Time and again, we are confronted with instances in the Four Gospels which portray our Lord as having limited knowledge. This we find, for example, in Him not knowing the day and hour of the end times (Matt 24:36, Mrk 13:32), how many loaves His disciples had (Matt 15:34), who touched His garment (Mrk 5:30-32), where Lazarus was laid (Jn 11:34) etc.
This is strange, when we consider that Jesus was God in human flesh (Jn 1:1, 14, Col 2:9, 1 Tim 3:16). One of the divine attributes of God is omniscience; the ability to know past, present and future events (Pss 139:1-6, 147:5, Isa 46:9-10, 1 Jn 3:20). How then is it that Christ seemed ignorant in certain situations?
This is easily resolved when we understand that Christ placed some self-imposed restrictions on His own humanity. He refused to use some aspects of His deity, while He walked this Earth as a Man (see Philip 2:6-8), which explains why He could grow physically (Lk 2:40) and in wisdom (Lk 2:52), become hungry (Matt 4:2), thirsty (Jn 19:28), grow tired (Jn 4:6), sleep (Mrk 4:38), weep (Jn 11:35), suffer (Heb 2:10), and learn obedience through suffering (Heb 5:8).
This, He did, because He TRULY wanted to experience what it meant to be a man, rather than just pretend to be one. The writer of Hebrews says He did this to be able to empathize with human weakness (Heb 2:17-18, 4:15). Thus, in the Incarnation was a temporary divestment of the fullness of His Majesty—He placed restrictions on the full exercise of His power (cf. Jn 5:19, 30, 8:28, 12:49).
Notice, however, that once resurrected and glorified, all these restrictions are removed (Matt 28:18, Acts 2:32-33, Eph 1:20-21, Philip 2:9-11). For example, Christ now speaks about/reveals the end times with certainty; the fate of the seven Churches (Rev 2-3), future judgments (Rev 6-19), the New Heaven and Earth (Rev 21-22) etc. Thus, the period of limited knowledge was only for a time—until the work of redemption was complete and He had tasted death for us all.
© Josh Banks Ministries. 2026.
