How Do We Explain Jesus Increasing in Wisdom (luke 2:52) When He Was God and Knew All Things?
1) Direct Answer
Jesus increasing in wisdom speaks of His true humanity; God in Him did not increase. The one God veiled Himself in a real human body and mind that had to grow, learn, and mature. As the Son (the body), He grew in wisdom; as God dwelling in Him, He knew all things.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Luke 2:40,52 says the child grew, waxed strong in spirit, and increased in wisdom and stature. That’s the human side maturing.
- Hebrews 2:17; 4:15: He was made like His brethren and was tempted in all points, yet without sin. A true man must truly develop.
- Philippians 2:7-8: He made Himself of no reputation and took the form of a servant. He chose the servant pathway, not displaying divine prerogatives at will.
- John 14:10: “The Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.” The indwelling Father is the source.
- John 5:19-20: “The Son can do nothing of Himself… the Father sheweth Him.” He lived in dependence, not self-display.
- Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16: In Him dwelt all the fulness; God was manifested in flesh. Not part of God—God Himself veiled.
- John 3:34; Luke 3:21-22; 4:18: The Spirit was upon Him without measure, openly anointing Him for ministry.
- Mark 13:32 and Acts 1:7: When He did not declare the day or hour, He was speaking from the servant position, keeping that knowledge under the Father’s authority.
- Yet Scriptures also say, “Jesus knowing all things” (John 18:4) and “Lord, Thou knowest all things” (John 21:17), and He “knew what was in man” (John 2:25). That’s the Father in Him made known.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- God does not grow; a child does. The Son is the body—born, eating, sleeping, learning; the indwelling is God—eternal, unchanging, omniscient.
- Therefore Luke 2:52 describes the human mind of Jesus maturing in perfect obedience, while the divine Spirit in Him never increased.
- At times He speaks and acts as a man in the servant role; at times the Father speaks and works through Him. It’s not two persons; it’s one God revealed—Father above us, then with us in that body as the Son, now in us as the Holy Spirit.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice, that’s the mystery: God hiding Himself in simplicity. He became like us to redeem us, yet never ceased to be God. So His increase in wisdom was the real growth of His humanity; His omniscience remained in the indwelling Father who did the works.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Calling Jesus on the scene
64-0319 §37
His disciples sometimes get in physical troubles that they can't remedy, such as sickness, cancer, so forth, that the doctors can't ... don't know what to do about it. We, like them, forget who's in the ship. They should have known that He knowed all these things. He knew they were going to happen. He was there. He knew all things, so He knew this was going to happen. It'd already happened to Him... Why was He letting it happen? When He got in that ship, He knew that was going to happen. He knows that we had to mee...
Hebrews, Chapter 7, part 1
57-0915E §66
If you'd take it over to like in Jeremiah 1:4, God said, "I knew you before you was even formed in your mother's womb. And I sanctified you and ordained you a prophet to the nations." Then what can you say that you did? What can I say that I did? It's God that showeth mercy. God knew us before the foundation of the world. He's not willing that any should perish. Certainly not. But if He's God, He knowed who would be saved and who wouldn't be saved, or He didn't know anything. If He didn't know... If he didn't know...
It wasn't so from the beginning
60-0306 §11
God being infinite, He knew all things. Before the world was ever created, He knowed every fly, every gnat, every time he'd ever bat his eye, and how much tallow he had, before the world ever started. That's infinite. He knowed the end from the beginning, so that makes Him infinite. He knows. So then He's omnipresent by knowing all things what's going on. Now, whatever He says, it is forever the truth. If God is ever called on the scene to make a decision, and He makes that decision, it has to be forever the same w...
The conflict between God and Satan
62-0531 §19
In Eden, God knew his enemy and all the attacks of his enemy. Now God is the infinite God, and the infinite God is the perfection of the perfections. He knew all things before they ever was. And therefore, if this infinite God could have looked forward, and did, and seen the end from the beginning, and knew that He would have children on this earth, his own blessed children, don't you believe that He would provide for them the best that He could provide? Would not you tonight, to your children that was helpless lit...
The invisible union of the Bride of Christ
65-1125 §86
When you see the woman a by-product, not another female like her, made in that order, in order she could be deceived. God knowed ... if He didn't know the end from the beginning, then He wasn't God. If He isn't infinite... If He can't be infinite without being omniscient, omnipresent, knowing all things, eternal, so He knew all things. And He had to make that woman. The man didn't have a wife. The wife and the man was the same thing. He had the feminish and masculine spirit in himself. He had to separate, take a by...