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“And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” Luke 2:52

  • Did God pull the wool over our eyes when the Son of God was born in a manger?
  • Was the baby at the temple a spectacular mirage?
  • When Simeon took the child in his arms to bless God, did God snicker, “fooled another!”?
  • Did the young boy who walked the paths of Nazareth leave a footprint or float?
  • And when Jesus, “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man,” did He? 
  • Did Jesus actually grow?

Maybe you’ve never given it much thought, that the Son of God was truly, in every way (save sin) human. When the Son of God put on flesh (we call this the incarnation), he did not merely clothe himself in the ‘appearance’ of humanity, but in actual humanity. Jesus was every bit a person as you and me.

Reasons We Undermine the Humanity of Jesus

There are reasons why we don’t think about the humanity of Jesus.

  • We buy into the propagated lie, one as old as the Gnostics, that physical matter is evil. We know that all have sinned, and we add to our sinful nature the assumption that even our bodies are bad. We see the effects of sin in our bodies, the wrinkles, the disease, and we conclude that our flesh itself must be sinful. As a result, we don’t like to think about the humanity of Jesus.
  • We also struggle to understand the mystery of the incarnation, that Jesus is BOTH truly God and truly human. We cannot comprehend that in one being subsisted two natures, human and divine. We act like we have to pick between the humanity of Jesus or His deity. If those two natures are the last in the schoolyard lineup, we would much prefer to have a Savior who is God.

But the Scriptures are adamant. Jesus was (and even now is) truly human.

Evidence of the Humanity of Jesus

How do we know? He grew! He, “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).

God doesn’t increase in any way. God is the fountain of wisdom. God is perfectly pleasing to Himself, perfectly pleased with the Son of God. However, as a man, Jesus grew in every way (except as a sinner).

Jesus grew in wisdom. He learned how the world works. He learned a trade. Jesus grew even in wisdom concerning God’s law. As a young boy in the temple, Jesus took the place of student (Luke 2:46–47). As an adult, Jesus will become the teacher/preacher (Luke 4:43).

Jesus grew in stature. The baby really grew up into boyhood, adolescence, and manhood. He learned how to take a step, and how to go to the bathroom. He felt growing pains, and muscle strains. He bled when cut by the carpentry tools. He got splinters in His fingers.

And, Jesus grew in favor with God and man. With man, the obedience of Jesus was certainly favorable in the eyes of His parents. He obeyed. And, with God, in His humanity, Jesus increased in favor with God. Every day there was more for God to love in Jesus, the son of man. Every act of obedience gave God new joys in His son, the son who was truly human. The incarnation was not a sham. Jesus was not the appearance of humanity, but human in reality.

The incarnation was not a sham. Jesus was not the appearance of humanity, but human in reality.

Who Cares?

Why is this important? It’s important in a similar way to the importance of the reality of all things over their comparable fabrications. You can’t fill your belly with an image of scrambled eggs, but you can with three fresh ones cracked over a hot skillet. You can’t woo your lover with an AI generated letter, and if you do, her love would quickly be deflated if she found out that those eloquent words were from ChatGPT. And, you can’t appreciate the reality of your Savior, if His death was really at no cost. A shell of a man did not hang on a cross, but Jesus, the true Son of man did, and for that reason we have hope.

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