And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
Luke's account of Jesus' boyhood closes with a single sentence about growth. Then the record falls silent until He is thirty. That one sentence raises a hard question: how can the One who is God increase in anything?
Growth That Was Real
Commentators take the increase at face value.
J. N. DarbyLuke gives us more of the reality of His childhood than the other Gospels. He was not made man fully formed like Adam.
Growth and perfection are not rivals here. He was complete at every age, and still growing at every age.
William KellyHow can we reconcile such statements with His being God Himself, though man? Most clearly He was always perfect. But then He was the perfect Baby, and the perfect Youth, as we shall also find Him in due time to be the perfect Man. At any given moment He was absolutely perfect, and yet He grew.
Increasing In Wisdom
Verse 40 says the child was filled with wisdom; verse 52 says He increased in it. One writer treats the second as no harder than the first.
J. Wilson Smith"He increased in wisdom." Does this present any difficulty? Certainly no more than that "He was filled with wisdom." Both are true. Both are true of the same complex person who was God and man in one. He was truly God, but as truly man — in infancy, childhood, or maturity — and always consistent with what belongs to each stage of human life.
Another writer leaves the mystery standing, and finds in it the proof of real manhood.
An Outline of Sound WordsAs God He is all-wise. Yet as a child in this world He "grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him" (Luke 2:40)... It is an unsearchable mystery that the source of all wisdom should, as Man, increase in wisdom. But this only brings out the perfection of His Manhood.
The ESV of verse 40 reads, "And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him." The older wording quoted above adds "in spirit," and that word matters for the next point.
The words of verse 52 also bear on what He took up in becoming man.
F. B. HoleVerse 52 of the same chapter says that "Jesus increased in wisdom." These words are difficult, if not impossible, to understand if He did not take a human spirit in becoming man. Wisdom belongs to the spirit rather than to soul or body.
Nothing Forced Or Strange
That growth followed a natural order.
J. G. BellettThere was nothing of unnatural progress in Him: all was orderly increase. His wisdom kept pace with His stature, or age. He was the child first, then the man.
Other writings about His childhood tell a very different story.
Samuel RidoutThere was nothing unnaturally advanced for His age — nothing like the silly stories told in the made-up Gospels — only absolute purity in every relationship.
Favour From Two Directions
The favour was no courtesy. It answered to what He was. And the human half of it did not last.
Leslie M. GrantAlso He increased in favour with God and man. This favour (or grace) was because of a character that fully deserved it. Each day of His life was a fresh occasion of delight to the heart of God the Father. Man too could not ignore it, and appreciated it — until He began to press the claims of God upon men. It was like Saul, who loved David until he realised that David, by his character and by God's will, was entitled to be the king of Israel (1 Sam. 16:21; 18:6-11).
The Hidden Years
The setting of this growth is Nazareth, and the shape of it is obedience to Joseph and Mary.
J. Wilson SmithThen He went down with them to Nazareth and was "subject to them." Words of deep and mighty meaning. This gave wonderful dignity to recognizing parental authority and obeying it... So the childhood of Jesus is no less a model for His people than His manhood.
Scripture tells us almost nothing about those years. One detail survives.
W. T. P. WolstonThen for eighteen years God drops a veil over His life. All we know of that period is this, that when He came out men said, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?" (Mark 6:3). So I conclude that this blessed Son of God, here in human form on earth, worked with His hands. Let no one think, then, that service or toil is a lowly thing to be avoided.
Summary
- Real — He was not made man fully formed like Adam. His growth in wisdom, body and favour was real growth, not a show of growth.
- Perfect — He was the perfect Baby, the perfect Youth, the perfect Man. He was perfect at every moment, and still growing.
- Orderly — His wisdom kept pace with His age. Nothing was unnatural, nothing was forced. The made-up childhood stories could not copy that.
- Deserved — the favour rested on a character that merited it. Every day was fresh delight to the Father. Human approval lasted only until He pressed God's claims.
- Hidden — Nazareth, obedience to His parents, a carpenter's work behind the veil. His childhood is as much a model for us as His manhood.