There's a common misunderstanding about the person of Jesus Christ. Similar to how Fr. Richard Rohr tried to explain (whatever you might think of him), Jesus Christ is not God. Jesus Christ is the union of God the Son and human being. Within Mary's uterus God the Son, The "avatar" of Yahweh (in the sense of a gaming avatar) within time and space, and Mary's DNA were grafted together into a single, unique individual.
What does this mean? In terms of Orthodox theology, Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human. In His humanity, He is like us in everything but the fatal flaw within the flesh which the rest of us possess. But we have a hard time understanding what that means or looks like. As a result, we tend to say, Jesus is God, but do so to the exclusion of His humanity. Others of us tend to emphasize His humanity to the exclusion of His divinity. Both were considered heresies by the Great Ecumenical Councils and the Church Fathers before them.
Here's my understanding of these truths. Jesus Christ is fully human. He has His own human psychology made up of the biological and neurological components contributed by Mary's DNA, as well as His own experiences growing up. Every person who entered His life, the culture He was brought up in, the languages He learned to speak as a child, the stories He heard, every skinned knee, every cruel or kind playmate, every decision He chose to make all contributed to this very human psychology just as they do to ours. This is what is means to be fully human. He laughed, He cried, He became afraid at times, He became angry at times, He became hungry and thirsty. There were times He had to use the toilet. There were times He became upset with others, or even Himself as the Greek suggests in John 11. Like any normal, caring, functional human being, He mirrored the emotions of others and wept when they wept, laughed when they laughed, and so on. And there do appear to be times when He became melancholic. There were things in His humanity He didn't know or wasn't aware of at the time which He even said He wasn't aware of. He had His own human will, mind, emotions, intelligence, and soul.
Grafted in utero to this "unflawed" humanity is God the Son, the Person of God whom Moses talked to at the Burning Bush and saw on Mt. Sinai in Exodus 24, the Person who went walking in the Garden of Eden, the Person who met Abraham and discussed Lot's situation with Him, the Person sometimes described as "The Angel of Yahweh" who received worship and sacrifice as Yahweh, and the one like the Son of Adam lit up like a human form nuclear explosion in the Book of Daniel. As Paul calls Him, the firstborn of all creation who Himself created all things. This Person of the Trinity also has a will and a psychology apart from the human will and psychology.
What does this mean, that Jesus Christ has two wills, and two psychologies which can be a source for His responses, behaviors, thoughts, and words. One completely human, and one completely Yahweh.
Jesus Christ was and is meant to be the first of us, but not the last. "The firstborn of many brothers," as Paul puts it. What does this mean? That by being grafted or grown together with Him, with His Spirit, by means of His death, burial, and resurrection, we become like Him, coming to be possessed of two wills and two psychologies, one being our own fully human, though flawed, will and psychology, and the other, through being grafted to Him just as His humanity was grafted to God the Son in utero, completely Yahweh.
Jesus Christ was and is meant to be the first of us, but not the last. "The firstborn of many brothers," as Paul puts it. What does this mean? That by being grafted or grown together with Him, with His Spirit, by means of His death, burial, and resurrection, we become like Him, coming to be possessed of two wills and two psychologies, one being our own fully human, though flawed, will and psychology, and the other, through being grafted to Him just as His humanity was grafted to God the Son in utero, completely Yahweh.
Jesus Christ lived His fully human life in full surrender and submission to His Father through His humanity being grafted to His divinity. It's important to understand that His submission and surrender to His Father was voluntary. It was not forced. He chose to obey. As Paul wrote, as a Son He learned obedience, and as he also wrote, He became obedient to the point of dying on a cross. As fully human, there were things throughout His life the Father, through His humanity's grafting to the Son, did and did not reveal to Him. There were things He had to learn like every other human being, and things which were revealed to Him privately. Sometimes those lessons He had to learn in a normal human fashion involved trial and error, and making perfectly innocent mistakes such as starting off teaching the elders in the temple at the age of twelve and worrying His parents no end. He wanted to do His Father's will, but didn't yet know how to go about it, or what the timing on it was yet. He was an otherwise normal twelve year old.
In the same way, we are asked to submit and surrender to His Spirit within us, enslaving ourselves to His Spirit, the same way Jesus enslaved His human psychology to His divine psychology. Jesus said He didn't do or say anything which the Father didn't say or do through Him, and if you had seen Him, you had seen the Father. In the same way, our discipline and practice is to submit to Him in such a way to where we don't do or say anything He doesn't do or say through us, and through Him the Father.
Will we make mistakes? Yes. Will we fumble it? Yes. But the point isn't whether or not we make mistakes doing it, the point is that we do it, and keep going just like Jesus Christ. There are times in the Gospels when it appears He really doesn't want to keep going, or do what the Father wants Him to do because it will hurt, or because it will put Him into danger. But He does it anyway, submitting His human will to His divine will. And thus He provides for us the pattern and template for our own practice and discipleship. He is the firstborn, but He is not to be the last. He is the first with two natures, but because of His cross, not the only one.
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