Study of First Peter Chapter 2 Lesson 37
Review: Quote from C. H. Macintosh
"Christ is there for us,— there to show us how to meet the enemy in all his varied
temptations, there to show us how to live. We must not suppose for a moment
that our Lord met the adversary as God, as deity. True, He was and is true God,
but if it were only as such that He stood in the conflict, it could not afford
any example for us.
Besides, it would be needless to
tell us that God was able to vanquish and put to flight a creature which His
own hand had formed. But to see One who was, in every respect, a man, and in
all the circumstances of humanity, yet without sin,—to see Him there in weakness, in
hunger, standing amid the consequences of man's fall, and to find Him
triumphing completely over the every foe, it is this which is so full of
comfort, consolation, strength, and encouragement for us.
And just how did He triumph? This
is the grand and all-important question for us,—a question demanding the most
profound attention of every believer—a question the magnitude and importance of
which it would be utterly impossible to overstate. How, then, did the Man
Christ Jesus vanquish Satan in the wilderness? Simply by
applying the Word of God.
He overcame not as the almighty
God, but as the humble, dependent, self-emptied, and obedient
And let us carefully note that our
blessed Lord does not reason with Satan. He does not appeal to any facts
connected with Himself—facts with which the enemy was well acquainted. He does
not say, I know I am the Son of God; the opened
heavens, the descending Spirit, the Father's voice, have all borne witness to
the fact of My being the Son of God. No; this would not do; it would not and
could not be an example for us. The one special point for us to seize and learn
from is, that our great Exemplar, when meeting all the
temptations of the enemy, used only the weapon which we have in our possession,
namely, the simple, precious, written, Word of God."
Meaning
of Hypostatic
The
hypostatic union may be defined as “the second person, the preincarnate Christ
came and took to Himself a human nature and remains forever undiminished Deity
and true humanity united in one person forever.”
When
Christ came, a Person came, not just a nature; He took on an additional nature,
a human nature—He did not simply dwell in a human person. The result of the
union of the two natures is the theanthropic Person (the God-man).
An
Explanation of Hypostatic Union {what does it all mean}
The two
natures of Christ are inseparably united without mixture or loss of separate
identity. He remains forever the God-man, fully God and fully man, two distinct
natures in one Person forever.
Even
though it is evident that there were two natures in Christ, He is never to be
considered a dual personality.”
In
summarizing the hypostatic union, three facts are noted:
(1)
Christ has two distinct natures: humanity and deity;
(2) there is no mixture or intermingling of the two natures;
(3) although He has two natures, Christ is one Person.
Next we need to expand
on the doctrine of Kenosis, the setting aside of the independent use of His
deity while in the incarnation.
When we
consider the humanity of Christ as we have it revealed here in 1 Peter for the
purpose of setting an example for us as believers to follow in our daily lives one thing that
doesn't often come into the picture for us is that of sanctification of Jesus
Christ.
What does sanctification mean? It means to be set
apart to God for a purpose. In the incarnation Christ was clearly set apart for
a purpose by God therefore sanctification is connected with Him in His
humanity.
The author of the epistle to the Hebrews put it
this way:
“For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all
things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to
glory, to perfect (teleio,w) the author of their salvation through
sufferings.” (Heb.
Sanctification
points to the training of the soul to live in obedience to God’s will in every
area. It follows, therefore, that
even a sinless human (like Christ) would have to experience sanctification to
accomplish His mission as a man.
What
this points out to us is that God's provision for us through the Word and the
indwelling Holy Spirit will indeed work every time it is used in your life.
Just as it did for Christ in His humanity during the incarnation.
Some passages that illustrate
the need to understand the doctrine of the hypostatic union and kenosis.
We
noted last week that the word kenosis comes from the Greek verb “to empty” (kjv = made himself of no
reputation), in
Philippians 2:7.
The
Bible, however, insists that Christ did set aside the independent use of His
divine nature while He lived on earth under the conditions of trials and
pressures during the incarnation.
Some
examples:
Several
passages concern Christ’s divine attribute of omniscience.
Matthew
24:36 and Mark
While
several other texts (e.g., Mark 5:9;
Obviously
on other occasions in the NT Jesus clearly manifested or revealed His omniscience (John
In
Matthew 4:1-4 Christ refused to show His omnipotence to answer Satan’s
challenge to make stones into bread.
Matthew
Luke 4:14,18
likewise proclaims that Christ did His wonderful works by the indwelling Spirit
rather than by His own omnipotence.
Nevertheless,
other passages appear to demonstrate that Christ occasionally used His
omnipotence (Matt.
The biblical data, then, presents a somewhat
ambiguous picture. Sometimes Christ shows His divine nature, but on most
occasions He does not.
Paul in Philippians 2:5-11 explains this situation
as some sort of “emptying” or kenosis. Jesus Himself refers to the problem as
being without His eternal glory (John 17:5).
The
Doctrine of Kenosis Stated.
The debate among theologians has been concerned with stating the
doctrine of kenosis and not in any way dilute the divine nature of Christ on
one hand, yet to give due weight to the restricted use of this divine nature
during Christ’s trials on the other hand.
The problem:
If
His divine nature is diluted, then the hypostatic union is denied. If His
divine nature is not restricted, then Christ cannot be a model for believers in
sanctification since His would have an advantage not shared by any other man.
The best definition, however, is that kenosis refers to the giving up
of the independent use of the divine attributes.
Christ’s
kenosis, therefore, is a result of His willing submission to the Father’s will.
He subordinated Himself to the Father by giving up the independent use of His
divine nature.
Of what practical use is the doctrine of kenosis in the
Christian life?
Paul,
at least, thought it must have had some application as he revealed it in
Philippians 2 as did Peter in 1 Pet 2 both of which are clearly contexts dealing with the practical issues of
living life and having an impact because your using the resources available to
you.