What is the kenosis?

"Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant." (Authorised Version)

"Christ Jesus who subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God: but emptied Himself, taking a bondman's place." (J.N. Darby's New Translation).

The Greek verb for emptied is Kenoō in the original, hence the term, Kenosis theory.

Christ, on the contrary, when He was in the form of God, emptied Himself, through love, of all His outward glory, of the form of God, and took the form of a man; and, even when He was in the form of a man, still humbled Himself. It was a second thing which He did in humbling Himself. As God, He emptied Himself; as man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.

Nothing can be conceived more conclusively to prove His own supremely divine glory than the simple statement of the text. Gabriel, yea, the archangel Michael, has no higher dignity than that of being God's servant, in the sphere assigned to each. The Son of God alone had to empty Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. All others were, at best, God's servants; and nothing could increase that dignity for them or lift them above it. Of Christ alone it was true, that He took a bondservant's form; and of Him alone could it be true, because He was in the form of God.

Yet must we carefully bear in mind that it would be as impossible for a divine person to cease to be God, as for a man to become a divine person. But it was the joy and triumph of divine grace that He who was God, equally with the Father, when about to become a man, did not carry down the glory and power of the Godhead to confound man before Him, but rather emptied Himself... He put in abeyance all His glory.

Being in the form of God, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondman. Of His own will, He divested Himself of His prerogatives as God, choosing not to command as God but to obey as a servant. All the inherent rights of deity are His inalienably; obedience, however, is a function not of deity, but of one who takes the place of submission to the will of another.

As it were, He had laid aside His garments (His seamless robe) and girded Himself with a towel for menial service at the disciples' feet. His dis-robing did not affect His personal relationship to them as the Lord and the Teacher.

Like most of the devil's lies, it has the show of appealing to Scripture. The word Kenosis is taken from the Greek word used in Philippians 2:7... The passage tells us how our Lord Jesus — in the form of God and equal with God — emptied Himself in becoming Man. That is, He divested Himself of all that made Him externally glorious till He was only known as the carpenter's son.

It does not mean that He ceased to be what He was, or that He became ignorant and subject to the common opinions and delusions of His day, as is blasphemously asserted. The whole Gospel record denies such an evil interpretation of this text. What did He say concerning Himself? — "My record is true." "My judgment is true." "As my Father has taught Me I speak." "I speak that which I have seen with My Father." All these quotations come from one chapter, John 8.

By His emptying Himself we understand the veiling of the visible glory of God, who dwells in unapproachable light, and the voluntarily taking upon Himself manhood, and becoming subject to the Father's will... Yet constantly there was that shining out which revealed His Godhead glory...

The Kenosis theory would annihilate the truth as to the Lord's Person. The mystery of His Person can never be understood by man. "No man knows the Son, but the Father" (Matt. 11:27), puts an impassable barrier, which we can never cross; yet how satisfying to faith are the assertions of Scripture that Jesus is very God and very man, yet one Person.

Kenosis is indeed a word taken from Scripture: it is the "self-emptying" of the second chapter of Philippians... The fact itself is manifest: He was here a Man, in a servant's form. He did not come in the form which was proper to Him as God, though He was God. That is surely plain.

When in manhood He Himself speaks of "the Son of man who is in heaven" (John 3:13). Was He in heaven, then, in the servant's form? Nay, one could not say so. But then the servant's form which He had assumed did not limit Him to that; the kenosis was not absolute and universal, but relative to His appearance upon earth.

When the apostle assures us in Colossians 1:19, that "it pleased all the fullness (of the Godhead — the whole Godhead) to dwell in Him," this is impossible to make consistent with the Kenotic view of self-contraction within the limits of mere manhood. ... It is not Kenoticism, nor consistent with it.

We must assert against the Apollinarian His true Manhood, and against the Kenoticist His complete Godhead; even while we own that the connection between these is inscrutable, and must remain so.

"Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" sets at rest forever all the speculations of unbelief and the philosophic reasonings of the Kenosis. However much He had emptied Himself of His glory, He was still consciously the Son of God, claiming God as His Father.