Jesus was divine from the beginning. He has been and always will be the second Person of the Trinity, since the beginning of time. Though it isn’t covered in Scripture, it’s an intriguing subject to consider when the human Jesus realized He was God following the Incarnation. As an adult, we know that Jesus fully understood who He was, as He said, “Very truly I tell you,… before Abraham was born, I am!” Additionally, He said, “Now, Father, grant me the glory I shared with you before the creation of the world” in His prayer.
It also appears that Jesus knew who He was and what He did even as a young child. The family moved to Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve years old, thanks to Joseph and Mary. They were worried about Jesus going missing from their caravan on the trip home. When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus was “sitting among the teachers in the temple courts, listening to them and asking them questions.” Jesus’ mother questioned why He would bother them so much and then go. Jesus asked in return, “Why were you searching for me? . . . . Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”. Joseph and Mary did not understand Jesus’ words. Whatever those around Him did not grasp, it seems that Jesus, at a very young age, did know that He was the Son of God and that the Father had foreordained the work He was to do.
After the incident in the temple, Luke says, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man”. If at this point in Jesus’ human experience He knew everything, He would not need to “grow in wisdom.” We emphasize that this was Jesus’ human experience. Jesus never ceased being God, but in some matters He veiled His divinity in accordance with the Father’s will. Thus, the Son subjected Himself to physical, intellectual, social, and spiritual growth. The Son of God voluntarily put Himself in the position of needing to assimilate knowledge as a man.
When did Jesus know that He was God? From the heavenly perspective, the Son knew from eternity past who He was and what His earthly work was to be. From the earthly perspective, the incarnate Jesus came to that realization at some point early in life. Just when that point was, we cannot know for sure.
📌FOR FURTHER STUDY
📖 How Did Jesus Know He Was God?