Did Jesus Diminish His Divine Power to Become Human?
00:00:00.000 | Well, on Friday, we ended the week talking about the physical origins of Jesus and how
00:00:08.540 | the miraculous conception happened biologically.
00:00:13.760 | Today we move to a question of what divine attributes were necessary for Christ to lay
00:00:18.460 | down in order to take up his humanity.
00:00:22.920 | The question comes from Matthew in Vienna, the capital of Austria.
00:00:27.160 | Hello, Matthew.
00:00:28.160 | Thank you for writing in.
00:00:29.160 | Pastor John, thank you for all your work over the years of ministry.
00:00:32.240 | My small group recently considered the subject of Jesus's divinity and humanity.
00:00:37.120 | I looked through Desiring God's Resources and found a sermon that you delivered way
00:00:40.680 | back in 1981.
00:00:42.880 | In that sermon on Luke 2.52, you state this, "Our text has important implications for
00:00:49.000 | understanding the divinity of Christ.
00:00:51.680 | It helps us understand what Paul meant when he said, 'Though he was in the form of God,
00:00:56.600 | he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking
00:01:02.120 | the form of a bondservant.'"
00:01:04.320 | That's Philippians 2, verses 6 and 7.
00:01:06.720 | "One of the things Christ emptied himself of was omniscience," you said.
00:01:11.600 | Later, regarding the attributes of God, you said this, "They were his potentially, and
00:01:18.520 | thus he was God, but he surrendered their use absolutely, and so he was man."
00:01:24.680 | Now, my question is, how do you now understand Philippians 2, verses 6 to 8, and Luke 2,
00:01:33.000 | verse 52?
00:01:34.320 | Do these texts really necessitate that some attributes of the eternal, divine nature of
00:01:39.720 | Jesus must have been given up or laid down at his incarnation?
00:01:44.680 | Pastor John, what would you say to Matthew?
00:01:47.440 | Well, I'm glad this question is asked, and I'm glad they quote my old sermon, because
00:01:54.240 | the first thing I would say is that I would speak today with more precision and care than
00:02:02.880 | I did in those sentences.
00:02:06.320 | As I read those, I went back and read them in context, I thought, "Oh, that was not very
00:02:10.800 | careful."
00:02:12.140 | When we say things about Jesus Christ after the incarnation of the eternal, divine Son,
00:02:20.620 | we have to be careful not to give the impression that the divine nature of Christ has the same
00:02:29.360 | limitations that the human nature of Christ does.
00:02:34.000 | And I don't think I made that distinction clear enough in 1981.
00:02:39.120 | I would not want to say, for example, that Christ, in his divine nature, emptied himself
00:02:48.020 | of any essential divine attribute, and I think omniscience is an essential divine attribute.
00:02:55.760 | So when in Matthew 24, 36 Jesus says that not even the Son knows the time of Jesus'
00:03:02.720 | return, I take him to mean that the Son, Jesus Christ, considered in his human nature, operates
00:03:14.320 | with a kind of limitation, but not the divine nature.
00:03:19.640 | Now I know that sounds weird.
00:03:22.560 | That sounds strange.
00:03:24.600 | And it is strange.
00:03:26.240 | It is strange, because the union of two natures in one person, one divine and one human, is
00:03:34.280 | beyond our experience, and will always be beyond our personal experience.
00:03:40.880 | We're never going to be God, and we may expect it to sound strange.
00:03:47.800 | So how then do I understand Philippians 2, 5-8 and the emptying of himself?
00:03:55.760 | Let me read the verses so we all have it in front of us.
00:04:00.480 | Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
00:04:08.720 | but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of
00:04:15.720 | men.
00:04:16.880 | And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of
00:04:21.880 | death, even death on a cross.
00:04:23.740 | So verse 6, you have the preexistent Christ before incarnation in the form of God, which
00:04:33.040 | the next phrase defines as "equality with God."
00:04:38.720 | Then in verse 7, you have him taking the form of a servant in the likeness of men.
00:04:47.000 | And I think just as the term "form of God" in verse 6 does not mean less than God because
00:04:53.880 | of the term "equality with God," in the same way the term "form of a servant" or "likeness
00:04:59.820 | of man" in verse 7 does not mean less than human, but rather equal with all humans.
00:05:07.940 | That is a real human nature.
00:05:11.040 | Upshot, Christ is very God and very man.
00:05:16.640 | And in between those two statements, you have this famous phrase, "He emptied himself."
00:05:24.360 | What does that mean?
00:05:26.480 | I don't think it means that Christ in his divine nature became less than fully divine.
00:05:35.800 | In other words, he didn't empty himself of deity.
00:05:40.060 | One of the reasons I don't believe that is what Paul meant is because he says the very
00:05:45.680 | opposite in Colossians 2:9.
00:05:48.840 | He said, "For in him," in Christ, "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily."
00:05:55.040 | You even wonder whether he used the word "fullness" there partially to say he didn't empty himself
00:06:00.640 | of that.
00:06:01.640 | He's not empty, he's not only not empty, he's full.
00:06:06.400 | He's full of deity.
00:06:08.680 | The whole fullness of deity dwells bodily in Jesus.
00:06:13.440 | So I don't think he emptied himself of anything that constitutes the essence of deity.
00:06:21.340 | I think the best clue for how to think about the emptying probably comes from John 17,
00:06:27.200 | 5, where Jesus says, "Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had
00:06:36.080 | with you before the world existed."
00:06:39.720 | So John had already said in John 5, 18 that the Jews recognized that Jesus was making
00:06:45.320 | himself equal with God.
00:06:47.340 | So on the one hand, the incarnate Christ in the Gospel of John has a divine nature.
00:06:53.920 | He's fully God.
00:06:56.560 | On the other hand, there were aspects of his glory which he had laid aside, and that's
00:07:04.920 | why he's praying, "Father, restore to me the glory I had with you before the foundation
00:07:10.440 | of the world."
00:07:11.880 | And I think that would include at least the privileges of deity that stand between the
00:07:20.640 | divine Christ and the shame and degradation and suffering and death of the cross.
00:07:27.320 | That's the point.
00:07:28.320 | That's the point of Philippians 2, 5 to 8, that he moved from such height to such shameful
00:07:35.080 | degradation on our behalf.
00:07:37.280 | And that's the mindset we're supposed to have as we serve others.
00:07:41.960 | But then again, I need to qualify and say it would be a mistake to say that he laid
00:07:47.960 | aside all of the divine glory in becoming man, because in John 1, 14 it says, "The
00:07:54.880 | Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only
00:08:00.960 | Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."
00:08:03.640 | So there was a divine glory in the incarnate Christ for those who had eyes to see.
00:08:12.040 | But the fullness of divine glory, I think, would have incinerated sinners and blinded
00:08:19.440 | everyone.
00:08:21.000 | And this he emptied himself of.
00:08:24.640 | Maybe the best way to say it is that whatever stood between the fullness of the divine glory
00:08:31.920 | before the incarnation and the suffering and shame and degradation and death of the cross,
00:08:38.280 | whatever stood between there, that had to be laid aside so that he could do it.
00:08:44.760 | And the only thing I would say now with regard to Luke 2, 52, which was mentioned in the
00:08:49.040 | question, "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man," the
00:08:53.680 | only thing I'd say there is Jesus was in his human nature fully man.
00:09:01.240 | And therefore he grew, he grew up through the stages of childhood like other humans
00:09:06.400 | and yet without sin.
00:09:09.200 | Paul says in 1 Timothy 2, 5, "There is one God and there is one mediator between God
00:09:16.840 | and men, the man, human, Christ Jesus."
00:09:23.280 | So in his divine nature, Christ was fully God.
00:09:26.540 | In his human nature, he was fully man.
00:09:30.760 | In his divine nature, he had all the essential attributes of God during his incarnation.
00:09:36.220 | And in his human nature, he was finite and could therefore grow in wisdom and stature.
00:09:47.500 | Just by way of conclusion, no book in the Bible exalts the deity of Christ better than
00:09:56.140 | the book of Hebrews.
00:09:58.580 | Of the Son, he says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever," Hebrews 1, 8.
00:10:06.820 | And no book stresses the humanity of Christ for the sake of his sympathy with our weaknesses
00:10:14.540 | like Hebrews does.
00:10:16.440 | Chapter 4, verse 15, "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our
00:10:21.200 | weaknesses but one who in every respect was tempted like we are.
00:10:25.860 | Therefore in this Advent season, let us do exactly what Hebrews 4, 16 says.
00:10:35.620 | Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy
00:10:43.180 | and find grace to help in time of need.
00:10:46.340 | We have a great divine and human Savior."
00:10:51.380 | Amen.
00:10:53.380 | Amen.
00:10:54.380 | What a profound mystery here and beautifully approachable too.
00:10:58.500 | Thank you, Pastor John, for that answer.
00:11:00.300 | Matthew, thanks for the very good question.
00:11:02.660 | Thank you to everyone who listens.
00:11:04.380 | Thank you for making the podcast part of your Advent season this year.
00:11:08.140 | You can subscribe to our audio feeds and search our past episodes in our archive and even
00:11:11.700 | reach us by email with a question of your own, even questions about maybe something
00:11:16.180 | you've seen in an old John Piper sermon that you would love to have clarified by him.
00:11:20.740 | You can do all of that through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:11:27.220 | Well there's a great danger in worshipping gifts more than the gift giver.
00:11:33.500 | That of course is idolatry.
00:11:35.660 | And this topic is especially important in a season of gift giving like this one that
00:11:39.980 | we're in the midst of.
00:11:41.420 | So how do we love the giver more than his gifts?
00:11:45.220 | And of course we're talking about our relationship to God and God as the giver.
00:11:50.020 | That is next as we ask and answer some Christmas related questions in the podcast this year.
00:11:55.620 | I'm your host, Tony Reike.
00:11:56.940 | Thanks for listening.
00:11:57.940 | We'll see you next time.
00:11:58.860 | [Music]
00:11:59.860 | [End of Audio]
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