Philippians 2: 5-11
5 Have
this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who,
although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with
God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied
Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being
made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in
appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the
point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For
this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the
name which is above every name, 10 so that at the
name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven
and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every
tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.
I have been thinking about this passage for years. It is one that holds my
interest as it unpacks a little about Jesus’s deity and what He gave up to come
to us to save us. There are some tough word choices that I think have messed up
many people’s theology. To start it states Jesus “existed in the form of God”.
Some take that to mean Jesus was not God but merely a form of God. Jesus was
fully Man and fully God. However, this “form”, I believe, is in reference to
the pre-incarnational existence of Jesus and not His earthly attributes.
Next, Jesus did not grasp for His equality with God. Why would He? Being God
incarnate, Jesus would still be God but only as a human being. However, here is
where it gets tricky. Jesus emptied Himself of His divinity to become a human
being. This is a bit hard to grasp unless you begin to study about multiple
dimensions.
According to science, there are at least 10 dimensions, (some state there is
even more). They are 10, according to this
PBS
article.
I know that is a lot to take in, and I may have lost many of
you. However, this is important as I begin to unpack this idea of how/why Jesus
emptied Himself by becoming a human. First let us look at the idea that there
is a two dimensional person. This person can only see things from the
perspective of a plain or two points. It would be like drawing a stick-man who
can move right or left or up and down on a page. However, this stick-man cannot
move in the 3D world. Now say, this 2D stick-man encounters a simple orb from
the 3D world. The stick-man would not grasp what an orb is. Instead, from his
perspective he would only see a circle with a dot in the middle of it.
Now, imagine being a 3D being, (as you already are) who wants to show a 2D
person what an orb is. In a way, this is impossible. There are two possible
ways to do this. One is to become a 2D person and use metaphors and other tools
to explain within the 2D world what a 3D world is like. This would be much like
how Jesus would state, “The Kingdom of God is like…” Jesus taught in parables
that revealed higher meaning to the hearer if they had ears to hear. Jesus also
performed miracles within our world. The first miracle being, Jesus emptying Himself and became a
human otherwise known as the incarnation.
Another way that a 3D being would show a 2D being is to help the 2D being
become a 3D being. I think this is much like the Biblical teaching of the idea
of being "Born of Heaven" that is now, and the "New Creation"
that is to come. In a sense, I see the idea of the multidimensional universe as
an intriguing tool to show that science can open a deeper understanding for our
faith. While many who have developed this multiple universe theory are
atheists, I see that there is at least the possibility of a higher being that
does exist in another dimension that we would not even begin to grasp. In some
sense, this being might not be God or a god, but would appear to us as if they
were. However, there is in my opinion the huge possibility that if there is a
Higher Being it is God the Creator of all.