q: What is the condescension of God? (1 Nephi 11:16, 26; 2 Nephi 9:53)

a: The word condenscension comes from the Latin roots con and descendere, meaning to decend with. The Savior's decent to humanity was personally announced by the Savior to Nephi on that first "Christmas Eve": "Behold, the time is at hand... on the morrow come I into the world" (3 Nephi 1:13). Oh, the magnitude of that sacrifice, that condescension! THat night, God the Son traded his heavenly home with all its celestial adornments for a mortal abode with all its primitive trappings. He, "the King of heaven" (Alma 5:50), "the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth" (Mosiah 3:5), left a throne to inherit a manger. He exchanged the dominion of a god for the dependence of a babe. He gave up wealth, power, dominion, and the fulness of his glory - for what? -for taunting, mocking, humiliation, and subjection. It was a trade of unparalleled dimension, a condescension of incredible proportions, a descent of incalculable depth. And so, the great Jehovah, creator of worlds without number, infinite in virtue and power, made his entry into this world in swaddling clothes and a manger.

Tad R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement. 2000. p. 63, 64