Advent Advent Foretold Day 20: He Would be Without Sin

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Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold a virgin will be with child and bear a Son and she will call His name Immanuel. He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. Isaiah 7:14-15

And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death;  because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. Isaiah 53:9

You are fairer than the sons of men; Grace is poured upon Your lips; Therefore God has blessed you forever. Psalm 45:2

And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. Luke 2:40

When Jesus was born to woman, He did not come as part man and part God. He was fully man and fully God, the second Person in the Trinity. He was born a helpless human babe, just like you and I were, but He was not a son of Adam. He was not born with a sin nature. His was born in the image of His Father. He was perfect in every way and completely without sin.

Jesus went through the same human development as the rest of us, because He was fully man. He went through the ups and downs of every stage of life. It is hard for me to wrap my head around, but He had to learn how to do things. Here is the One through whom all things  were made. He spoke and things happened….big things....like solar systems! He had been from everlasting. But just like the rest of us, He had to learn to roll over, crawl, walk, talk, and feed Himself…all of it. He got to experience parents, little brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and nosey neighbors. He was confronted with ALL facets of human life. He endured suffering, pain, and rejection beyond anything we can imagine. He knows what it is like to go through things. But…and it’s a big but…He did it all without sin.

“Who did no sin, neither was any guile found in His mouth.” 1 Peter 2:22

“This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all the same testings we do, yet He did not sin.” Hebrews 4:15

People often speculate on when Jesus knew “to refuse evil and choose good." We know from the following passage that He was completely aware of who He was and who His Father was by the time He was twelve…

“And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Passover. And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast; and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it, but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day’s journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.
When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold your father and I have been looking anxiously for You.”
And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?”…..And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” Luke 2:40, 45-49, 52

On an aside...I get a kick out of Mary and Joseph being worried about Jesus. They were acting like typical parents.....to the SON OF GOD! Can you imagine the legion of angels He had around Him? You know they were all begging for guard duty! I can picture the Archangel Michael with his sword drawn the whole time, ready to attack anyone or anything that dared to threaten His Lord! 

The verse that began the above narrative is Luke 2:40. I want to take a closer look because we sometimes miss little nuggets in our English translations.

And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. Luke 2:40
 
The word in this verse for spirit is the Greek word pneuma, which most often used in Scripture to name the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit. And here is what we are told in Isaiah about the Branch/Jesus and the Spirit of the Lord:

"Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord….”Isaiah 11:1-3

Is it possible for us to gain any insights from Scripture regarding Jesus' understanding of good and evil as a little child? The following prophecies give us a clue it was much earlier than twelve years old…

"You are He who brought Me forth from the womb; You made me trust when upon My mother’s breasts. Upon You I was cast from birth; You have been my God from my mother’s womb." Psalm 22:9-10
 
"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold a virgin will be with child and bear a Son and she will call His name Immanuel. He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good." Isaiah 7:14-15
 
Curds and honey were common foods for people to eat in Bible times. They were also the first foods a baby was given to eat as “solid food.” Honey would be given to the baby first. They would then graduate to curds. To paraphrase with that in mind… “He will eat baby food at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.”
   

These verses tell us Jesus would know from the womb, and from a very early age He would know to refuse evil and choose good. Why would this surprise us when His forerunner, John the Baptist, leaped for joy in his mother’s womb when he heard Mary’s voice? He was also filled with the Holy Spirit in his mother’s womb. So why would anything surprise us as far as what Jesus knew and when He knew it? But here is what we know beyond any doubt…..  our Lamb was without spot or blemish. He was perfect and became sin for us....

He made Him Who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21
But with precious blood, as a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1:19

And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation. Hebrews 5:9
 
May each day of this Christmas season be a precious gift to you and your family.

God bless you!!

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