Q: I know that Christ Jesus was killed at a young age, and suffered terribly, but he did not grow to be an old man. With this in mind, would Jesus know the ravages, aches and pains, and severe difficulties of old age? Since it says in the Bible that Jesus has experienced all the difficulties that we face and can ever face, how can Jesus have experienced the difficulties of old age when he didn’t reach old age? —Pete
A: In formulating the doctrine about Jesus, the early church fathers declared that He possessed two natures—a divine nature and a human nature united in His one person. Many of the battles within the church in the first four or five hundred years of its existence were centered on the need to define the relationship between the divine and the human natures within Christ.
While recognizing the paradoxical nature of the claim that the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God, became truly human, we cannot deny the truth of this event without rejecting the plain instruction of Scripture. The magnificent passage in Philippians 2:5-11 tells how Jesus voluntarily gave up His attributes as God in order to be “the great High Priest” who “faced all of the same testings we do” (Hebrews 4:14-16). Somehow, the Word became flesh, voluntarily taking up a role subordinate to that of the Father.
Although Scripture tells us that Jesus was “faced all of the same testings we do,” it is clear that there are lots of subjective things that Jesus didn’t personally experience. As you point out, He never experienced old age Neither did he experience childbirth or suffer a slow death through painful disease. The agony that Jesus suffered in Gethsemane and on the cross was far more than the subjective physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering of one human being. Jesus’ suffering included the emotional and spiritual weight of all of the guilt, sin, and suffering of the entire universe.
On the cross, God “made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus experienced the abandonment by God which makes hell to be hell, and throughout the entire experience He didn’t falter.
Although the Son of God gave up the exercise of His divine attributes to become a creature of flesh and blood, the suffering He endured was not the mere suffering of a human being. In obedience to God and through the power of the Holy Spirit, far more physical, emotional, and spiritual pain than a mere, finite man could ever bear. And, regardless of our age, He is intimately aware of our needs and compassionately helps us in our struggles (Isaiah 46:4). —Dan Vander Lugt
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