Kenosis

That word, I am told, means "emptying".  This is what the Lord Jesus experienced as he took on manhood in order to redeem the world.  It is such a cause for worship!  The glorious Word of God, who speaks creation into existence and upholds all of creation and life by his powerful word, set aside divine glory.

J.I. Packer explains this:  " . . a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, isolation, ill-treatment, malice, and misunderstanding; finally, a death which involved such agony - spiritually, even more than physical - that his mind nearly broke under the prospect of it (See Luke 12:50, and the Gethsemane story.)  It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely men, who 'through his poverty, might become rich'.

Through the Kenosis of the eternal Word of God, through this awesome service of love, I have become rich!!  I want to praise the living God for this act of mercy and grace that staggers the mind.  We know from Philippians that because of this chosen poverty God has exalted Jesus and given him the name above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!  I bow the knee this morning and with adoration in my heart I confess him as my Lord this day and always.