According to the kenotic theory, when the Son of God was incarnated as Jesus of Nazareth, He "emptied himself" of some of His divine attributes; such as, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence and lived for a period of time on Earth within the limitations of human existence.

The kenotic theory is an attempt to understand how Jesus could be both fully human and divine and it involves all of Jesus' human limitations without diminishing the reality of His deity.