Did Jesus empty himself of his divine nature?

[tonychanyt]

Let's see the context. Philippians 2:

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Be humble like Jesus:

6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself,

Strong's Greek: 2758. κενόω (kenoó) — 5 Occurrences

BDAG:
① to make empty, to empty
ⓑ of divestiture of position or prestige: of Christ, who gave up the appearance of his divinity and took on the form of a slave

How did Jesus empty himself?

by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

By humbling himself as a servant, he took on the form and likeness of a human.

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

He died like a human.

Did Jesus empty himself of his divine nature?

To assert that would overstate what Paul said in this passage. People who like to generalize tend to overgeneralize. I rather not overgeneralize. No, Paul did not assert that Jesus emptied himself of his divine nature. He encouraged us to be humble like Jesus, who temporarily gave up his equality with God to live like humans. The "emptying" referred specifically to Christ voluntarily limiting the use of his divine prerogatives during his earthly ministry, not giving up his divine nature.

 

[KevinT]

I notice that Jesus never once (that I can think of) used His miraculous power to help Himself. So in that sense, He emptied Himself of power. In the garden of Gethesmane, He pointed out that with a word He could summon a legion of angels to come to His defense. But he didn't. In the desert of temptation, the devil encouraged him to use His power to turn stones into bread. But Jesus didn't.

I take this to mean that Jesus **had** the power to do these things, but knew that it was not the right thing to do. He "emptied Himself" of power, and submitted to the direction of the Father.

KT

UPDATE: He did calm the storm that was going to sink His boat and potentially kill Him and his disciples. But even this may have been just for the benefit of the disciples.

 

[Rose_bud]

Let's see the context. Philippians 2:


Be humble like Jesus:


Strong's Greek: 2758. κενόω (kenoó) — 5 Occurrences

BDAG:
① to make empty, to empty
ⓑ of divestiture of position or prestige: of Christ, who gave up the appearance of his divinity and took on the form of a slave

How did Jesus empty himself?


By humbling himself as a servant, he took on the form and likeness of a human.


He died like a human.

Did Jesus empty himself of his divine nature?

To assert that would overstate what Paul said in this passage. People who like to generalize tend to overgeneralize. I rather not overgeneralize. No, Paul did not assert that Jesus emptied himself of his divine nature. He encouraged us to be humble like Jesus, who temporarily gave up his equality with God to live like humans. The "emptying" referred specifically to Christ voluntarily limiting the use of his divine prerogatives during his earthly ministry, not giving up his divine nature.

Paul throughout is making reference to humility, self-sacrifice, the conviction to put others first...(Philippians 2:3-4)

Paul demonstrates this principle by sharing his own conviction. Whereby he prioritizes the needs of others ahead of himself, choosing to live to be with them than die to be with Christ as this would be more beneficial for them (Phillipians 1:24)
Paul highlights how Jesus is the ultimate example of this principle. The glory of the heaven contrasted with the lowliness of humanity (Philippians 2:5-8)
Paul then shares how Timothy puts the needs of others ahead of his own. (Phillipians 2:20-22)
Paul also shares how Epaphroditus does this, risking his life for others in this case Paul (Phillipians 2:30)