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Matthew 2:2 Jesus, The Divine Infant

“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, ² saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”“

The Incarnation is one of the most difficult concepts for us to wrap our minds around. It refers to the event of the second Person of the Trinity (the Son) taking on the form of a human, the historical man we know as Jesus.

The Apostle Paul describes this event in his letter to the Philippians:

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:6-8

The early church suffered from many false teachings about the nature(s) of Christ. A council was formed in 325 A.D. to clarify the correct teaching about the Incarnation. This is known as the Council of Nicea, and it produced the Nicene Creed, which says the following about the Son and His Incarnation:

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man;

Historic Creeds and Confessions, electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Lexham Press, 1997).

The concepts in Philippians 2 and the Nicene Creed are supported by Matthew 2:2. The wise men travel from the east to worship the one who has been born king of the Jews. They did not merely want to lay eyes on Him. They came to worship Him. God is the only appropriate object of our worship, and God says He does not give His glory to another (cf. Isaiah 42:8). Therefore, if the infant Jesus was not divine, then the wise men’s worship of Him would haven been idolatry, as would all the others throughout the Gospels who worshipped Jesus.

The infant Jesus is the Incarnate Son. Jesus was not merely a man enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit, nor was He dependent upon the Holy Spirit for divine essence. The Holy Spirit does not descend upon Jesus until His baptism in Matthew 3:16, which is about 30 years after the wise men. Jesus was born deserving worship because He is the Incarnate Son.