Questions asked during India visit

Question No.5

“Was Jesus God when he was a baby?”

In Acts 2:36 we read that, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”. This one passage of Scripture shows us that there is God and there is Jesus the man and it is God who made Jesus both Lord and Christ. Secondly, the verse also tells us that Jesus was not Lord and Christ from eternity or from birth but that he was made Lord and Christ at a certain time of his life.

It is important to know that Jesus was a ‘mask’, so to speak, or a body,  through which the invisible God manifested. Like Paul stated in his letter to the Colossians, Jesus was “the image of the invisible God” (Col.1:15). However, he did not become that body or mask right from birth. The body had to be prepared until such a time when the glory of God would manifest through it : “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith…a body hast thou prepared me” (Heb.10:5). Jesus grew in “stature” (Luk.2:52) and when he was about thirty years of age, he was ready to be endowed with that Spirit without measure (Joh.3:34).

At his baptism when the Spirit of God came into him God declared “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mat.3:17). From that time mankind saw the God of heaven living among them through Jesus. It was for this reason he was named Emmanuel which means “God with us” (Mat.1:23), and Thomas called him, “My Lord and my God” (Joh.20:28) . That was the mystery of godliness – “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim.3:16).

It is when that glory of God began to manifest in Jesus’ life that the Word was made flesh. The Word being made flesh does not mean the Word became blood cells, skin, or muscles as a fetus! Rather, it refers to the manifestation of the power of the Word through the flesh, that is, “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim.3:16).  The Amplified Version phrases it this way – “He (God) was made visible in human flesh“, and in the NIV it states, “He appeared in a body“. Yes, God appeared in that body WHEN it was fully prepared for its work (Heb.10:5). John wrote that “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, AND WE BEHELD HIS GLORY” (Joh.1:14). That refers to the power of the Word that began to manifest through the Lord and made people to behold the glory of God. That cannot be said to have occurred when Jesus was born as a baby or during his childhood years.