The Vicarious Humanity of Christ
Once we have considered the classical Christian understanding of the Person of Christ including both human and divine natures, we have to consider some of the implications that flow from this idea. Our information regarding how the human nature of Christ impacts the entirety of the Triune God is relatively limited. We know that it, at least in a certain sense, shows that there is some kind of change in God, as it is now eternally bound up with humanity in a way that was not the case before the Incarnation took place. We know that taking on human flesh did not cause God to be something other than God is in God’s own life, and yet, understanding that one of the Divine Persons is forever hypostatically united to finite human flesh is a significant reality that we cannot approach except on our knees in humble worship and adoration.
However, the implications that the hypostatic union has for our humanity is vast and all-important for our salvation. We must take the human side of the divine-human union in Christ seriously because it provides us with the data from which we understand the gospel to be, as the Creed says, “For us and our salvation.” When we articulate how the objective act of God is worked out in our subjective existence, we move into the area of soteriology, or our understanding of salvation. However, for the moment we are concerned, not so much with how we become participants in the vicarious humanity of Christ, but rather the objective implications of this that were forged throughout the entire earthly and historical life of Christ.
There has been a tendency in much of Western Christianity to imagine that Christ’s humanity is only instrumental, that is, it only exists to achieve a higher end. This view could more or less be summarized this way: God needed to provide a perfect human sacrifice to pay the price demanded by our sin. Christ’s humanity is necessary to achieve this end, but does not serve any other purpose. This portrays Christ’s death as merely a penal sacrifice. This motif is indeed present in the New Testament, but this is not the only one. One of the other motifs, particularly emphasized in Eastern theology (especially in the Eastern patristic writers of the first millennium), is that of substitution. This idea emphasizes the fact that God taking our broken and diseased humanity upon himself is intrinsically Salvific. We will consider the penal aspect of the death of Christ in its place, but we will focus on how the entirety of Christ’s life, from birth, through death to resurrection and ascension, shape our understanding of the work of God and how our humanity is uplifted and healed in Christ.
When we refer to Christ’s “vicarious humanity,” we are referring to the idea that Christ has truly entered into our humanity and fulfilled our human response to God on our behalf and in our place. One might even say that, when we get right down to it, the vicarious humanity of Christ is the gospel and it is salvation. In every aspect of human life, where we continually fail to respond to God appropriately, God takes our broken humanity and bends it back into alignment with God’s will. We need, not only a God who dies for us, but one who lives for us. As we will see below, it was a messy process and one that we should not take lightly. As we consider the entirety of what God has done in our humanity, we will consider key moments and concepts in the life of Christ and how they impact our understanding of Christ’s vicarious humanity.
Birth
If the entering of God into our finite humanity is a huge sacrifice on God’s part, entering into the womb of a woman, and growing from a zygote is the most extreme form of this limiting. There can be no wonder that the idea that the God of the universe would be present in a weeping and wailing baby has offended many people throughout the years and indeed still offends people today.
And yet, God’s entering into even our infancy has tremendous significance. The first important point we gain from seeing that, when God became a man, he did not become incarnate as a fully-grown man, but began the process as an infant is that infants, and not just adults, need to be atoned for. We see in the fact that our Lord took upon himself even our infancy that our broken nature has an impact on us even before we are able to consciously choose right and wrong. Surely, it would not have been impossible for God to enter into our world some other way than we are, but being born of Mary solidifies the fact that Jesus is truly flesh of our flesh and, at the same time, shows us that our need for redemption penetrates to the very core of our being.
Irenaeus, the second century theologian, said this; “He therefore passed through every age, becoming an infant for infants, thus sanctifying infants; a child for children, thus sanctifying those of this age, being at the same time made to them an example of piety, righteousness, and submission.” The great bishop of Lyons then extended this observation to every age group, showing how Jesus’ growth through the stages of life has an intrinsically redemptive effect.
Here with the topic of infancy it is more clear than elsewhere that we are not free to speculate what God might have done or decide apart from the actual act of God what is necessary to redeem humanity. The only reliable information that we have is what God has actually done to bring about our salvation. We know that God entered even into infant humanity. Unless we view this as inconsequential, and it is difficult to imagine that any aspect of the work of God is inconsequential, we must conclude that this gives us fundamental insight into our human condition, even as infants. This is an argument for the fundamental brokenness of human nature based firmly in the Person of Christ.
12 Year Old in the Temple
We have already discussed some the significance of Jesus asking and answering questions in the Temple. However, there are some other aspects that ought to be considered. The earliest accounts of the practice of Hebrew boys becoming Bar Mitzvahs do not appear until after Jesus’ lifetime, but if there was any similar practice that predated these accounts (which is very likely, considering that customs often exist for some time before they are officially prescribed in written form), then this passage makes an even stronger statement about Jesus coming to physical and spiritual maturity.
Jesus, at one point in his life, was an adolescent. Modern adolescents deal with many issues that were unknown in previous times, but the awkwardness of those years has been constant. There may be perhaps no greater word of hope to give to teenagers who are struggling with adolescent issues and a lack of maturity than to remind them that even Jesus endured those same difficult years and used them to serve God. Because of this, God knows the struggles of adolescence, not simply because God knows everything, but because God has indeed encountered those issues in Jesus Christ.
If indeed there is some kind of connection between Jesus being found in the Temple, asking and answering questions and the practice of becoming a Bar Mitzvah, it also says something about our professions of faith. When a Jewish boy becomes a Bar Mitzvah, it is the time when they have reached some measure of maturity and become full participants in the community of God’s people. In many ways, it is similar to the practice of Confirmation as practiced by some traditions. When one becomes a Bar Mitzvah, they are accountable to the Jewish law.
This is important to Christians for a few reasons. First, it reminds us that Jesus was indeed subject to the Law. Paul puts it this way (Galatians 4:4-5), “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that he might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” There has been a tendency to ignore the law as relevant for the Christian life. Whatever conclusion is reached by the individual Christian or larger tradition, it must not forget that Jesus himself practiced Jewish law. There were, of course, times when Jesus’ interpretation of the law conflicted with that of the Jewish leaders. Jesus claimed that his interpretation was in line with how God intended the commandment whereas other interpretations were not faithful to the purpose of the Law. It would be more accurate to say that Jesus overturned incorrect interpretations of the Law than to say he overturned the Law without qualification.
Another important facet to this event is the fact that Jesus has taken even our confession of faith upon his lips. There are times when we profess our faith to others and it does not match up with the actual unfaithfulness in which we often live. There are times when we claim the name of Christ and yet, in spite of our sincerity, we fail to live up to it. Jesus has made the true and perfect profession of faith and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we become partakers of that profession. Even our moments of greatest boldness, our greatest confidence in our faith, is broken, but acceptable in the eyes of God because God the Holy Spirit takes our words and actions, even our proclamation of faith, and unites them to the words and actions of Christ (a theme that will be repeated in this work many times) and then presents them, redeemed and healed, to God the Father.
