I know he did. Why? Because I have yet to meet a newborn who didn’t.

As trite as it may sound, it was a moment when I grasped that our Lord was FULLY man.

Experiencing heat and cold, yes. Wounding and death at the hands of others, yes. Disease, no.

Thank you so much for the post, it’s a question that I have found myself asking on more than one occasion.

But I have a further question if you would just maybe take the time to answer as well.

It is my understanding that death did not enter into the world until sin did, physical death being one of it’s direct consequences. I would figure with that is also the many various diseases and aliments that can lead to death. Which in that day I’m sure that even the most insignificant sickness could since they didn’t have our medicine. So… I’m having trouble accepting that Jesus could even get sick since that would be a direct result of sin. Would it just be that, death and sickness are results of the fall in general and not one’s own personal sin? Or would Jesus be “exempt” from that because he did not have original sin?

Thanks so much for your blog, it’s very insightful and teaches me a lot. I hope you find the time to answer my question.

“Could Jesus have had a teenage crush on a girl?”

Part of me says yes, but the other part is reminded that Paul speaks of those who have been given the gift of celibacy. Did Jesus have the gift of celibacy? Could he have gotten a crush on a girl without lusting?

If hunger and thirst and fatigue are not a result of the curse, why will they be eliminated in heaven?

Jesus wept. There will be no weeping in heaven. Couldn’t he have sucked it up as God?

I appreciate the argument you present; however, I do not believe it withstands further scrutiny. You stated that you didn’t know of any passage revealing that Jesus suffered effects of sin, but there are. Physical death is the ultimate effect of sin. He experienced that. Furthermore, He ate meat (at the Passover at least) which is also an effect of sin and He dwelled on a fallen world that was not as God created so He “suffered” the effect of His creation being cursed.

So the door stands open and, if one uses an argument from the greater to the lesser, it is quite probable that Jesus experienced other effects of the Fall such as sickness.

That Jesus is fully God and fully human is not abstract theology – it’s great hope for living life today! Thank you.

~Stanley

Regarding Athanasius:

Athanasius comment makes perfect since in a Pre-Chalcedon Christianity, but for me, its a little to close to a moderate Nestorian view. Personally, I find the definition of Chalcedon to be a much better explanation of the communication of attributes in regard to the God-man, than Athanasius comment. To be fair to Athanasius, I need to read the comment in it fullest context, but my initially thought is that he view the deity of Christ as the dominate nature of Christ, which at best is a misreading of the text and at worst a fast track to heresy.

In General:

Any view of his deity that makes little of his humanity is just as dangerous as a view that makes more of his humanity than it does of his deity. When scripture speaks of Christ, it generally speaks of him as a whole man instead of one possessing two natures, which means, we should be comfortable when speaking of the human or the divine attributes of Christ without feeling the need to qualify or defend the other.

Resources on Christology:

anything by Donald McLeod

Sunday School notes from HBC-Shreveport: http://www.ncmin.com/christology

This is such an important reminder! Jesus’ death was not easy, and it is what always brought me back to just … lying at God’s feet when i thought for a second or hour or month that maybe there was something better “out there”. There just isn’t. I have been chronically ill for 20 years with an illness that is largely marked by chronic pain in muscles, tendons, connective tissue. It has been amazing to me, just in my little life circumstance, that God doesn’t just know my pain because He knows everything…. he knows it because (this always makes me tear up, we just have this amazing Father God!!) because He literally went through it. And though i have known Jesus since i was very young (thanks to my Mom and amazing Sunday School teachers at a young age!!), i need to be reminded of these basic, true, wonderful things often. And to thank the Lord every day!

“‘The death of men under ordinary circumstances is the result of their natural weakness. They are essentially impermanent, so after a time they fall ill and when worn out they die. But the Lord is not like that. He is not weak, He is the Power of God and Word of God and Very Life Itself. If He had died quietly in His bed like other men it would have looked as if He did so in accordance with His nature, and as though He was indeed no more than other men. But because He was Himself Word and Life and Power His body was made strong, and because the death had to be accomplished, He took the occasion of perfecting His sacrifice not from Himself, but from others. How could He fall sick, Who had healed others? Or how could that body weaken and fail by means of which others are made strong? Here, again, you may say, ‘Why did He not prevent death, as He did sickness?’ Because it was precisely in order to be able to die that He had taken a body, and to prevent the death would have been to impede the resurrection. And as to the unsuitability of sickness for His body, as arguing weakness, you may say, ‘Did He then not hunger?’ Yes, He hungered, because that was the property of His body, but He did not die of hunger because He Whose body hungered was the Lord. Similarly, though He died to ransom al, He did not see corruption. His body rose in perfect soundness, for it was the body of none other than the Life Himself.”

De Incarnatione, chapter 4, section 21
http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/ath-inc.htm

For Athanasius, Christ’s humanity is not revealed in undergoing sickness, disease, or the effects of sin. He suffered God’s wrath upon sin much more intensely than flu or cold or cancer could reveal–but His body had to remain incorrupt in order that He might prove Himself God and give assurance to men that their bodies too would be raised incorruptible. Hunger, thirst, fatigue are all products of the body’s own limitations; not of some alien condition or flaw, as is sickness–at least in Athanasius’ view.

Would Adam have gotten sick in the Garden before the Fall? It has nothing to do with detracting from his deity, it has to do with his sinless humanity… no sin, no curse, no sickness. Hunger and thirst are not a result of the curse. Nor is digestion or the elimination of waste.

“. . . Jesus begins to make the passage
from the one who is healer, to the one who is wounded;

from the man of compassion
to the man in need of compassion;

from the man who cries out:
‘If anyone thirsts let him come to me to drink,’
to the man who cries out: ‘I thirst.’

From announcing the good news to the poor,
Jesus becomes the poor.
He crosses over the boundary line of humanity
which separates those whose needs are satisfied
from those who are broken and cry out in need.”

http://www.msgr.ca/msgr/body_broken%2000.htm

If you want to examine this theme more, you can explore some of the writings of the Eastern Orthodox who see, within the Mystery of Incarnation, even more than we do in Western Christianity.

I’m going to go sing Joy to the World now, haha.

Thanks for the post, Dr. Moore.

Blessings!

Further, I don’t think it’s my sin that gives me the stomach virus, either. It’s just .. .. here, you know?

Cautionary note: Marty Duren got all kinds of heat for writing a similar piece a few years ago.