OCTOBER 10TH, 1941

OCTOBER 10TH, 1941

BELOVED BROTHER, — ... It seems to be quite certain that development in the Child Jesus could only be in relation to the condition into which He had come. The thought of who it was who came into that condition underlies and enhances the wonder of it. The truth of what He was, and is, in Deity is the foundation of everything, but it is also true that He was found here in a condition in which He was in relation to God as dependent on God and instructed by Him. Though there is no record in Luke of His praying or reading the Scriptures before His baptism we do not doubt that He did pray, and found delight in the Scriptures. We know that it was His custom to attend the synagogue. At twelve years of age He thought that those who knew Him well should have known that He ought to be occupied in His Father’s business. It was this that led Him to hear the teachers in the temple, and to ask them questions. I have no doubt that the understanding and answers which astonished those who heard Him had been formed by the Scriptures. They were not what He knew as God, but what He had learned from God as in the place of an instructed One. He has been spoken of as teaching them, but this is to take the whole incident out of its proper setting. For Him to have acted or spoken then according to His place in Deity would have been out of keeping with the truth of His condition and position at the time. It seems to me that He “advanced in wisdom” as continually adding to what He received from God as in the place of an instructed One here.

As God He had originated everything, and given the Scriptures; He was omniscient; He needed not to learn anything. But He had come into a condition and position in which He stood in relation to God as subject and dependent and instructed by God. As in this position He knew things as they were made known to Him. Even as to His public service it was “morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”. The instruction did not come all at once even as to His public service, and I think we may understand that in His boyhood and youth He was continually acquiring instruction from God. He would meditate in the law of Jehovah day and night. But this has altogether to do with the place in which He was here God-ward as in the place of dependence and instruction. It is not the side of what He was as to His Person in Deity. He was ever God, and never less than God as to His Person, but as born in time He came into a condition which was marked by the features which rightly mark man as in relation to God. I think it is right to connect His advancing in wisdom entirely with this side of things. F.E.R. said long ago, “The two thoughts are wholly distinct conceptions, which cannot be grasped at one and the same time by any finite mind ... Now these two thoughts, though realised in one Person, must of necessity be separately and distinctly apprehended. The one presents God, the other man”.

As to waxing strong in spirit, you have no doubt noticed that the Editors omit “in spirit”, which leaves the expression as to waxing strong a general one, which is quite easy to understand as going along with advancing in stature, and belonging, of course, to the condition into which He had come....

With much love in the Lord,

Yours affectionately in Him,

October 10th, 1941.