This is the third of three articles that unpack the Biblical truths that Jesus is fully God, he is fully man, and he is also both fully God and fully man at the same time.
In December 1917, two ships collided in the harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia. One carried a massive load of explosives. The resulting blast destroyed much of the city, killing nearly 2,000 people and injuring thousands more.
When news reached Boston, a surgeon named Dr. William Ladd rushed to Halifax. For fifty-one hours straight, he worked without sleep, food, or adequate equipment. He treated burns, amputated limbs, and performed surgeries until his clothes were soaked with blood. He saved hundreds of lives.
Yet most survivors never learned his name. For years, they simply said, “That doctor saved us.” They remembered their salvation, but they did not know their saviour.
That disconnect exposes a quiet danger in the Christian life. It is possible to be genuinely saved, sincerely grateful, and yet strangely indifferent to truly knowing the one who saved us. We remember salvation, but we neglect the Saviour.
This tension brings us to Paul’s words to the Colossians. “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9).
In one sentence, Paul captures the mystery of the incarnation. In Jesus Christ, the fullness of God lives in human flesh.
Ignorance & Controversy Over the Incarnate Christ
Most Christians affirm that Jesus is fully God and fully man. We can repeat the doctrine. We can nod in agreement. But many struggle to explain why he had to be both—fully God and fully man at the same time.
When we cannot answer that “why,” our faith quietly becomes shallow. Like the Halifax survivors, we are healed but uninformed.
This struggle is not new.
During Jesus’s earthly ministry, even his brothers doubted him. After his resurrection, confusion only increased. Some denied that Jesus was truly human, claiming he only appeared to have flesh. Others rejected his divinity, reducing him to a remarkable but merely human teacher.
The early church fought these errors—not because it enjoyed theological debate—but because the truth was essential. Across generations, Christians insisted that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, united in one person. This was not theological trivia. It was a matter of salvation itself.
The Necessity of the Incarnation
If Jesus is not both fully God and fully man, then we are not saved.
If Jesus were only God and not truly human, he could not represent us. He could not obey God’s law in our place. Most importantly, he could not die. Atonement requires a real human life and a real human death. God, in his divine nature, cannot suffer or die.
If Jesus were only human, his sacrifice would be limited. A finite person can only offer a finite payment. His death might benefit people in one place and time, but it could not redeem sinners across centuries. A merely human saviour cannot offer eternal redemption.
Salvation requires humanity and divinity.
Only a true human can stand in humanity’s place. Only God can give infinite, timeless value to that sacrifice.
This is why Scripture speaks of Jesus offering himself “once for all,” obtaining eternal redemption, and making believers holy through the sacrifice of his body (Heb. 7:27).
The Incarnate Christ and Our Redemption
Jesus is not two persons sharing one body. He is one person with two distinct natures—fully God and fully man—perfectly united.
As man, Jesus could suffer, obey, and die as our substitute. As God, his death carries infinite power and eternal effectiveness. This union is not a philosophical puzzle but the foundation of Christian hope.
Remove either nature, and salvation collapses. Recognise both, and the gospel stands secure.
This truth guards us from reducing Jesus to a distant deity or a helpful moral example. He is neither abstract nor insufficient. He is exactly who salvation requires him to be.
How Knowing the Incarnate Christ Transforms Us
Because Jesus is fully man, there is no part of your life he cannot understand. No temptation you face is foreign to him. No sorrow you carry is beneath his notice. And no weakness repels him.
Because Jesus is fully God, there is no part of your life he cannot change. No sin is too entrenched. No guilt is too heavy. And no future is too uncertain.
If Jesus were only a man, he could sympathise but not save. If he were only God, he could save but not truly sympathise. But because he is fully God and fully man, he does both perfectly.
We need a God who is above us and with us.
A God only above us becomes distant. And a God only with us becomes powerless.
Only Jesus is both.
Knowing the Incarnate Christ
In 1982, an Air Florida flight crashed into the icy Potomac River. Most passengers died instantly. One man repeatedly caught a rescue line—not to save himself, but to pass it to others. After the others were rescued, he lost strength and slipped beneath the water.
At first, no one knew his name. He was simply called “the man in the water.” But the survivors refused to let him remain anonymous. Gratitude drove them to know the one who gave his life for them. After interviews and testimony, he was finally identified as Arland D. Williams Jr.
The Christian life calls for the same response. We can be grateful for salvation yet indifferent to the Saviour, or we can let gratitude press us to know who Jesus is more deeply than ever before.
The apostle Paul could say, “I know whom I have believed” (2 Tim. 1:12).
Do we?
