Hermeneutics Seminar (Chris Bruno)

The Incarnation of God

Intro: Philippians 2:5–11 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Look at how Israel relates to YWHY and the church to Christ. They are the same.

People relate to Jesus as God and worship him. They recognize his uniqueness.

Philippians: Seek unity by laying down their rights for the sake of others. Christ did this.

Underlying commands for the church.

PREEXISTANCE: Christ personally belongs to an order of being beyond the temporal one/created.

“Form of God” - Morphetheo - genitive, he has a divine form (Pre-incarnate state)

Shares the quality of deity with God.

Jesus was in the very nature, GOD.

The greatness of Christ well over Adam. Adam wanted to be like God (grasp something he did not have and should not have desired) but Christ who is God “did not count equality with God.”

“Did not count equality with God” - Ontological equality that the Trinity shares. The Father and Son share the same substance. He did not get tempted by it. He IS IT. That is His state.

In any case, CHRIST IS EQUAL TO GOD THE FATHER.

INCARNATION AND REDEMPTION

“Emptied himself” - again, he did not get rid of divine attributes. He cannot get rid of any attributes and still be fully divine God. He did not divest himself of his divine attributes.

He did not remove divinity. He added humanity? But he can’t add anything to himself either. He emptied, by adding? “He emptied, BY taking the form of a servant”.

Emptied himself is a metaphor? Word picture? Are we now allegorizing? No. He appeared as human by clothing himself with that nature. The question is, if Jesus Christ is unchanging in eternity, is his clothing himself in humanity a change for him? No, because it never changed his divine nature.

The Philippians 2:10 passage refers to YHWY. OT and NT link.

Isaiah 45:22–23 ““Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’”

He did not empty his divine nature and then become exalted by God again.

Nicene creed in continuity with Phil 2.

Q and A

Resource: Concise Commentaries from Gospel Coalitions

Yes, Jesus had a human spirit.

Because his person is the divine Son he cannot sin. But maybe it’s not that he cannot sin, but more that he WOULD NOT sin. It’s not a part of his nature.

External versus internal temptations. He has NO internal desire within himself. Christ himself has no internal evil desire that can entice him the way that we have or that Adam has. And this really goes along with what AW Tozer talks about. Even though tempted he externally he can’t be carried away by it. And Christ was tempted even further because he resisted until the end. And actually he’s more human because he resisted sin until the end.

School of hard knocks not necessary.

When we are trying to resist sin, the only one we rely on is the one person who cannot be overtaken by sin.