When you're raised Southern Baptist, there's just some things you don't mess around with. You don't question them. They are ideas that are stuck into your mind and they are never discussed.

For instance, "once saved, always saved". End of discussion. That is, until later when your seminary professor tells you that those words don't appear in Scripture and you need to find a Scriptural way to defend your own position.

Seminary was a weird time for me. I had been raised Southern Baptist and was proud of it. I thought I'd do well at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, surrounded by theological giants like Albert Mohler, Bruce Ware and Thomas Schreiner. But, when I got there, I found my beliefs were shaken to the core. This is a pretty common reaction, actually. Our safe, Sunday School beliefs are challenged by studying the higher critics and those in liberalism and our own minds are challenged. A lot of people don't make it to graduation.

One of the most fascinating topics for me was the humanity of Christ. I honestly didn't think I'd struggle with it. It's a great time to discuss it too, since we find ourselves in the Christmas season. Christ became God in the flesh, Immanuel - God with us.

I had the belief that Christ was some sort of amazing Superman. He had these amazing superpowers and was fully human and fully God - which He was - but that He combined them to become something more than human. For some reason, I believed that Christ knew He was Christ from day one of His birth and was on a mission.

<a href="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/002.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2839" src="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/002-300x263.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="263" /></a>Then I had theology class with two really outstanding professors. These men are some of the most conservative men in the Baptist faith. What they said shook me to the core. We were taught about heresy. Heresy is a strange thing. Over the centuries, heresy tends to swing a dangerous balance. For instance, people will emphasize the deity of Christ too much for a long time and forget His humanity to such a degree that heresies will arise to deny His humanity. Then, groups will complain and begin to emphasize His humanity too much, swinging the balance in the other direction, not emphasizing His deity, creating another heresy. The answers, my professors said, typically lay in the middle.

The first time my mind was blown was when one of my professors was talking about Christ and His early days. He was talking about His humanity and Him growing up, being a carpenter before His baptism by John. He was discussing Christ's studying the Scriptures, knowing that something must be special about His life.

I raised my hand. The professor, author of several books that praise the sovereignty of God called on me.

I said, "Hold on, professor. I was raised thinking that Jesus just always knew He was the Messiah. But you're blowing my mind here. You're saying He didn't?"

The professor leaned over the overhead projector. "There's no biblical evidence. Here's the issue. Christ came to us as fully human, didn't He? He had to struggle, live and suffer as one of us if His atonement were to mean anything, right?"

I thought about that for a moment. "I suppose. So when did Jesus know He was the Messiah?"

The professor looked down and closed his eyes. "I don't know. But I like to imagine that one day, He was reading the suffering servant passages in Isaiah and He thought, 'This is me.'"

Again, mind blown. I had never considered that Jesus was so . . . so . . . human. That He actually was like me when He was here. I thought about that for a long time. At first, it made me struggle. I wanted Him to be a superhero who could zap away His enemies with a word. But the more I dwelled on it, I was given peace knowing that Christ lived His life, as the bible says, as fully human. As I do. Fully tempted. Hungry, sweaty, thirsty, and dirty.

He was Immanuel. My theology had previously gone too far into the divine category. He is divine. He is fully God. But I had forgotten His humanity. His compassion. His capacity to love and be human.