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NASB | Luke 2:52 ¶ And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Luke 2:52 ¶ And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and men. [1 Sam 2:26] |
Bible Question:
According to John 1:1, Jesus is God. If Jesus is God, how can God increase in wisdom? |
Bible Answer: Bob R., My post is not designed to prove that Jesus is God. There are many scriptures and other posts here on the forum to address that issue. I simply wanted to express my understanding of the incarnation. One of the things that we need to understand about the incarnation is that though Jesus was (and is) fully God, when He came to earth, He did not function out of His Godly attributes. He functioned as a human male except without sin. Phil 2:5-11 explains this concept. Jesus was fully God but He chose not to exercise all His divine attributes AS God. Instead, He gave us a pattern for how we should live as God's creations - with God as our source for life. This is why Jesus made statements like: "I do nothing unless the Father tells Me to do it. I say nothing unless the Father tells Me to say it. My works are not My own but My Fathers. I do nothing of My own initiative but only what I see the Father doing." All of these statements demonstrate that Christ source for EVERYTHING was drawing upon His Father. And Jesus said, "As the Father has sent Me, so send I you." As the Father was Christ's source for everything He said and did during His earthly ministry, Jesus is now our source for everything that we should do or say. Jesus expressed this to His disciples: "Apart from Me, you can do nothing. As I abide in the Father, you should abide in Me. Paul expressed this concept also: "I can do all things THROUGH Christ." "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. The life that I live in this body, I live BY FAITH in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." Yes, Christ was fully God. But He set aside (emptied Himself) His abilities to live and act out of His divine attributes. Instead, He was a channel for His Father to live and work through. He calls us to do the same. We are not God. He is forever the Creator and we are forever the creations, but as Christ abided in His Father, we abide in Christ. He is our life. Hope this helps. ChristLifer2001 |