He Was God, But He Never Used the Advantage

“Dr. Spader, you keep telling us to ‘do what Jesus did.’ But my problem is simple: He was God and I’m not!”

Dann Spader heard this objection more times than he could count. And honestly, the young man had a point - or at least, he thought he did. If Jesus walked on water, calmed storms, and healed the blind because He was God, then what hope do any of us have? We might as well tell a farmer in a remote Javanese village to build a rocket.

But here is the turning point that changes everything: Jesus was indeed fully God. He was also fully human. And He never once used His divine nature to live out His human life. That distinction is not a theological footnote. It is the foundation of everything we believe about making disciples.

Two Natures, One Person

The Bible teaches that Jesus was fully God. He claimed equality with the Father (John 10:30). He said, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), using the divine name of God Himself. He received worship as God. Paul writes that “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9).

At the same time, Scripture is equally clear that Jesus was fully human. He was born of a woman (Matthew 1:18). He grew in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52). He became hungry (Matthew 4:2), thirsty (John 19:28), weary (John 4:6), and He wept at the grave of His friend Lazarus (John 11:35). He was, as Hebrews 2:17 says, “like us in all ways” - except for sin.

This creates a puzzle. God knows all things. But Jesus did not know the time of His return (Matthew 24:36). God is all-powerful. Yet in Nazareth, Jesus “could not do any miracles there” because of their unbelief (Mark 6:5). God is everywhere present. But Jesus was not in Bethany when Lazarus fell ill, and by the time He arrived, His friend had already died (John 11:21).

How can both be true? Philippians 2:5-8 gives us the answer.

The King Who Became a Beggar

Imagine a king who ruled a vast kingdom. He had servants, rich banquets, and every comfort imaginable. One day, surveying his city, he saw beggars huddled in the cold. He wanted to help them - truly help them. But a king in royal robes cannot understand what a beggar feels.

So the king took off his royal garments and put on rags. He left his castle and lived on the streets. He never stopped being king. He never gave up his authority or his rights. But he chose not to exercise them. Why? Because only by living as a beggar could he truly enter into their suffering and bring real help.

This is a picture of the incarnation. Christ, who was eternal God, “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7). He veiled His deity so that His humanity could find full expression. As Bruce Ware put it: “His Deity was unexpressed, so that His humanity could find full expression.”

The God Card He Never Played

Picture Jesus carrying the ultimate credit card. The number on it is 777-7777-777. The expiration date is eternity. The credit limit is infinite - He owns it all and made it all.

Jesus had this card in His pocket the entire time He walked the earth, because He was fully God. But He chose never once to use it. If He had, He would not have been fully human. He would not have been “like us in every way” (Hebrews 2:14, 17). And if He had not been fully human, He could not have redeemed us from our sins. Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the early church fathers, said it plainly: “If Christ did not become fully human, then His redemption of man could not have been fully complete.”

But what about the miracles? Surely Jesus must have used His divine power to heal the sick and raise the dead? Not necessarily. The miracles were proof of His Messiahship, not His deity (Luke 5:24; Matthew 11:4-5). The apostles in Acts healed the sick and raised the dead too, and they even performed miracles Jesus never did - speaking in tongues, for example (Acts 2:7-8). That did not prove they were divine. Moses performed miracles. Elijah performed miracles. Miracles prove that a person is yielded to what God wants to do through them.

Jesus Himself said it clearly: “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing” (John 5:19). “By myself I can do nothing” (John 5:30). Everything Jesus did, He did in total dependence on the Father.

Why This Matters for You

Picture a young church-planter in a remote village in Central Java. He has no theological library. No smartphone. No senior pastor to call for advice. Just a New Testament, a few fellow believers, and the paddy fields where he works each day. Can he really make disciples the way Jesus did?

Yes. Because Jesus did not depend on resources that are unavailable to this planter. Jesus relied on four things - and all four are available to every believer, everywhere:

1. The Holy Spirit - Jesus was conceived, anointed, filled, led, and empowered by the Spirit (Luke 4:1, 14; Matthew 12:28). The same Spirit dwells in every believer.
2. Prayer - Over 45 times we see Jesus withdrawing to pray (Luke 5:16). Before every major turning point, He prayed. The same access to the Father is ours.
3. The Word of God - Jesus quoted the Old Testament over 90 times, referencing 70 different chapters. He studied Scripture and knew what must be fulfilled. The same Scriptures are in our hands.
4. Supportive community - Jesus had family, close friends like Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, and the Twelve. Hebrews 2:11 says He is not ashamed to call us brothers. We are not meant to walk alone.

The implications are staggering. Jesus was the second Adam, succeeding where the first Adam failed. His obedience all the way to the cross was not accomplished by divine power but by dependence on the Father. As Ian Thomas used to say, “Jesus was man as God intended man to be.”

Stop asking merely “What Would Jesus Do?” and start asking “What DID Jesus Do?” Look at how He lived - in dependence on the Father, through the Spirit, by the Word, in prayer, with community. Then do the same.

The question was never whether you are qualified. Jesus chose fishermen, not scribes. The question is whether you will trust that the same resources Jesus used are enough for you too - right where you are, in whatever village or field God has placed you.