In considering the emotions of our Lord Jesus, we are treading on holy ground. It is all too easy to jump to conclusions and make errors that, while unintentional, are still irreverent. This topic affects our understanding of the very person of Christ and therefore it is of paramount importance that we think carefully and biblically.
What, then, are some biblical principles to be kept in mind when considering the emotions of our Lord Jesus?
The Lord’s emotions weren’t identical to ours.
As with so many elements of the humanity of Christ, there is a great deal of fuzzy thinking here. Often, we read phrases like “He has been tempted in all things as we are” (Heb. 4:15) and fail to note that the verse ends by saying, “yet without sin.” We must be careful to distinguish between what we experience because we’re human and what we experience because we’re fallen. The Lord experienced the elements of humanity because He was (and is) genuinely human. But He experienced nothing of fallen humanity because He is absolutely sinless. There are emotions that the Lord Jesus never felt (e.g. fear, guilt, envy) because they are the result of sin.
Similarly, the Lord didn’t experience any of the shallow substitutes for godly emotions that we know all too well. For example, we sometimes confuse fleeting sentiment with genuine compassion. The Lord Jesus is the only man who experienced the full depth of godly emotion (see a portrait of this in Lamentations 1:12).
The Lord wasn’t ruled by emotion.
There is a difference between having emotions and being emotional. Some Christians have made emotions the core of their Christianity. Reacting to believers who are perhaps cold and apathetic, they have embraced the opposite extreme. The value of a church meeting is measured by how much it manipulates their emotions—laugher, weeping, giddy excitement. They become addicted to an emotional experience and, like all addictions, require an increasingly potent “fix” to give them the same high as last time.
Nonetheless, the Lord Jesus had emotions.
There are others who are tempted to minimize or even dismiss His emotions. In their view, Christ is the ultimate stoic. They fear that acknowledging Christ’s emotions would undermine His deity. Yet there is no need to fear this. The Bible speaks openly of Christ’s emotions. He was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). “You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of joy above Your fellows” (Ps. 45:7).
Proper thinking concerning the emotions of our Lord Jesus will ensure proper worship. But it will also help us to live a godly life. In our fallen state, our emotions have been corrupted and we need to be on guard because the world and the devil seek to exploit them. Since “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9), we must rule our emotions rather than letting them rule us. Let us look to Christ for our example and long for the day when we will be with Him, finally enjoying the fullness and blessings of our God-given emotions without any of their (temporary) fallen flaws.