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Religion

2009-05-01 11:45:00

How could Jesus become more “all-wise”

Question: In Luke 2:52, it states, “And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men.” I can understand how He would advance in age from his human nature, but how could He advance in wisdom? If God is all-knowing and all-wise, how could He be more all-knowing and more all-wise?

Answer: There is much here to think about but this is where the idea of the mysterious workings of God which give theologians opportunity for speculation and conjecture, but not much more. The questioner helps us peek into the transcendence (beyond our ability to understand) of God who is immutable (means unchanging) and omniscient (all knowing). The passage that helps us here and gives a hint of an answer to all this is Philippians 2:6-7 as Paul describes Jesus’ coming as God in the flesh “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied (Greek word “kenosis”) Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” What we have here when Jesus left His pre-existent state of heaven, He unselfishly left heaven and “emptied Himself.” The key question is what did that “emptying” entail? The word in the original Bible language could have three different meanings; of total emptying, or in a relative sense or in a metaphorical sense. The scripture says he took on the “form a servant” but nothing is mentioned of abandoning His divine attributes. Now there are several theories concerning this “emptying.” Some have said He laid down some of His divine attributes, others have said He gave up all and still others have said that He abandoned His divine mode. Now the last one is a revisit to an old heresy that it looked like Jesus both God and man died on the cross but only the man did. God can’t suffer. Can’t feel and experience pain. But the church fought against that because Christ was seen, as the Apostles and Nicene Creeds spell out, fully god and fully man on the cross otherwise that salvation is not there for us. It is here we see He took on the limitations of man, even though fully God, for awhile to identify with us, limited Himself and subjected Himself to the limits of humanity. As He grew in body, so did He grow in His knowledge as a human being. Even though He was God He took on the human form, as an ordinary man, a baby who came through Mary’s birth canal, needed to be carried, diapered and fed by His mother, skinned His knee and learned how to read and pray. Who experienced growing in knowledge and truth or as scripture says, “…advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men.” (Luke 2:52) Jesus took His most privileged position as God, unselfishly limited it and entered our world in human form and came to set us free. His ability to do that came as God ( John 1:1-4; Colossians 1:15; and Hebrews 1:1-3) and as a man who knew all our temptations (Hebrews 4:15) who experienced the full thrust of them and conquered them as a man so that we can look to Him as our victor over our temptation and sin. We go to one who can empathize with us and give us victory! Second, that Christ fills the bill to be the only perfect sacrificial representative that is worthy to pay for my sin. He perfectly filled all the requirements as a human and never sinned. He is worthy to then be the spotless lamb that appeases God’s anger and wrath for my sin. Finally, being this God-man, He has the power to overcome sin’s curse which is death. He has the power to raise Himself from the dead. I love how the bible portrays Christ resurrection where it says, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). Thank the Lord for using His privileged status in order to give us eternal life! To God Be the Glory, Pastor Dave!