What is the Great Kenosis and how does it or will it inform your personal goals for discipleship? [Be sure to include material on the Beatitudes and any other appropriate scriptural sources in your answer]. The biblical meaning of the word kenosis (ekeniosen in the Greek) comes from the passage in Philippians 2:6-8 (namely verse in 7), where it states that Christ Jesus “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself (emptied himself in some translations) and became obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross”. He was also trying to get them to give up self- serving attitudes and actions as well as protection from suffering. Jesus never emptied Himself of His deity but of independent authority. He fully “surrendered His heavenly glory and riches” and submitted himself to the will of His Father in humility in the likeness of a human slave or bondservant. This kenosis involved Him humbling Himself to take on human form and become obedient unto death, though he was still fully divine. When Jesus (The Word) became flesh, He did not cease to be The Word. In the original biblical context kenosis, speaks of the humility of Christ that we are to have as believers in Him. This humility means that we are to be lowly in mind in order to serve others. Paul had written to the believers in Philippi from prison due to his concern that they keep these ways of Christ in their lives and Christian service (that they had previously been taught). Paul wanted them to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus Philippians 2:5). In recent years; however, there are groups of persons that have distorted this biblical truth by claiming that Jesus emptied Himself of certain attributes, especially of His deity. This is a false teaching and a complete misunderstanding of the biblical context. Jesus is, always has been, and always will be fully divine even though he took on human form to identify with humanity through His incarnate, virgin birth. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of the virgin Mary, He is the Son of God, and He and His Father are one. According to Genesis 1:27, Luke 1:35, John 3:16-17, John 10:36, and I John 4:9. Jesus is the incarnate Son of God, though He existed before His incarnation. See also Hebrews 1:8 as other supporting scriptural references of Jesus the Son of God being God. God sent (not eternally generated/ created) Jesus into the world in the form of a human yet He already existed as God before His incarnation. Again there is no scripture that teaches eternal generation that He was created as a lesser god at a given time without a prior existence. The emptying of Himself was more about humility, obedience, and servitude rather than about Christ’s divine and human natures. After the time of the apostles, the “early church” father’s misconception of who Jesus was promoted by Origen (181-251) as he used his Greek philosophy to explain to pagan Greeks that Jesus was inferior to God in that He was eternally generated, though he denied that the Son was the “first among the creatures”. Origen perverted John 1:18. Later, Arius claimed that eternal generation made the Son of God a created creature that was not divine in any way, though he was the highest creature, which then would totally negate the possibility of our salvation through Jesus’ death and resurrection, because only God can redeem man. The controversy between Origen’s beliefs and Arian’s beliefs divided the church of the Roman Empire. After Constantine conquered the Roman Empire in 312 AD, he called the Council of Nicea in 325 AD to settle these differences. The original Nicene creed reflected the position of Alexander and Athanasius. This creed (from the Latin word credo), or “I believe” statements considered to be true were agreed upon and signed by most of the bishops of that day. There continued to be much debate and division, therefore, in about 381 AD, Constantine called a second Council which met in Constantinople, where the original creed was revised and expanded to recognize the full deity of The Holy Spirit and is what is now known as the Nicene Creed or Constantinopolitan creed. It wasn’t until the Council of Chalcedon met in 451 AD that a clearly defined statement about the sinlessness of Jesus was made based on Hebrews 4:15. From this time on, though, there has been much continued division on this topic amongst varying denominations, some of whom completely deny the deity of Jesus Christ. There are some who also feel that the New American Standard Bible and Amplified translations of the Bible continue this perversion by use of the phrase “Begotten God” vs. “Begotten Son” as stated in John1:18, though there is no mention of being “eternally begotten”. As different creeds were written in different regions, the earliest evidence of the version of the Apostles’ Creed written by Roman Christians at the Council of Milan was in 390 AD, though early versions had existed from about the first century. The Apostles’ Creed eventually removed the Nicene language, which included the Son of God as the “eternally begotten of the Father” and includes “He descended into hell” to affirm that Jesus redeems us from hellish torment. The terms eternally generated and eternally begotten are not biblical terms. These terms are contrary to biblical truth in that they claim that the Son (Jesus) is still being generated or had a created beginning. Jesus is not another god that God created. They (the Trinity of God) are One and were in existent from the beginning. This is what Jehovah Witnesses’ (contemporary Arianists) in part base their claim on- that Jesus is a begotten and lesser god or the “first, direct creation of Jehovah God”. They do not believe in the Trinity of God. The Bible (in Genesis 1:26) states that in the beginning God was- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit already were in existence as One. Getting back to the biblical meaning and context of the humility of Jesus spoken of in the epistle to the Philippians, Paul wanted to reiterate the importance of the Philippians continuing in their Christian walk. He wanted to inform them of who their enemies were that were hindering their carrying of the gospel message. In addition, Paul wanted to remind them of the example that Christ set for them to follow, hence the instruction to let this mind (of humility) be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Paul was reminding them to put away or empty themselves of selfishness in order that they might serve others and carry the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul was aware that a group of people in Rome were trying to take advantage of his imprisonment in order to increase their own influence and selfish ambition vs. defending the gospel of Christ’s. He was aware that this opposition to the gospel was also developing in Philippi and possibly in Macedonia. As Paul continues to write, there was a group of troublemakers that was not preaching the true gospel of Christ. It was similar to the false gospel that was being preached in Galatia. Paul called these troublemakers dogs, evil workers or “mutilators of the flesh” in chapter 3, verse 2. As explained in my previous paper, Paul viewed some of the Jewish people (Pharisees) who were persecuting the church by hanging on to their ritualistic ideas rather than the finished work of Christ and the kingdom of God as “enemies of the Cross” and these ways were to be resisted. Paul was so upset over the erroneous teaching that he wept (Phil. 3:18) because their righteousness was to be from God through faith in Christ. Another group of troublemakers that Paul was possibly concerned about were some of the Philippians themselves. Some of them were at odds with each other spoken of in Philippians 1:27, 2:2-4, 14. Because of these factions, Paul admonishes the Philippians in the second chapter, verses 5-11 and 14-16 about not being selfish, complaining, and argumentative, which was causing them to not carry on the work of Christ in proper relationship with Christ first or in unity with others. He reminded them to be lights in the world. Paul had to remind them of who Jesus was and how he lived as divinity, who took on human form to be an example before mankind. In Philippians 2:12-13, He told them to work out their salvation with fear and trembling (fear of the Lord, that is). The reason was that it was supposed to be God working in them to will and act according to His good purpose. Paul wanted them to know that they couldn’t work to earn salvation, but that their “working out their salvation” meant they were to serve the LORD with all of their hearts because He loved and saved them. Paul wanted them to be diligent and faithful in their work for the Lord knowing that God would help them with His plans and purposes as they showed love to others. He had hoped that his earlier instruction was not in vain. In summary of the Great Kenosis, Jesus’ “emptying” of Himself was of anything that got in the way of God’s perfect will, ways, and Kingdom mindset. He lowered/ yielded Himself to serve sinful mankind by dying on the cross for the glory of God (Phil. 2:8-9). As Jesus began His public ministry, He delivered His Sermon on the Mount discourse to His disciples and the Galileans, where He explained the character and destiny of a true disciple and the Good News of the Kingdom of God. As we too begin in ministry or new areas of ministry we are reminded to consider these teachings. The first four beatitudes in Matthew 5 target people who were suffering (the poor in spirit, those in deep mourning, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness), and the last four target those who help those that are suffering, those who show mercy, pure in heart (single-hearted for Christ’s sake), are peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness sake). Each beatitude was to be a practice of discipleship- what His disciples were to become. And this Kingdom service was to be the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit in the lives of all of Christ’s disciples. As we are blessed, we are to be a blessing to someone else. Jesus’ first words as He began His public ministry in Matthew 5 and ended His public ministry in Matthew 25:31-46 were blessings. He said that it was a blessing to serve others and that is how we are to look at our service to the LORD and to others despite the likelihood of persecution, which honestly on some days is easier understood than dealt with. That is why we have to completely rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to help us magnify Christ in our minds, bodies and spirits in order to carry out His work. Matthew 7:26 and James 1:22,25 remind us to put God’s Word in practice not just understand or agree with it in theory. Jesus also taught that we are to be salt and light and like a city of a hill visible for the world to see us piercing the darkness. We are not to pursue earthly treasures. Instead, we are to first seek after the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything else will be added or given. We are not to be anxious for the things of this world because God will take care of us even more than the sparrows and He knows every detail about us even the very number of hairs on our head. God is El Roi, the God who sees us and our needs. In light of all that is going on in the local, state, and world news during these last days, that makes me more intentional about taking up my cross to follow Him (Luke 9:23) and emptying myself to fully operate in my gifts with the proper “BE- Attitudes” or Kingdom values. The Beatitudes remind believers to live as a contrasted community of blessed Kingdom believers and doers of the Word (vs. as worldly individuals or as carnal believers). This means fully relying upon God’s strength and power to serve and not relying on our own strength and limited power. This also personally includes living according to Gods’ relational truths and continuing to answer the call to teach God’s truths in word and deed (correcting erroneous doctrine with passion, compassion and in love) and sharing the hope of my salvation with increased boldness in and outside of the “church” walls as the Holy Spirit directs. We are (I am) to keep moving from being just in a taught community to continue being in a community of teachers of the gospel not staying weary in well doing. As Paul reminds us in Philippians 3:12-17; 4:1; and 4:6, we are to walk maturely and to stand fast in prayer forgetting those things that are behind and to press maturely toward the goal of the upward call of Christ with His mindset according to Philippians 4:8-9 and trusting in the Lord to renew my strength daily as taught in the model Lord’s prayer. Adrienne Roland Fearless Believer Moving Forward!!!
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 04:00:27 +0000
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