After His death, burial and resurrection, Christ left the earth to return to His state of eternal glory. In John 17:5, Jesus prays, and now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Later in this final prayer, Jesus asks for His own to be with Him to witness His eternal glory, as He prays, Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world (vs. 24). And we know from 1 John 3:2 that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see him as he is.
Jesus left heaven where he was adored by angels to come to earth where he would be despised and rejected by men. He laid His eternal glory aside to take on flesh and dwell among us (John 1:14). This incarnation was accomplished in Bethlehem’s manger.
Although his divine nature was partly veiled by his human nature, it was not diminished. He was the incarnation, the embodiment, of God in flesh. In Christ, all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form (Col 2:9). So while Christ laid aside His eternal glory to be found in appearance as man, at the same time the newborn Jesus was no ordinary baby. Even in His birth, Christ came with manifestations of glory on earth.
