Behold the Man

In John 18 and 19 we read of Jesus’s arrest. Then He was sent to Caiaphas, then to Pilate who questioned Him and scourged Him. After that, Pilate brought Him out to the crowd and said, “Behold the Man!” John 19:5

Pilate was essentially saying, "Here is Jesus. He is not your Messiah, He is not your king, He is not God. He is just a man."
Let us consider the man... Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. Heb. 12:3. 

What joy could possibly be worth enduring the pain, torture and humiliation of crucifixion? Could it be that Jesus would be exalted above all else in Heaven and Earth? Or that He would be King of Israel... and the world? Wouldn't that be selfish and vain of Jesus? The joy set before Jesus was redeeming the human race and all of creation, for God so loved the world.
See also John 10:11.

But first let us establish that Jesus, in His earthly ministry, was fully God and fully man. There is no difficulty or argument among most Christians that Jesus was the UNION of God and man. Some of you may know that this union is called “hypostasis – a term that refers to Christ, constituting in the incarnation, a complex person (Jesus) with both a human and a divine nature, in union, as one” as another has said. But how do we explain the “uniqueness” of the man? We can hardly explain God adequately to each other. It should be relatively "easy" to explain the man though, since we have much scripture, and we are ourselves... man. 

For example, we claim Jesus was the Creator. Was Jesus a man, in the beginning? I know in John 1 we read... In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
And in verse 14 we read... And the Word became flesh. Does anyone translate that to mean, "Jesus became flesh?"

So, if we ask ourselves was Jesus pre-existent, what will our answer be? 
Indeed, can flesh and blood BE  pre-existent? Discovering the answers can deepen our understanding of God and Jesus, and enrich our worship. 

Matt. 1:21 says, And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus (Jehovah is salvation), for He will save His people from their sins.

Matt. 1:23 (referencing Isaiah 7:14) says, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear (that is...carry, convey, develop) a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, “God with us.”

A virgin gave birth to Jesus, the man, by the Holy Spirit. But it was not a natural birth of pro-creation. Jesus was more accurately “begotten” of the Father... He was, as Luke 1:31 says, “brought forth.”
The man Jesus, the human Jesus was made in the sense that He was God’s “design.” God produced a NEW man... at conception. He brought into being the last Adam, as it were.
1 Cor. 15:45 says, And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam is a quickening spirit.
1 Cor. 15:47 says, The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.
The word Lord here is a title given to God the Messiah. (Interlinear)

Jesus, in His earthly ministry, was the born-again new man of John 3:3-7.

Jesus did not come from heaven to become flesh, and blood, and bone. GOD did... specifically, God the Son, Jehovah of the Old Testament, fashioned a new sinless body for Himself and His name was called Jesus, or Joshua, or Yeshua, which all three mean Jehovah is salvation! We find similar names and references of Jesus such as...
Jehoshua (old testament) which translates to Joshua which means Jehovah is salvation.
Yeshua (new testament) translates to Joshua which means Jehovah is salvation.
Iesous (Greek) translates to Joshua which means Jehovah is salvation. 

Jesus is the only one conceived by the Father in such a way and brought forth of a woman... apart from procreation, therefore, a new creation. 

When Jesus said, “You must be born again” He is speaking of a new creation which John describes in his first epistle verse 9 as, Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 

The man Jesus, the human Jesus was made in the sense that He was God’s “design.” God produced a NEW man... at conception. He brought into being the last Adam, as it were.

1 Cor. 15:45 says, And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam is a quickening spirit. 

Jesus grew up in a family with siblings... like me. Jesus was schooled, went to church (synagogue)... like me. Jesus worked at a trade... like me. Jesus hungered and ate, He thirsted and drank, felt pain and sorrow, experienced anger... like me. He was tempted with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life to disobey God... like me. He bled like me, and He died like I will. He was flesh, blood and bones and human cells and subjected to bodily functions... like me.
JESUS WAS A MAN! But without sin!

So, one could say, “Yeah, well Jesus was God.” Yes, Jesus was the incarnation of Jehovah (God the Son) but He was also fully man but without sin, just like Adam was created (in the image of God), until he sinned. Like Adam, Jesus was made a little lower than the angels. This is not difficult to explain to a believer because of FAITH! The same power that created the heavens and the earth, and Adam, ordained, that is, spoke into existence, the virgin birth of Jesus.
Who was the Father of Adam?” The same as Jesus’ Father.

Isaiah 44:24 says...
Thus says the LORD your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by Myself spread out the earth.
The Greek for “Lord” there, and over 6500 other references in the Old Testament, is JEHOVAH, Who has a special redemptive relationship with man beginning in Genesis 2:4. Whereas Elohim (the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is indicated as the Creator in Genesis 1:1 up to Gen. 2:4. By His Word all things were created. The Word is Jehovah, God the Son, Who was made flesh, John 1:14, ...and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father (the transfiguration).

John 1:1 says... In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

The pre-existence of Jesus is in Jehovah as Christ. What do I mean by that? We know that, according to the Greek, Christ means “anointed” which means consecrated, which means set apart, dedicated, devoted, sanctified. Jehovah is the second person of the Godhead, the Trinity... the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
God, in three persons, knew from eternity past that all of creation would need a redeemer because of, and especially for, man. Jehovah would anoint (consecrate, sanctify) Himself and introduce Himself into creation in the form of a sinless man. Jesus (which means Jehovah is salvation) would fully experience the life of man being tempted and tested in all things, but without sin. 

Jesus would manifest God in love, with power, and perfection to man as an example of the acceptable requirement of God from man. He would then suffer the condemnation and punishment for man because of man’s sins toward God, in order to reconcile man to God. Jesus would die voluntarily (since death had no claim on Him, being sinless) and be buried for three days, by which time a corpse would begin to decay. But Jesus would not decay. God glorified Jesus by resurrecting Him back to not only life, like He did Lazarus, but eternal life, because He did all things well... as a man.

Acts 10:38 says, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
Jehovah was the anointed from eternity; consecrated to be Jesus the Messiah, with the necessary power for His administration. Similarly, Christians are endued with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Micah 5:2 says, But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah; from you One shall come forth for Me to be Ruler in Israel, His goings forth are from long ago, from everlasting.
The man was born in Bethlehem, but the Son is from everlasting.

Col. 1:27 says, To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Could we substitute the word Messiah for Christ in Col. 1:27? I don’t think so. We certainly can’t say “anointed in you.” Perhaps we could insert “Son of God” there? But that’s a problem as well, for me at least. I don’t think inserting “Jesus” there works either. So what or who exactly is “Christ in you?”
It is the Spirit of the second Person of the Trinity (Godhead) which is God the Son, the Christ, Jehovah the Christ, Son of God the Christ, all embodied in  J E S U S !!!

We could well say that the second Person of the Trinity (Godhead) is Christ! 

“Christ in you” is the New Man! And that is what we should attain to!

Jesus Christ is a less than appropriate term to reference Jesus THE Christ. Christ is the Greek for “anointed” from the messiah. The word “messiah” had to be translated from the Old Testament, to the New Testament. So the Hebrew became Greek (anointed). But the word messiah has meaning only to the Jews. Jesus is not my messiah. He is my Lord and Savior, which is actually what Jehovah means.

We have confused ourselves with our own language!
From Hebrew and Aramaic, to Greek, to English, translations to transliterations, and translations OF transliterations, and transliterations of transliterations, not to mention the paraphrasing of some translations... meanings and intent have become lost in translations of our numerous English Bible translations. Yeah... that’s meant to be confounding!

Why do I feel it is important to understand the “humanity” of Jesus? Because it is the man who suffered greatly, whose body of flesh was lacerated and beaten beyond recognition as a man. The man Jesus was crucified, and died on the cross, shedding His blood. God did not die. Christ (being a title) did not die. Messiah (also a title) did not die. But the Son of God, Jesus, the man did! ...alone in the agony of the flesh and the soul. The pain, the anguish, the agony, the distress, the torment is what God laid on Jesus on a level above anything any of us have experienced. It had to be... because that was our judgment in hell.

I can tell you I have a very low tolerance of pain. Some of you might have a high threshold for pain. The contrast between us doesn’t matter. What was laid on Jesus would make the most tolerant and stoic of us scream and probably die of a heart attack with the first scourging. But Jesus was about to experience even more pain...
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matt. 27:46

“Forsaken” there means what you know it means... abandoned, left helpless, deserted. I know some will say “No” to that, but God in any divine form DID NOT DIE on the cross.

Death (separation of body, soul, spirit) is something that is experienced only by the human nature, because the divine nature isn’t capable of experiencing death. God not only created the universe, He sustains it by the very power of His being. As Paul said, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). If the being of God ceased for one second, the universe would disappear. It would pass out of existence, because nothing can exist apart from the sustaining power of God. If God dies, everything dies with Him. Obviously, then, God could not have perished on the cross. ~R.C, Sproul, 2016

And this is the point I believe we need to fully appreciate and understand. Jesus the man, regardless of the level of pain and distress, had the will to endure it... until He said “It is finished.” Jesus died as a tortured lonely man... but for the joy set before Him, He endured. That joy was and is what Psalm

Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God (Godhead) has made this same Jesus (Jehovah’s Salvation), whom you have crucified, both Lord (the anointed Messiah) and Christ (the anointed Son of God).
Messiah is simply defined as anointed, and Christ is simply defined as anointed. I think we have failed to adequately define these terms and titles “Messiah” and “Christ.” Perhaps in our efforts to understand them more simply, we have lessened the true meaning and diluted the power of Who they are. Because in that verse Acts 2:36, Jesus means “Jehovah is salvation” Lord means “God the Messiah” and Christ means “the anointed Messiah, Son of God.”