How is Christ fully God and fully man?

I have always been taught that Christ was fully God and fully man. So, are we saying he was fully God in the womb? Fully God as an infant. Are we saying he had the sentience of God as a newborn? If he had these capacities, was he simply playing the role of newborn? If he did not have these capacities, then how was he fully God?

A: Excellent question! It really gets to the heart of the Incarnation. Jesus Christ is the One like no other. Nothing about His humanity could detract from His godliness; nothing about His godliness could detract from His humanity. In His incarnation, the Creator entered His creation, the Timeless entered the temporal, the Infinite became an infant, the Eternal One became a little one, the very God became fully man.

Theologically, we affirm that Jesus is fully God and fully man. We understand that not in terms of two persons but in terms of two natures. Jesus is one person with two natures (human and divine). As such, firstly, yes, Jesus was fully God in the womb. He was fully God as an infant; however, that does not mean that His humanity was replaced by His divinity. As God, Jesus never ceased to be all-knowing (omniscient), everywhere present (omnipresent), and eternal, but as man, Jesus genuinely experienced human development, limitation, and growth. He wasn’t a newborn with fully functioning human awareness and abilities. Remember, the Bible says, “And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom…” (Luke 2:40). His human mind developed normally. Again, He experienced authentic human development and life as a human being.

So, secondly, no, He wasn’t “simply playing the role” of a baby. His humanity was not an illusion; it was real. At the same time, though, God did not stop being God by manifesting in flesh. There was no deficiency in His deity. His deity was not diminished because deity is not dependent upon humanity. The fullness of God was present in Christ (Colossians 2:9) but expressed through a real human life. So, the infant Jesus was truly a baby in His humanity while still being the one true God manifested in flesh. That’s the mystery of the Incarnation: not God reducing Himself, but God revealing Himself in real human life. Jesus was not a man who became God; He is God who became a man.