Christ in His Humanity

[Peter Debelak]

Perhaps I will overstep here, since my topic will not, on its face, be about Lee or Nee's theology. But I have been considering Phillipians 2:

5 Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6 who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,

7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;

8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.

Humility.

As a man, Christ exhibited innumerable beautiful virtues. Thing is, I can't think of any which weren't expressions of His divine attributes: love, righteousness, holiness, boldness, kindness, etc... - except one: humility.

I don't see any reason for the divine to be humble intrinsically. It is a uniquely human attribute (as rare as it is). I wonder if the source of any true humility is bred by an inability (or difficulty) to do the Fathers will. The prayer in Gethsemane is poignant. Obedience is a uniquely human task, and a uniquely human difficulty. Our Christ felt that difficultly intensely. It issued in humility - an emptying. His one virtue that was born purely from the human experience.

First, thought on accuracy of that?

Second, if you agree, what story is told by that?

Peter

[KSA]

I would say that Christ decided to humble Himself before He was actually incarnated. He existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself... This makes me think that humility is a divine attribute. Besides, man was created in God's image, there is no human virtue that does not come from God's image. Now I understand your frustration as it is hard to understand why God would be intrinsically humble. I think (but not 100% certain) that it may be related to the mistery of Trinity. John 17 shows us that the oneness is the divine attribute. However, oneness is not possible without humility. Therefore, humility should be a divine attribute.

[Paul Miletus]

Allow me to post the RcV footnote #4 on Philippians 2:8 --

84 The death of a cross is the climax of Christ's humiliation. To the Jews it was a curse (Deut. 21:22-23). To the Gentiles it was a death sentence imposed on malefactors and slaves (Matt. 27:16-17, 20-23). Hence, it was a shameful thing (Heb. 12:2).

The Lord's humiliation involved seven steps: (1) emptying Himself; (2) taking the form of a slave; (3) becoming in the likeness of men; (4) humbling Himself; (5) becoming obedient; (6) being obedient even unto death; and (7) being obedient unto the death of the cross.

[KSA]

This foornote is not exactly relevent to the topic of this thread. We were discussing whether humility is God's attribute or something exclusively human.

[Paul Miletus]

This foornote is not exactly relevent to the topic of this thread. We were discussing whether humility is God's attribute or something exclusively human.

God's attributes became our human virtues because of the humanity of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is both God and Man.

As mentioned in the footnote, the Lord's humility has taken placed in His HUMANITY after He emptied Himself --

Philippians 2
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,

The Lord's humiliation involved seven steps: (1) emptying Himself; (2) taking the form of a slave; (3) becoming in the likeness of men; (4) humbling Himself; (5) becoming obedient; (6) being obedient even unto death; and (7) being obedient unto the death of the cross.

[KSA]

My view is that the Lord humbled Himself even before incarnation - IN HIS MIND! He did not count His equality with God as something to be grasped, and this not counting was humbling even before His incarnation. Notice that this portion from Philippians asks us to have the same MIND. We are not equal with God, we cannot empty oursleves of the form of God, but we can have the same mind to humble ourselves.