In Matt. 16:16, 17, we read, +"And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father who is in heaven."+ Here is a clear declaration by Jesus Himself of His Deity. But four verses further down in the chapter, the 24th verse, we read, +"From that time began Jesus to show unto his disciples that he must go up unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day rise from the dead."+ Here we have the clearest declaration of the reality and completeness of His humanity.
In Heb. 1:6, we read of our Lord Jesus, +"And when He+ (i.e., God the Father) +again bringeth in the first-begotten into the world he saith, and let all the angels of God worship him."+ Here is a most unmistakable and inescapable declaration that Jesus Christ is a Divine Person, to be worshipped as God by angels as well as men, and two verses further down we read this further declaration of His absolute Deity, +"But of the son he saith, Thy throne O God, is for ever and ever."+ Here again the Son is declared in so many words to be God, He is called God. But in the very next chapter, Heb. 2:18, we read, +"For in that He himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted."+ Here we have the clearest possible declaration of the reality of His human nature.
In Heb. 4:14 we read, +"Having then a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession."+ Here we have a plain declaration of His Deity; but in the very next verse, we read, +"For we have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."+ One of the plainest declarations of the fullness and completeness of His humanity to be found in the Bible.
The doctrine of the Deity of Jesus Christ and the doctrine that Jesus Christ was a real man, go hand in hand in the Bible. What kind of a Saviour, what kind of a Lord Jesus, do you believe in? Do you believe in a Saviour that is a man and man only? Then you do not believe in the Saviour that is presented in the Bible. On the other hand, do you believe in a Saviour that is God and God only? Then you do not believe in the Saviour of the Bible. The Lord Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, presented to us in the Bible, is very God of very God and at the same time He is our brother, our fellowman, and is not ashamed to call us brethren. Oh, I thank God that I have a Saviour that is God, possessed of all the attributes and powers of Deity, all the perfections of Deity, a Saviour for whom nothing is too hard. I thank God that my Saviour is One who made the heavens and the earth, and who holds all the powers of nature and of history in His control; but I equally thank God that my Saviour is my brother man, One who was tempted in all points like as I am, One who is in a position to bear my sins, on the one hand because He is God, on the other hand because He is man. A merely divine Saviour could not be a Saviour for me. A merely human Saviour could not be a Saviour for me. But a Saviour in whom Deity and humanity meet; a Saviour who is at once God and man, is just the Saviour I need, and the Saviour that you need, a Saviour that is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God through Him.