In association with the sacrificial love of Jesus (which is, of course, the most pronounced characteristic when we look at the cross) is the affection of Christ for His people. The righteous indignation and the courageous boldness of Jesus were not so off-putting that the Apostle John felt as though He could not lean back against him at dinner in the Upper Room (John 13:25). There was a deep emotional bond between Christ and the “beloved disciple” that made John feel comfortable enough to lean back against the Savior. In a culture that celebrates sinful effeminacy, many fall into the opposite extreme of failing to see that true manhood involves holy affection in close friendships. This was true of David and Jonathan (1 Sam. 18:1, 3; 20:17). It is equally true of Christ and close friend.
These are merely a few of the characteristics of true manhood embodied by Jesus. When we think about what a man should be in the multi-variegated relations in which we stand one to another, we should seek to have as complex a picture of manhood as that which we find in Jesus. Though He is God over all (Rom. 9:5), He is man in the fullest and truest sense of the term. As God works in the lives of those who are united to Christ, the character of Jesus begins to be shaped and formed in them. If Christian men are to become what God intends for them to become, they will begin to manifest the gentleness and humility, righteous anger, truthfulness, patience, courage, sacrificial love, and affection of Christ in their lives. No truncated picture of manhood can serve as an adequate replacement for what we find exemplified in Jesus in Scripture.
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