The Kenosis
By John Gavazzoni

I've often pondered what Paul meant to convey by the self-emptying of Christ (the kenosis), and while in such pondering, I have always experienced a sense of awe as I realized, though with minimal understanding, that what lay at the heart of this disposition of the Son of God, and His carrying out of the same, was/is that characteristic of divine love, that pours itself out for others, and does so even as the necessity of self-sacrifice in the ultimate extreme presents itself.

As you'll note, I see that His self-emptying traces to His pouring out of Himself which is at the heart of the administration of God, and further traces to the very communion within Deity which in turn becomes the (true) communion of the saints. Outpouring, within the eons, becomes that self-emptying of profound Pauline thought. Yet why should this the divine outpouring have a sacrificial aspect?

As the Spirit opened my understanding to this essential dynamic within the Divine Nature, i.e., the unreserved outpouring of love by the Father to the Son (whose Sonship ontologically constitutes the whole extended family of God) and since God IS love, it amounts to the total giving of all that the Father is to the Son Who thus in turn, being in the form of God as the Son, in turn pours forth Himself to all His many brethren ("The Father has life in Himself, and gives the Son to have life in Himself," which is an

outpouring life), I was led to ponder why there would be any self-sacrificing element in that dynamic of outpouring.

Certainly, in the dimension of eternity, as the Father pours forth Himself to the Son, the Father is not left in some measure depleted of life. In fact, the very propensity of the Father to pour Himself out, is what makes the Divine Life always fresh. There is, as it were, no stagnation with God. That's what is indicated by Jesus' metaphors describing God's life as a well of water springing up....and rivers of living water gushing forth.

This lead me, as I was granted a bit of understanding, to factor in the difference between this above dynamic within eternity as contrasted in time. Within eternity, apart from the time factor, there is no suffering quality to God's outpouring, but when this administration is transferred into the eons, it becomes a different story. Within the dimension of the ages, within the dimension of eternity, there is not the same instantaneous replenishing of the life poured out. The result is sin and death.

It may seem strange, but what I heard from the Spirit in my meditation, was that within the ages, there is a lag-time between the out-pouring, and the replenishing. In the eternal dimension, the replenishing of life outpoured is instantaneous, completely concurrent with the outpouring, and to be sure, the Divine Nature replenishes Itself from within Itself.

Keep in mind, that this administration is that of love being outpoured. It is integral to the affliction that God has subjected our creaturehood to in the experience of eonian life, that Jesus Himself, in solidarity with us, suffers from, namely, and here we're stretched rhetorically, the extreme of unrequited love. It is at the heart of all creations subjection to futility, that we must love without being instantaneously/concurrently having love returned to us.

Therein lies the suffering aspect of the self-emptying of Jesus. To have been so perfectly loved by the Father, and to have been sent by the Father into the world to others with the same perfection of outpouring, and then to have that mutuality of love interrupted, is at the heart of the suffering of Christ in the Christ event. To suffer such deprivation, having come from such absolute provision, is suffering of unimaginable enormity. His cry, gathering together in Himself, all mankind's experience of this deprivation, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" fully expresses the nature of the passion of Christ.

We were with Him in eternity, having experienced love instantly returned, and to suffer deprivation of that ecstacy, is what we all suffer from in the human condition, which suffering Jesus fully bore, and transformed it for us all into a super-level of shared glory that required the contrariety I've described above.

Remember, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. All of God underwent a suffering of rather than having Their love returned, Their love faced monstrous hostility/enmity. But that love didn't quit, didn't give up, didn't fail in the face of rejection.

"And can it be, that I should gain,
An entrance in my Savior's blood.
Died He for me, who caused His pain,
For me, who Him to death pursued.

"Amazing love, how can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me."