Down through the years men have grappled with the mystery of the Incarnation. How could God become man? How can an infinite person become finite? How can the Creator become a part of creation? How can the Almighty compress Himself into the form of helpless babe nursing at the breast of His mother? Was He still upholding the universe by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3) as He was being carried in the arms of Mary? Did He really enter into all the experiences of mankind or was He just playing a role? Did He actually learn things: to read, to write, to hammer a nail straight? What is involved in God becoming man?
Did He possess all of His divine attributes while He walked here on earth? Was He omniscient? Did He really know all things or was His knowledge limited in any area? Was He omnipotent, all-powerful, or was this power restrained in any measure? God is omnipresent; man cannot escape the presence of his God (Ps. 139). Was Christ everywhere, or did He choose to limit His presence to the body of Jesus? These and other questions have stretched the thinking of Christians for centuries.
There is a tendency in some quarters to emphasize the humanity of Christ at the expense of His deity. Some would say that while Jesus lived on earth He had no powers beyond that of any human. His victory over sin and the devil was by the power of the Holy Spirit. His miracles were done by the Spirit. The same Spirit is available to believers today for the same miracles and victories.
They would quote Jesus’ words, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do” (Jn. 5:19, NKJV) and “I can of Myself do nothing” (Jn. 5:30). Does not this emphasize His human weakness and utter dependence on the Father? How then can one say that He is omnipotent? Did not Jesus say of His coming again, “But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mk. 13:32)? How then can one say that Christ was omniscient?
In connection with this is the teaching concerning the kenosis (the emptying) of Christ from Philippians 2. One writes, “The Divine Logos by His incarnation divested Himself of His divine attributes of omniscience and omnipotence, so that in His incarnate life the Divine Person is revealed and solely revealed through a human consciousness” (J. M. Creed, New Bible Dictionary, p. 689).
But this goes beyond what the passage states. Here is a personal translation:
Let this frame of mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who existing in the essential form of God, did not deem the being equal with God something to be grasped and held, By taking the form of a slave, By becoming in the likeness of men; And being found in the outward garb of humanity, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, Even to the death of the cross (Phil. 2:5-8),
What is involved in the “emptied Himself” is defined by the participles following. His humiliation was accomplished not by the subtraction of any of His divine attributes but by the addition of human nature and form. The NIV is too strong when it states that He “made Himself nothing.” Christ became man and man was originally made in the image of God. There is a glory about man, even in his fallen state. But it was a humbling step for Christ to leave the glories of heaven for the confines of a human body, to be born in a stable and cradled in a manger.
The Council of Chalcedon met in 451 a.d. to discuss these matters: “Following the holy fathers, we unanimously teach one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, complete as to his Godhead, and complete as to his manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting; consubstantial with the Father as to his Godhead, and consubstantial also with us as to his manhood; like unto us in all things, yet without sin…the distinction of the natures being in no wise abolished by their union, but the peculiarity of each nature being maintained, and both concurring in one person and hypostasis.” Thus there was a strong affirmation of the two natures, the human and divine, in the one person of Christ.
Christ affirms His deity throughout the Gospels. He could say, “Before Abraham was, I am” (Jn. 8:58). “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9). He taught “that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (Jn. 5:23). He argued that King David prophesied the deity of the Messiah to come (Lk. 20:41-44). He allowed Thomas to worship Him and to say, “My Lord and my God” (Jn. 20:28).
J. B. Lightfoot writes in his commentary: “He divested Himself, not of His Divine nature, for this was impossible, but of the glories, the prerogatives of Deity. This He did by taking the form of a servant” (p. 110). There is a holy mystery in this act of compression and self-limitation when the Eternal God became man. He is just as truly man as He is God. Jesus grew up through the experiences of childhood learning and developing normally. He was not acting out the learning process; it was real (Lk. 2:52). He limited His omniscience in its exercise. The same was true of His omnipotence. He struggled with stubborn wood in the carpenter’s shop. His muscles ached with fatigue at the end of the day. He could speak the word and the universe came into being but He worked hard to make a table.
Yet the potential of His divine nature was always there. He could say to Nathaniel, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you” (Jn. 1:48). He could multiply the five loaves and two fish and feed over 5,000 men (Lk. 9:10-17), an amazing act of the Creator. He stood in the midst of a raging storm and quieted the wind and the sea (Mt. 8:23-27). The elements still obeyed His voice as they had at creation.
There are mysteries here but the Scripture affirms that Jesus is as truly God when in human flesh as He was in eternity past. At times He held these powers in check and functioned within the limitations of human frailty. As the perfect Man He was always submissive to the Father. When He said, “I can of Myself do nothing,” He was simply stating that He never acted independently of the Father.
But the divine attributes were always present. Attributes belong to the very essence of a person. For God to give up His attributes is to cease to be God. In the desert the Shekinah glory of God was veiled by the brown, leather skins that covered the tabernacle. Similarly, the God-form glory of the Son was veiled by the brown, weathered body of the Carpenter as He tented among us (Jn. 1:14). The glory was there even though veiled; and it could flash forth at times. Peter could say, “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Pet. 1:16). We believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man; we believe and we worship.
Thou Son of God, eternal Word,
Who heaven and earth’s foundations laid,
Upholding by Thy word and power
The universe Thy hands have made
We worship Thee, all glorious Lord,
Forever be Thy Name adored!
We worship Thee, all glorious Lord,
Forever be Thy Name adored!
–Inglis Fleming