JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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REPEATEDLY CALLED "MAN"
One of the most obvious reasons why we believe Jesus is a man is because He is called
that repeatedly. In Greek there are two words for "man." There is anthropos, which is the generic
word for man as a human being, as a representative and specimen of humanity. There is also the
word aner, which describes a man more specifically as a husband and a father, as an individual
person, as a male member of the human species. Both of these words are used in reference to
Jesus in the New Testament.
Some may argue that it would not be so surprising for Jesus to be called a man by those
who did not know Him very well, those who had never come into close contact with Him, after
all, they simply did not know that Jesus was not a real human being. He only seemed to be. The
fact is that those very closest and most intimate with Jesus also called Him "man." His cousin
John the Baptist called Him "man" when he first saw Him:
"This is the one I meant when I said, 'A man (aner) who comes after me has
surpassed me because He was before me'" (Jn 1:30).
The invitation of the woman of Samaria was:
"Come, see a man (anthropos) who told me everything I ever did. Could this be
the Christ?" (4:29)
The man who was born blind in explaining his cure said:
"'The man (anthropos) they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes" (9:11).
When Pilate presented Jesus to the maddening crowd in his futile effort not to have Him
crucified, he said:
"Behold the Man (anthropos)!" (19:5).
In his first recorded sermon Peter spoke of Jesus as
"Jesus of Nazareth was a man (aner) accredited by God to you by miracles,
wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves
know" (Ac 2:22).
The Pastoral Epistles were written during a time when Christian thought—theology—
about Jesus was more highly developed. Paul stated in one of his Pastoral Epistles:
"For there is one God and one mediator between God and men (anthropon), the
man (anthropos) Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5).