B1. Did Jesus know
He was God and when?
God thought Himself into our world as a human.
He could have thought of that Image of Himself at any level of maturity that He wished.
He thought of Himself first as a fetus inside the womb of Mary.
It’s safe to say that that fetus had no thoughts, so His self-realization must have occurred later.
Once Christ was born and started thinking, God could have had that Image of Himself develop at any rate He wished.
There is no evidence to say that He knew much about His divine nature until He was found in the temple at age 12.
But, if He never sinned even as a child, there must have been some divine intervention throughout His early life.
Christ was human but somehow God did not allow His Image to sin as all humans do by default
Was Mary similarly created without original sin?
The creator God announced to the public that Christ was “His Son” at Christ’s baptism
At that point Christ knew He was special.
Christ must have had a special relationship with the Creator God in order to avoid sinning throughout His life.
One way to account for His sinless life is to say that He knew He was the Image of God from the point where He could sin.
This is a possibility, since God could think of Himself that way, ie as a human, Who understood that He was the Image of God.
Satan seems to feel that there is a possibility of tempting Christ (Matt 4:1), as though Christ did not fully understand His divinity.
Reviewing all these comments, it would seem that most likely, Christ was created with the knowledge, from the moment of His human awareness, that He was indeed the Image of God with a mission to perform in this world (John 15:15). As such, the Second Person of the Godhead knew He was God and yet He was totally human. Perhaps the Creator God was controlling everything that Christ the human did (John 16:32). Since Christ was merely the Image of Himself, this would not be violating the free will of Christ – He and the Father were One. Christ came to do His Father’s will (John 14:31). Christ had a perfect relationship with the Creator. Christ recognized that the Father was “Greater than I” in that the Father was not limited to the human form that Christ had.
If I think of myself in some scenario in my mind, that image is me, but it is not 3D. That image thinks like me and has the same will that I have. That image could know it is me from the start or at any point later, if I wish it to be so. However, that image of me also knows that it is limited to a 2D reality, whereas I am not.
Addendum :
Christ the human was simultaneous God, ie
"the human Who is like God". If you, a human, could see that
human, then you would have seen God as well as possible for you to do so.
If God had presented Himself to you as an angelic being, you could not see Him
at all. When People would see angels, all they really could see was what
their mind could visualize. Someone standing next to them might not be
able to see that angel at all. They must be under the influence of
another higher power, ie God or an angelic being must
be putting a thought in their head, which they are capable of
visualizing. It's a form of hypnosis, where you are told what to think -
your concept of reality is being controlled by someone else's thoughts.
God can do that easily any time He wants, but He is not supposed to intervene
against our free will. Demons can do it as well, but only if we allow it
as we would have to allow a human hypnotist to control our minds. See http://www.nasamike.com/main/book/5d.htm
17 February 2002, updated 27 February 2007
For more on this and a response to any questions, please email any comments to nasamike@nasamike.com