The Empty Christ

Philippians 2:5-8 (ESV) 
5  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 
6  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 
7  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 
8  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 – 1153) was born of noble parentage. His mother had a great deal of influence upon his life and when she died, he decided to leave the noble life he lived behind and become a monk.  He became a Cistercian monk at the age of 22 and took with him thirty young men, including his brothers and uncles, to an Abbey in France. Three years later he founded a new monastery at Clairvaux. This abbey became a center of the Cistercian order and a source of spiritual renewal throughout Europe.  They focused on a shared life of work, worship, prayer, along with the disciplines of the Spirit.
Bernard is most notable for his writings that emphasize God’s great love, and what it means to love God in return.  Consider this short article:
Emptied for Our Sake, by Bernard of Clairvaux
Christ’s self-emptying was neither a simple gesture nor a limited one. He emptied himself even to the assuming of human nature, even to accepting death, death on a cross (Philippians 2:7).
Who is there that can adequately gauge the greatness of the humility, gentleness, and self-surrender, revealed by the Lord of majesty in assuming human nature, in accepting the punishment of death, the shame of the cross?
But somebody will say: "Surely the Creator could have restored his original plan without all that hardship?" Yes, he could, but he chose the way of personal suffering so that man would never again have to reason to display that worst and most hateful of all vices, ingratitude.
Even if God made you out of nothing, you have not been redeemed out of nothing. In six days he created all things, and among them, you. On the other hand, for a period of thirty whole years he worked your salvation in the midst of the earth.
What he endured in those labors! To his bodily needs and the abuses from his enemies did he not add the mightier burden of the humiliation of the cross, and crown it all with the horror of his death? And this was indeed necessary. Man and beast you save, 0 Lord (Psalm 36:6). How you have multiplied your mercy, 0 God!