#focr 50

What motivated Christ to exchange the outward appearance of His sovereign divine majesty for the outward appearance of an obedient, submissive slave? The answer is love. He was more concerned for the welfare of others than for His own welfare. He gave the supreme example of self-sacrificing love for the benefit of others. Thus, in other passages Paul wrote that Christ “gave himself for our sins” (Gal. 1:4), “loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20), and “gave himself for us” (Ti. 2:14). [Renald E. Showers]

Classified As a Slave

Thus, Christ exchanged the outward appearance of His “sovereign divine majesty” for the outward appearance of an obedient, submissive slave (Ibid., p. 751; cp. 2 Cor. 8:9)

Christ took on this outward appearance of a slave by humbly submitting in obedience to God’s will in two respects: First, He died as a substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of the world in fulfillment of Isaiah 53, and, second, He died on a cross.

It was Christ’s death on a cross that especially gave Him the outward appearance of a slave. So many slaves were crucified in the Roman Empire that crucifixion was called the “slaves’ punishment” (Martin Hengel, Crucifixion, p. 51). In light of this, because Christ died on a cross, people of His day would have classified Him with slaves.

Evidence that Christ did not use His equality with God for His own advantage and personal benefit is seen in the fact that when it was time for Him to enter the world through incarnation, He emptied Himself of the outward appearance of His deity. This emptying involved two things for Him while He was in the world.

First, He veiled His divine glory (see Isa. 53:2). Christ displayed His divine glory only once while on earth in human flesh. That was in His transfiguration before Peter, James, and John (Mt. 17:1–4; Jn. 1:14).

Hypostatic: (hypostasis) which refers to the union of the two natures of Christ, the divine and the human. Kenosis: refers to the manner in which Christ chose to restrict the use of His divine attributes during His humiliation.

The two natures are united without any loss of any essential attributes, and the two natures maintain their separate identities. Through the incarnation, the two natures were inseparably united in such a way that there was no mixture or loss of their separate identity, and without loss or transfer of any property or attribute from one nature to the other. The union thus consummated in a personal or hypostatic union, in that Christ is one person, not two.

It should be clear that the divine attributes must necessarily belong to the corresponding divine nature and that human attributes belong to the corresponding human nature. Furthermore, the attributes of both the human and the divine nature belong to the person of Christ. Because the attributes of either nature belong to Christ, Christ is theanthropic in person, but it is inaccurate to refer to His natures as being theanthropic as there is no mixture of the divine and human to form a third new substance. The human nature always remains human; the divine nature always remains divine. Christ is, therefore, both God and man, no less God because of His humanity and no less human because of His deity.

The two natures of Christ cannot lose or transfer a single attribute. In the incarnation (the phase of His hypostasis from His birth to death), no attribute of the divine nature was changed, though there was a change in the manifestation of His deity. This is sometimes referred to as the kenosis doctrine or the self-emptying of Christ. It is clear that Christ, while on earth, following His incarnation, did not manifest the preincarnate glory of God except on rare occasions (i.e., transfiguration). But He surrendered no attributes.

This union should not be viewed as deity possessing humanity or humanity being indwelt by deity. This union of the two natures was not one of sympathy alone or merely a harmony of will and operation.