‘Kenosis’ – “…but He emptied Himself…” This has been a most controversial, and a most argumentative issue among theologians. Did Jesus leave his deity in Heaven? What did Jesus empty Himself of? I believe this kenosis passage is not a subtraction but an addition. It’s not so much He left as He gained. I mean, i think God the Son had a brand-new experience when He incarnated. To say God had a brand-new experience is just kind of a bold statement anyway, but God had never been a human being before. And now He was one, and so what we have here is not so much Him leaving something in Heaven as Him adding something to His nature. I want to tell you when we see Jesus, we’re going to see a human being with physical form. The only member of the Trinity that has a corporeal existence is Jesus. So one of the things that happened here by Him becoming a man is that God fully and completely understood what it’s really like to be a creature of time; what’s it really like to be a creature affected by surroundings that are in rebellion against God. God really became one of us. I think what He left is His glory, and He retained His deity. We see that so clearly on the Mount of Transfiguration when the disciples were there, and Moses and Elijah came and talked to Jesus. The Bible describes it in the best terms that it can, it says His garments and His body begin to glow. That divine aspect broke through the human shell, and the full divine Jesus is revealed there to those sleepy apostles. That’s exactly what we’re talking about that humanity could contain that kind of essence, and that to see Jesus is to really see God. The Bible also says of Jesus, that He is tempted in every way as we are yet without sin (cf. Hebrews 4:15). What it helps us to know is that every temptation that is common to man, Jesus has experienced. He knows us and He still loves. Indeed, His is an amazing love – the love that will not let the human race go. He completely knows us and therefore when we come to Jesus, He understands. Do you know Him?