Jim Valekis
Luke 2 51-52 The Lost Years Part 1: The Town in Which Jesus Grew Up
Luke 2 51-52 The Lost Year Part 2: Blood, Sweat, Fears, and Tears
So Jesus goes back “down” to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph after the learning about His mission in “His Father’s House.”
And even though He’s the God of all the Universe and knows so much more than them, He’s “obedient” to them.
In this study, we’ll discover the environment of Nazareth, the very little town in which Jesus grew. We’ll consider just what kind of trade He might have learned, and get a sense of the “feel” of the world in which He grew.
Then we’ll go deeper into the phrase describing how Jesus “grew” in wisdom, and stature, and favor with God and man.” The Greek word from which “grew” is translated means for more than just “physically matured.”
It has the connotations of “to beat whatever is right in front, and thus to forcibly go forward, to trail-blaze, to make progress with great effort.”
Some say it was like being forged in fire.
As Jesus “bent back” broken human nature into the original version God had created it to be, what was it like for the Son of God/Son of Man?
Consider what scholar Gerrit Dawson says about this in one treatise quoted in the study:
He took on the perilous condition of our corrupt and sinful humanity, guilty, standing under the utter real judgment of God. Christ entered into the depths of our human nature. Christ penetrated those depths with personal union with Christ’s divine nature. His struggle was horrendous, because we often give in to sin before temptation reaches its full and horrible extreme He cried out with loud cryings to God, and sweated blood doing so. When he died and paid for sin, you died—and your sin was paid for.
Excerpted from “An Introduction to Torrance Theology: Discovering the Incarnate Savior”
Gerrit Dawson
Journey with Jesus through “The Lost Years” in this in depth study.
Photo Credit:By History – https://molinecustoms.com/blogs/news/matt-moline-on-forged-in-fire, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56567278
