CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST

February 8, 2009

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HE MADE HIMSELF NOTHING

“Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7).

The subject of the Trinity or Deity remains a very difficult subject for finite human minds to grasp. One aspect of this is God coming into this world; Immanuel meaning God with us. John states that the Word was God and became flesh and took up His dwelling among us (John 1:1, 14). Paul appears to take an early Christian hymn and used it to make his point to the Philippians about the humility of Jesus. One phrase in this text is “he made himself nothing.” The NRSV states that he “emptied himself.” The term means to empty or pour out and metaphorically to humble oneself. “Kenosis or kenotic is Paul’s language for the intentional self-humiliation of the Son through incarnation” (1).

Whole books have been written discussing the meaning of this idea of emptying himself. I sometimes think that theologians can spend a lot of time and effort and miss the simple explanations. The church at Philippi was dealing with the conflict between Caesar as lord and Jesus as Lord. Paul wrote from Caesar’s prison which heightened the discussion. What did Jesus empty himself of? That has been the question throughout church history and the debates around the Deity of Jesus. “Since 451 A.D. orthodox Chalcedonian Christology has maintained that the Son became human while remaining divine but that the two natures are distinct and unmixed yet united in one person” (2).

One the main ideas of the Trinity is its community between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In my mind, He did not need to hold on to that intimacy to come to this earth. He was willing to come in the flesh as a human, a servant, to live and die among humankind, to serve and to show what the future would be in Him. The Hebrew write tells us that He was tempted in every way that we are, yet He did not sin (see Hebrews 4:14-16). He was comfortable living as a human. “He did not even perform miracles by an independent exercise of divine power. Rather, it was by the Spirit that he cast out demons, for example. Anointed with the Spirit, he was empowered for the ministry of liberation - freeing the captives, healing the sick, preaching good news to the poor” (3).

Jesus understands humanity because He knew what it was like to be tempted, to be hungry and thirsty, to suffer and to be tired, and to pray. He understands shame and death and separation from God. When Paul wrote this, it was a challenge to the church at Philippi to live like Jesus and to know Him and share in His sufferings (Philippians 3:10-11).

“He became one of us to be present within his creation and unite himself to his creation” (4). God cares, becomes involved, is with us, and has not left us alone. Why would anyone not want God near when Paul declared that He is (Philippians 4:5). “He became one of us in order to reveal God to us.” “He became one of us in order to experience and sympathize with our suffering.” He saw and experienced first hand the pain and anguish of a sin filled world. God is not ignorant nor uncaring. He is self-giving which conflicts with the selfishness of humanity. “He became one of us in order to redeem us through the sacrifice of his own life.” The cross becomes the central event of history. We have been redeemed through the blood of the Lamb! God did this out of His great love for all.

One purpose of many for Jesus to come as a human was to share the community of Deity with us. It is this future aspect that we look forward to at the new heavens and new earth. God has shared Himself with us in Christ. In Christ we get a glimpse of the communion we will share in the future. We also have another connection, the Holy Spirit that lives in us as a guarantee of our inheritance (5).

One last point that John Mark Hicks makes. “He became human to remain human for the sake of restoring humanity and living eternally as a brother with other humans” (6). That certainly is a deeper meaning to the idea of what emptying Himself might mean. While the Trinity remains a difficult concept, exploring it can open up a better understanding of why God came into this sin filled world.

George B. Mearns

(1) John Mark Hicks, Theological Reflections on “The Shack” V: Kenotic Christology, http//johnmarkhicks.wordpress.com

(2) ibid.

(3) ibid. See Luke 4:18-19.

(4) All quotes in this paragraph from John Mark Hicks, Christmas -- The Incarnation of God, http://johnmarkhicks.wordpress.com 2008.

(5) See Ephesians 1:14, Romans 8 and other texts.

(6) ibid.