have for us this 26s
morning. We ask all of this through the blessed name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Okay, 30s
so just a review over last week. So right now we're in a study of Christology 37s
which is studying the two natures of Christ, excuse me, the human nature of 44s
Christ and the divine nature, fully human, fully man, fully divine, fully God. 53s
And we're using the creeds as our standard and last week we talked about the 60s
creeds. We know that the creeds are used to teach the basic or basics of the 66s
Christian faith. They're a written summary of what Scripture teaches us about 73s
what God has done and what he is doing for us. The creeds also warn us against 78s
what we don't believe. They help us to avoid faith statements that are not 85s
biblical. So if you remember the Nicene creed was really developed for that. It was 90s
developed in the face of or in order to articulate the faith in the face of what 97s
was being rejected. The creeds are used to unite the whole Christian or the 103s
whole little sea Catholic church in a common confession of faith. In the Lutheran 110s
church we use three creeds. We use the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed and 118s
the Athenation Creed and each one was written for different purposes. The 123s
Athenation Creed was really written for pastoral instruction and testing and it 129s
goes into a greater depth of the triune God and how that works or statements of 134s
that faith or those belief statements. The Apostles Creed was really developed as 141s
a tool for catacumins as they were preparing for their baptisms. The baptismal 148s
liturgy at the 11 o'clock service we are going to have a baptism and the 155s
baptismal liturgy the Apostles Creed is built right into it where the pastor is 159s
asking do you believe in God and the responses yes I believe in God the Father Almighty 165s
creator of heaven and earth and so we use that Apostles Creed to make those 171s
faith statements right then and there in the baptismal liturgy. The Nicene 176s
Creed was developed to clarify the relationship of God the Father and the 182s
Son and later in 381 it was they added the bit with the Holy Spirit or went 187s
into depth the bit the article of the Holy Spirit. And you'll remember that 194s
that original controversy was really centered around the the homoesius or 204s
homoiusius which is that same substance or similar substance which in the 211s
the Council of Nicene they came down to that Jesus the Christ is of the same 219s
substance as the Father. So two questions were raised last week we're going to 225s
look at at one of these questions first which makes sense. So one of the 232s
questions was why do some churches use the Nicene Creed instead of the 237s
Apostles Creed or why would some churches use different creeds at different 241s
times and really we need to recognize that the creeds being used in liturgy is 248s
is a matter of audiophora it's something that's neither forbidden but it's not 255s
commanded or mandated either in scripture. Traditionally we do confess our 261s
faith and most most mainline Christian churches definitely Lucerin churches 269s
Catholic churches and I believe a lot of Methodist and a lot of Presbyterian 275s
confess the faith through the creeds during their liturgy on Sunday mornings. 281s
Each congregation however is different in which creeds they use and why they 287s
use them. So traditionally as we know the Apostles Creed was used during 294s
a Catacumans baptismal preparation so traditionally the Apostles Creed was 300s
used or is used during the season of Lent which that season was traditionally 306s
or originally the time of preparation for baptism and it's used in the two 313s
seasons of what is called ordinary time which is Epiphany and Pentecost so 319s
that time after Pentecost the green the green and then the Nicene Creed is 325s
traditionally used at all the feast days and during the celebratory seasons of 332s
Advent Christmas and Easter. There are a lot of churches that link the Nicene 338s
Creed because it has a little more depth to the statement they link that with 348s
the Holy Communion and so if that church is having communion on that Sunday 354s
they would do the Nicene Creed so each church or each congregation may vary on 359s
which ones they choose but it is a matter of Adiapura. We're not told in 366s
scripture you have to say this Creed at this time. We're not even told you have 372s
to say a Creed right but it is it is something we do. It's a way for us to 375s
profess our faith every single week in that very articulate and concise manner. 383s
The second question that was raised was about the Filioque controversy and 389s
Filioque is Latin and I actually have this translated Filioque. Filioque it's 396s
Latin and from the Sun and it's part of what caused a split between the Eastern 413s
and Western churches so briefly the Eastern and Western churches had a lot of 420s
misunderstandings and disagreements. Some of them were due to theological 427s
differences that's going to happen but a lot were also due to political issues and 430s
if you think about it the Eastern church really was coming out of the Greek 438s
system which was very philosophical so their basis was coming out of a Greek 444s
philosophy whereas the Western church is rooted in Rome or the Roman law so 450s
you have two kind of dissimilar bases that they're rooted in and so it's not 457s
a surprise that there were some controversies both doctrinally and 464s
politically so the Filioque controversy was centered around the Holy Spirit. 471s
Did the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father or did the Holy Spirit proceed from 479s
the Father and from the Sun and this is where we get that Latin term and from 485s
the Sun and so the Roman churches did not consult with the Eastern 491s
church and there were there was some bad blood created because the Roman 498s
churches just added and from the Sun to the Nicene Creed without consulting 504s
with the Eastern church. The Eastern church rejected this they didn't like that 509s
they held to the Father holding all the deity really and truly and they were 515s
they were fine with saying the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Sun 524s
but they did not want to to say that the Spirit was from the Father and from 529s
the Sun so that's where that controversy lies that is part of the 537s
schism that was created between the Eastern and the Western churches but it's 542s
not the only reason and and truly the split came in in about 1054 when when 548s
those two churches finally the the patriarch of the Eastern church and the 557s
Pope of the Western church excommunicated one another so so that came a little 561s
bit later but this was part of it and this was in 381 when they started 567s
adding in that Holy Spirit article so moving on to what we're studying today 574s
that was just a brief overview of what we had last week with the creeds 582s
today we're going to talk about Jesus human nature okay Athanasius said for 586s
salvation the correct faith is necessary not only regarding the divine nature in 594s
Christ but also regarding the human and if we look at the creeds and take just 600s
what they state about the humanity of Christ we can see that it's built right 607s
into those creeds so the Apostles Creed says that Jesus was born of the 614s
Bible and Jesus was buried those are things that happen to all human beings we are 624s
all born we all not all of us are crucified clearly but we all have sufferings 629s
we all have pain we all die we will all be buried right so those are very human 634s
things that happened to him the Nicene Creed says incarnate of the Virgin Mary 641s
and was made man was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate he suffered 648s
died and was buried very similar in those statements and then the 653s
Athanasian Creed says that our Lord Jesus became flesh he is man born in the 658s
world from the beginning of from the being of his mother existing fully as man 666s
with a rational soul and a human body he has taken humanity into himself he 672s
does not transform deity into humanity so he's not exchanging one for the other 678s
he is completely one in the unity of his person without confusing his 684s
natures for as the rational soul and body are one person so the one Christ is 690s
God and man he suffered death so that's getting a little more into the 696s
nitty-gritty that there are two natures there is a human nature it talks about 703s
his birth it talks about his death and that he is fully fully in the flesh fully 709s
man so there were some early claims against Jesus's Jesus humanity and and 717s
really no one in the very early church no one really denied his deity that 726s
seemed to be a given today it's a little bit different today more people deny 733s
his deity than his humanity but but it's interesting because the early church 738s
they couldn't quite believe that he was human that he had actually been a 744s
bit had actually been a human so they would say that Christ's body was not 748s
human that it had the appearance of a normal human it had it had the look of 752s
what a human has but it's actually a specter it's not a real true human being 760s
it looked real but it was more of a celestial substance this was taught by 766s
by several groups those who believed this then they also taught that Jesus 772s
actions all that he did and all that he suffered or went under or went through 780s
those were also fantasy they didn't actually happen so the sufferings that he 787s
underwent they only appeared to happen which we know is not true and we do not 794s
confess that we confess that he in true human form in his humanity suffered 801s
under Pontius Pilate so they taught that he was kind of a kind of a ghosty type 808s
thing right but let's open up to Matthew 14 this is the first gospel Matthew 14 816s
so open up to the New Testament and we will see we're gonna look at 26 this is 829s
when Jesus is walking on the water chapter 14 verse 26 but when the 839s
disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified saying it is a ghost 848s
right they they thought he was a ghost and they cried out in fear but 854s
immediately Jesus spoke to them and said take heart it is I do not be afraid 859s
he would not let them believe or claim that he's a ghost he's saying it's me I'm 865s
here in the flesh let's go over to Luke 24 so we're gonna go past Matthew 870s
past Mark go into Luke the third gospel this is after Christ had been killed this is 879s
after he had risen from the grave and he is appearing to his disciples we're 889s
gonna go to verse verses 36 through 39 so he's coming to his disciples and 894s
while they were talking about this Jesus himself stood among them and said to 902s
them peace be with you they were startled and terrified and thought that they 907s
were seeing a ghost so this is after he's been resurrected they're thinking again 912s
they're seeing this ghost and he said to them why are you frightened and why do 918s
doubts arise in your hearts look at my hands and my feet see that it is 923s
myself touch me and see for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see 929s
that I have so even after the resurrection Christ is coming back when anyone could 936s
possibly say it's a ghost it's a ghost and he's saying no even now I am not a 944s
ghost I have flesh I have bones we see in the gospel of John where he's eating 949s
food post resurrection he was a human he is a human it was very interesting I 956s
came across an article from a what would be considered a reputable source or 965s
reputable reputable publication it's an article from 2014 right before 971s
Christmas it's amazing how many articles come out right before Christmas to say 977s
Jesus isn't real it's amazing uncanny just watch for it this year there will be 983s
articles that come out trying to deny Christ right before we celebrate his 988s
birth but this man the author of the article he wrote did a man called Jesus of 993s
Nazareth walk the earth discussions over whether the figure known as the 999s
historical Jesus actually existed primarily reflect disagreements among atheists 1004s
believers who uphold the implausible and more easily dismissed Christ of faith 1010s
the divine Jesus who walked on water ought not to get involved so to discuss 1016s
Jesus the historical accuracy of Jesus the person of Jesus this writer is 1024s
is telling his readers that anyone who believes in Jesus really shouldn't be 1031s
involved in this discussion I want to invite you as believers in Jesus to be 1036s
involved in the discussion for those of you who have not been to service yet 1044s
that's what it is that that's our sermon that you'll hear today that we are a 1051s
part of this discussion this is what we are called to bring and to be a part of 1055s
is the discussion of God and who God is and so I thought that was really 1060s
interesting so yes Jesus actually walked on this earth I have a host of and we're 1067s
just gonna dive in because we have time and I and it's gonna seem a little like 1078s
wow we have so many Bible verses but this is just a sampling of where we find 1083s
Christ walking the earth where we find him as a true human that can support 1089s
anytime someone questions whether Jesus really was real or not really a human 1095s
you can go to any of these verses and say no no look here here here tell me 1102s
when you get tired here here right so there's a lot of biblical proof here so 1109s
we're gonna just start with John 1 so that's the gospel of John so if you 1114s
flip over probably about one page from where you are in Luke and you find John 1120s
the first chapter we're looking at verse 14 and the word who if you go to the 1125s
very beginning of John we're told that the word was with God the word was God 1133s
and we know that to be Jesus which we will get more into in a couple of weeks 1138s
but the word verse 14 became flesh and lived among us the word became flesh 1144s
and lived among us let's jump back to Luke chapter 2 we're gonna jump around in 1152s
chapter 2 for a moment here so we're gonna start in verse 6 so the gospel of 1159s
Luke chapter 2 starting in verse 6 while they were there that's Mary and Joseph 1166s
while they were there the time came for her to deliver her child and she gave 1174s
birth to her first born son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a 1179s
manger because there was no place for them in the inn she gave birth to an 1185s
actual human being to a little boy so there is a man or a boy being born let's 1190s
jump down to verse 21 after eight days had passed it was time to circumcise the 1200s
child and he was called Jesus the name given by the angel before he was conceived 1206s
in the womb so this little infant is taken in the ceremonial custom and he is 1212s
circumcised and he is named humans well not all of them get circumcised but 1221s
humans have bodies which things are done to right and we are given names that is a 1227s
very human thing happening here then let's jump down to verse 40 we're just 1234s
gonna read the first little bit here the child grew and became strong Christ had a 1241s
childhood he didn't just appear as a man he was born of a woman he had a childhood 1249s
and he grew in that childhood let's go back to or go over to Luke chapter 4 1258s
we're gonna look at those first two verses Luke chapter 4 verses 1 and 2 Jesus full of 1271s
the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness 1279s
where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil he ate nothing at all during those days and 1283s
when they were over he was famished if a human does not eat for 40 days he will be hungry 1291s
God doesn't need food man does right so Jesus was in the desert constantly being tempted I 1302s
don't know about about any of you if you if you know this too but humanity is tempted we get 1313s
tempted as human beings so so we've got two things here he is physically physically famished hungry 1320s
needing food wanting food right but he's also being tempted which the devil was trying to tempt him 1328s
in his humanity now let's go over to John so we're just gonna go over one more book John 11 1336s
John 11 verse starting in verse 33 so Lazarus who was a good friend of Jesus Lazarus died and he 1351s
went and he saw the sisters and picking up in verse 33 it says when Jesus saw her weeping and the 1364s
Jews who came with him were also weeping he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved he 1372s
said where have you laid him they said to him Lord come and see Jesus began to weep he mourned his 1379s
friend he mourned he felt that he he wasn't this unemotional having no feeling man or being in his 1387s
humanity he had feelings he had those feelings of love and he was mourning and weeping for his 1400s
friend for his friends who were mourning so there's another human element to him let's jump over to 1408s
mark so we're gonna go back a couple of gospels it's the second gospel mark two 1419s
and we're gonna go to verse 16 mark 216 when the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he that is Jesus 1436s
was eating with sinners and tax collectors they said to his disciples why does he eat with tax 1446s
collectors and sinners Jesus as a man ate here he's eating with tax collectors and sinners he's 1452s
eating he needed food again that's that humanity if we jump back into the Old Testament Isaiah 1460s
so if you go to the middle of the Bible you'll find Psalms and if you flip to the right you will 1469s
find the prophets after Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon you're gonna find Isaiah and we're 1477s
going to Isaiah 53 verses 2 and 3 Isaiah 53 verses 2 and 3 and this is prophesying about Jesus 1486s
for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground he had no form or 1504s
majesty that we should look at him nothing in his appearance that we should that we should desire him 1512s
he was despised and rejected by others a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity as one 1519s
from whom others hide their face he was despised and we held him of no account this is telling us 1526s
that people around him he didn't have an appearance that that looked majestic he didn't have 1533s
anything special about his look but this is also giving him an appearance we know that Jesus had 1540s
flesh we know that he had a look he wasn't just this ghosty type being he wasn't celestial in 1549s
in his form he was a man he had an appearance nothing nothing that that anyone should desire to look at him 1559s
which I think is really interesting um okay so let's go over to Hebrews so this we're going 1569s
back into the New Testament we're gonna pass the Gospels pass the letters of Paul and then we're 1577s
gonna come to Hebrews and we're going to the second chapter Hebrews 2 verse 14 Hebrews 2 verse 14 1586s
since therefore the children share flesh and blood he himself likewise shared the same things 1606s
Jesus shared with mankind the same things of flesh and blood he was a physical human being 1615s
let's go over to Galatians or back to Galatians you're gonna go back through the letters of Paul 1625s
if you've got Romans 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians and then you've got Galatians 1634s
uh Galatians chapter 4 verse 4 when the fullness of time had come God sent his son born of a woman 1641s
born under the law we are all born of women and we are all born under the law we are all born into the same 1661s
condition not house or family but we're born into the same condition as human beings as Christ 1674s
was also born of a woman under the law and let's go back one more to Romans this is the last one but 1681s
you'll see I mean do you see how there's it's just verse after verse after verse that is proving 1688s
the humanity of Christ we're going to Romans chapter or verse yeah chapter 1 verse 1 1694s
Paul a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God which 1708s
he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures so he's promising God promised 1715s
this gospel this good news through holy scriptures concerning his son who was descended from David 1722s
according to the flesh he descended from David according to the flesh again just putting that 1730s
humanity right there so this is a relatively long list that we've gone through but you'll see as 1738s
you flip through scripture it is not hard to find proof from scripture from the Bible that Christ 1748s
indeed was a flesh and blood man he needed to eat he needed to sleep oh we didn't even get to 1755s
any of his sleeping right we he needed to function or he did function as a human did because he was a 1762s
human he was a man so what about the people that say oh that's nice but you're just going to the 1770s
Bible I don't I don't just go to the Bible that's not for me well there are historical historical 1776s
accounts of Jesus also so we know that he was a human that walked the earth we have historical 1785s
sources so the first one is from Tacitus or Cornelius Tacitus he he was a Roman senator and he was 1793s
considered to be one of the best if not the best Roman historian so this was a history guy right and 1806s
he studied he studied people he studied cultures he studied cultural phenomenon and and he wrote in 1813s
this is in the context of a great fire of Rome it went for six days this fire burned it burned a 1822s
lot of the city in 64 AD during the reign of Nero and he wrote this is Tacitus writing neither 1829s
human effort nor the Emperor's generosity nor the placating of the gods ended the scandalous 1838s
belief that the fire had been ordered by Nero therefore to put down the rumor so Nero there was a 1843s
rumor that Nero started this fire or had this fire going so to put the the rumor down Nero 1850s
substituted as culprits and punished in the most unusual ways those hated for their shameful acts 1856s
whom the crowd called Christians the founder of this name Christ had been executed in the reign 1863s
of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate suppressed for a time the deadly superstition erupted 1872s
again not only in Judea the origin of this evil but also in the city Rome where all things 1878s
horrible and shameful from everywhere come together and become popular so Tacitus in this is 1884s
presenting four four pieces of accurate knowledge that we have about Jesus he said that well he 1891s
called him Christus or Christ this was used by Tacitus to refer to Jesus he thought it was a name 1899s
he didn't realize that it was a title but but he used it as a name but he called him Christ 1909s
he talked about Christ being associated with the beginning of the movement of the Christians 1917s
right for for the origin of this grouping that this man was executed by the Roman governor of 1925s
Judea and that the time of his death was during Pontius Pilate's governorship during the reign 1933s
of Tiberius so we have these four points of historical documentation that he's given us he is not 1940s
a Christian he was a Roman senator a Roman historian and what he has told or what he has given to us 1950s
is in line with what we have in scripture there was a Jewish historian Flavius Josephus and he was 1959s
writing about James who is the brother of Jesus he's writing about his execution and he wrote 1969s
let's see here there was a meeting of judges called and brought into it the brother of Jesus who is 1977s
called Messiah James by name and some others he made the accusation that they had transgressed the 1983s
law and he handed them over to be stone so Josephus had mentioned or mentions at least 12 other 1989s
that are named Jesus because Jesus was a rather common name and so he's specifying which Jesus he was 1996s
referring to as James brother so he used the one called or who is called Messiah Jesus who is called 2006s
Messiah he also had a longer passage in a book that was called Jewish and equities and it refers to 2015s
Jesus there was a Christian apologist who named Eusibius who added who some people think added 2024s
some Christian claims in this text of Josephus Josephus wrote around this time there lived Jesus 2035s
a wise man if indeed one ought to call him a man for he was one who did surprising deeds and a 2043s
teacher of such people as except the truth gladly he won over many Jews and many of the Greeks 2049s
he was the Messiah when Pilate upon hearing him accused by men of his highest standing among us 2055s
had condemned him to be crucified those who in the first place came to love him did not give up 2061s
their affection for him for on the third day he appeared to them restored to life the prophets of 2067s
God had prophesied this and countless other marvelous things about him and the tribe of Christians 2073s
so called after him have still to this day not died out now I don't know for certain if 2078s
Eusibius added anything or not but all of the surviving manuscripts of this testimony or testament 2088s
that are in Greek they contain the same version of this passage there are no significant differences 2097s
which is very interesting that more than one source of this passage says the same thing 2104s
Josephus also was not a Christian he was a Jewish historian the Celseus was a platenist philosopher 2112s
he considered Jesus to be a magician who made exorbitant claims so he he didn't believe that Jesus 2121s
was the Christ he didn't believe that Jesus was the son of man but he gives an account 2128s
of a man named Jesus who did things that he thought were magical right 2132s
Pliny the younger a Roman governor and friend of Tacitus wrote about early Christian worship of Christ 2140s
as to a god little G god Soutenuse a Roman writer lawyer and historian wrote of riots in 49 2147s
that were among the Jews in Rome which might have been about Christus but which he thought were 2157s
incited by the instigator of Christus whose identification with Jesus is not completely certain but 2162s
this Roman writer is talking about these riots he thinks that at the very least it's linked 2170s
to this group or this man Christ right um Mara Barcerapione 2176s
Mara Barcerapione that's a fun name Mara Barcerapione a prisoner of war that was held by the Romans he 2184s
wrote a letter to his son that described the Jewish the wise Jewish king in a way that seems to 2190s
indicate Jesus but it doesn't specify his name but again we have that that non non-Christian 2197s
source talking about a Jewish wise king so we see that there is a case to be made 2205s
from scripture certainly for the humanity the flesh and bones of Christ but we also see that 2214s
it's not just the biblical text we have outside sources we have historical sources that were also 2223s
referring to Christ not Christians themselves but writing of a man who who had a group of 2231s
followers a man who was crucified under Pontius Pilate so we have these historical 2239s
these historical sources as well so what's the deal okay we can say yeah okay Jesus was a person 2247s
he was a man that's great but why is it so important to hold this as absolute truth and to confess it 2257s
in our creeds have it as a part of our common confession and that's what we're going to talk about 2267s
next time we don't have class this next Sunday but the following Sunday we're going to dive into 2273s
why the humanity of Christ actually matters in salvation or for salvation 2279s