Question: If Jesus was fully human, did he experience the hormonal and chemical imbalances that are part of our human experience? Was he neurologically supernatural, or was his brain bound the same physical boundaries that ours are bound by?
Answer: Great question. Yes, Jesus experienced all of the fullness of humanity that we did. Imagine the identity of God subjecting himself to a human body. He therefore had to follow all the same rules that humans do. God prophesied to Eve that she would have a human descendant that would fix the human problem of sin (crush satan’s head), so God had to do it by the rules of the curse.
People confuse Jesus’ supernatural works with an inherently supernatural ability, but he did all of those things by the power of the Holy Spirit after he was baptized in the Spirit. Prophets in the Old Testament raised the dead, healed the sick, and even multiplied food. Jesus was doing the same things, just on overdrive.
So yes, God laid aside the parts of his Godly identity that couldn’t mesh with humanity (omniscience and omnipresence for example) to become fully man, even though in identity he was fully God.
Lemme know if that helps 
For a fuller answer on Jesus’ humanity vs his God identity, you can check out my recent paper that’s up on my blog: https://jaminbradley.com/…/the-theology-of-jesus-being…/
Question: I have two questions regarding this. First, in your mind, how does the theological belief of Kenosis square with the immutable nature of God? Second, you said that “people confuse Jesus’ supernatural works with an inherently supernatural ability, but he did all of those things by the power of the Holy Spirit after he was baptized in the Spirit.” This attribution of Jesus’ miracles to the Holy Spirit instead of Jesus’ own divine power stands in opposition to the beliefs of the majority of Christendom, not to mention the majority of the Free Methodist Church. Why exactly do you take such a stance, and how does it inform your perception of the Hypostatic Union?
Answer:
Good questions. To your first point, some of my thoughts on kenosis were in the article I posted.
To the second point, I don’t understand how Jesus’ power being related to the Holy Spirit is against history and the Free Methodist Church? People did similar works to Jesus in the Old Testament and Jesus said his followers would do greater works after him. If we say that Jesus did such things simply because he was God, then the logic goes that people before and after him were God too. And if his followers did greater things than him, maybe some might even argue that they are more God than Jesus. (I don’t believe this, but it’s where the logic can lead.)
The Holy Spirit is supernatural power and empowerment in both the Old and New Testaments, as well as into today. Jesus is unique in that he seemed to operate in that power to the fullest extent. He is not any less God because he needed the Holy Spirit to perform the supernatural. The Bible gives us a theology that God baptized God with God for a reason.
I don’t seem out of line with the article on the Trinity within the Free Methodist Book of Discipline. I don’t see where I’m off with Free Methodist tradition, nor did my church history professor sound an alarm when he graded that linked blog post a few weeks ago.
Question: Thanks for the response, Jamin! I read the article you posted, and while it was very well written, it didn’t address what some would perceive to be inconsistencies between the theological belief of Kenosis and the theological belief of the Immutability of God. Given that, would you mind speaking as to whether you feel the two are compatible (and, if so, why)?
And, regarding whether Jesus performed His miracles via the Holy Spirit or His own divine power, I think you somewhat misunderstood what I meant. I didn’t mean to imply that your views on the subject were heretical or incompatible with the traditions of the Free Methodist Church (which, to my knowledge, has not taken a stance on the subject). Rather, I was pointing out the fact you are holding to a minority view, something you seem to acknowledge in both your article and your response to Jacob. Given that, I’m interested in hearing how you came to believe such a theological stance, and (as I asked earlier), how it informs your perception of the Hypostatic Union?
Answer: Ah gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.
I don’t see a problem between God’s willingness to empty himself so that he might live like a human (kenosis) and his never-changing character (immutability). (There are plenty of times throughout the Bible where God changes his mind, emotions, and actions, but that’s a different conversation on immutability.)
God’s character remains the same in Jesus, for when we see Jesus, we see the Father. Just because he has limited himself in his humanity does not mean that he has changed who he is. Even the Father openly limits himself through concessions in Scripture. The Edenic vision was that no one ate animals, but God made a concession to Noah that humanity now could. He wanted Moses to be both priest and prophet, but Moses fought him so hard on it that he decided to allow Moses to split the role. In an abstract sense, these are already mini-examples of kenosis. God wanted it one way, but limited his desires based on his interactions with humanity. His character doesn’t change, but he works with ever-changing people, causing him to accept scenarios he doesn’t necessarily want.
As for the Holy Spirit empowering Jesus, I think it’s the most rational perception of how Jesus can be fully God and fully man, and it sets the precedent for everyone else who has done ministry in the Holy Spirit. Jesus shows us what our lives will be like if we embrace the Spirit. We cannot walk in the power that Jesus commands us to walk in otherwise. When I see people healed or demons cast out or many other supernatural gifts at work in my life or my surroundings, I know it is the same Spirit that Jesus walked with. The Spirit is a part of the Trinity and a part of his role within the Trinity is to empower humans to do what they otherwise could not do.
I admit that I didn’t hear this view growing up in church, but I think it makes sense of most passages on the Holy Spirit and I feel that this view has probably been around for a long time (though I haven’t researched that recently). I assume evangelicals have done a poor job at vocalizing this view, just like they have with other views like resurrection, making normal views seem odd.
As for Hypostatic Union, Jesus is God made flesh. This flesh then was baptized in the Holy Spirit, causing his human-ness to be clothed with power. I can’t see how God is any less unified from this perspective. Though I think there’s space to argue that the Holy Spirit was already at work in Jesus’ life from conception and that his baptism in the Holy Spirit was a deeper work of greater anointing.
Thanks for the questions and hope that helps a bit! I can only go so deep in social media comments. Haha. If you’d like to see more of my thoughts on the Trinity and their different roles, you can visit my other recent post here: https://jaminbradley.com/2023/07/02/a-trinitarian-theosis/
Jamin Bradley 
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