George H. Warnock — Christology
b2 — Evening and Morning
Kenosis — Incarnation as Self-Emptying
This is the most fully developed christological theme in “Evening and Morning”. Warnock treats kenosis in Chapter 5 (The River of God) as the heart of the doctrine of incarnation.
“When the Son of Man came to earth He laid aside the glory of Heaven, and came into our very likeness and nature, that He might live here as man, and strictly as man, in utter dependence upon the Father. For though He was in the form of God, yet He made Himself of no reputation. literally, it says, ‘He emptied Himself…’ or ‘made Himself void.‘”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
He formulates a definition of incarnation from the perspective of kenosis:
“Incarnation speaks of God ‘emptying’ Himself—even emptying Himself into human nature. Incarnation placed God, the Most High, in a position of ‘weakness,’ of ‘flesh and blood,’ of ‘temptation,’ of ‘poverty,’ of ‘humiliation.‘”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
And he emphasizes the radical nature of this:
“How could the Most High possibly empty Himself into human nature without becoming poor, and weak, and meek, and lowly? Flesh and blood cannot even look upon God and survive. What then shall we say of the Most High who came into our very flesh and likeness? How little do we appreciate of the greatness of the humiliation and suffering that the Almighty subjected Himself to, in merely taking upon Himself the form of man!”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
The kenosis culminates in the path to the cross:
“But He went further and further down the ladder of humiliation. Rather than coming as an earthly King, He took a bondslave’s form—that in such a form He might learn obedience… obedience even unto death… and that, the death of the Cross, the death of the criminal.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
Interpretation: Warnock links kenosis directly to the soteriological purpose of the incarnation. The self-emptying is not only metaphysical (laying aside divine glory) but also existential: living as man in complete dependence upon the Father.
Two Natures — A Unique Formulation
Warnock formulates the relationship of Christ’s two natures in a way that diverges from the classical formulation. Rather than “Son of Man as to his humanity, Son of God as to his deity,” he writes:
“He was not the Son of Man as to His humanity and Son of God as to His Deity. He was both Son of Man and Son of God as to His humanity. ‘That holy thing’ that was born of Mary was at the same time Son of Man and Son of God, for God was the Father of His human nature, as Mary was the mother (Luke 1:35).”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
He adds:
“This Son-of-Man-Son-of-God was PERFECT MAN in every sense of the word. In other words, the Son of God was God—made weak, the God—made poor, God emptied out, God the Ruler of the Universe condescending to become a bondslave amongst men!”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
He grounds Christ’s relationship to the Father in Christ’s own testimony:
“he declared Himself to be the expression of the Father, the servant of the Father, the one in whom the Father lived, in whom He worked, whose words He spake, whose mouthpiece He was, and whose works He performed. The Son of God was the living Temple in whom God the Father dwelt.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
And:
“Jesus testified, ‘I can of mine own self do nothing.’ Yet in union with the Father He could do ANYTHING.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
Interpretation: [TENSION with classical two-natures doctrine] Warnock decouples the titles “Son of Man” and “Son of God” from the nature distinction. Both titles are for him expressions of Christ’s human reality as the self-emptied God. This nuances the classical Chalcedonian hypostatic union formula without explicitly rejecting it.
Sinlessness and Perfection through Suffering
Warnock distinguishes two aspects of Christ’s sinlessness: his innate sinlessness and his acquired perfection:
“Thus the Son of Man was sinless and spotless from His birth until His death, but He was not declared PERFECT until He had learned obedience by the things which He suffered. He had to be made ‘perfect through sufferings’ (Heb. 2:10).”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
Interpretation: Warnock follows Heb. 2:10 — sinlessness is the passive condition of Christ’s person, but “perfection” is an acquired quality through active obedience in suffering. This corresponds to the classical distinction between Christ’s personal holiness and his meritorious righteousness.
Obedience unto Death — Atonement and Glorification
Warnock links the doctrine of atonement not primarily to satisfaction but to the theme of obedience and the completion of the circle of God’s purpose:
“And this included the fulness of obedience, even unto death, and that the death of the Cross. Only in the fulness of obedience unto death would there come forth the fulness of glory unto life. When Jesus gave the sop to Judas on the eve of His crucifixion, He was able to say: ‘Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him’ (John 13:31). Anything less than the fulness of obedience unto death would have meant the cutting short of the fulness of glory, and the Logos, the Word, would have returned unto the Father ‘void.‘”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
Ascension and Glorification — Perfect Man within the Godhead
Warnock describes the ascension as an ontologically unique event:
“Then God received Him back into heaven as PERFECT MAN, where PERFECT HUMANITY was absorbed back into DEITY—making Him to be both Lord and Christ.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
And he describes the ascension as an unprecedented new fact in creation:
“Something happened that had never happened before in Creation. He didn’t merely come from God and go back to God, as it may have seemed to the disciples. He came forth the Lord from heaven, but He went back a Man from earth, crowned with glory and honor, and made both Lord and Christ. Now there is in Heaven a Man, a Perfect Man, and this Perfect Man is Lord of the Universe.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
Interpretation: Warnock emphasizes the continuing humanity of Christ in his glorified state. “PERFECT HUMANITY absorbed back into DEITY” is a formula expressing the unity after the ascension without annulling the humanity.
Incarnation as Circle of God’s Purpose
Warnock places the incarnation within a cosmic schema of “the Word going forth and returning”:
“He came forth from the Father; now He must go back to the Father, completing the cycle of Truth as it pertained to His incarnation, and thus bringing greater honor and glory to the Father’s Name. Were He to accept the kingdom before the completion of the circle of God’s purpose, there would have been an emptiness, a voidness, about His incarnation. He must finish the work, and return to the Father with abundant FULNESS.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
He draws this framework from John 16:28:
“Jesus said, ‘I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.‘”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 1 and 5.
Priestly Office — Christ as Mediator of the New Covenant
“Christ, therefore, has become the ‘mediator between God and man’ (1 Tim. 2:5), and he is there to mediate ‘the new covenant’ (Heb. 12:24). The mediator is the ‘middle man.’ Not, however, to settle arguments, to negotiate bargains, as in the affairs of men. But he is there to mediate the New Covenant, to administer it and to enact it in His many brethren.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
Warnock describes the outworking of this mediatorial role pneumatologically:
“This administration of the New Covenant is not completed by writing it upon tables of stone, nor in writing it upon the parchments of the New Testament. It is only the New Covenant as He writes it upon the ‘fleshly tables of the heart.‘”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.
Christ as Last Adam — Creation of a New Generation
In Chapter 2, Warnock develops the Last Adam theology as the counterpart of the first Adam:
“in the spiritual generation of the Last Adam there has been, and there will continue to be, an ever increasing and continual unfolding of the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 2.
He formulates a contrast of the two dynasties:
“As the law of sin and death has just about reached its climax in the old generation of Adam, so the Law of the Spirit of Life hastens on to its glorious fulness in the generation of Christ.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 2.
And he emphasizes the superiority of grace over sin:
“Is there not to be a ‘much more’ effectual working of the grace of God in the Last Adam, than there ever was in the disobedience of the first Adam? In other words, are we going to honor the power of Adam and Satan above the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit?”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 2.
And connects the Last Adam to his seed-bearing function:
“The Last Adam left no seed in Adam’s line to declare his generation; but he himself became the ‘corn of wheat’ that fell into the ground and died that there might come forth a harvest in his image and likeness.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5.