TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I. THE DIVINE NAMES OF THE MESSIAH
A. God
B. Son of God
C. Lord
D. Alpha and the Omega
E. The First and the Last
F. The Image
G. The Very Image
II. THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES OF THE MESSIAH
A. Eternality
B. Immutability
C. Self Existence
D. Life
E. The Fullness of the Godhead
F. Holiness
G. Sovereignty
H. Omnipotence
I. Omniscience
J. Omnipresence
III. THE DIVINE WORKS OF THE MESSIAH
A. In Creation
B. In Preservation
C. In the Forgiveness of Sin
D. In the Sending of the Holy Spirit
E. In Resurrection
F. In Final Judgment
IV. WORSHIP ASCRIBED TO THE MESSIAH
V. THE GIVING OF IMMORTALITY
VI. THE DIVINE ASSOCIATION WITH THE TRINITY
A. His Association with the Father
B. His Association with the Holy Spirit
VII. THE DIVINE CLAIMS OF THE MESSIAH
A. To Have the Closest Possible Relationship with
God
1. To Know the Messiah is to Know God
2. To See the Messiah is to See God
3. To Receive the Messiah is to Receive God
4. To Honor the Messiah is to Honor God
5. To Have a Unique Oneness with God
B. To be the Object of Saving Faith
C. To Have Absolute Dominion over His Followers
D. To Have Sovereignty Over the Laws and
Institutions of God
VIII. THE MEANING OF KENOSIS
*
All
things were made through him; and without him
was not anything made that hath been made.
~
John 1:3
~
|
INTRODUCTION
In
this manuscript, the deity of the Messiah and the evidences
for it is divided into seven specific areas and the last
section deals with the meaning of kenosis.
I. THE DIVINE NAMES OF THE MESSIAH
The first evidence is the divine names of
the Messiah. Yeshua (Jesus) was given certain names that
either implied deity or actually meant deity. There are
seven such divine names used of Jesus in the pages of the
New Testament.
A. God
The first of these divine names is God. Yeshua is called
God in John 1:1: In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.
In verse
14, John makes it very clear that the One he is speaking about in terms of the Word is Jesus. Verse 1 states:
"the Word was with God and,
therefore, distinct from God." Then John said,
"the Word was God." This means that He is the same
God. How this is possible comes only with the understanding
of the Trinity. He was with
God
in that Yeshua is not the Father, nor is He the Holy
Spirit. But He was God in that He is the Son, the Second
Person of the Trinity.
A second example of this divine name is found in John 20:28:
Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and
my God.
Thomas, who was the doubting disciple, saw the resurrected
Jesus and
addressed Him as My Lord and my God. Yeshua did not try to
correct
him by saying, "No, Thomas, I am your Lord, but I am not
your
God."
A third example is found in Hebrews 1:8:
but of the Son he
said, Your
throne, O God, is for ever and ever; And the sceptre of
uprightness is the sceptre of your kingdom.
In this verse, Jesus is called God. The writer of the Book
of Hebrews
states that the verse he quoted from the Old Testament,
Psalm 45:6,
refers specifically to the Son. The Hebrew text uses the
name Elohim,
meaning "God," and the New Testament clearly applies it to
Yeshua.
B. Son of God
A second divine name is Son of God. Whereas in English
usage, the
term by itself does not imply deity, it did to the ancient
Jewish mind.
The name Son of God was very much a Messianic title, and as
a
Messianic title, it emphasized His deity.
Jesus is called the Son of God in many places. One example
is in the
context of Peter's confession in Matthew 16:16. In that
chapter,
Yeshua asked His disciples: Whom do men say that I am? Peter
responded
for the disciples and said: You are the Christ, the Son of
God. The Greek is
much more emphatic, it reads, "You are the Son of the God,
the living
one." This is a divine name used of Jesus.
C. Lord
A third name for Yeshua that emphasizes His deity is
Lord. In Greek,
the term "lord" is used of both men and God. Jesus is
referred to as
Lord in the New Testament in the sense of God. The reason
this is
true is because, in those passages where the term "Lord" is
used of
Yeshua, it is often a translation of Old Testament passages
where
God's personal name, Jehovah, is used.
Two examples where Jesus is called Lord in the sense of
deity, in the
sense of the Jehovah of the Old Testament, are Matthew
22:43-45
and Acts 9:17.
D. Alpha and the Omega
The fourth name that emphasizes the Messiah's deity is
Alpha and the
Omega, which are the first and last letters of the Greek
alphabet. In
Revelation 1:8, Yeshua is called the Alpha and the Omega,
meaning that
He is the beginning and the end of all things. This is not
unlike the
statement made in John 1:1: In the beginning was the
Word,...and the Word
was God. In other words, for as long as God has existed, the
Word, the
Messiah, has existed. If the Messiah has existed forever in
eternity
past, that means He must be God. That is the point of this
fourth
name, Alpha and the Omega; He is the beginning and He is the
end.
As long as God was in existence; the Son was in existence.
God existed
in eternity past; the Son existed in eternity past. For
someone to have
eternally existed means that He is God.
E. The First and the Last
This fifth name that emphasizes Jesus' deity is found in
Revelation
1:17: the first and the last. This is similar to Alpha and
the Omega.
Whereas Alpha and the Omega emphasized the beginning and the
end, in this name He is the first and the last. He always
was in existence
and always will be in existence. This, too, clearly implies
deity.
F. The Image
The sixth name emphasizing the deity of the Messiah is found
in
Colossians 1:15: who is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all
creation.
The word image means "prototype," "the
image in its revealed reality."
It is the visible manifestation of the invisible,
specifically, the invisible
God. He is the exact image of the invisible God. He is
the
image in its
revealed reality. He is the visible manifestation of the
invisible God. It
is an image that specifically emphasizes His divinity.
G. The Very Image
The seventh and final divine name of the Messiah is found in
Hebrews 1:3: who being the effulgence of his glory, and the
very image of his
substance, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had made purification of sins, sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on high.
This name is very similar to the sixth name, but there is a
crucial
difference. Whereas in Colossians 1:15, He was called the
image of the invisible God, in this verse, a different Greek
word is used, which means
"an exact image." This is an image in the sense of an
impression
made upon clay. It is as if someone took an object and
pressed it into
clay and then took it off. The clay has an exact imprint of
what has
been pressed into it. When Yeshua is called
the very image,
it means He is the exact impression of the divine nature.
Since the Father is fully
God, the Son is also fully God. Everything that is true of
the divinity
of the Father is also true of the divinity of the Son.
II. THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES OF THE
MESSIAH
The second evidence of the deity of the
Messiah is that He has all the
attributes of God. There are ten attributes, which only God
has. Yeshua
also has these same attributes, which means that He is also
God.
A. Eternality
The first attribute is that of eternality. Eternality does
not merely mean that He will exist eternally in the
future something that is also
true of angels and saints eternality also means that He
eternally
existed in the past.
Concerning the Messiah, Micah 5:2b
states: whose goings forth are from
old, from everlasting.
In this verse, Micah uses the strongest possible Hebrew term
for
eternity past to emphasize the eternality of the Messiah.
John 1:1 states:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.
The point of John 1:1 is that, for as long as God has been
in existence,
the Messiah has been in existence. Because God has existed
forever,
even so, the Son has existed forever.
Other passages that teach the eternality of the Son include:
John 8:58;
Colossians 1:17; and Hebrews 1:11.
B. Immutability
The second attribute that emphasizes the deity of Yeshua is
immutability; He never gets old. The fact that He is
immutable means
that He is changeless. He stays the same in His divine
nature without
any decrease in His divine power. The immutability of the
Messiah is
taught in two passages of the Book of Hebrews.
The first passage is Hebrews 1:10-12:
And, You, Lord, in the
beginning did
lay the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the
works of your hands:
They shall perish; but you continue: And they all shall wax
old as does a garment;
And as a mantle shall you roll them up, As a garment, and
they shall be changed:
But you are the same, And your years shall not fail.
The second passage is Hebrews 13:8:
Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday and to day, yea and for ever.
Contextually, this refers to His divine nature. Jesus has
the attribute of
immutability.
C. Self Existence
A third attribute that emphasizes His deity is self
existence; His
existence does not depend upon any other subject. Our
existence is
dependent upon the work of preservation which God does. But
the Son is self existent according to John 1:1-3:
In the
beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same
was in the beginning with God. All things were made through
him; and without him was not anything made that has been
made.
These verses emphasize His self existence in that He was not
created;
He always existed. Through Him everything that was created
is now
in existence.
A second passage that emphasizes His self existence is John
5:26: For as the Father has life in himself, even so gave he
to the Son also to have life in himself.
The fact that the Son has life in himself shows that the Son
is self
existent.
D. Life
A fourth attribute that emphasizes His deity is the
attribute of life.
John 1:4 states: In him was life; and the life was the light
of men.
This was not a life that was created. It was not a life that
was
generated through natural means; He has life within Himself.
This
emphasizes deity. The same point is taught in John 14:6 and
Acts 3:15.
E. The Fullness of the Godhead
The fifth divine attribute of the Messiah
is found in Colossians 2:9: for
in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
This attribute emphasizes that everything that is obligatory
to deity,
everything that proves the deity of the Father and the deity
of the
Spirit, is also true of the Son; therefore, He, too, is
deity. Everything
that is true of the divine nature of the Father and the
Spirit is
therefore also true of the divine nature of the Son.
F. Holiness
The sixth attribute that emphasizes the deity of the Messiah
is the
attribute of holiness. This is found in Hebrews 7:26:
For
such a high
priest became us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from
sinners, and made higher than the heavens.
This verse clearly teaches that Yeshua has holiness within
Himself.
The holiness that the saints have is an applied holiness; it
is a holiness
that comes from Jesus the Messiah. It is a holiness that is
reckoned
when we are "reckoned righteous." Yeshua does not have a
righteousness that was applied to Him or that was reckoned
to Him;
His holiness is a holiness that is true within Himself.
Therefore, He has
this attribute of holiness.
G. Sovereignty
The seventh attribute of the Messiah is sovereignty; He is
in total
control. For example, in Matthew 5:27-28, He has the
authority to
execute judgment. The fact that Yeshua has the authority to
do the
work of divine judgment proves that He is sovereign.
This is also taught by Matthew 28:18:
And Jesus came to them
and spoke
unto them, saying, All authority has been given unto me in
heaven and on earth.
Jesus stated that His authority is not only on earth, but in
Heaven also.
This is also taught by John 17:2:
even as you gave him
authority over all flesh,
that to all whom you have given him, he should give eternal
life.
A created being, such as an angel or a man, could never give
eternal
life to someone else.
The sovereignty of the Son is also taught in Acts 2:36; I
Corinthians 12:3;
Philippians 2:9-10; Colossians 1:18; I Peter 3:22; and
Revelation 19:16.
H. Omnipotence
The eighth attribute of the Messiah is omnipotence; Yeshua
is all
powerful. To be all powerful means that He must be God. The
fact
that He is omnipotent is taught in John 10:18: No one takes
it away 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
received I from my Father.
The fact that He has the power over His own life, both to
take it and
to raise it, shows omnipotence of a unique degree. All men
have
authority to take their own life, but not to raise
themselves back to life.
The omnipotence of the Son is also taught in Luke 8:25; I
Corinthians 15:25-28; Philippians 3:21; Colossians 1:16-17;
II
Timothy 1:12; Hebrews 1:3; 7:25; Jude 24; and Revelation
1:8.
I. Omniscience
The ninth attribute of the Messiah is omniscience; He is all
knowing.
He knows all there is to know; He knows everything in
reality and
possibility.
The fact that Jesus is omniscient is taught by: Matthew
11:27; John
1:48; 2:25; 10:15; 13:1, 11; 16:30; 18:4; 19:28; I
Corinthians 4:5;
Colossians 2:3; and Revelation 2:23.
J. Omnipresence
The tenth attribute of the Messiah is His omnipresence; He
is
everywhere at the same time. To be everywhere at the same
time
could only be true of God.
The fact that Yeshua is omnipresent is taught in: Matthew
18:20;
28:20; John 3:13; 14:18, 20, and 23.
III. THE DIVINE WORKS OF THE MESSIAH
The third evidence of Jesus' deity is
that He does the work of God. In
other words, Yeshua is doing works that only God can do. If
Jesus is
doing the works that only God can do, this again is evidence
of His
deity. There are six works of God to be considered.
A. In Creation
The first divine work is Creation. Creation is a work that
only God
can do. Yet it is stated that Yeshua did the work of
Creation in John
1:3 and 10:
Verse 3 states: All things were made through
him; and without him was not
anything made that has been made.
Verse 10 states: He was in the world, and the world was made
through him, and
the world knew him not.
Paul reaffirmed what John had taught in I Corinthians 8:6:
yet to us
there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we
unto him; and one
Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we
through him.
Paul repeats this truth in Colossians 1:16:
for in him were
all things created,
in the heavens and upon the earth, things invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or
principalities or powers; all things have been created
through him, and unto him.
The same truth is taught by the writer of the Book of
Hebrews in 1:3
and 10. From these passages, it is clear that the Son does
the work of
Creation. To do the work of Creation means that He is God.
B. In Preservation
The second work the Son does that is a work of God is
preservation.
This is taught in two New Testament passages.
The first passage is Colossians 1:17:
and he is before all
things, and in him all things consist.
This verse teaches that the Messiah is the One who is
holding the
universe together and preserving it. He is the "atomic glue"
that
scientists talk about that mysteriously holds the atoms
together to keep
them from exploding in all directions.
And the second passage is Hebrews 1:3:
who being the
effulgence of his
glory, and the very image of his substance, and upholding
all things by the word of
his power, when he had made purification of sins, sat down
on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Not only is the Creation of the universe a work of God, but
the
preservation of Creation is a work of God. Jesus does the
work of
preservation, which means that He must be God.
C. In the Forgiveness of Sin
A third work the Messiah does that is a work only God can do
is that
He forgives sins. Having authority to forgive sins
emphasizes His deity.
He is seen forgiving sins in Matthew 9:2, 6; Luke 5:24; and
7:47-48.
D. In the Sending of the Holy Spirit
The fourth work the Messiah does that is a work of God is
that He sends the Holy Spirit according to John 15:26:
But
when the Comforter is
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the
Spirit of truth, which
proceeds from the Father, he shall bear witness of me.
For someone to be able to send the Holy Spirit, He must
either be an
equal or greater. The Holy Spirit is God, and for Jesus to
be able to
send the Holy Spirit means that Yeshua must also be God.
E. In Resurrection
The fifth work that is the work of God is that the Messiah
will be
responsible for raising people from the dead. He will be
responsible for
raising both the righteous and the unrighteous from the dead
according to John 6:40: For this is the will of my Father,
that every one that
beholds the Son, and believes on him, should have eternal
life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
Since the resurrection of the dead is a work of God, it
means that
Yeshua Himself must be God.
F. In Final Judgment
The sixth work that is the work of God is that the Messiah
will execute
the final judgment. Throughout the Old Testament, it is
clearly taught
that some day God will render final judgment. The work that
was
ascribed to God the Father in the Old Testament is ascribed
to the
Son in the New Testament. Obviously, if the Old Testament
says that
God is responsible for final judgment, and the New Testament
says
that Jesus is responsible for final judgment, then Yeshua
must be God.
Some passages that teach that Jesus will be responsible for
final
judgment are: Matthew 25:31-46, which deals with the
judgment of
the Gentiles, and it is the Son who is doing the judging; in
John 5:22-27, the Son has been given the right to judge the righteous
and the
unrighteous; in Acts 17:31, Paul announced that some day God
would
judge all men through the Son. This is also taught by Acts
10:42; II
Corinthians 5:10; and II Timothy 4:1.
IV. WORSHIP ASCRIBED TO THE MESSIAH
The fourth evidence concerning Yeshua's
deity is that worship is
ascribed to Him. Jesus is worshipped in a way only God can
be
worshipped. Furthermore, when He was worshipped, He received
it
and welcomed it, showing that He claimed to be God and
accepted
worship as God.
Some examples of this in action are Matthew 14:33; John
9:38; and
20:28. In John 20:28, Thomas, the doubting disciple, is
finally
convinced concerning the Resurrection. He not only believed
that
Yeshua was a man resurrected from the dead, he believed
Jesus was
"his Lord and his God." In that context, Yeshua did not
correct
Thomas by saying that he should not call Him God or worship
Him.
On the contrary, Jesus accepted Thomas' worship.
Yeshua is worshipped as God in Philippians 2:10 and Hebrews
1:6,
which reads: And when he again brings in the firstborn into
the world he says, And let all the angels of God worship
him.
Not only is Jesus worshipped by other men such as Thomas, He
is also worshipped by the angels. To be worshipped by the
angels clearly implies deity.
V. THE GIVING OF IMMORTALITY
The fifth evidence of the deity of the
Messiah is that He gives
immortality or eternal life. The fact that the Son is able
to give eternal
life clearly shows His deity; He has the divine capacity to
give
immortality. This is taught by four passages.
The first passage is John 5:28-29: Marvel not at this: for the hour comes, in which all that
are in the tombs shall hear
his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of
life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
judgment.
The second passage is John 6:39-40:
And this is the will of
him that sent me, that of all that which he has given me I
should lose nothing, but should raise
it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father,
that every one that beholds
the Son, and believes on him, should have eternal life; and
I will raise him up at the last day.
The third passage is John 17:2: even as you gave him
authority over all flesh,
that to all whom you have given him, he should give eternal
life.
And the fourth passage is Philippians 3:21:
who shall fashion
anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed
to the body of his glory, according to
the working whereby he is able even to subject all things
unto himself.
VI. THE DIVINE ASSOCIATION WITH THE
TRINITY
The sixth evidence for the deity of the
Messiah is that He is closely
associated with the Trinity in two ways.
A. His Association with the Father
The first way is that He is associated with God the Father
in the closest
possible way. This is taught by two passages.
The first passage is John 10:30: I and the Father are one.
This verse teaches that the Father and the Son are one in
essence, the
essence of divinity itself.
And the second passage is John 14:23:
Jesus answered and
said unto him,
If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will
love him, and we will
come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Notice that the Father will indwell the believer and, at the
same time,
the Son will indwell the believer. He is associated with the
Father in
the closest possible association. Such an association is
only possible by
sharing the same divine essence.
B. His Association with the Holy Spirit
The second way that shows His divine association with the
Trinity is
that Jesus is also closely associated with both the Father
and the Holy
Spirit. This is taught in Matthew 28:19, where the Great
Commission
is given. Yeshua also went on to say that after one leads a
person to the
Lord, one should baptize him in the name of the Father and
the Son
and the Holy Spirit. In this passage, Jesus is clearly
associated with
both the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Another example that shows the association with the Father
and the
Holy Spirit is in II Corinthians 13:14:
The grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit,
be with you all.
VII. THE DIVINE CLAIMS OF THE MESSIAH
The seventh evidence of Yeshua's deity is
His own claims of divinity.
In light of these claims, there are only three options from
which to
choose.
The first option is that Jesus was a false teacher; He was
deceptive. He
knew what He was teaching was not true, but He claimed it
anyway.
The second option is that Yeshua was self deceived. While He
really
believed the statements He made, He deceived Himself, and
the
statements were not true.
The third option is the only real biblical option; the
claims He made
were really true of Himself. What are some of these claims?
He made
four very specific claims of divinity.
A. To Have the Closest Possible Relationship with God
The first claim was that He enjoyed the closest possible
relationship to
God. This in itself can be seen in five ways.
1. To Know the Messiah is to Know God
Jesus said that to know the Messiah was to know God. This
statement
was made to unbelievers according to John 8:19:
They said
therefore unto
him, Where is your Father? Jesus answered, Ye know neither
me, nor my Father: if
ye knew me, ye would know my Father also.
He made a very similar statement to believers in John 14:7:
If ye had
known me, ye would have known my Father also: from
henceforth ye know him, and
have seen him.
2. To See the Messiah is to See God
A second way that He claimed this close relationship was
that to see
the Messiah was also to see God. This claim was made in John
12:45: And he that beholds me beholds him that sent me.
The Messiah was sent by God. He said that the anyone who saw
Him
also saw the One who sent Him, and that was God.
The claim was also made in John 14:9:
Jesus said unto him,
Have I been
so long time with you, and do you not know me, Philip? he
that has seen me has
seen the Father; how say you, Show us the Father?
3. To Receive the Messiah is to Receive God
A third way by which He claimed to enjoy the closest
possible
relationship with God was His teaching that to receive the
Messiah
was to receive God. This claim is found in Mark 9:37:
Whosoever shall
receive one of such little children in my name, receives me:
and whosoever receives
me, receives not me, but him that sent me.
The One who sent the Messiah was God. To receive the Messiah
is to
receive God.
4. To Honor the Messiah is to Honor God
The fourth way Jesus claimed to have the closest possible
relationship
to God is His teaching that to honor the Messiah is to honor
God.
This claim is made in John 5:23: that all may honor the Son,
even as they
honor the Father. He that honors not the Son honors not the
Father that sent him.
Not to honor the Son meant not to honor the Father, but to
honor the
Son meant to honor the Father.
5. To Have a Unique Oneness with God
The fifth way by which He claimed to have the closest
possible
relationship to God is His clear claim to have a unique
oneness with
the Father. Yeshua made this claim in John 10:30:
I and the
Father are
one.
B. To be the Object of Saving Faith
A second claim of divinity made by the Messiah is that He
claimed to
be the object of saving faith. He made this claim in Matthew
11:28: Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest.
He made this claim again in John 3:36:
He that believes on the Son has eternal life; but he that
obeys not the Son shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
He taught this again in John 14:1:
Let not your heart be
troubled: believe in
God, believe also in me.
Also John 17:3: And this is life eternal, that they should
know you the only true
God, and him whom you did send, even Jesus Christ.
C. To Have Absolute Dominion over His Followers
His third claim of deity is that He had absolute dominion
over His
followers. This is brought out in Matthew 10:37-39, where He
claimed absolute dominion over those who owned Him as Lord.
D. To Have Sovereignty Over the Laws and Institutions of
God
His fourth claim of deity is that He had sovereignty over
the laws and
institutes of God.
Some examples of this are: first, that He claimed lordship
over the
Temple in Matthew 12:6; secondly, He claimed lordship over
the
Sabbath in Matthew 12:8; thirdly, He claimed lordship over
the
Kingdom of God in Matthew 16:19; fourthly, He claimed to be
the
Lord of the covenant in Matthew 26:28; and fifth, He claimed
absolute sovereignty over the laws and institutions of God.
VIII. THE MEANING OF KENOSIS
In dealing with the deity of the Messiah,
Philippians 2:5-11 should be
discussed. This passage deals with something theologians
call
"kenosis." This term is used because the Greek word that is
found in
one of these verses is a word from which
kenosis originates.
It is a word
that means "to empty oneself," "to empty," or "to evacuate."
Some
kind of "emptying" took place at the time that the Son
became
incarnate. Some have taught that what Yeshua emptied Himself
of,
what He gave up when He became a man, was being God. If it
were
possible for someone to give up being God, then that person
was not
God to begin with. Does this passage teach that Jesus gave
up His
deity while He was on earth, so that He wasn't God? Or is it
trying to
teach something else? These questions can be answered by a
study of
the text.
In this passage, verse 5 is a transitional statement between
what was
being said in verses 1-4 and what is about to be said in
verses 6-11.
Verse 5 reads: Have this mind in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus.
This is in the present tense, and Paul is saying, "Keep on
minding"
and "Keep on having the mind of the Messiah." The Messiah is
to be
imitated in the sense that there should be a habitual, daily
direction of
the mind to the distinctive virtue of the likeness of the
Messiah.
The first part of verse 6 emphasizes His pre-existence when
it says: who, existing in the form of God.
The way He has always existed in eternity past is in
the
form of God.
This has been a continuous, eternal existence. Yeshua has had
a
previous existence in the form of God before He became a
man. To exist
in the form of God means to be God Himself.
Indeed, in the second part of verse 6, His deity is clearly
taught: counted
not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped.
While the first part of verse 6 teaches the pre existence of
Jesus, the
second part of the verse teaches His
equality with God. He
was existing
in a form that naturally means being an equal with God. To
be an
equal with God means to be God. The mind of the Messiah was
exercised in such a way that He did not consider His exalted
God-equal existence a warrant for seizing and grasping the glory
for
Himself; the glory that comes with the fact of being God. In
other
words, He did not count equality with God
as something to be
used
selfishly for His own enrichment. He was willing to exist in
another
form other than the form of God.
What that form was is brought out in verse 7, where the
Incarnation
of the Messiah is taught: but emptied himself, taking the
form of a servant,
being made in the likeness of men.
There are two things to notice in this verse. First, what
this verse does
not say concerning the act of self emptying. The Messiah did
not
empty Himself of the form of God, nor did He exchange the
form of
God for the likeness of men. The concept is not "to give
up," rather,
it is "to add to." The statement of the Greek text
emptied
himself is in
itself an incomplete thought. What follows next in the
sentence is
describing the nature of His Humiliation in that He took
upon
Himself the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness
of men. The form
of a servant was not an exchange of the form of God, not an
exchange
of being equal with God, but in addition to. The picture is
that He
added to His divine form; He took upon Himself the addition
of
humanity.
Secondly, what did He empty Himself of, then, if He did not
empty
Himself of the form of God or equality with God? The answer
is that
He emptied Himself of the right to have the independent use
of those
ten divine attributes that were discussed earlier in this
manuscript. As
God, He had the perfect right to independently use those
attributes,
but He would no longer use them except in accordance with
the will
of God the Father.
That is why the writer says that He not only took upon
Himself the
likeness of men, but specifically He took upon Himself
the
form of a
servant, the servant role. Of course, a servant means
someone who has
a lord whom he obeys. That is the picture of what He emptied
Himself of; He emptied Himself of the independent right to use
His
divine attributes. He now became an earthly servant of God
the
Father. He would use His attributes only in accordance with
the will
of God the Father. He would not use His omnipotence unless
God the
Father willed it. He would not use His omniscience unless
God the
Father willed it. Consequently, there were things Jesus did
not know in
His humanity. For example, He did not know when He was
coming
back. The reason He did not know this is because He did not
use the
attribute of omniscience; it was not God the Father's will
for Him to
do so. When Yeshua became a man, He did not become less than
God. Rather, by becoming a man, He took on humanity in
addition
to His divinity.
Verse 8 describes His Crucifixion: and being found in
fashion as a man, he
humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the
death of the cross.
The condition of Jesus beheld by man is: in fashion as a
man. When
humankind saw Yeshua, they did not see Him in a divine
essence; they
saw Him as a human being. He was recognized by all to be a
man.
This was part of His Humiliation, part of His obedience to
God the
Father. He emptied Himself of His omnipotence in that He did
not
use His omnipotence to keep people from putting Him to
death.
Because the Son was willing to give up existing only in the
form of
God not in exchange of existing in the form of God, but in
addition
to that form He took on the form of a man.
Because He was willing to empty Himself in that way, there
is a
promise of His Exaltation in verses 9-11:
Wherefore also God
highly exalted
him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name;
that in the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things
on earth and things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.
As a result, He was exalted when He ascended into Heaven. In
verse
9, He was raised from the dead to unusual dignity and power.
In verse
10, there is the recognition of His universal sovereignty.
And in verse
11, there will eventually be universal homage to the Messiah
as Lord.
What does the kenosis mean? First, it does not mean that He
divested
Himself of the form of deity. Secondly, it does mean that He
laid
aside the independent exercise of His divine attributes by
which the
form of God expresses itself. Instead, He took on and
assumed human
form, flesh, and nature by means of the Incarnation and the
Virgin
Birth. The self emptying brought about a change of status
from the
position of God to the position of a servant. In the
exchange, He did
not divest Himself of or give up His deity. In His human
form, He
retained all the attributes of His deity, but He never
manifested His
deity apart from the will of the Father. Thus, even in His
earthly
sojourn as a man, He was still God.
All
scriptures are in the American Standard Version unless otherwise
noted.
*
RECOMMENDED
READING
If you enjoyed this Bible study, Dr. Fruchtenbaum recommends the
following messianic Bible studies (mbs):
mbs 047: The Names of God
mbs 050: The Trinity
mbs 051: God the Father
mbs 186: The Seven Days of Creation: Genesis 1:1-2:3