Christ , The Kenosis of

The Kenosis of Christ

(Phil. 2:5-8)

The Kenosis of Christ means that Christ emptied Himself. The Greek word for "made himself of no reputation" in Phil. 2:7 is kenao, meaning to empty, evacuate, become nothing, to divest one's self of native dignity and power, and to descend to an inferior position or condition. It is translated "made void" (Rom. 4:14), "make void" (1 Cor. 9:15) "make of none effect" (1 Cor. 1:17), and "be in vain" (2 Cor. 9:3). The idea in all these passages, as can readily be seen, is to cause a thing to be seen as empty, hollow, nothing, false or absolutely useless. God emptied Himself! What a strange idea in connection with God! Yes, indeed, but through a knowledge of this truth comes a true knowledge of the essence of Christianity and of the very nature and being of God Himself. This truth as demonstrated by God to man by concrete example clears God once and forever of all the accusations made against Him by the devil and his followers. It personified in God the very opposite of the depraved nature of the devil and those who follow him.

When God created the Heaven and the Earth He planned that they should be inhabited by free and intelligent peoples with absolute freedom of choice as to their destiny and God-given responsibility to keep the moral laws of the universe. This plan was that all Spirit and material beings should be subject to God and love Him not from the principles of fear and suspicion instilled in them by false ideas of a tyrannical, oppressive, despotic, and ghostly being called God, who was ready to pounce upon them for the least infraction of His moral laws; but that God, Himself, should be the example and ideal to them of all that is just, holy, true and perfect. God should be the supreme sovereign ruling for the good of His whole creation and sharing His goodness, power, and glorious Being with all alike; and that His form of government should be recognized and respected by all alike on all planets.

When Spirit and human free wills were created they were inexperienced as to right and wrong and as to the true nature of the great Being which had brought them into existence. They were created miniatures of God in attributes and powers and could exercise their powers and attributes like God, but only in a limited and finite way. They had to learn by experience the free exercise of their faculties as to right and wrong, walk in the ways of God and be content with their own creative limitations in strict obedience and submission. Being like God in body, soul, and spirit they could naturally enjoy the same feelings, emotions and desires as God and have perfect fellowship with Him in their mutual administration of the universe. The many theophanies in Scripture reveal and demonstrate the mutual interests and common partnership of God and His created subjects and co-workers (Gen. 2:21; 18:2; 19:1-5; 32:24-32; Num. 22:22-31; Josh. 5:15; Judges 6; Isa. 6; Ezek. 1; Dan. 7:9-13; Heb. 13:2). Even since the rebellion in God's kingdom it is God's plan to dwell with and make man co-administrators of the universe (Isa. 7:14; 9:6-7; 66:22-24; Ezek. 43:7; Rom. 8:17; Rev. 21:3; 22:3-5).

Angels were the first to help God administer the affairs of the universe (Col. 1:15-18). Lucifer, himself, ruled this planet and through pride fell and invaded Heaven to dethrone God, but was defeated and his kingdom destroyed and the Earth placed under water and darkness, as we have seen in Lesson Seven. Lucifer's highest ambition was to "be like the Most High" in the infinite and sovereign sense.

This spirit of pride and self-exaltation was the very opposite of what the second person of the Godhead demonstrated when He emptied Himself and thought it not something to be grasped after to retain equality with God. Since Lucifer fell he has become the leader of all whose program is self-exaltation and rule-or-ruin. Some day he will be forced to capitulate and bow the knee to Him who demonstrated the opposite principles-who emptied and humbled Himself from deity to humanity and from humanity to infamy and who has been exalted at the right hand of the Father waiting until His enemies be made His footstool (Phil. 2:9-11; Ps. 110:1; 1 Cor 15:22-28; Heb. 2:7-10; 10: 12-13; 1 Pet. 3:22). In this we have a clear demonstration of the power of the greater and more God-like principles of right over wrong, unselfishness over selfishness, humility over pride, faithfulness and obedience over rebellion, and self-emptying over self-exaltation.

When God restored the Earth in six days and created new life therein, man was given the dominion Lucifer had lost. Man soon sinned after the same subtle manner as did the spirit-rebels by attempting to be equal with God in the unlawful sense. It was Satan using the serpent as a tool who said, "God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be AS GODS, knowing both good and evil." Thus Adam, like Lucifer before him, through trying to be "AS ELOHIM," in the unlawful sense, really became unlike God in the lawful sense. He became the leader of all human rebels against God, as Lucifer had become the devil and leader of all spirit-rebels before Adam.

At the fall, Lucifer took up his new role as the usurper and pseudo-ruler of man and his dominion (Luke 4:6; John 12:31; 14:30; 2 Cor. 4:4). Man entered his new role as a beaten galley-slave, no longer able to resist his slave-master and exercise his God-given dominion or his faculties in freedom from sin and the devil.

God, who always has had and always will have the best interests of His creatures at heart, saw the unequal struggle and helpless state of His new creation and began to champion man's cause and make it possible for man to defeat the spirit-rebels and regain his dominion. God knew that the spirit-rebels were past redemption, having refused all means of reconciliation before He took action against them. God further knew that the new rebels should be given full justice and a chance to become reconciled before having final action taken against them. So, as pre-planned, the Creator offered redemption to all human rebels, especially to them who accept and believe the gospel (Eph. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:2; Rev. 13:8; 17:8).

THE FIRST STEP in the work of redemption was to send angels to protect the new race from immediate destruction by the spirit-rebels who wanted to annihilate the race and seize the Earth for themselves. The age-long struggle between these good and bad spirit-forces for the protection and destruction of the race until "the restitution of all things" is clearly revealed in Job 1:10-12; 2:5-6; 42:10; Dan. 10:12-11:1; Matt. 18:10; Acts 10:38; Eph. 2:2-3; 6:1-17; Heb. 1:14; 2:18; Rev. 12:7-12.

THE SECOND STEP was the promise of a Redeemer who would be the seed of the woman and who would liberate man from the slavery of the devil and free and restore his original domination. Many are the promises of a virgin-born child who would be God manifest in flesh, who would be the "first-born" and head of a new creation of human kind, and who would finally put down Satan and with man rule supreme over all creation forever (Gen. 3:15; 12:1-3; 49:10; 2 Sam. 7; Isa. 7:14; 9:6-7; 11:1-8; 42:1-4; 53:1-12; 61:1-3; Mic. 5:1-2; Matt. 1; Luke 1:32-35).

THE THIRD STEP was the actual fulfillment of Immanuel, God with us. What kind of Being was God to be when He appeared among men? What kind of an example and life was He to demonstrate before and among men in order to win them from allegiance to the devil? What could He possibly do to allay the fears and wrong impressions of God in man and counteract the arguments against God and His rights and bring man over on God's side? Was He going to be as Satan pictured Him -a being full of pride, a tyrant, a despot, full of vengeance, ready to destroy those who rebelled? Was He to come in might and power to inspire awe and demand the worship of all? Was He to come with His faithful hosts of angels to conquer Satan and his rebels in the sight of man to prove to man that He alone was the one powerful enough to reign as sovereign of all? Was He coming to save Himself or save and restore others?

He came as a man-a lowly servant of all to set the right example of how men can be like God. He came and lived as God would live among men so that men could learn to live like God. He literally "emptied Himself" and took the form of a servant instead of the form of a sovereign. He humbled Himself from deity to humanity and from humanity to infamy, taking on Him the sins of the world and redeeming fallen man to His original dominion.

Of What Did Christ Empty Himself?

The various doctrine books teach that Christ possessed all the glory, nature, and attributes of God during His earthly life just as much as when He was in the form of God. They give us proof for their conclusion that Christ had:

1.     Omnipotence (Matt. 8:16, 26-27; Luke 4:35-41; 5:25; 7:14-15; 8:54-55; Eph. 1:20-23; Heb. 1:3).

2.     Omniscience (Mark 2:8; Luke 5:4-5, 22; 22:10-12; John 1:48; 2:24-25; 4:15-19; 6:64; 13:1; 16:30; 21:17; Col. 2:3).

3.     Omnipresence (Matt. 18:20; 28:20; John 3:13; 14:20; 2 Cor. 13:5; Eph. 1:13).

4.     Eternity (John 1:1; 17:5; 8:58; Mic. 5:2; Col. 1:17; Heb. 13:8; 1 John 1:1).

5.     Immutability (Heb. 1:12; 13:8).

Upon examination of these passages it can be seen that not one passage teaches that Christ had or used these attributes of Himself while on Earth. The majority of them refer to the power Christ had to heal, read the thoughts of men, and do certain works by the direct anointing of the Spirit and not by being God manifest in the flesh. Some of them refer to Christ before His earthly life while still in the form of God. The rest of them refer to Christ after His earthly life when He was exalted and had His glory restored to Him as before becoming man. Thus not one of them refers to Christ as acting of Himself without the anointing of the Spirit and because He was God in flesh, having all the natural attributes and powers that God had from all eternity.

The true Biblical teaching of the kenosis of Christ is that in taking human form He divested Himself of His divine attributes, or at least power to use them, having laid aside His God-form and voluntarily given up His glory which He had with the Father before the world was and become limited in knowledge, wisdom, power, glory, and in every way that man was, and that He retained His deity or His divine nature. The Bible further teaches that He was made of a woman without a human father and was, therefore, free from the fallen human nature that came through Adam and His male descendants (Luke 1:32-35; Rom. 8:3; Gal. 4:4). It could not be that Christ laid aside His divine nature, for then He would cease being God. Paul did not say He ceased being God, but that He laid aside His God-form and emptied Himself of everything that would hinder Him from being a true and real human being and "in all things" like His brethren (Heb. 2:9-18). The following points prove this to be the true Biblical teaching of the kenosis of Christ:

1. This harmonizes perfectly with every Scripture given by the various writers. If Christ retained all divine attributes or the free use of them in becoming man, then of what did He empty Himself? And how could we harmonize all the many limitations of His earthly life with the fact that He was equal with God in every sense? If God, with all divine attributes, is as limited as Christ was in His earthly life, then God is not so much greater than man after all. On the other hand, if God is as infinite and great as He is revealed in the Bible to be, and Christ demonstrated just the opposite in His earthly life, then it must be concluded that Christ divested Himself of the divine powers in taking human form.

2. The manifestations of attributes as given by the above-stated opinion can be explained as operations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit of 1 Cor. 12:4-ll, which Christ possessed to the full. The limitations of Christ in knowledge and wisdom cannot be explained and harmonized with the fact that Christ had omniscience. His limitations in power and His powerlessness to act and do things in Himself cannot be harmonized with the fact that He had his original attribute of omnipotence. These and other facts make it clear that Christ's emptying Himself in reality includes the laying aside of His attributes and powers or at least limitations of them in becoming man. (See Point V, 30, for proof Christ could do nothing in Himself.)

3. Paul definitely teaches in Phil. 2:5-11 that Christ emptied Himself and that He laid aside His God-form and His equality with God and took human form and was "made in the likeness of men." Paul further teaches in Heb. 2:14-18; 5:8-9 that it was necessary for Christ to be made "IN ALL THINGS . . . like unto his brethren," that He should live among them and be like them, that He should suffer with them and for them and in their stead, and that He should be limited like them and have to depend upon God for daily grace for body, soul, and spirit so as to be "able to succor them that are tempted." For "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered" (Heb. 5:9).

4. Peter's doctrine of the sufferings of Christ so as to leave "us an example, that we should walk in His steps" would mean nothing to ordinary human rebels if He endured the sufferings as a God and not as a man. What injustice it would be to expect ordinary, frail, and weak man to suffer as only a God could suffer. On the other hand, if He suffered as any other human being would suffer, having God as a helper only and not as being a God, then every suffering human being can be inspired by such an example and endure all as He did.

5. The prophets foretold His being limited as man. Isa. 7:14-16 speaks of the virgin-born son as growing in knowledge as any other child and that there would be a time in His life when He would not know to choose the good and refuse the evil because of being so young and immature. What a strange thing to say of Jesus if He were a full grown God having all the use of the attributes of God in a small human baby! Also in Isa. 50:4-11 we read, "The Lord God hath given me [Messiah] the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in due season to him that is weary: He [God] wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked out the hair: I hid my face from shame and spitting." Again, what strange words to speak of a person if He had the attribute of omniscience! In Isa. 11:1 and 53:1-12 we have a detailed picture of the Messiah growing up before God as a "tender plant" and "as a root out of dry ground," which needs much nourishment and care in growth-a man of sorrows, not a God of sorrows, smitten of God and afflicted.

In Ps. 119:97-104 we have another clear prophecy of the Messiah meditating in the Word of God and becoming wiser than His enemies, His teachers, and all the ancients. One could not possibly harmonize such statements in connection with a full grown, mature, and highly educated man, much less a great God with all the use of His divine attributes and powers. We cannot conceive of a God who still had omniscience and had to be taught and be instructed as was Jesus, who still was immutable and eternal and yet too young to know good from evil or capable of death, who still was omnipotent and could not help Himself, who still was omnipresent and yet was limited to a small, helpless baby body, and who was limited by both Old Testament and New Testament writers to the status of a human being during His earthly life, He is certainly not the unlimited and almighty God who has not emptied Himself as had Christ.

6. History proves Christ was limited during His earthly life. Mark definitely states that Christ was limited in knowledge while in His earthly life, for He did not know the day of His return to Earth as did the Father (Mark 13:32). Luke also records how Jesus "grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom . . . the grace of God was upon Him.... Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:40-52). Paul speaks of Him as having "learned obedience by the things which He suffered (Heb. 5:8). Such could never be said of Christ if He had retained all His divine attributes of omniscience, immutability, etc.

7. Christ Himself claimed no power or exercised no personal attribute of deity apart from the full anointing of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:28; Luke 3:21-22; 4:1, 14-21; John 3:34; Acts 10:38). If His works were through the anointing of the Spirit, then they could not be through the exercise of His own natural attributes of deity. Prophecy foretells that Christ was to be anointed with the Spirit and do all His works by this anointing, not by being God and having the exercise of all divine attributes as before and since His earthly life (Isa. 11:1-2; 42:1-5; 48:16; 61:1). History plainly records the fulfillment of these predictions (Matt. 3:16-17; 12:22-32; 20:22; Luke 3:21-22; 4:14-21; John 1:31-34; 3:34; 5:19,30; 6:57; 8:28; 14:10,24; Acts 10:38; Rom. 1:4; 3:1; 5:6; Heb. 2:9-18; Rev. 5:6). Christ did no miracle or exercised no divine power until His anointing with the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:16-17; Luke 4:14-21; John 2:11; 3:34; Acts 10:38).

8. The fact that Christ promised all disciples that they could do the same works and even greater works than what He did if they would but empty themselves and "tarry until" they were endued with power from on high, proves the source of His power was the anointing of the Spirit instead of exercising divine attributes by virtue of being God (Matt. 10:1-20; 16:18; Luke 10:1-20; 24:49; Mark 16:15-20; John 14:12-15; 20:22; Acts 1:8). The fact that disciples did exercise this power proves the same contention. Disciples had power to impart the baptism in the Spirit by laying on of hands, and they did a number of acts that are not recorded in the life of Christ (Acts 8:5-20; 19:1-6). The time was not yet come that men could be baptized with the Spirit until Christ was glorified; hence Christ could not baptize men in the Spirit while on Earth (John 1:31-33; 7:37-39; Acts 2:33; Matt. 20:22-24). Hence the "greater works."

9. Christ prayed for His original glory to be restored, which He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5). It is not until after the resurrection that he said, "All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth" (Matt. 29:18). Christ and others repeatedly stated that God "gave" Him certain powers and blessings which enabled Him to do His works (John 3:34-35; 5:22, 26-27; 17:2; Acts 10:38), that He did His works in the Father's name just as believers are supposed to do them in His name (John 5:43; 10:25; 17:6-12, 26), that He was not as great as the Father (John 10:29; 14:28; 1 Cor. 11:3), that He was sent of God and did not come of Himself (John 3:14-18, 34; 4:34; 5:17, 30, 36; 6:29, 38-40, 57; 7:16, 28; 8:16, 28-29, 42; 10:36; 12:44-45; 17:4, 8), that His works were not of Himself but were of the Father (John 5:17, 19; 10:32, 14:10), that He could do nothing of Himself (John 5:19, 30), that He did nothing of Himself (John 8:28), that His doctrine was not His own (John 5:20; 7:16; 8:26, 28; 10:18; 14:31; 15:15), that He did not speak of Himself (John 8:38, 40; 12:49; 14:10), that He sought God's glory, not His own (John 8:50), that He was a servant of God and perfectly obedient to Him (John 8:35; Isa. 42:1; 50:5; Heb. 5:8-9; 10:7), that His works were proof that God was "with Him" and was doing the works, and therefore, they were no proof that He had the essential attributes of God and was using them of Himself (John 3:2; 5:31-36; 9:4; 10:25, 38; 11:42; 14:10; Acts 10:38), that He was sending His followers to confirm the gospel and do divine works just as the Father had sent Him (John 17:18; Mark 16:15-20; Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 1:1-4; Heb. 2:3-4), and that He used the same means of grace by prayer, faith, and yieldedness to the Spirit that all believers after Him must use (Luke 11:1-13; 24:49; Mark 11:22-24; Acts 1:1-8; 10:38; John 14:12-15). Could such things be said of a God who had not emptied Himself of His glory and the free use of His attributes and powers?

10. Christ's exaltation to the highest place with God is also proof of His lowest humiliation and limitation before God-even to do nothing, say nothing, be nothing, and depend upon God for needed grace for body, soul, and spirit, and to make a success of the work that He was sent into the world to do (Phil. 2:9-11; Eph. 1:21-23; Col. 1:15-24; 1 Pet. 3:22). He could not have retained this exalted position while becoming man, else He could not have been exalted back to it. He could not have retained immutability, nor immortality bodily; else He could not have laid aside His God-form to become a mutable and mortal man to die upon the cross. If He had not laid aside His glory He could not have had it restored to Him, as stated in John 17:5. If He had retained all His riches while on Earth He could not have become poor for our sakes, as taught in 2 Cor. 8:9. If He had retained His divine form He could not have taken human form as taught in Phil. 2:5-11.

Those who hold to the theory that Christ possessed all the attributes of deity and that He merely surrendered the independent exercise of them and that He surrendered to the control of the Spirit in the use of them teach, in substance, the same that we do, for they say, "the Godhead narrowed itself down to a point that is next to absolute extinction when it gave up omniscience, omnipotence, and other powers." If He had not laid aside His equality as God, then He could not have been unequal with God as manifested in the days of His flesh.

The incarnation proves He w as limited as man and grew to manhood and developed normally as any other human child. Therefore, all the stories of Christ before His anointing with the Spirit, such as His making mud cakes and giving life to them which ran over the mud cakes of other boys, of His making mud birds and breathing into them so that they became living creatures and flew away, of His stretching the lumber to required lengths if it was too short, and of many miraculous powers from birth are mere traditions manufactured by superstitious pagans to make Him equal with pagan ideas of their gods. These stories are unworthy of the glorious offspring of the invisible God as revealed in the Bible, Who did no miracle until His full anointing of the Spirit (Matt. 3:16-17; John 2:11).

What Does Our Lord's "Kenosis" Teach Us? It Teaches:

1. That Christ was always divine (Micah 5:1-2; John 1:1-3).

2. That He could not cease being God in nature (1 Tim. 3:16).

3 That He retained His divinity when becoming incarnate in flesh (Matt. 1:23).

4. That He was truly human as well as divine and lived while on Earth a nominal and perfect human life as an example to all men who desire to please God (1 Pet. 2:21).

5. That in so doing He laid aside His natural and divine attributes or at least limited their use, and became a perfect example of yieldedness to God and His Spirit to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil (Heb. 10:5-9; Acts 10:38).

6. That He did His works solely by the anointing of the Spirit and not by the free self-exercise of the attributes of His deity while becoming man (Acts 10:38).

7. That He did them to demonstrate and prove to all believers that by the means of grace God has provided that everyone can live victorious as He did (1 John 2:6; 3:7; 4:17).

8. That every believer can likewise be anointed with the same Spirit to the same degree that He was and do the works that He did and even greater works (John 14:12).

9. That His life and works were done as a pattern for all believers after Him (1 John 4:17; 1 Pet. 2:21; Mark 16:15-20).

10. That at His exaltation He had restored to Him His attributes and glory He had with the Father before becoming man (John 17:5; Matt. 28:18).

11. That all the manifestations of divine attributes in His earthly life were really the operations of the Holy Spirit, which He was constantly baptized into (John 3:34). They were exercises of the spiritual gifts of 1 Cor. 12.

12. That He possessed the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit to the full to demonstrate what being like God among men really is like and to encourage one and all who aspire to that exalted position of sons of God with power (John 3:34; Acts 10:38). Thus by the kenosis of Christ and that of believers in every generation

God proposes to demonstrate to the principalities and powers in the heavenlies and all rebels on Earth the true nature and manifold wisdom of God (1 Cor. 4:9; 11:11; Eph. 3:10-11).