From my book "
A Revelation of Who Jesus Is." (2012)
The Incarnation and the Emptying
Philippians 2:6-7
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Vincents Word Studies:
“himself of no reputation “Lit.,
emptied Himself.
JBF
made himself of no reputation, and ... and — rather as the
Greek, “
emptied Himself, taking upon him the form of a servant,
being made in the likeness of men.” The two latter clauses (there being no conjunctions, “and ... and,” in the
Greek) expresses
in what Christ’s “emptying of Himself” consists, namely, in “taking the form of a servant.”
Gill
"nevertheless emptied himself"
Please review my expanded paraphrase:
Philippians 2: (C. Alan Expanded)
6. He was in the form of God (and therefore beyond all possibility of humility, suffering, and death), but he did not deem retaining the divine rights, power, and impassibility of such great importance that they should never (under any circumstances or for any purpose) be relinquished.
7. To the contrary, he divested himself (of those divine rights, power, and impassibility). He took to himself the functionality of a slave by submitting himself to mere human form with all its vulnerability, weaknesses, and dangerous possibilities!
8. Being reduced to the functionally a mere man, He became completely open to everything that only a mere man could be subject to and endure. He allowed himself to be humbled (as only a mere man could) to the end that he could come into full obedience to what God required, even when that requirement was his suffering and death - the death of the cross.
The Word/Son deemed retaining God's innate power, and glory was not as important as becoming human and subject to all those things a divine being could never be subjected to. He took on the “semblance” of a human and humbled Himself. In the context of the verse, this ultimately means allowing Himself to be subject to suffering, humiliation, and death. We Hold that He emptied Himself of only those things necessary to accomplish the desired goal; the redemption of humankind. In this case, those things were the glory associated with His divine being. In this, He humbled Himself and took on the opposite state, that of being a servant who could be subject to temptation, suffering, and death. If He was exalted after His work, it could only mean He was abased before it. His glory was restored to Him only because He willingly relinquished it.
John 10:17-18 KJV
17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Beyond this, there is much speculation about what other attributes of His ability/nature He may have relinquished. Based on this passage in Philippians’ alone, there is no justification for saying He emptied Himself of anything beyond His “glory” and in so doing “humbled Himself” only to the extent that He made Himself vulnerable to temptation, suffering, and death. He did not divest Himself of divinity or any of the attributes of the divine.
“Grammatically, Paul explains the ‘emptying’ of Jesus in the next phrase: ‘Taking the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of men’”
Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary
That the Word/Son emptied Himself of His pre-incarnate glory is evident from John:
John 17:5 LITV
5. And now Father, glorify Me with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the existence of the world.
Here the Son is calling upon the Father to restore to Him what he emptied
Himself at the incarnation.
The NIV captures this sense by stating that He “made
himself nothing” The Greek word
kenόō literally means “to empty; to make empty; or to make vain or void,” “to
abase,
neutralize.” This word is rendered “made void” in Romans 4:14, where Paul stated that “faith is made void.”
Romans 4:14 KJV
14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
Their faith was neutralized. The word also includes that idea to abase:
Strong’s
G2758
κενόω
kenoō
ken-o'-o
From
G2756; to
make empty, that is, (figuratively) to
abase,
neutralize,
falsify: - make (of none effect, of no reputation, void), be in vain.
Returning to Philippians, we must remember to read this passage in the context that it was offered.
Philippians 2:5 ISV
5. Have the same attitude among yourselves that was also in the Messiah Jesus:
“Let this mind be in you.” We should count others as more important than ourselves. Despite whatever role or position in life, we might occupy, we should not count ourselves as so important that we fail to count others first.
Finally, we have to ask ourselves if this act by the Word/Son of making Himself vulnerable is not the single most important revelation of the Father that Jesus opened to us. Here is the center of the heart of the Father as revealed by Jesus. There is no evidence that The Son emptied Himself of any of the divine attributes such as Omnipresence, Omnipotence, or Omniscience. It is evident from the gospel accounts that He did not avail Himself of these attributes. In the context of the Philippian's account, He emptied Himself. That is, He poured Himself out into the position of a servant as opposed to being the ruling divine being.
Gordon Fee comments on this truth:
“Christ did not empty Himself of anything, the text simply says that He emptied himself, He poured Himself out.”
We compare this to the Isaiah prophecy:
Isaiah 53:12 KJV
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong
; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
In each of these references, Jesus is
Himself poured out, thereby allowing Himself to be subject to death. In our book “
The ‘God is in Control of Everything’ Myth,” we expand at length the significance and fuller meaning of the kenosis of Christ. It is not the intent of this study to present exhaustive teaching of the kenosis of Christ, only to establish that before the incarnate Word/Son could suffer and die, it was needful for Him to loose Himself of the Glory He had with the Father from the beginning.
N.T. Wright stated:
“The real humiliation of the incarnation and the cross is that the one who was himself God, and who never during the whole process stopped being God, could embrace such a vocation” (1986, p. 346).
Jesus left his divine rights, power, and impassibility behind and became a vulnerable man who could (possibly) humble himself and ultimately be exposed to
and endure the humiliation, suffering, and death God required. He did not cease to be divine; He merely emptied Himself of all the rights and privileges that were due to Him as a divine. “Love does not seek its own.” Grace and love drove Him to the divesting of His divine rights, power, and impassibility because that is the only way His beloved Father’s dream of a Family could be achieved.
