Well, on Friday, we ended the week talking about the physical origins of Jesus and how the miraculous conception happened biologically. Today we move to a question of what divine attributes were necessary for Christ to lay down in order to take up his humanity. The question comes from Matthew in Vienna, the capital of Austria.

Hello, Matthew. Thank you for writing in. Pastor John, thank you for all your work over the years of ministry. My small group recently considered the subject of Jesus's divinity and humanity. I looked through Desiring God's Resources and found a sermon that you delivered way back in 1981. In that sermon on Luke 2.52, you state this, "Our text has important implications for understanding the divinity of Christ.

It helps us understand what Paul meant when he said, 'Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant.'" That's Philippians 2, verses 6 and 7. "One of the things Christ emptied himself of was omniscience," you said.

Later, regarding the attributes of God, you said this, "They were his potentially, and thus he was God, but he surrendered their use absolutely, and so he was man." Now, my question is, how do you now understand Philippians 2, verses 6 to 8, and Luke 2, verse 52? Do these texts really necessitate that some attributes of the eternal, divine nature of Jesus must have been given up or laid down at his incarnation?

Pastor John, what would you say to Matthew? Well, I'm glad this question is asked, and I'm glad they quote my old sermon, because the first thing I would say is that I would speak today with more precision and care than I did in those sentences. As I read those, I went back and read them in context, I thought, "Oh, that was not very careful." When we say things about Jesus Christ after the incarnation of the eternal, divine Son, we have to be careful not to give the impression that the divine nature of Christ has the same limitations that the human nature of Christ does.

And I don't think I made that distinction clear enough in 1981. I would not want to say, for example, that Christ, in his divine nature, emptied himself of any essential divine attribute, and I think omniscience is an essential divine attribute. So when in Matthew 24, 36 Jesus says that not even the Son knows the time of Jesus' return, I take him to mean that the Son, Jesus Christ, considered in his human nature, operates with a kind of limitation, but not the divine nature.

Now I know that sounds weird. That sounds strange. And it is strange. It is strange, because the union of two natures in one person, one divine and one human, is beyond our experience, and will always be beyond our personal experience. We're never going to be God, and we may expect it to sound strange.

So how then do I understand Philippians 2, 5-8 and the emptying of himself? Let me read the verses so we all have it in front of us. Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So verse 6, you have the preexistent Christ before incarnation in the form of God, which the next phrase defines as "equality with God." Then in verse 7, you have him taking the form of a servant in the likeness of men.

And I think just as the term "form of God" in verse 6 does not mean less than God because of the term "equality with God," in the same way the term "form of a servant" or "likeness of man" in verse 7 does not mean less than human, but rather equal with all humans.

That is a real human nature. Upshot, Christ is very God and very man. And in between those two statements, you have this famous phrase, "He emptied himself." What does that mean? I don't think it means that Christ in his divine nature became less than fully divine. In other words, he didn't empty himself of deity.

One of the reasons I don't believe that is what Paul meant is because he says the very opposite in Colossians 2:9. He said, "For in him," in Christ, "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." You even wonder whether he used the word "fullness" there partially to say he didn't empty himself of that.

He's not empty, he's not only not empty, he's full. He's full of deity. The whole fullness of deity dwells bodily in Jesus. So I don't think he emptied himself of anything that constitutes the essence of deity. I think the best clue for how to think about the emptying probably comes from John 17, 5, where Jesus says, "Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." So John had already said in John 5, 18 that the Jews recognized that Jesus was making himself equal with God.

So on the one hand, the incarnate Christ in the Gospel of John has a divine nature. He's fully God. On the other hand, there were aspects of his glory which he had laid aside, and that's why he's praying, "Father, restore to me the glory I had with you before the foundation of the world." And I think that would include at least the privileges of deity that stand between the divine Christ and the shame and degradation and suffering and death of the cross.

That's the point. That's the point of Philippians 2, 5 to 8, that he moved from such height to such shameful degradation on our behalf. And that's the mindset we're supposed to have as we serve others. But then again, I need to qualify and say it would be a mistake to say that he laid aside all of the divine glory in becoming man, because in John 1, 14 it says, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." So there was a divine glory in the incarnate Christ for those who had eyes to see.

But the fullness of divine glory, I think, would have incinerated sinners and blinded everyone. And this he emptied himself of. Maybe the best way to say it is that whatever stood between the fullness of the divine glory before the incarnation and the suffering and shame and degradation and death of the cross, whatever stood between there, that had to be laid aside so that he could do it.

And the only thing I would say now with regard to Luke 2, 52, which was mentioned in the question, "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man," the only thing I'd say there is Jesus was in his human nature fully man. And therefore he grew, he grew up through the stages of childhood like other humans and yet without sin.

Paul says in 1 Timothy 2, 5, "There is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man, human, Christ Jesus." So in his divine nature, Christ was fully God. In his human nature, he was fully man. In his divine nature, he had all the essential attributes of God during his incarnation.

And in his human nature, he was finite and could therefore grow in wisdom and stature. Just by way of conclusion, no book in the Bible exalts the deity of Christ better than the book of Hebrews. Of the Son, he says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever," Hebrews 1, 8.

And no book stresses the humanity of Christ for the sake of his sympathy with our weaknesses like Hebrews does. Chapter 4, verse 15, "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect was tempted like we are. Therefore in this Advent season, let us do exactly what Hebrews 4, 16 says.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We have a great divine and human Savior." Amen. Amen. What a profound mystery here and beautifully approachable too. Thank you, Pastor John, for that answer.

Matthew, thanks for the very good question. Thank you to everyone who listens. Thank you for making the podcast part of your Advent season this year. You can subscribe to our audio feeds and search our past episodes in our archive and even reach us by email with a question of your own, even questions about maybe something you've seen in an old John Piper sermon that you would love to have clarified by him.

You can do all of that through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. Well there's a great danger in worshipping gifts more than the gift giver. That of course is idolatry. And this topic is especially important in a season of gift giving like this one that we're in the midst of.

So how do we love the giver more than his gifts? And of course we're talking about our relationship to God and God as the giver. That is next as we ask and answer some Christmas related questions in the podcast this year. I'm your host, Tony Reike. Thanks for listening.

We'll see you next time. 1 you