IF JESUS WAS FULLY GOD, WHY DID HE HAVE TO GROW IN WISDOM? (LUKE 2:40, 52; HEBREWS 5:8)

A closely related question is “If Jesus was fully God, in what manner did He have to learn obedience?” (Hebrews 5:8)

Luke 2:40,52

These similar statements that close sections of Luke's Gospel relating to Jesus' early life actually have their background in certain OT passages:

    I Samuel 2:21,26: “And the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD...Now the boy Samuel grew in stature and favor with the LORD and with people.”

    Judges 13:24: “The boy [Samuel] grew, and the LORD blessed him.”

    Isaiah 11:1-2: “The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding...” This passage is a description of the coming Messiah.

Turning now to Luke's Gospel, we have:

    Luke 1:80: “The child [John the Baptist] grew and became strong in the spirit...”

    Luke 2:40: “The child [Jesus] grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.”

    Luke 2:52: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in age/stature, and in divine and human favor.” (NRSV)

If we compare Luke 2 with the OT passages, we can see that Luke may have been borrowing somewhat stereotyped language regarding the early childhood of those destined by God for important tasks. Thus, Marshall states, “The intended picture is one of perfect development.” If that is the intent, then one should not read too much into the exact description of that growth.

If we compare Luke 2 with Isaiah 11:1-2 specifically, then the intent of Luke's descriptions may have simply been to point to Jesus as the prophesied Messiah.

Next, let us see what can be learned from the progression of the three similar statements found in Luke 1-2. Fitzmyer notes that the description filled with wisdom in 2:40 “is not said of John, but it prepares for the next episode, Jesus sitting among the teachers in the Temple.” Marshall echoes this thought: “wisdom is singled out in view of the following narrative.”

Marshall brings out another implication from a comparison of Luke 1:80 with Luke 2:40: “Above all, God's favor rests on Jesus. So he is superior to John in that from childhood onwards he possesses both wisdom and grace.” Thus, the emphasis in 2:40 is on the wisdom that Jesus had even at an early age rather than His lack of wisdom. (J. A. Martin)

Raymond Brown puts together the three passages in Luke: “It is easy to see that 2:40 repeats 1:80 and expands it, while 2:52 takes the expansion in 2:40 and expands it even further...The new term in 2:52 is 'maturity'...which is quite appropriate for describing a transition from boyhood to manhood...Another new aspect in 52 is the shift from being 'filled' with wisdom and favor (vs. 40) to making progress in these aspects.”

But the above does not fully explain the original question posed above: Why did Jesus have to grow in wisdom,” as it states in Luke 2:52? And this verse does clearly picture “the continuation of what has already been described in 2:40.” (Marshall)

Bringing another passage from Luke 2 into the picture, Brown summarizes the situation with the words: “It is not possible to argue from vs. 49 ['I must be about my Father's business'] that Jesus as a boy knew he was the Son of God. It is equally impossible to argue from vs. 52 (which is a standard description of growth) that Jesus grew in human knowledge. At most one can argue that Luke's appreciation of Jesus did not cause him to see any difficulty in stating that Jesus grew in wisdom and God's favor, and that Luke's christology did not cause him to see any difficulty in affirming that, already as a boy, Jesus was God's Son.”

One possible answer to the question of Jesus' growth is provided in a piece of information relayed by Ellis: “In the literature of later Judaism Wisdom and Spirit became virtual personifications of God in action in the world.” If that same thought was present in Luke's day, then he may have been communicating the thought that with time Jesus developed more opportunities to exercise the wisdom He already possessed, not that He obtained more internal wisdom as he grew.

But perhaps the best answer of all to the question is that summarized by Geldenhuys: “As a true human Child He passed through a process of physical and spiritual growth and increase. This verse [Luke 2:40] expressly tells us that the intellectual, moral and spiritual growth of Jesus as a Child was just as real as His physical growth. He was completely subject to the ordinary laws of physical and intellectual development, except that in His case there was nothing of the influence of sin or 'shortcoming.'”

In commenting on the Chalcedonian Creed, Michael Agapito says, “God does not cease to be divine. Rather, he lays aside the explicit use or exercise of his divine attributes in order to relate to us on a human level, while remaining divine.” This, in fact, is just what Paul states in Philippians 2:5-8 when he says that Christ Jesus was equal with God, but He emptied Himself and took on all the attributes of a human being.

To insist that for Christ to truly be God, He must still possess all the power, knowledge, and wisdom He had on heaven even when just a physically and mentally underdeveloped child is (1) to deny the truth of the statements in Luke 2 and Philippians 2:5-8 and (2) leads to positing just as bizarre a sort of Christ child that is described in the apocryphal Infancy Gospels who kills three of his little friends when they happen to annoy him, causes other friends' toys to fly away, and blinds some parents who had the nerve to criticize his behavior.

Hebrews 5:8

This verse reads: “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” And commentators have even more to say regarding this passage. They are all in general agreement as to the meaning although some feel that the reference is to the general sufferings in Jesus' life while others apply it to His prayer in Gethsemane, and still others to the suffering on the cross.

    Stibbs: “...by the experience of such a discipline He, Son of God though He was, learnt the full meaning and cost of human obedience, and was thereby perfected in His human character...”

    Gess: “...when Heb. 5:8 declares that Jesus learnt obedience through what he suffered, there is no thought of our concept of character-formation. It is probably linked with the Son's obedience to the Father tested in temptation.”

    Stott treats this verse as a parallel to Hebrews 2:10 which says that the Father made Christ perfect through suffering. “Not of course that he was ever imperfect in the sense that he had done wrong...It was rather that he needed further experiences and opportunities in order to become teleios, 'mature'...He was never disobedient. But his sufferings were the testing ground in which his obedience became full-grown.”

    Hawthorne: “...the writer is saying that He, now in the sphere of humanity, must, as must all 'sons,' learn what it means to obey God when encircled by human sufferings and temptations.”

    Hodges: “His unique relation to God notwithstanding, He had to experience the true meaning of obedience in terms of the suffering it entailed...That there is an element of mystery in all this need not be denied, but it is no greater than found in [Luke 2:52]...In a real sense not fully comprehensible, the Incarnation gave the already infinitely wise and perfect Son of God the experiential knowledge about the human condition.”

    Bruce: “...we learn to be obedient because of the unpleasant consequences which follow disobedience. It was not so with Him: He set out from the start on the path of obedience to God, and learned by the sufferings which came His way in consequence just what obedience to God involved in practice in the conditions of human life on earth.”

    Ellingworth: “The present verse...probably implies a contrast between [Christ's] eternal status on the one hand, and the learning process of Christ's earthly life on the other.”

I will close with Peter Davids' restatement of the original question and subsequent reply:

    “Wasn't Christ already obedient in becoming incarnate? Was there anything that the Son of God had to learn? Can God learn? Can we hold an orthodox view of the divinity of Christ and still accept this Scripture?”

    “The obedience Jesus learned was the obedience of suffering. It is one thing to obey when there is no resistance; it is another thing to obey when that very obedience will bring you pain. Before the Incarnation who resisted the Son? Only in his life on earth did he suffer for his obedience. In other words, there are some things that even God can experience only by becoming a human being with all of our human limitations.”

Our options are either to do as Job did and demand that God give us an explanation of all his actions in terms that we can rationally understand with our limited capacities, deny the plain truth of what He has already revealed in Scripture, or accept the fact that we are often confronted with verities that we may only dimly comprehend and leave the rest to God in faith.