Made Himself (Philippians 2:5-8)
Philippians 2:5-8
(5) Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
(6) Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
(7) But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
(8) And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
It is ironic that the enemies of Christ have chosen to use this passage to make an attack against the deity of Christ. For, if the language of the passage means anything, we are brought to the inescapable conclusion that only a Divine Person could have made the choices and taken the steps outlined in these verses.
The Lord summed up the human condition in Luke 12:25, ‘And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?’ We cannot change anything about ourselves but a divine person could choose to:
- make Himself of no reputation
- take upon Him the form of a servant
- become in the likeness of men
- humble Himself as a man
- become obedient unto death
It would have been a wonder in itself if the eternal Son of God had only thought to do these things. What grace and humility would have marked Him if these thoughts had only momentarily passed through His mind. But the thoughts of Christ Jesus were translated into momentous actions. He voluntarily chose, by a divine act of will, to make Himself what He had never been before.
There are seven occasions where the KJV translation unhelpfully applies the word ‘made’ to our Lord Jesus:
Galatians 4:4 ‘made of a woman’
Galatians 4:4 ‘made under the law’
Romans 1:3 ‘made of the seed of David’
Hebrews 2:17 ‘made like unto His brethren’
Philippians 2:7 ‘made Himself of no reputation’
Galatians 3:13 ‘made a curse’
2 Corinthians 5:21 ‘made sin for us’
We should carefully note that Christ was never ‘made’ anything but He chose to ‘become’ these things, as only a Divine Person could choose to do. In his great grief over the death of his son, David cried, ‘O my son Absalom, my son, O my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!’ But no matter how much he thought about it, David could not take his son’s place. Yet the eternal Son of God had thoughts about us and the death that would be ours, and made Himself of no reputation so that He could die for us.
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