Mary was told that her son would be conceived “from
the Holy Spirit.”
“Before they came together,
she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.” (Matt.1:18)
An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “what
is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” (Matt. 1:20)
Mary was told by Gabriel, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of
the Most High will overshadow
you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son
of God.” (Luke
1:35)
The Holy Spirit was active in the creation of a “new
humanity” in the conception of Jesus. He was unrelated to Adam’s sin nature but
a descendent of Adam’s humanity. Jesus had no father from Adam’s line, but did
have a mother from Adam. This gave him humanity but no human sin nature. He was
born holy as a creation direct from God as a second Adam.
Isaiah prophesied the coming of the Messiah as the
God/Man.
“For to us a child is born (this refers to the humanity of the Messiah, he was conceived
and born and so had a beginning as all humans do),
to us a son is given (this refers to the deity of the
Messiah, he was given for he is eternal).
Isaiah 9:6
The Council at
“Therefore, following the
holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to
acknowledge one and the same
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
at once complete in Godhead
and complete in manhood,
truly God and truly man,
consisting also of a reasonable soul and body;
of one substance with the
Father as regards His Godhead,
and at the same time of one
substance with us as regards His manhood;
like us in all respects apart
from sin; as regards His Godhead,
begotten of the Father before the ages,
but yet as regards His manhood
begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of
Mary the virgin, the God
bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-Begotten,
recognized in two natures,
without confusion, without change,
without division, without
union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved
and coming together to form
one Person and subsistence, not as
parted or separated into two Persons,
but one and the same Son and
only begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ and the creed of the fathers
has been handed down to us.”
Charles Ryrie in “Basic Theology” summarizes this
portion of the Creed of Chalcedon as:
“More concisely one may describe the person of Christ incarnate as being full
Deity and perfect humanity
united with out mixture, change, division,
or
separation in one person
forever.
The key components of the
description include ‘full Deity’ (no diminution
of
any attribute of Deity), ‘perfect
humanity’ (‘perfect’ rather than ‘full’ in order to emphasize His
sinlessness),
‘one Person’ (not two), and ‘forever’ (for He continues to have a body, though
resurrected, Acts 1:11; Rev. 5:6)”
This union of the nature of God with the nature of
man in one person is called the hypostatic union (or, the one person union).
Jesus is the unique being in the universe. So you have Deity and perfect
humanity living unmixed in one person.
The nature of God and the nature of man belong to
Jesus. The attributes of these two natures can not be mixed or else the nature
of God would take on human attributes or the nature of man would take on divine
attributes. Meaning if the human nature had divine attributes the human nature
would no longer be human.
So these two natures exist unmixed in one person.
Jesus could and can speak, act, or think from the perfect human nature or from
the nature of deity. Or, both natures could be involved, yet unmixed, in his
speech, actions or thinking.
Some false doctrine concerning the
incarnation of Christ:
Docetism 150
AD Christ only
appeared to be a man
Ebionism
100’s AD Christ was the natural son
of Joseph and Mary but was
united
with the eternal Christ at his baptism
Arianism
325 AD Believed
that Jesus, the second member of the trinity
was
produced
by the eternal God in eternity past.
Apollinarianism 380 AD
Taught that Jesus had a human body and a human soul but
had the divine Logos instead of a human
spirit.
Nestorianism 400’s
AD The two
natures were separate forming two people in one
body.
Eutychianism
400’s
In response to Nestorianism
said there was only one nature. The divine nature was part divine
but
not full nor was
the human nature full. Result: one mixed nature
“Kenosis” is the verb in Phil.2:7:
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
Did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
But made himself nothing,
(Literal: “but himself emptied”)
taking the very nature of a
servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled himself and became obedient to death. . .”
(Philippians 2:5-8)
The Linguistic key says this about the word “ekenwsen” (the aorist active indicative of “kenow”, or “kenosis”):
“to empty, to make empty, to make of no effect. The
word does not mean He
emptied
Himself of His deity, but rather He emptied Himself of the display of
His
deity for
personal gain. The word is a graphic expression of the completeness
of
His
self-renunciation and His refusal to use what He had to His own advantage.”
The concept is he left his position but not his
nature.
He became a servant, but he maintained his full
attributes of deity.
As God, he served man.
He left glory to go to the cross.
He did not leave the nature of deity.
Philippians 2:6 makes it clear he maintained full
deity, “being in very nature God.”
Christ continued as God on the earth.
Compare “very nature God” to “taking
the very nature of a servant.”
If he was not God on earth, then he was not a servant
on earth either.
The “kenosis”, or self-emptying, was the taking or
accepting “the very nature of a servant.”
Even in the form of a servant he was God.
The glory was veiled due to his nature as a servant,
but it was with him.
His deity was with him, available to him and used by
him while on the earth in the form
of a
servant.
“Made in human likeness” means two things:
1) He was really men.
2) He was different from men.
“The self-emptying permitted the addition of humanity
and di not
involve in any way the subtraction of Deity or canceling the use of the
attributes of Deity. There was a change of form but not of content of the
Divine Being. He did not give up Deity or the use of those attributes; He added
humanity. And this in order to be able to die.”[i]
Points:
1) Christ’s Deity was veiled, but only in the sense that
people saw his flesh and blood with their natural eye. His Deity was always
apparent because it was always there and available.
a. Matt 17:1-8, The
transfiguration.
b. John 1:14, “The word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father full of grace and
truth.”
c. John 17:5, “Father, glorify me in your presence with
the glory I had with you before the world began.”
d. Luke 4:34, “Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of
Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One
of God.”
e. Luke 4:41, “Demons came out of many people, shouting,
‘You are the Son of God!’ But he rebuked them and would not allow them
to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.”
2) Occasionally Jesus voluntarily choose
not to use his divine attributes, but often choose to use his divine
attributes.
a. John 1:48, “ ‘I
saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called
you.’ Then Nathanael declared, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son
of God; you are the King of Israel.’ Jesus said, ‘You believe
because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things
than that. . . you shall see heaven open, and the
angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.’” (the angels even
appear when Jesus was born.)
b. John 2:24, “But Jesus would not entrust himself to
them, for he knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about
man, for he knew what was in a man.”
c. John 16:30, “Now we can see that you know all
things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions.
This makes us believe that you came from God.”
d. John 13:3, “Jesus knew that the Father had put
all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was
returning to God.”
3) Jesus did miracles in the power of the Spirit, but
sometimes in His own power.
a. John 11:25, 40, 41, 43, “I am the resurrection
and the life. . . Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would
see the glory of God? . . Father, I thank you that you
have heard me. . .Lazarus, come out!”
b. John 5:25, “I tell you the truth, a time is coming
and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God
and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in
himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has
given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”
c. John 18:6, “When Jesus said, ‘I am he,’ they drew
back and fell to the ground.”
Kenosis in Philippians 2 is not a discussion
concerning how much of Christ’s divine attributes were laid aside or tell us
that these divine attributes were restricted.
Philippians 2 is telling us that the second member of
the trinity humbled himself and added to himself the “very nature of a
servant”, which means he became a man.
By becoming a man he did not become less God or have
to conceal his deity.
By becoming a man he could think, speak and act as a
man, but
By being God he could continue to think, speak and
act as God.
Philippians 2 tells us Jesus became a man in order to
die as a man for the sins of man.
[i] Charles Ryrie, “Basic Theology”, Moody Press,