The Apostles' Creed: Real Humanity
". . . born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried."
On Sunday, 26 September 2004, Mr. Hunter continued his series of sermons on The Apostles' Creed by focusing upon the humanity of Jesus Christ. As Pastor Hunter explained, some early thought in the Christian church denied Christ's divinity, in particular the Gnostics, who believed Christ was fully human, and Docetism, which claimed Christ was fully spirit that only seemed to appear in human form. It was in reaction to this kind of thought that the Apostles' Creed insists Jesus Christ is fully divine and fully human. The Creed emphasizes human experience with the verbs born, suffered, and died.
Mr. Hunter focused upon three reasons why Christ's human nature is important to our theology.
First, the Incarnation——thanks to Christ's Incarnation, God knows what it is to be human. Christ experienced the full range of human experience, and so God understands His human creation completely. In comparison, Mr. Hunter referred to Data (pictured at right), the beloved android character from the TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation. Although superior to humans and computers in innumerable ways, Data was keenly aware of his lack of humanity. He never, for instance, could have a spontaneous, unstudied reaction to situational humor. Because he was not human, Data never fully understood human begins. Thanks to the Incarnation, God understands the nature of humanity completely.
Secondly, Christ's willingness to assume human flesh reveals the depths of God's love for commitment to us, His creation. Christ became our link to God, the one whose human life helps lead us to God. To illustrate this concept, Mr. Hunter retold the Parable of the Birds, in which a farmer wishes he could become a bird in order to lead some pitiful, freezing birds to safety. So God became human to lead us to Him.
Finally, a fully human Christ functions as the best possible example for us fellow humans in our troubles. When Christ experienced hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and depression during His 40 days in the wilderness, his temptation represents genuine human suffering which he overcame using his human resources. Christ's example shows us that we, too, can overcome temptation, with God's help.
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