but emptied himself, taking a bondman's form, taking his place in [the] likeness of men;
Paul points the Christians at Philippi to the mind of Christ Jesus. That mind shows itself in a downward path. It starts here: One who was in the form of God takes the form of a servant. Two questions follow. What did He empty? And what did He become?
Older translations read "made Himself of no reputation." The ESV reads "emptied himself." One writer prefers the second wording, and says what that emptying meant in practice.
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.
If He emptied Himself, what did He pour out? One writer answers that He emptied Himself by taking something, not by giving anything up.
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.
How far down did He come? The place He chose at the bottom shows it.
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.
One writer finds this servant's form pictured in an old law from Exodus 21.
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."
Verses 6 to 8 use three words: form, likeness and fashion. Each one adds something.
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.
Critics have also used this verse against the One it honours. The Greek word for "emptied" gave them a name for their theory.
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.
One writer sets this verse beside an older story. A man in the form of man grasped at being 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.
- Height. He always was God, in the form of God. That is where this downward path starts.
- Emptying. He emptied Himself by taking a form He never had before. He gave up nothing that belonged to Him as God.
- Form. Not angelic majesty but a servant's place: real manhood, with a man's body, a man's feelings, a man's hunger and tears.
- Forever. Like the servant who loved his master and chose the pierced ear, He will never lay the servant's form down.
- Mind. Adam grasped upward and was brought low. The last Adam went down, and God exalted Him. The apostle wants that same mind in us.
and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and [that the] death of [the] cross.
A single verse traces the last stretch of a descent that began in the form of God and ends at a criminal's cross. Writers ask three things here: why being found in human form was not the end of His stooping, how the eternal Son could take up obedience at all, and why the verse names the cross.
Verse 7 and verse 8 are not the same move repeated. One writer tells them apart: one He did as God, the other as man.
Emptying Himself as God, He humbled Himself as man, instead of making Himself anything.
Becoming man did not settle what place He would take among men. That was a further choice.
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."
No obedience has ever matched this one. What sets it apart is who was obeying.
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 wording can be misread as though death itself gave Him orders. Writers correct that reading.
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.
Dying was not a debt His nature owed. One writer argues that from this verse.
"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.
Many have said the obedience that makes us righteous was Christ's keeping of the law through His life. One writer points instead to this verse.
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."
Death looks like the lowest step. The verse names a lower one.
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.
What men did to Him was not the worst of that death.
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.
The call to copy Him has a limit. One writer marks where it lies.
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.
- Down, freely. Two stoops, not one. As God He emptied Himself; as man He made Himself low. He could have chosen an emperor's place instead.
- Down, as obedience. The eternal Son entered obedience; He never owed it. Who He is makes that obedience beyond compare.
- Down, to the limit. Not obedient to death, but obedient as far as death — proof that dying was never a debt His nature owed.
- Down, past the floor. "Even death on a cross" adds the shame men heaped on Him and the judgment God laid on Him.
- Up, and ours. By this one obedience many are made righteous; and the one step asked of us is not His depth but His mind.