Fully God, Fully Man

By Greg Laurie, Op-ed contributor Wednesday, July 01, 2009

And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. - Luke 2:40

When Jesus was on Earth, He didn't empty himself of His divine attributes, but accepted the limitations of humanity.

For example, we know that Jesus became weary like we do. On one occasion, as He came to Samaria, we read that He was weary (see John 4:6). Why? He had been walking all day in the hot sun of Israel.

Now if I were God, I probably would have said to the disciples, "You boys go on up to Samaria, and I will see you there." Then I would have just appeared in Samaria. After all, why tire myself out like that?

But Jesus voluntarily went through the process of feeling what it was like to be tired and exhausted.

We see this throughout Scripture. We know that Jesus was tired. We know that He experienced physical thirst. As He hung on the cross, Jesus said, "I thirst" (Luke 19:28). The very God who created water allowed himself to experience thirst.

We also know that He was hungry. Jesus experienced physical hunger after fasting for 40 days during His temptation in the wilderness (see Matthew 4:2).

But did Jesus have complete omniscience and omnipotence as a baby in the manger? Luke's Gospel tells us, "And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him" (Luke 2:40). So it appears that Jesus went through a learning process like anyone else.

Jesus grew as a human, but there was never a moment when He suddenly became God or when deity was transferred to Him. That was always a part of His life. He was fully God and fully man.

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