For me it was that He "emptied Himself." And I think the Biblical picture is not so much that He emptied anything from Himself, but rather that He emptied Himself into a physical body that could experience temptation, pain, and death on my behalf. A body which, however, did not experience corruption and decay, but which was risen incorruptible!

Let me illustrate with a true story: My church supports a mission in Uganda where the people live in little huts and ordinarily do without electricity, indoor plumbing, and all the luxuries most of us take for granted. People from our church have spent some time there on short term mission trips. Last year we were able to bring our Ugandan friend here to speak to our church and others, and he was absolutely dumbfounded at the sheer spectacular wealth and convenience we enjoy here.

When we met at last, he was still wide-eyed with amazement at all he was seeing. For a while I felt ashamed, because of the poverty he lives in compared to the wealth here. Until he set me straight.

"You must really, really love us," he said through tears. I was surprised at that.

I thought he'd have been a little angry, perhaps. I thought he might say, "You guys have all this abundance and you send us small tokens to make yourselves feel less guilty about the disparity." But that isn't what he said.

"You guys must really, really love us! To leave all of this wealth and convenience, to come to our village and live among us, helping us build the school..."

That's what Jesus did for us! But this missionary brought it light anew for me that day. If there was nothing else served by his visit, that was more than enough to justify the money we spent to bring him here.

Soli Deo Gloria!