(51) And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. (52) And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
The Reader will have all suitable apprehensions of what is contained in these verses, if he keeps in view the recollection of the Godhead, and of the Manhood of Christ. In his human nature he was, as hath been before observed in this Chapter, a true and proper man, in all point's as we are, yet without sin. And had he not been so, he could not have been a true and proper surety. In this nature therefore, he was subject to Mary and Joseph, in all subordination. And in this nature, he increased in wisdom and stature, and in age also, (as it is rendered in the margin of our Bibles), and in favor with God and man. For as the holiness and purity of his life became daily greater in accession, so of consequence it increased in favor both in the eye of God and man, as tending more and more to perfection. But in his divine nature there could be no increase, being in the essential properties of Jehovah, one with the Father over all God blessed forever. Amen. If men of no grace would read their Bibles with candour only, (for with more than this, untaught of God, they never can), and recollect, that the faith once delivered to the saints, contemplates the person of Christ in his two-fold nature of God and Man united; they might from the same candour be led to suppose, that in all those passages, such as is contained in these two verses, it is the simple humanity of Christ only, which the Holy Ghost is treating of. But what becomes a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, to Infidels of every description and character, is to the faithful among the sweetest and most precious testimonies of his suitability and fitness as the Christ of God. Yes! thou dearest Lord! thy humble birth, thy laborious life, in eating bread by the sweat of thy brow, in fulfilling all righteousness, and in thy ignominious death, even the death of the cross, mark thee as the very Lamb slain from the foundation of the world! Hail! thou Lord of all, while servant of all! To thee shall every knee bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen.