How can Jesus be both fully God and fully man?
Jesus is fully human, and because He fulfilled the purpose of creation and became completely one with God, God's divinity dwelt in Him fully. His humanity was essential; only as a man could He come as the new Adam to give humanity rebirth.
The Gospels present Jesus in two registers that seem impossible to hold together. He hungers, weeps, grows tired, and dies; He also forgives sin, commands nature, and says that whoever sees Him sees the Father. Understanding how both are true begins with recognizing what a human being was created to be in the first place.
His Humanity Was Complete and Necessary
Jesus was born, grew, ate, and slept. He was tempted, He wept at a friend's grave, He agonized in Gethsemane, and He died. Paul writes that "since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead" (1 Corinthians 15:21). This logic depends on Jesus being genuinely a man; a rescue conducted from outside humanity could not restore humanity from within.
His mission required it. He came as the new Adam to stand in the position lost at the fall and to give rebirth to the human race as its true parent. That work cannot be done by a spirit visiting in appearance only. Treating the physical world as unworthy of God and spiritualizing everything is the old error of Gnosticism, which denies the goodness of a creation God called good. The world is not evil; we are, and the remedy had to come as a man among men. As the Scripture says, "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people" (Hebrews 2:17).
His Divinity Was Real
Yet Jesus is not merely an admirable teacher. Because He fulfilled the purpose of creation and became perfectly one with God, God dwelt in Him without reserve. That is why He could tell Philip, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father," and ask how anyone could request to be shown the Father when "I am in the Father, and the Father in me" (John 14:9-10). His divinity is genuine, and it is the divinity of a human being in whom God fully lives.
John says the world was made by the Word and that the Word became flesh. God created the world on the model of a perfected human being, a prototype of the whole, so the one who fully realized that model can rightly be called the Alpha and the Omega. When Jesus said "before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58), He spoke of His providential position: coming as Adam to give rebirth to humanity, He stands as ancestor even to those who preceded Him in time. Indeed, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).
Distinct From God, One With God
The two registers stay coherent as long as we keep both. Jesus prayed to the Father, asked that the cup pass from Him, cried "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and spoke of sitting at the Father's right hand. No one supposes He was addressing Himself or seating Himself beside Himself. He is distinct from God the Creator, the image of God and Lord of creation, and simultaneously one with God in heart, will, and love.
What This Opens for Us
This is not a unique category permanently closed to everyone else. Jesus told His followers to be perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect, and Scripture says that we shall be like Him. Those who connect to Jesus and receive rebirth are meant to grow toward the same union with God, becoming people in whom God dwells and through whom His nature is visible. His achievement is the pattern of our destination, not a wall between us and God.
Living the Principle
Take His humanity seriously when you struggle. He was tempted in all points as we are, so the sympathy He offers is informed rather than distant.
Take His divinity seriously when you pray. In Him you are meeting God's own heart, not an intermediary who reports back. For "God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (1 Timothy 3:16).
Refuse the two easy shortcuts. Making Jesus only human empties the gospel; making Him only God makes His obedience and suffering theater.
Honor the physical. Because God's purpose was fulfilled in a body, ordinary life, work, marriage, and family are the arena of holiness rather than distractions from it.
Finally, follow the path He opened. He came as the new Adam so that others could stand where He stands. Receive that rebirth, grow toward union with God, and build the kind of family and life in which God can dwell as fully as He dwelt in Christ.
These answers explain the Bible in the light of the Divine Principle, the teachings of Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Read about the author, Sun Myung Moon.
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Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, King James Version — Scripture quoted and referenced throughout the answers.
- The Divine Principle (full text) — The complete text of the Divine Principle, the teaching of Reverend Sun Myung Moon that these answers explain.
- Unification texts library (tparents.org) — Large online library of Unification texts, sermons and collected speeches, including the Cheon Seong Gyeong.
- Short video lectures in English — Playlist of short English video lectures presenting these same principles.