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was in the manger was a babe with the nature and potentially the abilities of God his Father. Christ had a holy nature as God is holy (John 6:69). All that God is as a moral being was there in Christ bodily. However power is what Christ was given (Matthew 28:18) and this because of who He is (God’s Son) and what He has done (John 3:35; Philippians 2:5-11). He had to demonstrate his holy nature in order to be given what He has been given: He has been anointed with the oil of gladness above his companions because He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness (Hebrews 1:9). He was not given what He already had. Similarly “For the Father loves the Son and shews him all things which he himself does” (John 5:20 ). He does not show Him what He already knows. Such a thought is absurd. Further, “He... ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:8-10). There is no idea in Scripture that He was filling all things before He ascended.

When it comes to a matter of nature He always had the divine nature. There is no suggestion that He was given that. We are made “partakers of [the] divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). There is no idea in Scripture that Christ was made partaker of it. The divine nature is holy and there never was a time when Christ was not holy (Luke 1:35). All that God was as a moral being Christ was. Confusing power, knowledge and sphere of influence with nature is one of the things that no doubt led to the confusion that exists as to the person of Christ in Christendom. Effectively the creeds overstate the glory of Christ by applying to Him all the Father’s glory as well as his own. The so-called cults understate his glory by thinking of Him as a creature, whether a man of Adam’s race or an angel.

The question arises as to the kind of existence that Christ had before He was born into this world. Scripture tells us very little, and therefore we can say very little. Further, it is doubtful how much we can with our finite minds apprehend such an existence. God tells us no more than we can be expected to conceive. Further, there is the question as to the usefulness of such information to us. God tells us what is to affect us in some way. Divine things are not a game of trivial pursuit.

However, if God had told us nothing it might be held that Christ was simply a finite being such as

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