One of the most helpful books I’ve read in a long time is ‘The Man Christ Jesus’ by Bruce Ware (2013). He does a brilliant job of showing how Jesus really was like us in every way ‘yet without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15). For instance, when we are told that Jesus suffered, he really did! He wasn’t pretending nor did he use his divinity to short cut the authentic human experience. Rather, in the Incarnation, he laid aside every divine attribute, that would in any way compromise his humanity. When he was tempted, the only resources he had available to him in his battle to resist were exactly the same as ours – most importantly the ministry of the Spirit of God (Isaiah 11:1-2) and prayer (Hebrews 5:7-10). He even needed to search the Scriptures to discover what they taught and he partly did this in discussion with others (Luke 2:46). Indeed, all of this had to be the case, otherwise he would not be able to be the Great High Priest that we are in such great need of (Hebrews 4:14-16). How wonderfully encouraging it is to meditate on the rock solid certainty that our Lord really does know what it is like to be us and can minister to us, in all of our limitation and vulnerability.
There is one question that I have found particularly fascinating to reflect one, however and it is this: At what point in the childhood of Jesus did he realise that he was to be the Messiah of Israel/Saviour of the world!? He certainly knew by the age of twelve (see Luke 2:49), but how long before that was it and how did he feel when he found out, especially given all that the OT indicated lay in store for him (see e.g. Isaiah 52:13-53:12).
The gospel is such a deep, rich and wonderful thing.
Yours reflectively
Simon