PERFECTING THE MAN CHRIST JESUS – A GLIMPSE INTO THE MYSTERY OF SUFFERING

ingYeshua[1] Immanuel[2] is the Man Christ Jesus,[3] a man like us[4]. He is God Incarnate[5], God become human,[6] as human as you and I[7].
 
According to the scriptures, this human, grew and developed from his becoming conception[8] to a babe,[9] a child[10] and increased in wisdom and stature in favour with God and man[11]. Little is known of his growing up years into manhood except this and that he had worked as a carpenter[12].
 
Most of what is recorded in the Scriptures is of him as a grown man onwards, from his baptism by his cousin John[13], his ministry, his death, resurrection and ascension.
 
However, concerning the purpose of his becoming human, there are many passages recorded in Scripture that address this.
 
For the purposes of this post, I would like to address the virtues of obedience and suffering in perfecting Jesus as a human, found in the Gospels, letters of Paul and letter to the Hebrews. And in the process, hopefully, shed a little light and understanding of the mystery of suffering and futility in the life of Christ and its application, if relevant, to our lives
 
I wish to begin by referencing some passages in Luke 13.
 
When warned by certain Pharisees that Herod wanted to kill him, Jesus answered: “Go ye and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and will heal still today, and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!”[14]
 
The third day in Jesus’ answer may be interpreted literally to mean that he would continue to do what he was doing until the third day from his answer, or/as well as figuratively to refer to the third day when he is to rise from his death.
 
In the first literal interpretation, it would only mean that he had the intention to only cast out devils and heal until the third day from his answer.
 
In the figurative interpretation, it would mean that he would continue to be who he is and do what he had come to do and be perfected as a human and complete all that he had to do on his resurrection from the dead, on the third day from his death. I tend to prefer and favour this interpretation in light of the many references that he made concerning his resurrection on the third day.[15] For, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:17 “if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins!”[16]
 
Therefore it would seem that the resurrection of Christ is imperative not only for the human Christ Jesus to be perfected, but also is the expression of the evidential reality that the problematic issue of sin between God and man has finally found its complete solution in the man Christ Jesus.
 
Many have assumed that the human, God had become, was perfect, complete and whole in all ways and at all times.
 
There are, however, Scripture references that state or suggest that this is not the case. The passage in Luke 13:33-34 is just one of them.
 
The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 2:10 wrote: “In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.”[17]
 
Note that it was God, perfecting the man, Jesus, the pioneer of our salvation, through what he suffered. The suffering that Christ Jesus had to go through was to enable him to identify with us in all ways, that he might be our merciful High Priest, to be the mercy and atonement for our sins.[18] For “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”[19]
 
The man Christ Jesus could only be perfected or made whole and complete through obedience and suffering. Paul also alludes to this when he wrote: “And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”[20]
 
Only then, did God, therefore “also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”[21] And this happened according to Jesus, only after his resurrection day, after he had been made perfect as a man.[22]
 
For Jesus, the man, the challenge in embracing suffering and learning obedience in suffering, is essential and intrinsic towards growth into perfection vis a vis his relationship of love and goodwill, in union and communion with God and with us, humanity.
 
This is the way of his cross, unique to and for him.
Therefore, he had to become like his brothers and sisters ‘in all things’[23] so that he could be merciful. He became like them, fully ‘human in every way’[24], so that he could serve as a faithful chief priest in God’s presence and make peace with God for their sins[25].
 
Is it any wonder that in the prophecy of Isaiah it is written of him, the Messiah, that he would be “a man of sorrows, and knowing sickness.”[26] “Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.”[27] “For it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer[28]( sick, make weak, to become helpless in suffering).”
 
All of these, he became and assumed, even feeling and falling into darkest depth in the void of Godforsakeness. In so doing, he proved and embraced his identity, identification, jointness and oneness with us in all of our humanness, in all things.
 
Such is the mystery and sacred expression of Father, Son and Spirit’s joint and several Triune love for us, in the man Christ Jesus, in whom the fullness of Deity dwells bodily.[29]
 
Lest we forget, Father, Son and Spirit are ever one yet three. Though it was the Son who became human, God Incarnate, the joint and several participatory actions of all and each need to be recognized and appreciated – Triune God as and in Father initiating, sending, Son mediating, becoming and Spirit generating into happening.
 
As such, I am of the opinion that it would be proper to say that Father and Spirit also jointly share and participate fully in Son’s  suffering and learning obedience though suffering as a man. Triune God, Father, Son and Spirit, through Incarnate Son, the mediator man Christ Jesus, identifies in jointness and oneness with us in all of our humanness, in all things, to enable us to partake of the Divine nature through union and communion.
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As such we are not alone. We do not need to suffer alone. Jesus, the perfected and exalted man, our High Priest ever suffers with us, jointly in oneness with us, identifying and feeling our suffering, sickness, weakness and helplessness in and with us, in and through Spirit.
 
Let me put on record that I am not advocating that we seek suffering and sickness so that we can be perfected. Jesus himself preferred not to suffer. He prayed at Gethsemane ““Abba!” (that is, “Dear Father!”) “All things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me! Still, not what I want, but what you want.”[30]
 
Jesus knew that Father God can take suffering away if he willed it,  “All things are possible for you”. He did not want to suffer the pain, weakness, helplessness and the void of feeling godforsaken on the cross. Yet for him, his cross was to experience these things, with Father and Spirit. Father and Spirit ever remained jointly one with him, even though as a man he felt alone and abandoned, Godforsakened on the cross. Even when he felt Godforsakened, as a man, he still committed and thrust himself into the hands of Father in the void of Godforsakenness and death, “And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit!” Having said this, He breathed His last.”[31]
 
I believe, at this juncture, like Paul wrote of Abraham, his ancestor in the flesh, “In hope he believed against hope”, that Father was still with him and will never leave him. On his part, as a work in progress, man being perfected, he refused to abandon a right relationship with Father, even though he felt abandoned by God.

In my view, his cry with a loud voice: ““Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit”, before breathing his last, is a proclamation of this.
 
Jesus the man allowed God to be who He is, and in hope believed in hope that God will be with him in all of his life and suffering.
 
In allowing God to be with him in his suffering, working it into good for him in perfecting him in his humanity, I reiterate Paul’s statement “For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”[32]
 
I believe that for us, even as we are joint heirs with him, we should allow him to suffer with us inasmuch as we are invited to suffer with him, that God may work all things into our good even into perfecting us towards our respective full potential as a unique and loved person.
 
Jesus’ life of a perfecting human, in obedience through suffering, opens for us, the Way, for this  becoming, through the sufficiency of his grace, and the perfection of his strength in our weakness, suffering and helplessness.


[1] Matthew 1:25 “ Greek-Ἰησοῦς transliterated as ‘iēsous’ English Jesus, Hebrew יְהוֹשׁוּעַ ‘yᵊhôšûa’ English Jesus

[2] Matthew 1:25, Isaiah 7:14, 8:8

[3] 2 Timothy 2:5

[4] Hebrews 2:14 “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature,”RSV

[5] John1:14, Luke1:35

[6] Colossians 2:9

[7] Hebrews 2:11 “For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brethren,” RSV

[8] Luke 1:35, John 1:14

[9] Luke 1:31, Luke 2:21-38

[10] Luke 2:41-52

[11] Luke 2:52

[12] Mark 6:3

[13] Matthew 3:13, Luke 3:21

[14] Luke 13:33,34

[15] See Matthew 16:21, 17:22-23, 20:17-19, 27:63-64, Luke 9:2, 18:33, 24:7, Mark 9:31, 10:34

[16] NKJV

[17] NIV Hebrews 2:10-11

[18] Greek  ἱλάσκεσθαι – to pardon, to appease, purify, to cover, to reconcile, to make right again. See references in Septuagint when translated from the Hebrew root כָּפַר – kapar Strong’s H3722

[19] Hebrews 5:8-10 RSV

[20] Philippians 2:8 RSV

[21] Philippians 2:9-11 RSV

[22] Luke 13:32

[23] RGT

[24] NIV

[25] GW

[26] Isaiah 53:3 WYC

[27] Isaiah 53:4 WEB

[28] Isaiah 53:10 WEB Hebrew – הֶֽחֱלִי ḥālâ to be or become weak, be or become sick, be or become diseased, be or become grieved, be or become sorry

[29] Colossians 2:9

[30] Mark 14:36 CJB

[31] Luke 23:46 AMP

[32] Philippians 2:9-11 KJV