Emptying Himself.

 
As a person, He emptied Himself (Phil. 2:77But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: (Philippians 2:7)). He could not have done so save as God. A creature who leaves his first estate sins therein. The sovereign Lord can descend in grace. In Him it is love. Then, as in that position, He receives all. All the words He has are given to Him. He is, though unchangeable in nature as God, yet in His path a dependent man. He lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, is sealed by the Father; the glory He had before the world is now given Him of the Father.
Now, in this state of obedient servant with a revelation which God gave to Him, the day and hour of His judicial action was not revealed (Mark 13:3232But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. (Mark 13:32)). “It is not for you,” He says to His disciples, “to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in His own power” (Acts 1:77And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. (Acts 1:7)). And to this exactly Psalms 110. answers, as has been observed by another: “Sit on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.” When? Sit there in this place of divine glory till—no more is said. Now I do not pretend to explain—God forbid I should! — how this is. I see in scripture the full (not theiotees only, but) theotees1 of Christ maintained by the truth, that none can know the Son but the Father; the Father we do. He is simply the adorable God. “No man knows the Son but the Father, and no man knows the Father but the Son, and He to whom the Son shall reveal Him” (Matt. 11:2727All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. (Matthew 11:27)). The Son’s divine nature seemed, so to speak, exposed to danger by His blessed humiliation—not so the Father. It is secured (I mean, of course, as to [man’s] thought) by His being thereby absolutely unfathomable. Such I believe He is. I know He is the Son; I know He is a true, proper man. I know he is “I Am,” “the true God.” How to put this together I do not know; though I see and know they are together, I am glad I do not as a creature. Did I know, I should have lost that divine fullness which, if capable of being fathomed when in manhood, was not truly then divine. God, through grace, I know; man, too, I know, in a certain sense; but God become a man is beyond all, even my spiritual thoughts. Be it so. It is infinite grace, and I can adore. I am sure for my soul’s blessing He is both; and the Son of the Father too—for the persons are as distinct as the nature is clear.
J.N.D.