A couple of weeks ago someone asked me how Christ could remain fully divine and yet limit himself in the incarnation.  The questioner had pretty well answered his own question by the time he finished writing me, but below are the thoughts I added to his insights:

Yours is a very good question which I wish more would ask because it provides occasion to teach an oft-neglected aspect of Christology which should serve to increase our love for God and humility before a sovereign Christ.  You are basically headed in the right direction but a few insights from John Calvin (1509-1564) and John Owen (1616-1683) might help tie up some loose ends for you.  The first mistake we tend to make in discussing Christ’s two natures (divine and human) is to restrict the totality of Christ’s person to his incarnated form.  By drawing on theological insights that were loosely expressed centuries before him, John Calvin clarified for the Church that the incarnation was an extension of his “empire” and not a restriction.  His humanity was something he added to his person rather than a capsule into which he only had room for a few of his attributes. This addition was referred to by Calvin as the etiam extra carnem Christi. Calvin’s explanation of Christ’s adding real humanity to the totality of his being has been pejoratively referred to by Lutheran theologians as the extra-Calvinisticum because they insist that Christ’s flesh is omnipresent, a position necessary to hold in order to teach that Christ is physically present in the Lord’s Supper.  However, that would mean that Jesus is something other than a genuine human being and without a human Christ we have no Savior.  So while Jesus lived within the confines of space and time within Palestine, the whole Christ was everywhere present, omniscient, omnipotent and so on—possessing all the distinguishing qualities of the Godhead.  If you would like to read more from Calvin on Christ’s incarnation, you could look at the following:  Institutes of the Christian Religion 2.13.4; 4.17.30; Commentary Lk. 23:43; Jn. 14:12; Ac. 1:11; He. 1:14). You might want to look as well at Heidelberg Catechism Q. 48.

Practically that means that the omnipotent Christ fully resourced his redemptive labors on our behalf while the human expression of his person was on earth.  While Christ’s human body may have by necessity known some limitations on earth, Christ himself was never limited because his divine nature never changed.  Because Jesus Christ remains the same yesterday, today and forever there was never any chance and never will there be a chance of failure in his redemptive plan.  Furthermore, because Christ has maintained his human expression, it will be possible for us in heaven to commune with God (who is a Spirit) through him.