Jesus as Man: A Survey of Church History with W. Robert Godfrey

Devotional

Day 1: One Person, Two Natures: The Tightrope of Orthodoxy

The church wrestled to hold Christ’s full divinity and full humanity in tension, rejecting compromises that reduced Him to a hybrid or divided being. Like walking a tightrope, orthodoxy demanded avoiding the twin dangers of diminishing either nature. Jesus’ humanity isn’t a costume worn by divinity, nor is His divinity diluted by human frailty. This tension matters because only a fully divine Savior could bear God’s wrath, and only a fully human substitute could pay humanity’s debt. The struggle to articulate this birthed the creedal clarity that anchors faith today. [01:49]

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:14–15, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you been tempted to downplay either Jesus’ divinity or His humanity? How does holding both truths deepen your trust in His ability to save you?

Day 2: Mary as Theotokos: When Titles Shape Devotion

The debate over calling Mary “God-bearer” exposed how language shapes worship. Nestorius’s hesitation to affirm theotokos risked severing Christ’s unity, while Ephesus’s fervor revealed how cultural devotion can eclipse theological precision. Titles matter because they guard the mystery: the child Mary carried was not a divided being, but the undiminished God-Man. Yet the church’s messy struggle reminds us that even holy controversies can become entangled with pride and power. [11:00]

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, ESV)

Reflection: What labels or titles for Jesus most anchor your worship? How might overemphasizing secondary devotions distract you from His primary work?

Day 3: Two Wills in the Wilderness: The Humanity of Temptation

The monothelite debate asked whether Jesus had one will (divine) or two (divine and human). To deny His human will would make His temptation in the wilderness a charade. When He resisted Satan, He did so not as a divine robot, but as the Second Adam—fully human, choosing obedience through struggle. His victory becomes ours because He faced our battles with our frailties, yet without failing. [23:11]

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42, ESV)

Reflection: When have you resented having to choose obedience despite your desires? How does Jesus’ human struggle empower your own?

Day 4: The Cost of Compromise: When Politics Infects Theology

Cyril’s rivalry with Nestorius exposed how church conflicts often mix truth with pride. Doctrinal purity became weaponized in a power struggle between patriarchs, fracturing unity. Yet God still worked through flawed people to preserve essential truths. The church’s messy history reminds us that orthodoxy often emerges through fire, requiring humility to separate eternal truth from temporal agendas. [07:56]

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” (Colossians 2:8–9, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you seen personal ambition distort spiritual leadership? How can you pursue truth without weaponizing it?

Day 5: Why the God-Man? The Anatomy of Redemption

Anselm asked, “Why did God become man?” Because only a divine being could bear infinite wrath, and only a human could represent humanity’s debt. Chalcedon’s “two natures in one person” isn’t abstract theology—it’s the mechanics of salvation. The cross required both nails piercing human flesh and the divine capacity to absorb sin’s curse. To diminish either nature unravels the very fabric of grace. [15:20]

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8, ESV)

Reflection: How does Jesus’ dual nature make His sacrifice uniquely sufficient for your sins? What doubt or fear does this truth dissolve?

Sermon Summary

The church’s earlier struggle over Christ’s divinity had guarded a necessary truth, but that very stress raised a fresh question: how is Jesus fully human as well as fully divine? Mary’s growing place in late ancient and medieval devotion showed the danger of dehumanizing Jesus, as though the Son Himself could not sympathize with human weakness. The question of Christ’s humanity forced the ancient church onto a tightrope, because there were many ways to fall off.

The simple answer that Jesus was part divine and part human failed because it produced a “third thing,” a tertium quid, neither truly God nor truly man. Nestorius tried to protect both the full divinity and the full humanity of Christ, but his language sounded as if there were two persons in the body of Jesus, one human and one divine, joined by common purpose. Cyril of Alexandria opposed him fiercely, though Cyril’s zeal was mixed with rivalry, ambition, and the ugly politics of church life.

The title theotokos, “bearer of God,” became a flashpoint because Nestorius preferred christotokos, “bearer of Christ.” The concern was not that Mary was the source of Christ’s deity, but that the child she bore was truly divine. Ephesus, with its strong devotion to Mary and its old pagan background of devotion to Artemis, was not a friendly place for Nestorius. The council condemned him, deposed him, and left the church shaken and fractured.

The compromise that followed gave the church the language that would endure: Jesus is one person with two natures. Chalcedon in 451 would receive that formula as the way to say what Scripture requires. Everything essential to being God belongs to Jesus, and everything essential to being human belongs to Jesus. He is not deficient in His deity, and He is not deficient in His humanity.

The work of Christ depends on that person of Christ. Only God can bear the infinite wrath of God against sin, but only a human can pay the debt humanity owes. Anselm would later state the point sharply in Cur Deus Homo: only God could save, but He had to save as man. The death of Christ in body and blood is redemption accomplished in real human nature.

The monophysite reaction tried to protect Christ’s unity by saying He had only one nature, but that again threatened to lose His humanity in His divinity. The monothelite controversy pressed the issue further by asking whether Jesus had one will or two. Orthodoxy finally recognized two wills, divine and human, because a full human nature includes a human will. Christ’s wills never oppose each other, but His human obedience shows that He resisted temptation as true man, not as a divine shortcut around human struggle.

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Key Takeaways

1. Fully human, fully Savior Christ’s humanity is not an ornament attached to divine power; it is the nature in which He owes and pays the human debt. A savior who only seems human could not stand where humanity stands, obey where Adam failed, or die in body and blood. The comfort is not that Christ observes weakness from above, but that He has taken weakness without sin and redeemed it from within. [14:37]
2. Orthodoxy walks a tightrope The truth about Christ is not protected by choosing the easiest side of a mystery. Error can fall by dividing Him into two persons, or by swallowing His humanity into His divinity. Faithful doctrine often sounds careful because salvation itself depends on the careful truth of who Christ is. [01:10]
3. Mary must not replace Jesus Devotion to Mary grew partly where Christ’s real humanity felt distant. That instinct exposes a serious spiritual danger: when Jesus is dehumanized, sinners look elsewhere for sympathy. Biblical faith does not need another human mediator, because the Son Himself wept, hungered, slept, and died. [00:30]
4. Christ obeyed with human will The monothelite question sounds obscure until temptation is considered. If Christ lacked a human will, His obedience in the wilderness would not be the obedience of a true second Adam. His divine and human wills never fight each other, but His human will shows that redemption includes real human obedience offered in perfect union with the Son.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:30] - The Question of Christ’s Humanity
[01:10] - Orthodoxy as a Tightrope
[02:21] - Nestorius Enters the Debate
[05:48] - Two Persons in Jesus?
[07:10] - Cyril Challenges Nestorius
[08:39] - The Council of Ephesus
[10:10] - Theotokos and Christotokos
[13:03] - One Person, Two Natures
[14:37] - Why Christ Must Be Fully Human
[16:44] - The Monophysite Reaction
[21:04] - The Monothelite Controversy
[23:11] - Gratitude for Ancient Orthodoxy

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Hebrews 4:15 — “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” [00:54]

Observation questions

According to Hebrews 4:15, what two things are said about Jesus in relation to human weakness and temptation?
What were some signs that many people had begun to think of Jesus as less than truly human, and how did that affect devotion to Mary? [00:42]
Why was the idea that Jesus was “part divine and part human” rejected? What problem did that create? [02:04]
What wording eventually became the church’s settled way of speaking about Jesus, and what does that wording say He fully possesses? [13:03]

Interpretation questions

Hebrews 4:15 says Jesus can sympathize with human weakness because He was tempted as we are, yet without sin. Why does that truth depend on Jesus being fully human and not only appearing human?
If Jesus were divided into two persons, one human and one divine, what confusion would that create about who obeyed, suffered, and died for sinners? [07:10]
Why does salvation require that Jesus be fully God and fully man at the same time? What would be lost if either side were denied? [15:35]
Why does a full human nature require a human will, and why does that matter for understanding Jesus’ obedience in temptation? [22:42]

Application questions

Many people quietly feel that Jesus may be holy and powerful but not truly understanding of ordinary weakness. Where is that temptation strongest in personal life right now, and how does Hebrews 4:15 speak to it?
When fear, shame, or repeated sin makes someone look for sympathy somewhere other than Christ, what substitutes are most tempting—another person’s approval, spiritual performance, distraction, or something else? How can the heart be directed back to Jesus as the one who truly understands? [01:01]
Jesus did not save from a distance; He took real human nature to save from within. How does that change the way suffering, fatigue, grief, or temptation are brought to Him in prayer? [20:06]
Orthodoxy often feels like walking a tightrope, where error can go in opposite directions. In everyday Christian life, is there a tendency to prefer an easier, simpler idea of Jesus instead of the biblical one? What might that look like? [01:29]
Jesus’ human obedience matters because He obeyed as the true second Adam, not by bypassing the struggle of human life. How might that encourage perseverance in a present area of temptation or obedience? [22:49]
Since Jesus is not deficient in His humanity, what difference should that make in the way weakness is talked about in the group, in friendship, or in the church? Would it make honesty easier? [14:17]
If Christ’s body and blood were necessary for redemption, how does that deepen gratitude for His incarnation and death? What helps move that truth from a doctrinal statement into worship? [20:13]

Sermon Clips

"Everything that is essential to being God Jesus possesses. And everything essential to being human Jesus possesses. He is not deficient in His divinity in any way, He is fully God, and He is not deficient in His humanity in any way, He is fully human." And that is so critical if we are to understand not only the person of Jesus but also His work. [00:14:17]

Jesus has to be fully human to be a substitute for humans. Jesus cannot be a savior of humans if He isn't human. He has to take our nature upon Himself in order to be our Savior. And the church sensed that, the church understood that -- that He needed to be one with us to really be a substitute and a sacrifice for us. [00:14:50]

Because if He's not fully divine, the later theologians would rightly say, He cannot bear the infinite wrath of God against sin. But if He's not fully human, He can't really owe the debt that has to be paid by humans, and so He has to be both things to accomplish redemption for us. [00:15:29]

Well, because only God could save, but He had to save as a human because only humanity owed the debt. And so these things really are critical to our understanding of our redemption. [00:16:10]

So sometimes you know we look back and we say, "All this debate about the Trinity, all this debate about Christology -- the person of Christ -- does it really matter?" Yes, it really matters, it really matters, not only in understanding who He is, but it really matters in understanding what He does. [00:15:14]

So, the church has come now to this recognition of who Jesus really is in relation to God and in relation to man, and it's crucial because it establishes that He is divine, and understands us fully, and is human, and He can be our Savior fully. Because it's in His death on the cross, it's in His body and blood that our redemption is made. [00:19:50]

Again, if you look at the Bible, the Bible may not tell us in technical terms exactly how we understand the relationship of the humanity and the divinity to Jesus, but when you look in the Bible, nothing can be clearer than that Jesus is divine, according to Biblical teaching, and that Jesus is human according to Biblical teaching. Jesus wept, Jesus was hungry, Jesus slept, Jesus died; He was a human, and that is so important to understanding who He was. [00:20:24]

"We understand Jesus to be one person with two natures," one person with two natures. "He is united as a single person with a fully divine nature and a fully human nature." And this would ultimately be the way forward for the church; this is the great compromise that would finally be accepted at the great fourth ecumenical council at Chalcedon in 451. [00:13:10]

And one theologian said, "Well, it's really kind of simple. Jesus is part divine and part human. There's a human part and a divine part." Well, that's simple, but it's not satisfactory. Then you really have a Jesus who isn't quite divine and isn't quite human. He's, as the Latin theologians used to say, a tertium quid -- he's a third thing, and we don't want a third thing, we want a Jesus who is both fully divine and fully human. [00:01:59]

Remember a couple of lectures ago we talked about part of the reason that Mary became such a center of devotion for some Christians in the late ancient and in the medieval period was because in part Christians didn't seem really to grasp that Jesus was truly human. And so Mary became the human one who could sympathize, who could understand, and it reflected the danger of in some sense dehumanizing Jesus. And so the church began to wrestle with this question -- how can it be that Jesus is human, fully human, as well as being fully divine? [00:00:42]

theotokos, which literally means "the bearer of God," and that title for Mary is often translated into English as "Mother of God." Have you ever heard that title for Mary, that she's the mother of God? Strictly speaking it's not a bad title, because the baby that she bore was divine. Theotokos doesn't teach that Mary was the source of His divinity; just that the child she bore was divine. [00:10:29]

Nestorius was very sincere, he was very honest, he was very eloquent as a preacher, he was very zealous for orthodoxy, the only thing he lacked was he didn't really have very good theological judgment -- that's kind of a weakness in a theologian. And so he opened himself up to criticism for this failure really to see how Jesus could be one person, because what comes across in Scripture isn't -- Jesus isn't two persons in a body, He's really one person. [00:06:39]

The danger of the monophysite position is that again, the humanity begins to be kind of lost in the divinity. The stress falls so much on the divinity that it seems to some extent the humanity is being lost, and if we had more time we could talk about this more, but you'll have to trust me on this. This was a tendency then where once again the true humanity of Jesus was being undermined. [00:17:10]

Nestorius wants to defend the entire divinity of Christ, and he wants to defend the entire humanity of Christ and so he begins talking as if there are two persons in the body of Jesus -- a human person and a divine person, and that they are united just in a sort of common action, a common will -- not that they have a single will, but that they're united by a common purpose. [00:05:48]

In our last session together we looked at the way in which the church wrestled to understand exactly how to talk about Jesus as divine, and we saw how, through a really pretty intense struggle, both theologically and we might say politically, the church really did manage to come and capture what the Scriptures, at least what I believe the Scriptures teach about the divinity of Jesus. [00:00:01]

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