Jesus & The Holy Spirit

Jesus Emptied Himself When He Became A Man, And Walked In the Baptism Of The Holy Spirit.

This is an insight that many people find difficult at first to receive, but it is essential to understanding the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that when Jesus became a man and walked among us, He emptied Himself of His Divine rights and powers and actually lived out the life of a man like any other. Most people look at the life that Jesus lived, and in essence they think, “well, that’s great and all but… of course He did all that. He was God. He was Jesus. Those things were no big deal for Him…” But to say that reveals a lack of understanding as to who Jesus became in His incarnation. The word “kenosis” means “emptying”, and was used by the Apostle Paul to describe what Jesus did when He was born in Bethlehem and became one of us.


That is just one of the passages in the New Testament that describe the mindset of Christ when He took on human flesh – and there are others that we will look at. There is no getting around the fact that this passage tells us that Jesus is God – “Who being in the form of God” – the “morphe”, in Greek – the very essence, being, nature, substance of God. (See study guide titled “Is Jesus God?” for more on that). But it also says that He voluntarily emptied Himself and took on the very form, morphe, essence, being, nature, substance of a man. He never stopped being God, but He laid aside certain aspects of the privilege of Godhood, such as omnipresence and omniscience. Most of us know that, at least on a shallow level – we know that He became only one Man at one time (so He was no longer omnipresent as God is.) We know that He was also subject to the hunger, thirst, weariness of a man. He had to fall asleep in a boat due to exhaustion, could not carry the Cross another step on the way to Calvary, and actually died a real death like a man does. Those are not things that we would suppose God could go through, but all things Jesus experienced as a man, because He had emptied Himself and become one of us. In that, we also see that He relied on God the Holy Spirit to give Him words of wisdom and knowledge and prophecy in order to have the insight He had. For instance, in Matthew 24 He could not tell His disciples when He was going to return for His Church, because in His manhood, He did not know. The Spirit had not seen fit to give Him that insight at that moment.
The most important point I want to make here is that Jesus did not consider His equality with God something to be held onto for Himself, but rather relinquished it for the purpose of taking on the form of a man and living the life of a man. Here are some other verses that describe what Jesus became when He walked this earth:


Those verses from Hebrews tell us that in order to become our merciful, compassionate and faithful High Priest Jesus had to become “like us in every way”. In order to pay the penalty that man owed in his rebellion against God, Jesus had to become a man and die on that Cross. Also, in order to be that sympathetic High Priest Who ever lives to make intercession for us, Who understands all of our infirmities and weaknesses, He had to be tried, tested and tempted in every way that we ever are or will be. In order to do that, He really did have to become as weak as any man or woman is, and experience all the limitations of being a human. That is an amazing truth that, when we grasp it, will help us understand not only the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but the High Priestly role that Jesus offers to play in our lives every second of every day (see the audio teachings of Hebrews 2-5 for more on that).

    Now - if Jesus actually became a man as all this suggests, then the question is, how did Jesus live the life He did? How was He able to perform miracles, healings, resurrections, and deliver words of prophecy? How was He even able to deal with people the way He did, when they pressed in on Him and persecuted Him and constantly threw their children at Him… and yet, He never ceased to respond with the love of God in every instance, perfectly? The answer reveals to us the secret that God intends for us to walk in as well, if we’re to experience any kind of “victory” in the Christian life: Jesus was the Man that He was because the Holy Spirit came upon Him and gave Him power to live a life that was pleasing to the Father.

Here are some more Scriptures that support this idea.
1st, a prophecy from the Old Testament concerning Who Jesus was to be:


    It is clear from this prophecy that Jesus was to come to this earth as a man Who was anointed by the Holy Spirit to do what He did. Therefore, again, it was the Holy Spirit Who rested upon Jesus and made Him different from other men, giving Him the ability to do the supernatural things He did on earth.

The New Testament is even clearer…


Interestingly, the word for “upon” is the same word used by Luke in Acts 1, where Jesus promises us the baptism of the Holy Spirit. What this tells us is that Jesus experienced the same baptism of the Spirit for power that is available to you and I by promise from the Father.


    So Jesus went into ministry, not by His own power, but by the power of the baptism, or filling, of the Holy Spirit.


    So again, Jesus moved into ministry not as the second person of the Godhead, but as a Man Who was anointed and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

    When He went into the synagogue to teach, He opened the scroll to another Old Testament prophecy that foretold Who He would be and how He would move among us in the incarnation:

    So there again Jesus, wanting to explain to the people what He was going to be all about, spoke clearly of the role of the Holy Spirit in His life and ministry. He is here saying, in a way, “what you’re about to see Me do over the next three and ½ years I want you to know I am not doing by My own power. The miracles… the teachings… the healings and resurrections… none of them I will do by My own strength. I don’t write My own sermons. I don’t heal anyone. It’s the Spirit of the Lord Who has come upon Me and given Me this power that you will be seeing.”



So it was the Holy Spirit Who enabled Jesus to live the perfect life He did, and at the end offer up to the Father the perfect, spotless testimony of a Man Who lived completely without sin.


So even the Apostles, as they testified of Jesus in the Book of Acts, realized and testified that Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit of God to do the things He did and live the life He lived.


So the question then becomes, “what does this have to do with ME? How does this affect my life and my Christianity? What does the life of Jesus and the power He displayed through the Spirit mean for my life?” For an answer, listen to the audio teachings and use the study guides found in the next section.