A Common Question

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>Hi all,
>
>        There is a question that I've been hearing and being asked for
>almost three months now both in the church as well as some of my other
>friends. "Did Jesus have a human spirit
>besides the Holy Ghost?" Personally I didn't even think that the question
>was correctly
>phrased. The situation seemed pretty clear to me. Being God incarnated in
>the flesh, the only Spirit residing in Him was the Holy Ghost and no other
>spirits. Our discussion went on for a long time and I thought I better get
>some solid answers myself. Do anyone of you think that there is some good
>documentation in any of David Bernard's books? Thanks in advance. 8)


It is not as cut and dry as you may think.  Nobody can answer this question
with any degree of certainty.  At best, we can only speculate because the
Bible is not clear on the issue--and perhaps deliberately so.  Without
quoting a ton of Scriptures that I'm sure we all are extremely with, let me
summarize a few things that we do know about the nature of Christ according
to the Bible.

1) In the days of His flesh, Jesus had a dual nature (not two separate
nature, one dual nature).  He was, at the same time, both fully God and
fully man (human).

2)  He was "God manifest in flesh," but this is not to say that He was
merely a human body (e.g. a human shell or house) in whom God dwelt.  For,
we know he had human emotions and feelings, human desires (even
temptations), etc.

3)  We know that the Bible equates "the Spirit of Christ" with the "Holy
Spirit," the "Spirit of God," etc.


Now, in order for Jesus to have been "truly human" did he have all the
"components" (for lack of a better term) of humanity (mind, body, soul and
spirit)?  This opens a huge can of worms.  Some say that man is only made
up of soul and body (spirit and soul are synonymous), some say that man is
soul, body and spirit (spirit being synonymous with mind), etc., etc., etc.
(This is an entirely different discussion.)

Are you confused yet, because I am.  :)

At any rate, if Jesus was fully human, wouldn't it follow that He had a
human spirit (whatever that is)?  Think about it.  Does this mean that His
Spirit was not the Spirit of God?  Of course not.  The bottom line is that
the dual natures of Jesus were so inextricably linked, so inseparably
bound, in a way that no other being has ever been or ever will be.  If we
try to answer this question, we must totally rely on conjecture.

By the way, Bernard does hold that Jesus had a "human spirit."  Read
_Oneness of God_ chapter five.





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