When Jesus entered the human race He became subject to all of its natural weaknesses and liabilities, including mortality. His liability to death was essential to His mission. By fear of death, humans were slaves of the devil, who held the power of death (Heb 2:14-15). For the relatively brief period of His humiliation, Christ was made lower than the angels and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Heb 2:9, Phil 2:8).

The conception of Jesus Christ and His birth in the manger were events that occurred in history, but they pertained to a person whose life came from outside history. The events represent the point at which an eternal person became Jesus. He already was, but in the conception and birth He began His human residence upon earth. This is the great mystery of Christmas.

From all eternity Christ Jesus existed in the form of God (Phil 2:6). This form (morphe) was an outer appearance that corresponded to an inner reality. Jesus Christ really was God, and because He was God His existence displayed all the splendor of the divine glory. For example, Isaiah saw Adonai sitting on a throne high and lifted up (Isa 6:1). The prophet was astonished at the divine splendor and declared that he had seen Yahweh with his own eyes (Isa 6:5). John states in his gospel that on this occasion Isaiah was looking at the pre-incarnate glory of Jesus (John 12:41).

In eternity past, Jesus was visibly and obviously equal with God (Phil 2:6). Nevertheless, He did not consider this visible equality as a thing to be selfishly grasped. In His incarnation and humiliation He could not and did not stop being God, but He did have to lay aside His robes of splendor. He would later call upon His followers to exercise self-denial (Matt 16:24). He earned the right to make this demand by modeling His own version of self-denial, a version that required Him to make a greater sacrifice than He will ever ask of anyone else.

So profound was this divestment of glory that Paul says He “emptied Himself” (Phil 2:7). Theologians have notoriously quibbled over what this self-emptying entailed, but Paul spares his readers from speculation. The apostle explains Jesus’ “kenosis” or emptying in two ways.

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