Thomas Brooks

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

Concerning the manhood of Christ, let me say that as He is very⁵⁶ God, so He is very man: “the man Christ Jesus” (1Ti 2:5). Christ is true man, but not mere man. The word is not to be taken exclusively, as denying the divine nature. Christ is theanthropos, both God and man—sometimes denominated⁵⁷ from the one nature, and sometimes from the other. [He is] sometimes called God, and sometimes man. As He is truly both, having an interest in and participating of both natures, [He is] in that respect fitly said to be a mediator between God and men…

Now concerning the manhood of Christ, the prophet plainly speaks: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” (Isa 9:6). A “child”—that noteth His humanity. A “son”—that noteth His deity. A child, even man of the substance of His mother, born in the world (Mat 1:25). A Son, even God of the substance of His Father, begotten before the world…A child: behold His humility—“She brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger” (Luk 2:7). A Son: behold His dignity—“When he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him” (Heb 1:6). To prove that He was man, it is enough to say that He was born, He lived, He died. God became man by a wonderful, unspeakable, and inconceivable union…Christ, as man, came of the race of kings (Mat 1:1-16); as man, He shall judge the world (Act 17:31). As man, He was wonderfully born of a virgin (Mat 1:23; Isa 7:14)…The apostle expounds the name where He saith of Christ that he was “made of a woman,” not of a man and woman both, but of a woman alone without a man (Gal 4:4).

Christ as man was foretold by the prophets and by sundry types. Christ as man was attended upon at His birth by holy angels, and a peculiar star was created for Him (Luk 2:13-14; Mat 2:1-2). Christ as man was our sacrifice and expiation;⁵⁸ He was our counterprice,⁵⁹ such as we could never have paid, but must have remained and even rotted in the prison of hell forever. Christ as man was conceived of the Holy Ghost (Mat 1:18). Christ as man is ascended into heaven (Act 1:9-10). Christ as man sits at the right hand of God (Col 3:1). Now what do all these things import, but that Jesus Christ is a very precious and most excellent person, according to His manhood? Christ had the true properties, affections, and actions of man. He was conceived, born, circumcised. He did hunger, thirst; He was clothed; He did eat, drink, sleep, hear, see, touch, speak, sigh, groan, weep, and grow in wisdom and stature, etc., as all the four evangelists⁶⁰ do abundantly testify. Because this is a point of grand importance, especially in these days wherein there are risen up so many deceivers in the midst of us, it may not be amiss to consider these following particulars:

(1) First, of these special Scriptures that speak out the certainty and verity⁶¹ of Christ’s body “And the Word was made flesh” (Joh 1:14). “Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh” (1Ti 3:16). Christ is one and the same, begotten of the Father without time—the Son of God without mother; and born of the Virgin in time—the Son of man without father: the natural and consubstantial⁶² Son of both.

Oh! What a great mystery is this! “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil…For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham” (Heb 2:14, 16)…O sirs! This is a main pillar of our comfort: Christ took our flesh! If He had not taken our flesh, we could never have been saved by Him. “Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Rom 1:3). “Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen” (Rom 9:5). This is a greater honor to all mankind than if the greatest king in the world should marry into some poor family of his subjects!

Christ saith, “For my flesh is meat indeed” (Joh 6:55); and I say His flesh was flesh indeed—as true, real, proper, very flesh as that which any of us carry about with us. “In the body of his flesh through death” (Col 1:22). “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me” (Heb 10:5)…

God fitted His Son’s body to be joined with the deity and to be an expiatory sacrifice for sin. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1Pe 2:24). The word himself hath a great emphasis, and therefore that evangelical prophet Isaiah mentions it no less than five times (Isa 53:4-5, 7, 11-12). Christ had none to help or uphold Him under the heavy burden of our sins and His Father’s wrath…He Who did bear our sins in His own body on the tree, that is, the punishments that were due to our sins, did assume flesh, [which was] cast into the very mold and form of our bodies. [His body had] the same several parts, members, lineaments,⁶³ the same proportion that they have. Christ’s body was no spectrum⁶⁴ or phantasm,⁶⁵ no putative⁶⁶ body, as if it had no being but what was in appearance and from imagination—as the Marcionites,⁶⁷ Manichees,⁶⁸ and other heretics of old affirmed,⁶⁹ and as some men of corrupt minds do assert in our days—but as real, as solid a body as ever any was. Therefore, the apostle calls it a body of flesh (Col 1:22)—a “body” to show the organization of it and a “body of flesh” to show the reality of it in opposition to all aerial⁷⁰ and imaginary bodies. Christ’s body had all the essential properties of a true body…as all the evangelists do abundantly witness…“Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luk 24:39). Christ here admits of the testimony of their own senses to assure them that it was no vision or spirit, but a true and real body risen from the dead, which they now saw…This proves Christ to be a true man, as His being from the beginning sets out His deity.

Christ had also those natural affections, passions, infirmities that are proper to a body, [such as] hunger: “When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards an hungered” (Mat 4:2)…Christ was not hungry all the forty days; but after, He was hungry to show He was man…And as Christ was hungry, so Christ was thirsty: “There came a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me drink” (Joh 4:7). Here you see that He that is rich and Lord of all became poor for us that He might make us rich (2Co 8:9). He that gives to all the creatures “their meat in due season” (Psa 104:27) begs water of a poor tankard-bearer to refresh Himself in His weariness and thirst. Jesus saith, “I thirst” (Joh 19:28); bleeding breeds thirsting. Sleeping: “He was asleep” (Mat 8:24), to show the truth of the human nature and the weakness of His disciples’ faith…Yea, though Christ slept in His human nature, yet was He awake in His deity that the disciples being in danger might cry unto Him more fervently and be saved more remarkably. And as Jesus slept, so He was weary: “Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour” (Joh 4:6), about noon. In the heat of the day, Christ was weary…It is recorded that He was weary with His journey ere half the day was spent and that through weariness “sat thus on the well”…But, in a word, He was conceived, retained so long in the virgin’s womb, born, circumcised, lived about thirty years on earth, conversed all that time with men, suffered, died, and was crucified, buried, rose again, ascended, and sat down with His body at the right hand of God; and with it, [He]will come again to judge the world. Now what do all these things speak out, but that Christ hath a true body? Who in their wits will assert that all this could be done in, upon, and by an imaginary body?
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From “The Golden Key to Open Hidden Treasures” in The Works of Thomas Brooks, Banner of Truth Trust.

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55. Henry Melville (1800-1871), sermon at St. Paul’s before the Sons of the Clergy Society, May 9, 1844.
56. very – truly.
57. denominated – given a name or title to.
58. expiation – to remove or cover the guilt of sin.
59. counterprice – the translation of the Greek antilutron from 1 Timothy 2:6, ransom.
60. four evangelists – the authors of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
61. verity – truth.
62. consubstantial – of the same essence.
63. lineaments – distinctive features.
64. spectrum – ghost.
65. phantasm – an illusion; a phantom.
66. putative – supposed.
67. Marcionites – followers of Marcion of Sinope (ca. 85-160), a second century heretic who re-jected the OT and produced his own NT, which included an abbreviated Gospel of Luke and ten epistles of Paul; believed Jesus was not born but simply appeared.
68. Manichees – followers of the 3rd century Iranian philosopher Mani (216-ca.277), founder of a complex form of Gnosticism who taught that Christ was a prophet, but not the incarnate Son of God.
69. EDITOR’S NOTE: For concise overviews of errors concerning the Person of Christ and the Trinity, see Louis Berkhof, The History of Christian Doctrines, 94-113; W. G. T. Shedd, History of Christian Doctrines, 394-408; Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, 241- 248, 553-558; Robert Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, 583-622; William Cunningham, Historical Theology, Vol. 1, 267-320. In recommending these studies, CHAPEL LIBRARY does not endorse all of the theological views of these authors.
70. aerial – unreal; not consisting of matter.

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Thomas Brooks (1608-1680): Congregational minister and author of numerous works; buried in Bunhill Fields, London, England.