Luke 2:40, 52 (ESV)
[40] And the child grew and
became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.
[52] And Jesus increased in
wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
These two verses bookend the
story of Jesus’ time in Jerusalem when he was twelve years old. They emphasize
his humanity. He grew; he became strong; he increased and was filled with
wisdom; he grew in stature, and he grew in favor with both God and people. Jesus
was not someone who suddenly had an experience with a god and became a leader.
Nor was he someone who miraculously appeared on earth as a god in human form.
He is eternal God, yet he was born as a human baby. He grew up, but he also had
incredible wisdom at an early age. He is truly God/man. His time hadn’t yet
arrived in Luke 2, but his time in the temple at twelve demonstrated and
anticipated the work that he was to do.
If you take these two verses out
of the Bible, it undermines the theological truth of the incarnation. God became
man. If you remove John 1, you undermine the theological truth of the
incarnation as well. It was God who took on the form of man, but never stopped
being God.
Theology is important. Distort it,
and our faith is a castle built on clouds without a foundation. We can talk
about what we like in a church service. We can debate forms of worship,
outreach, discipleship, and practice. But the bottom line is, What do we
believe? If Jesus is anything other than fully God and fully Man, we do not
have Christianity.
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