Sometimes I just never learn. I can think of so many things that I just keep doing in life, no matter how many times it turns out horribly. For example, why do I never ask what seat I have when I check in at the airport? Do I really not want to bother the person checking me in? Inevitably, I end up in seat 89Z, which is a lovely seat right next to the toilets. Every minute or so, I get the pleasure of that blast of wind accompanied by a lung searing smell every time someone opens the door. Why do I keep pressing the top button on my Iphone instead of the bottom one? Do I think elves might have snuck in at night and changed their function? I consider myself reasonably intelligent (though my wife may beg to differ), yet it appears to me that there are some things I never learn.
Which brings us to our question of the day, can Jesus learn? If He can learn, then how can He be God? God already knows everything, right? Therefore, if Jesus has to learn things, people might come to the conclusion that He wasn’t really God. Others might say that He gave up His “divinity” during the incarnation, and that is why He would need to learn things as we do. We can thank Luke 2:52 for this, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” WAIT a minute here. How can Jesus increase in wisdom? That would imply He was lacking wisdom. For that matter, how can he increase in favor with God? That would imply that He had “lower” favor before.
I believe that this verse (and others like it) do not imply that Jesus was not divine during His whole incarnation. What Jesus did not do is simply incarnate into a fully grown man just before going to the cross. Of course, Jesus could have done this and saved Himself time in the flesh, as well as the suffering He encountered through living in this world as a man. The necessity was only that Jesus come in the flesh and die on the cross for sins. You might argue that Jesus had to “be born in Bethlehem” and “born of a virgin” to fulfill Scripture, but those things did not affect the effectiveness of His atonement. Jesus could have come as a man, and then would have predicted just that through the prophets instead of His birth and life.
That Jesus didn’t do the “easier” route challenges me to think through why He didn’t. Yes, Jesus main reason for the incarnation was to provide a sacrifice for sin. I have no doubts on that. However, I believe the way He walked that out was to show us a living model of a righteous life. In our next post, we will look at several examples of Jesus providing us the perfect example of humility, perseverance, integrity, and many other elements of the Christian life. The very fact that He lives 30 years before beginning His ministry already challenges me with my love for others and willingness to lay down my life for them.
The verse about this whole issue that has touched me most is Hebrews 5:8, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” Once again, we are confronted with Jesus learning something, and this time it is obedience. Not only would Jesus not know something, but some might think He must have been disobedient before suffering. As we have already established, we have to step back from looking with human eyes, and consider this from Jesus point of view. Before the incarnation, Jesus was in perfect peace in His divinity. Of course, He KNEW the future, and understood that He would suffer when He was incarnated. However, until He was actually incarnated, He had never had that EXPERIENCE of suffering. Jesus lived through persecution merely by being obedient to God’s will. He did no wrong or disobedience to deserve that.
What I am struck with once again, is the love of Christ for us. Not only would He go through the experience of growth as a human from baby to man, but He would also suffer as we do, but from no sin of His own. Both came at a great cost to Him, yet His love for us drove Him to endure all of it for the sake of our forgiveness and eternal life. I am signing up for the School of Jesus!
The Bible Nerd 