The Monophysites taught that Christ was the God-man, that is, He was not fully God and Fully man, but a third entity which was a fusion of the two natures (The Kenotic teaching is closest to this among the early heresies.) For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 16 A. W. Pink, The Attributes of God (Baker Book House, 1975) pg 29. Fewer examples No, the Bible's not like that at all. During this period of Church History, there were many evil things done in the name of one doctrine or another, yet miraculously, truth triumphed. T Sign up now for the latest news and deals from Bible Gateway! Jesus said in John 18:37, He came, in His incarnation, to testify to the truth. For example, how could an all-knowing God become a baby, or how could God be tempted? . Jesus went from being the glory of glories in Heaven to being a human being who was put to death on the cross. Philippians 2:7-8declares, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. The clincher, however, lies in the earlier verses in chapter 1: ". For example, when Isaiah (a poetic book) is read, one would not come away believing that mountains and hills have the ability to sing nor that the trees of the fields have the ability to clap their hands ( Isaiah 55:12 ). In His own essence, He did not change (Heb 13:8). Humanity can also participate in God's saving work through theosis; becoming holy by grace. Z. In another leap of logic, these teachers move then to the Mormon-like doctrine of apotheosis (we are little Gods). (2) Christ, says Paul, was in the form (morphe, an outward expression of an inward reality) of God, and did not consider this Glory, this expression of equality with the Father something to be grasped, or held on to (see John 17:1-5, 24). Should Christians Invest in the Stock Market? [15], The equivalent to kenosis in Gnostic literature is Christ's withdrawal of his own luminosity into himself, so as to cease dazzling his own disciples. This is an opinion for which a rashly and falsely understood sentence of St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (ii, 7), supplies a basis and a shape. 1. Jesus made this profound statement, No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. Some manuscripts include this end to that statement, Who is in heaven. With or without that addition, Jesus presence is manifested in heaven and on earth. (5) The divine nature united itself with His humanity only gradually, and His full deity was consummated finally at the resurrection. According to Johnson, Jesus "performed miracles, wonders . Concerning Kenosis, Charles Hodge, the leading American evangelical scholar of the last century, wrote, "The theory in question is inconsistent with the clear doctrine both of revealed and natural religion concerning the nature of God. You heard me say to you, I am going away, and I will come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.. The vital doctrine of Immutability is completely destroyed by Kenotic teaching. Exegetes vary in their point of emphasis. What Jesus did was humble Himself and become a servant (Mark 10:45). B. Support for the doctrine rests primarily in Philippians 2:6-8, with parallels having to do with His humiliation (2 Cor 8:9) and for His exaltation (John 17:5). And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. XII; B. Warfield, Christology and Criticism, Lectures VI-VIII. There is no Biblical way that the Son could give up his divine knowledge, potency, and presence, and remain "in essence" God. Since Scripture is best defined by Scripture, lets look at the evidence that was either displayed in and by Christ or which He Himself stated regarding His divinity while on earth. (4) Verses 8-11 continue the thought--Christ is "found in appearance as a man", and continued His voluntary humiliation through to the Cross, then is exalted by the Father (as He discussed with the Father in John 17). Olson.[7]. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Among modern Protestants the following opinons have been the most prevalent: In Christian theology, kenosis (Ancient Greek: , romanized:knsis, lit. One of the great mysteries contained in the Bible is that it teaches that Jesus is fully God and also that He is fully man. For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. That all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Philosophical theologians may find a way to make this add up, but in the words of one of this century's great Bible teachers, ". The name "kenotic" comes from the Greek word keno, used by Paul in Philippians 2:7 to describe the action by which Christ "emptied" himself, taking the form of a servant, when he came incarnate. (1) Paul says that in Christ ". (5) Sovereignty: Mk 2:28, Mat 11:27, John 17:2. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. When investigating the Incarnation, let Scripture interpret itself. But that ignorance in the intellect of the manhood is fully consistent with omniscience in the person seems to be not merely a safe answer to the question as stated, but an inevitable answer if the true humanity of Christ is to be maintained at all. They could not reconcile that in their minds with His full deity. . For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison. What is the kenosis? xxiii, 2. My Father has been working until now, and I have been working," we are given a clue that He did many of His works "in His own right," though they were always in accordance with the will of the Father. as a man, he was doing these things out of His human nature, and in our place. Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D; Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D., Belsham, op. Publication date: Mar 4, 2023. Fewer examples H (2) The argument might be (and has been) made that those verses apply to Christ in His exaltation, and not in His humiliation. "2 This is how Berkhof introduces the subject. He lived in appearance as a man (Isaiah 53:3, Phil. Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. It is a wicked invention, equally to be condemned with the Docetism opposed to it. B . The Kenosis attempts to solve some paradoxes between the nature of God and of man as united in Jesus. The basic question, therefore, is how and to what extent Jesus full humanity forced Him to empty Himself of the divine, and how and to what extent His divine powers remained. And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. On one occasion, He even lifted the veil of His flesh, took off His servant nature, so His three closest disciples could see Him as He really was (Mat 17:2). Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Philippians encourages Christians to be similarly willing to submit to divine will, even if it comes at great personal cost. Understanding the biblical doctrine of the two natures of Christ. PL. There are three Biblical concepts which are at the heart of this method: (A) Understanding the biblical doctrine of the two natures of Christ. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. However, he saw it in the light of historic Christology, as discussed in section IV, that while all of that was true, Christ was not confined to that form of a servant, and was not limited by it, except that He willingly gave up the exercise of His Glory, and sometimes chose not to use His other powers, though He retained them fully. Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning. a. Their response underscores Jesus divinity, for being filled with great fear, they said to one another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror and said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. although the child Jesus knew the alphabet naturally, He was obliged to learn it by experience) covered most of the others. The context of Phil. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. But of the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. The first problem was in how to deal with those texts of scripture (as used by the cults) which seem to indicate that Christ was less than fully God, yet do justice to the obvious Biblical teaching that He was "Very God of Very God." Under this assumption God's knowledge is essentially of the same kind as man's, differing from man's only in its purity and extent. lvi, 201). Philippians says that "though [Jesus] was in the form of God, [he] did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited," suggesting that Jesus was not "abusing" his divine status to avoid the implications of a mortal life. But emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. The Word always comes first. I will try to illustrate these views by assigning different ways of writing the term , "God-Man" to each view. (1) The theological question involved was one about as far as possible from the minds of the Christians of the apostolic age and apparently one that never occurred to Paul. The term was used first in the Patristic lit. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. One of the beauties and glorious mysteries of the cross is that He who hung there was at that moment sustaining the universe--the very breath of the Roman soldiers was in His grip. And, finally, in Mark 13:32 parallel Matthew 24:36, Christ states categorically that He is ignorant of the exact time of the Parousia. Similarly, while God is omnipresent (that is, everywhere present), Jesus was limited with respect to space and distance. This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. The ancient and modern reader alike would understand that figurative language was being used and not intended to be taken literally. As we have been talking about outward expressions, vainglory, outward form, etc., and as that is the subject from here through verse 15, the plain sense of scripture here is that Christ's self-emptying was of the outward glory and majesty of Godhood, and that He accomplished that action by taking the form of a servant. Within the New Testament are many verses that call Jesus Lord and God. Not once did he refuse nor refute the title. Liv, 763. Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 1915. We must seek to understand in what sense Christ laid aside His divine riches in becoming human. This trend so concerned Walter Martin that the last thing he wrote before going home to be with the Lord was a contribution to a book refuting these theological trends among TV evangelists.1 This paper on Kenosis is not a detailed analysis, but is instead an expanded outline with footnotes, covering these major areas: (1) "About the middle of the nineteenth century a new form of Christology made its appearance in the Kenotic theories. although the child Jesus knew the alphabet naturally, He was obliged to learn it by experience) covered most of the others. . (2) The Redeemer must be a kinsman (Lev 25:48-49; Ruth 3:12-13; Gal 4:4, Heb 2:14-15). Dennis Bratcher. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. However, as Thomas Belsham put it, there are varying views on when in life this emptying occurred. . (B) Understanding His role as our Kinsman-Redeemer and substitute, and (C) Understanding and admitting the existence of the Biblical concept of "mystery"--the fact that there are some things which must be just believed, because there is no way to understand them. 10 Prayers to Pray When You Just Dont Know What to Say. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. Not only does the mind of the Christian revolt from seeing in Christ anything less than true God, but it revolts from finding in Him two centers of personality--Christ was One. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. This has been called the "kenosis" of Christ after the Greek word which means "emptying." It is also referred to as . Solutions to the problem have moved across the spectrum of five possible interpretations: (1) In the Incarnation, Christ gave up all divine attributes and thus ceased all cosmic functions and divine consciousness (Gess, Beecher, et al.). It's unchanging, eternal! It is concerned with an emphasis on Christs humiliation or condescension. In brief, kenotic Christology is the idea that the Son of God, God the Son, the Word/Logos, voluntarily decided to "set aside" (or retract) his attributes of glory and power in becoming . . The kenotic theory of the incarnation takes its name from the Greek word, kenoo, used in Philippians 2:7 meaning to make empty (KJV translates the word made himself of no reputation). New Testament usage The New Testament does not use the noun form knsis, but the verb form ken occurs five times (Romans 4:14; 1 Corinthians 1:17, 9:15; 2 Corinthians 9:3; Philippians 2:7) and the future form kensei once. . Kenotic Christology essentially states that in order to truly live a human experience, Jesus, despite being a preexisting divine being, voluntarily humbled himself. In early Christianity, some groups propounded beliefs of a fully human Jesus who was especially honored and raised up by God (adoptionism), while other groups argued for a fully divine Jesus that was more like a spiritual apparition (docetism). And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.. 2:8), and submitted His will to the Father, and lived His life as a man anointed by the Spirit (Luke 4:16-21). J (2:1-5). . No--in His earthly ministry, He claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath, and exercised dominion over natural phenomena, disease and demonic forces, and even demonstrated His possession of the power of life and death. The term kenosis comes from the Greek (ken), meaning "to empty out". Because of this, they crafted an erroneous philosophical theological answer, and ignored the fact that the problems were already solved by scripture, and had been fully worked out by the teachers and leaders of the early church during the period from A.D. 250-451. (4) Providence: Heb 1:1-3--Note that "upholding all things" was predicated of Him in the context of His earthly ministry of declaring God's truth, and before His atonement, resurrection, and exaltation. The less controversial meaning is that Jesus emptied his own desires, becoming entirely receptive to God's divine will, "obedient to the point of death even death on a cross."