javelin:
I admit I was a bit confused as to your emphasis the Jesus emptied Himself to take the form of a man, to the point that He “could do nothing” Himself, almost as though you were saying that He had completely forsaken His divinity (was no longer really God) while He was on earth. I am not yet convinced, though, that it is directly pertinent to this particular discussion. But please clarify, as mercygate has also requested – what do you believe regarding the nature of the Incarnation?
It is a foregone conclusion, based on Scripture, that Jesus Christ was God the Son incarnate. “
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” But the amazing fact of the incarnation is not that Jesus was God, but that He became one of US. Fully human. And not just the fact that He was incarnated fully man through the virgin birth , but came in the form of a “
bond-servant” to God. To live out His entire human life in servitude to His heavenly Father. In His pre-incarnate state He already had as His possession the unique dignity of His place within the Godhead, but in His incarnate humanity He "
did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped (i.e., by asserting His position and power which were His in the Godhead), but
emptied Himself, taking the form of a
bond-servant, being made in the likeness (or, fashion) of men (Phil. 2:5-6).
The Son didn’t come into this world to display Himself as God, as some sort of “Divine Exhibitionist.” But He made a pre-incarnate choice to set aside (Note: not
divest Himself of ) His divine attributes and chose rather to be
proclaimed as equal with God, as a man, by God, i.e., as “
Lord”, by the acceptance of His destiny as the incarnate and humiliated One (Phil. 2:9-11). Totally unlike the first “man” (Adam) who considered equality with God something he could grasped himself (see Phil. 2:6; compare with, Gen. 3:5).
The Son didn’t volunteer to come into this world as a man, bodily, to prove to the world that there is a God, thereby displaying Himself as God (another man, with its evil intent, will do that in the not so far future, see 2 Thess. 2:4). God had already revealed Himself to the Jews, and displayed the glory of His power to them throughout their history. But, as a man, the Son came to do the perfect will of the Father, humbling Himself in the form of a
bond-servant, becoming obedient, as a man, to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:8).
That’s why Jesus said in John five that He can do nothing of Himself, that He can do nothing on His own initiative (I quoted those verses previously). Because such is not the place or the prerogative of a true
bond-servant.
The point being, javelin, when the Son incarnated into this world system, He became fully man, even bodily, and did not live out His life on earth in the power and authority of His pre-incarnate position in the Godhead. He did not live out His life on earth “as God,” He did not die “as God,” He was not resurrected “as God,” but, bodily, as a man, a bond-servant of His Father. But it is now God the Father who exalts Him, as a man, to be LORD of all creation (Phil. 2:9-11) by virtue of His obedience, His servitude and the humiliation of His incarnation.
Jesus now resides in heaven with the same physical, human body in which He was incarnated, lived, died and resurrected. A glorified body, yes, but nevertheless the SAME human body. His body after the resurrection did not take on His pre-incarnate, divine attributes. It remains to this day a fully human, though resurrected and glorified body. It cannot be, by virtue of what it is,
omnipresent – which is what the doctrine of
transubstantiation demands if it was at all true.
And I’m sorry, but your postulation that Jesus is in heaven constantly performing miracles on His physical Person by multiplying it and serving it (like loaves of bread and fish),
invisibly, in the Eucharist, to me is a totally unjustifiable and subjective attempt to try to explain a doctrine which cannot, by virtue of its falsity and total lack of Divine revelation, be explained. Which, I must say, has been demonstrated on this thead.
I hope I have sufficiently explained my view. See my post to “mercygate” #480
Blessing,
Bene
P.S. This Christmas don’t celebrate so much that the Son humbled Himself and became a man, but that as a man He humbled Himself and took on the form of a human
bond-servant, even to the point of death that your and my salvation and justification be given by God to us “
gift-wise.” If you want to rejoice over gifts this Christmas, celebrate, rejoice in these - procured and secured by God’s holy “Bond-servant.”
