How do you explain the “Kenosis” of Jesus Christ?

How do you explain the “Kenosis” of Jesus Christ?

Philippians 2:5–8—“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

The word “kenosis” comes from the Greek word “kenoo,” translated “to empty” in most of the translations. Naturally, this leads to the question: “Of what did Christ empty himself?” Usually the verb appears with an object, telling us what has been, as it were, “poured out.” Several options have been offered:

• He emptied himself of his deity. This is clearly impossible because, as we have seen, for his death on the cross to be of any value to us, he had to remain God.

• He emptied himself of his attributes. This also is impossible, because God is what is attributes are. To lose them would be for him to cease to be God. Furthermore, we find him employing some of the divine attributes during his lifetime on earth.

• He emptied himself of the independent use of his attributes. That is, he only used them “by permission” from the Father. This also seems unlikely, because one of the chief attributes of God is his independence—his freedom to do whatever he pleases. It would seem impossible for him to give up this attribute while retaining the others.

Objection: What about passages which teach that Jesus was bound to do the will of his Father (John 7:16; 8:28–29; 12:49; 14:10; Matt 26:39; etc.)?

Answer: This was true before the incarnation as well. While God is ever independent, none of the members of the Trinity ever acts in his own self-interest to the exclusion of the others’.

• Another alternative has surfaced that suggests the term “kenosis” simply means the humbling of Christ to suffer ridicule and death at the hands of his creatures. Christ was not emptied and then “refilled”; rather, he humbled himself and was then exalted (Jn 17:5).

  Question: Was part of the kenosis his becoming a man? Is becoming human a       humiliating thing?

      Answer: Since the kenosis was reversed at Christ’s ascension (Phil 2:9), but    Christ remains eternally human (see below), it seems that the incarnation itself is      not a humiliating thing, or else Christ lives in perpetual humiliation.