KENOTIC ETERNAL SON – BECOMING HUMAN FOR CREATION

Concerning the Word, the Eternal Son, it is written: “3 All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.”[1] Of the Lord God Almighty, it is written: “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honour and power; For You created all things, And by[2] Your will they exist and were created.” [3]
 
Paul proclaimed his God as “Lord of heaven and earth”[4], and that “in Him we live and move and have our being”[5]. He further wrote: “For the creation (nature) was subjected to frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it—[yet] with the hope”[6]
 
In Genesis 1:1 it is written: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”[7] Paul also wrote: " For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."[8]
 
From the preceding three paragraphs, what we can glean is that:

1. Creation came into being, by or through the will of God, a choice of God[9]. (through your will they exist and were created)
2. Creation though distinct and ‘separate’ from God is still within God. (in Him we live and move and have our being)
3. All of Creation came into being through the Eternal Son. (All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made), (all things have been created through him and for him)
4. Before Creation had being, Creation was not, had no being. (For You created all things)
5. Creation’s being, having been created, is real and authentic, but only as created being, neither eternal nor divine like God’s (He is before all things, and in him all things hold together) [10], subject to futility, having a beginning and end. (For the creation (nature) was subjected to frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it.)

 
To even catch a sliver of understanding as to how creation came into being from non being, we have to look to Paul’s statements in Philippians 2:5-7, in particular, the kenosis or self emptying of the Eternal Son: “5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery[11] to be equal with God,’[12] “but emptied[13] himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.”[14]
 
Here, I wish to reference para 5 of the article The Self-Emptying of Christ from the Fuller Theological Seminary website: “Much theological effort has been expended on Paul’s observation that “Christ Jesus, being in the form of God,… emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness” (Phil 2: 6-7). Several “kenotic” theories (from kenosis or “emptying”) have been propounded over the centuries to help explain what was laid aside and what retained in the astonishing act of incarnation. Something of a consensus is emerging on the front of Pauline studies, which understands the passage in the following way: “form of God” and “form of a slave/human likeness” point not to a mere surface appearance, but to authentic existence God and as a human.4 Further, those translations—and there are many—which read that “although he existed in the form of God,… he emptied himself” ought to be corrected to more accurate phrasing: “being in the form of God” or even “because he existed in the form of God,… he emptied himself.” That is, the self-emptying is not to be seen as a divestment of deity; on the contrary, it is an expression of deity. Jesus is able to do it because he is God. The act of incarnation is an elegant expression of what God can do that is otherwise to us incomprehensible: in the being and existence of God, he took as well the being and existence of the creature.[15] Surely he “emptied himself” of something; above we used J. B. Lightfoot’s language, that he divested himself of heavenly prerogatives. Without ceasing to be God, he became human. As N. T. Wright has written, “The pre-existent son regarded equality with God not as excusing him from the task of (redemptive) suffering and death, but actually as uniquely qualifying him for that vocation.”[16]
 
I believe the self-emptying as an expression of Deity is also the process by which creation was spoken into being by Triune God, through Father’s initiation, Son’s mediation and Spirit’s generation, within the Being and Existence of Triune Deity, whereby Triune God became Creator to all creation coming, or becoming, into being from non-being, authentically real, distinct, contingent upon, yet completely different as creature to Creator.
 
Similarly, this self-emptying by Triune Deity, through Eternal Son, for creation to come into being, from non being, is not to be seen as a divestment of Triune Deity; on the contrary, it is an expression of Triune Deity[17].
Creation is, similarly, “an elegant expression of what God can do that is otherwise to us incomprehensible: in the being and existence of God”[18], creation came into being.
 
Creation was never brought into being that Triune God would only be God of creation. Much more than that, creation came into being that Triune God could also be God with creation, in and as a creature of creation, a human being, “that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.”[19]
 
Triune God’s will, choice and passionate desire for creation was to be joined to creation and for creation to be joined to Divinity, as Divinely and humanly possible in, with and through the man Christ Jesus, the Incarnate Eternal Son, through the mystery of Triune Divine emptying.
 
In light of the above, I proffer that the words of John the Apostle: “For God so loved the world (Greek- Kosmos)  that he gave his only begotten Son”[20],  can not only have the meaning and interpretation of “human inhabitants of the earth”, but also includes within it the meaning and interpretation of “all created order and things”[21] .
 
Such, to me, is the incomprehensible love and glory expressed in the mystery of Triune Divine Emptying in and through the Eternal Son.
 
Concerning this, Paul wrote in Ephesians 1: 4 -12,
“4 As he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love:
5 Who hath predestinated us, to be adopted through Jesus Christ in himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherewith he hath made us freely accepted in his beloved.
7 By whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to his rich grace:
8 Whereby he hath been abundant toward us in all wisdom and understanding,
9 And hath opened unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in him,
10 That in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, he might gather together in one all things, both which are in heaven, and which are in earth, even in Christ:[22]
11 In whom also we are chosen when we were predestinated according to the purpose of him, which worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
12 That we, which first trusted in Christ, should be unto the praise of his glory:”[23]


[1] John 1:3 WEB.

[2] Greek ‘διά’ -  usually translated  as ‘through’

[3] Revelations 4:11 NKJV

[4] See Acts 17:23(b), 24 NKJV

[5] Acts 17:28 NKJV Acts 17:28 From the Cretan philosopher Epimenides.
Epimenides' Cretica (Κρητικά) is quoted twice in the New Testament. Its only source is a 9th-century Syriac commentary by Isho'dad of Merv on the Acts of the Apostles, discovered, edited and translated (into Greek) by Prof. J. Rendel Harris in a series of articles.[2][3][4]
In the poem, Minos addresses Zeus thus:
J. Rendel Harris' hypothetical Greek text:[3]
Τύμβον ἐτεκτήναντο σέθεν, κύδιστε μέγιστε,
Κρῆτες, ἀεὶ ψευδεῖς, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαί.
Ἀλλὰ σὺ γ᾽ οὐ θνῇσκεις, ἕστηκας γὰρ ζοὸς αίεί,
Ἐν γὰρ σοὶ ζῶμεν καὶ κινύμεθ᾽ ἠδὲ καὶ ἐσμέν.
Translation:
They fashioned a tomb for you, holy and high one,
Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies.
But you are not dead: you live and abide forever,
For in you we live and move and have our being.

[6] Romans 8:20 AMPC (Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)

[7] Complete Jewish Bible

[8] Colossians 1:16,17 NIV

[9] See Ephesians 1:9  the Greek word “εὐδοκία” Strong’s 2107

[10] Colossians 1:17

[11] See footnote b in NKJV ‘Or something to be held onto to be equal’

[12] NKJV

[13] Greek ‘ἐκένωσεν’ Strong’s 2758

[14] WEB Philippians 2:7

[15] My emphasis and highlighting in bold.

[16]  Fifth Para on The Self-Emptying of Christ Fuller Theological seminary. www.fuller.edu Kenosis I Fuller Seminary.  I apologise for not being able to quote who wrote this as it was not available on the website. I wish to give and state the author deserves all credit for what was written. I have emailed Fuller Theological Seminary and am awaiting their reply.

[17] Borrowing the thoughts and words from The-Self Emptying of Christ referred in footnote 14

[18] ibid 15 above

[19] Ephesians 1:10 NKJV

[20] John 3:16

[21] See Strong’s 2889

[22] See also Colossians 1:16,17 footnote (8) above and Romans 8:19-22 “19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” NIV

[23] 1599 Geneva Bible (GNV)
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