Philippians 2:6–8

Christ was in the form of God. That was not mere appearance: He had that form, and not a creature's. The form of God means that He has God's own form and no other. He was in that nature of being, and nothing else. He had no created nature at all. He was God the Son, and nothing besides.

Three words in this passage express the general idea of resemblance: Form (morphē), Fashion (schēma), Likeness (homoiōma). Only the first applies to God. It alone means essential quality, not outward appearance.

This passage has three words for existence: to be (einai), to exist beforehand (huparchein), and to begin to be (ginesthai). The second one is the word the Spirit uses here: "who subsisting in the form of God." It tells us that Christ Jesus was "in the form of God" before He came to this earth as Man. It may not say as much as the first verse of John's Gospel — "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" — but it fully agrees with it. It states plainly that He existed beforehand in the form of God, though it does not say in so many words that He existed from eternity. Other Scriptures bring that out, such as Psalm 90:2: "from everlasting to everlasting You are God."

He was in the form of God. Our first parents were tempted to grasp at something far above them — at becoming as gods, as Genesis 3:5 shows. That place was not for them, and their grasping at it was sheer robbery. But there was nothing of that with our Lord. In His case equality with God was not something to be grasped at. It was His to start with, for He was God. He could not be higher than He was. Only two paths lay before Him: to stay as He was and where He was, or to come down into humiliation.

Self-assertion is unnecessary to any being who is conscious of an undisputed right by nature… To be equal with God — in other words, to act as God only and always — was no lawless or aggressive thought in the Son, who dwelt in equal glory with the Father from eternity. It was simply the unbroken continuance of the communion of the Godhead with itself, which no words can express.

The first clause means that although He existed in the form of God, He did not use it to exalt Himself… It is surely a contrast to Adam, who fell into Satan's trap of trying to exalt himself, to be "like God, knowing good and evil." Adam being a man sought to exalt himself; Christ being God humbled Himself. How blessed the contrast!

Here is One existing in the form of God — plainly God Himself, so that there could be no question about Him at all. Yet He gave up this form of God. He did not give up the divine reality, which was necessarily His at all times, but the outward display of it. He did not treat this equality with God as "an object to be grasped."

The Apostle shows that this happens only when "lowliness of mind" marks us. To have the lowly mind, he says, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus." His was the lowly mind that led Him to make Himself nothing so that He could serve others in love. Self likes to be served, and thinks it is exalted when others serve it; but love delights to serve.

This revelation by the Spirit of God about the Son of God becoming man shows one outstanding feature. It was His making Himself of no reputation, or emptying Himself. The second is the better translation of the Greek text. The apostle teaches that Christ Jesus, who was in "the form of God," freely took on Himself "the form of a servant (or bond-slave)," and in this way He "emptied Himself." Being "in the likeness of men," He did not use the rights of His deity apart from the will of the One who sent Him. This act of self-denial expressed "the mind which was in Christ Jesus" — the mind the apostle wanted believers to have too.

How do you think He made Himself of no reputation? By taking a form He never had before. In Darby's translation, "Taking a bondman's form." He gave up nothing. He gave up nothing that belonged to Him as God, but He emptied Himself by taking a form He never had before.

He set aside all His glory. He did not stoop to become a servant in angelic majesty, but in the likeness of men. Here we have the form of a servant as well as the form of God, but that does not in any way mean that He was not really both. Just as He was truly God, so He became the truest servant that God or man ever saw.

He was to serve for six years, but in the seventh year "he shall go out free for nothing." But the Hebrew servant (and the word means a slave) might say: "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free." Then his master shall bring him to the judges, and to the door or the doorpost, and shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever. That pierced ear was the pledge and the proof that he would be his slave forever. And those pierced hands and feet and side tell the same story of "Christ Jesus: who … emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a slave."

The word "form" refers to His body, but the One who was in that body had every feeling and sensibility of a Man. He was not just God in a body… People saw Him in that body, but there was more. The word "likeness" in verse 7 carries the thought of moral qualities. The word "fashion" or "figure" in verse 8 shows that He was in the actual physical likeness of a Man. Both of these matter greatly… We read of Him weeping and hungering. If we miss this truth, we may read these verses as describing a kind of Manhood we could never reach. He was in every respect a real Man.

Kenosis is a word coined from the Greek word used in this passage. It literally means "emptied," though the older translation reads "made … of no reputation." The theory pictures Christ as emptying Himself so completely of all that was divine that He became a Jew, as ignorant as most Jews of His day. So the critic who puts this theory forward, armed with modern learning, feels quite able to contradict or correct the Son of God.

He always was God, but He laid aside the form of God, the outward glory, and "took the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." He will never stop being a servant, though He is Lord of all. He will never give up this service of love that blesses us… Adam was in the form of man, and he grasped by robbery at being equal with God. He was the first example of "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled." The last Adam humbles Himself and is exalted. He lays aside His glory and takes a servant's form.

Emptying Himself as God, He humbled Himself as man, instead of making Himself anything.

This is a further step downward than being found in human form. As we said, He could have been found in human form and yet chosen to be an emperor or a mighty king. He could have chosen honour and wealth. But no: "He made Himself low." "He humbled Himself."

There never had been, and never could have been, such obedience on earth, or even in heaven... The surpassing dignity of His Person is what lifted this obedience beyond compare. And that is before we mention the harsh and painful circumstances in which He gave it, right up to death — and what a death! As the eternal Son, He ruled over all. From the lowest creature on earth to the archangel on high, nothing moved except at His command.

The older English translation might be misread to mean that He was obedient to death itself. But it was obedience to His Father's will, all the way to death... And His death at Golgotha showed not only His matchless love, but also His devoted obedience.

"Being found in human form," He did not have to die. He died because of the purposes of grace: He "humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." He died for our sins. So, for Him, death rested on a completely different basis and served purposes that were supremely divine. Adam, the man who failed, disobeyed and died; Christ became obedient as far as that point of death, the death of the cross.

The death on the cross showed in fullest measure what our sin and disobedience deserved. It was also the crowning act of a life of perfect obedience. The letters of the New Testament dwell on this: "For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19). Many have thought this means our Lord's law keeping during His life. It does not. It means His obedience "to the point of death, even death on a cross."

He did not only become obedient to the point of death. That death was death on a cross. That last step tells out the awfulness, the horror, the shame and the anguish of the death He became obedient to... Perhaps no death makes a person shrink back like "death on a cross." The Lord of Glory went down to this, the lowest step anyone could take.

People dwell on the disgrace He suffered: the insults, the injustice, the abuse and the rejection He received from men. All of this wounded His heart deeply. Yet the suffering and sorrow of His holy soul went far deeper, when He bore the wrath of God until it was spent in the righteous judgment He endured for our sins.

We cannot follow all His steps. We were never in the height from which He came, and we are not asked to travel into the depths He went. But we are urged to have His mind as He took these steps.