One of the things I picked up on in my Bethel Deep Dive was concerning a tendency towards kenosis theory in Bill Johnson’s teaching. This is the belief that Jesus some how laid aside his divinity, or aspects of it in his incarnation. Johnson has argued that this is in order to set an example to us of how to do mighty works in the power of the Holy Spirit because Jesus did his miracles as man, not as God.
There are some serious problems with the approach. First of all, it distorts our understanding of Christ, he is no longer fully God and fully man. It’s important to remember that God cannot give up one or two attributes without ceasing to be God. Every attribute is essential to who he is because God is simple.
Additionally, the position makes a mess of the Trinity, it over divides the persons and misses the point of inseparable operations that the one God with one nature and will means that the Son has always been doing the same works as the Father and Spirit.
The idea of Kenosis, of Jesus laying aside or emptying himself of divinity comes from a misunderstanding of Philippians 2:7. That’s where the word “kenosis” comes from. The verse is usually translated along the following lines.
“7 but [He] emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,”
It is crucial to read the whole text because it tells us how Jesus “emptied” himself. It was by “taking the form of a servant”, a reference to his incarnation. It’s important to note first of all here that if through incarnation itself, The Son taking on human nature somehow impacted on his deity, then we would not have one who is fully God and fully man.
Secondly, we need to remember that the word can have a literal meaning, where it means to “empty” but the idea of someone emptying themselves, losing aspects of their identity and nature seems quite unusual. However, the word has a metaphorical sense and that seems to fit better here. The metaphorical sense is of one pouring themselves out. That’s exactly what we would see generally of a good and faithful servant and it’s exactly what we see
Thirdly, we need to look at the context and purpose here. Paul is urging his readers to have the same mind, or to be united and to follow Christ’s example. We don’t need to rely on Bill Johnson’s attempt to guess at what that example was, Paul tells us. And the example had nothing to do with metaphysics. Rather, Paul tells us:
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[
We don’t do this by seeking some metaphysical change in our own nature but rather by with humility putting others first, serving their needs, pouring out our lives for them. Not only does this application help us to avoid heresy, it makes better sense of the Bible passage[1]
[1] See O’Brien, Philippians, 216-227.
Faithroots 