When did Jesus know that He was God?

Nor is this all the Spirit gives here. The chapter closes with a picture of our Saviour that is admirably consonant to this gospel, and to no other; for what gospel would it suit to speak of our Lord as a youth? to give us a moral sketch of this wondrous One, now no longer the babe of Bethlehem, but in the lowly company of Mary and Joseph, grown up to the age of twelve years? He is found, according to the order of the law, duly with His parents in Jerusalem for the great feast; but He is there as one to whom the word of God was most precious, and who had more understanding than His teachers. For Him, viewed as man, there was not only the growth of the body, but also development in every other way that became man, always expanding, yet always perfect, as truly man as God. "He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." But there is more than this; for the inspired writer lets us know how He was reproached by His parents, who could but little understand what it was for Him even then to find His meat in doing the will of God. As they journeyed from Jerusalem, missing Him, they return, and find Him in the midst of the doctors. A delicate place it might seem for a youth, but in Him how beautiful was all! and what propriety! "Both hearing them", it is said, "and asking them questions." Even the Saviour, though full of divine knowledge, does not take the place now of teaching with authority — never, of course, as the scribes. But even though consciously Son and the Lord God, still was He the child Jesus; and as became One who deigned to be such, in the midst of those older in years, though they knew infinitely less than Himself, there was the sweetest and most comely lowliness. "Both hearing them, and asking them questions." What grace there was in the questions of Jesus! — what infinite wisdom in the presence of the darkness of these famous teachers! Still, which of these jealous rabbis could discern the smallest departure from exquisite and absolute propriety? Nor this only; for we are told that "his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" The secret thus early comes out. He waited for nothing. He needed no voice from heaven to tell Him that He was the Son of God; He needed no sign of the Holy Ghost descending to assure Him of His glory or mission. These were, no doubt, seen and heard; and it was all right in its season, and important in its place; but I repeat that He needed nothing to impart the consciousness that He was the Son of the Father. He knew it intrinsically, and entirely independent of a revelation from another.

He, as man, has a place that no one else could share. He alone could say, "I will declare the decree: the Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee." When here in manhood He was ever in the full consciousness of the glorious relationship which was His. He said, when about twelve years of age, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2:49). Satan knew He was the Son of God, and therefore suggested that He should "command this stone that it be made bread." (Luke 4:3.) As Son He had the right to "command," but having entered manhood He was the dependent man and would not use His power without a word from His God. Then, at the close of His sojourn here, He could say, "I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love." What a stupendous fact! A real Man in the perfect enjoyment of the Father's love, and in the full consciousness of the relationship expressed in the words, "My Son"!

It has been said by some who will seek out any subterfuge to break down the truth that Jesus is not of the first man, who came out of the dust, and sinned, and goes back to the dust again from which he came, but is the Second Man, the Lord out of heaven, that He did not realize His Sonship to the Father until His baptism. This passage exposes that falsehood, and shows us clearly that as He emerged into a responsible age the Lord knew who He was, from whom He came, and what His business was. The fact that He was the Son of the Father was publicly declared from heaven by the Father's voice at His baptism ( Luke 3:17), where for the first time the truth of the Trinity appears.

It has been said by some who will seek out any subterfuge to break down the truth that Jesus is not of the first man, who came out of the dust, and sinned, and goes back to the dust again from which he came, but is the Second Man, the Lord out of heaven, that He did not realize His Sonship to the Father until His baptism. This passage exposes that falsehood, and shows us clearly that as He emerged into a responsible age the Lord knew who He was, from whom He came, and what His business was. The fact that He was the Son of the Father was publicly declared from heaven by the Father's voice at His baptism (chap. 3:17), where for the first time the truth of the Trinity appears.

It is with deep reverence that we refer to the Child mentioned in Luke 2:48-52, whose earthly parents had sought Him sorrowing, and to His mother's gentle reproof, "Child, why hast thou dealt thus with us? behold thy father and I have sought thee distressed." He replied, "Why is it that ye have sought me? did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father's business?" How remarkable is this statement, revealing to us the amazing thought that even as a boy of twelve Jesus realised His relationship with the Father who had sent Him into the world.

At twelve years of age we see this wonderful Person sitting in the temple among the doctors of the law, hearing them, and asking them questions. His earthly parents, not understanding Him, were amazed at finding Him with the doctors of the law; nor could they understand when He said, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business." None but Himself knew at this time the divine purpose of His coming, even to carry out His Father's will for His pleasure and glory. What deep joy there must have been for the Father's heart to see Him grow as a child, waxing "strong in spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God upon Him;" then to see Him increasing "in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man" (Luke 2:40, 52).

And when His parents "saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said to him, Child, why hast thou dealt thus with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee distressed. And he said to them,66 Why [is it] that ye have sought me? Did ye not know that I ought to be [occupied] in my Father's business?"66a Thus from early youth our Lord had the consciousness of being the Son of God above all earthly claims. But exactly as grace acknowledges the law, so the eternal Son acknowledges His human place as the child of Mary. He asserted and proved that He was really the Son of the Father in His own consciousness and that consequently He must be about His Father's business. It was not open to, or possible for, Him to set aside His Father's will. This was the first object before His heart. But spite of all this devotedness as Son of God, spite of His parents not understanding what He said, He comes down with them "to Nazareth and was in subjection to them," while His mother keeps all these sayings, little understood, in her heart. So Weiss, with ℵcorr ACL, etc., Syrcorr, but Revv., as W.H., follow ℵpm: "the."

"And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men." Thus we have this fresh notice of the Lord's growth outwardly as well as inwardly. How can we reconcile such intimations with His being God Himself, though man? Most evidently He was always perfect, but then He was the perfect Babe, and the perfect Youth, as we shall also find Him to be in due time the perfect Man. At any given moment He was absolutely perfect, and yet He grew. He advanced from a Babe to a Youth and from a Youth to a Man. And so it was, that, as He grew up, the perfection was in exact harmony with His growth, and proved itself to be so both to God and man. If the immaculate and holy Babe was precious in the sight of God, yet more as youth, and most of all the developed maturity of a man.

But M. Godet intrudes, or desires to intrude, with profane steps on that ground where the word has solemnly declared that the Father stands alone. "No one knoweth the Son but the Father." M. Godet assumes to know Him, and to define all. That Christ, as regards His humanity, increased in wisdom and stature, this the word is careful to tell us, and to us it is one of the most precious truths. His delights were with the sons of men, and He became truly man. This was the anthem of the angels when the manger received Him. That His acts as man were done in the power of the Spirit is also revealed to us. "If I," says He, "by the Spirit of God cast out demons." But the fulness of the Godhead was there: He was the Son assuredly; but, says He, "the Father who abideth in me, He doeth the works," and "I and my Father are one." In the fear also that we might believe that He had returned to the relationship of Son, or had recovered it at His baptism by John, the scriptures lift a corner of the veil which enveloped the thirty years of His life passed in obscurity at Nazareth, and present Him, at the age of twelve years, in the full consciousness of Sonship.

This early part of our Lord's life closes with the account of the scene in the temple where the evident consciousness of His relationship to the Father is present with Him while coupled with perfect naturalness as a child that hungered for knowledge. We need to keep both thoughts in our minds, whether we are able fully to harmonize them or not, for in both together is the true conception of the person of Christ.

Every Jewish boy of twelve years visited Jerusalem at the time of the great festivals. He stayed behind and his anxious mother and Joseph found Him in the temple three days later. For three days He was lost to them. May this not be a reminder of the three days He was thought lost by His disciples? (Chapter 24:21). Here the human infirmity of Mary comes to light. She was nervously anxious. Her words have an accusing tone. The greatest mistake she committed was the mentioning of Joseph as "thy Father." In all this her human failure is in evidence. But how sublime the answer of the twelve year old boy! He is astonished that they should have sought Him; He came to seek them. He is astonished that they did not know that He had to be about His Father's business. What an answer it is! These are His first words recorded in the Gospels. He corrects His fallible mother, who had said, "thy Father and I." His Father, He declares, is He in whose house He had gone. It is the first self-witness to His Deity.