“Christian theology has long attributed self-limitation to God in the very notion of God creating something other than Godself with a given degree of autonomy.” An all-powerful God must, of necessity, accommodate himself to the limitations of that with which he desires to be in relationship; otherwise, he remains unreachable, unknowable and unknown. But any limitation by God is only by his free will, is only in his freely made decision to share his eternal love beyond his triunity. While immutable in his being he can choose to limit himself as and when necessary, for example, to accommodate his infinitude to the finitude of his creatures.
Kenosis means emptying and comes from Philippians 2:5-11 where Paul speaks of Christ “who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness” (6-7). Paul also says that “being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” (7b-8). “In his commentary on Philippians, Gordon Fee argues that this emptying and humbling of self of Christ and his death on the cross are to be understood as a revelation of the character of God.” Commenting on this passage, N.T.Wright states: “The real theological emphasis of the hymn…is a new understanding of God….Calvary reveals the truth about what it meant to be God.”
In both the eternal Trinitarian relations and the kenosis of Christ, God reveals his nature to be kenotic. Christ’s kenosis reveals that acts of self-emptying are key to understanding God’s nature. Out of love, Christ deliberately chose to limit some of his divine prerogatives. Kenosis speaks of self-giving, self-surrender, self-sacrificing, self-emptying; of giving all one has, holding nothing back; of self-limitation or better yet, of self-restraint. Bulgakov calls kenosis a voluntary “self-diminuation with respect to [God’s] absoluteness.”
Kenosis is the selflessness of the divine persons, the selflessness Christ both exhibits and calls his followers to demonstrate. Kenosis is entirely consistent with scripture and as Christ is kenotic, his followers are expected to be as well. His disciples are told to pick up their crosses, to set aside their own wills, their own desires, and to become servants, “in order to act as a channel for God’s will.” Following Christ’s example, we are to give up the rightful claim to power and authority and take on self-sacrifice. “A kenotic Christology…explains the Incarnation in terms of the Logos ‘giving up’ or ‘laying aside’ or ‘divesting itself of’ or ‘emptying itself of’ certain properties that normally belong to divinity.” “[It] is the act of free self-limitation and free self-expenditure.” Kenosis reveals the deep unity within the Trinity and demonstrates how a fully human life is to be lived – selflessly.
The triune God of love is kenotic.
Sources: Arthur Peacocke, George L. Murphy, N.T.Wright, Sergius Bulgakov, Ellis
Trinitarian Theodicy 