The Form of God … the Form of a Servant (Philippians 2:6-7)

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.

Perhaps the best way to come to an understanding of the Person of Christ in this passage is to contrast the statements made about Him with those made about Adam:

‘And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…’ (Genesis 1:26).

Adam was made by God into something he had never been before. One moment he was a handful of dust, and in the next he was made in the image and likeness of God. But the Lord Jesus, as we noted in a previous post, was never made to be God or man. He was eternally God. He was not IN the image of God: He was THE image of God. The phrase ‘form of God’ describes His eternal, unchanging essence. His essential deity is unbeginning, unending, unchanging and undiminished. He subsists in the form of God. Adam was also made in the ‘likeness of God’. Our Lord became in the ‘likeness of men’. It could never be said of Him that He was like God, for He was God. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’ (John 1:1).

Yet although He could never give up His essential deity, Christ was able to give up certain things that He held as one ‘equal with God’. He gave up:

• His home – ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions’ (John 14:2)
• His throne – ‘But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever’ (Hebrews 1:8)
• His glory – ‘And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was’ (John 17:5)

These were outward displays of His deity, which He did not hold tightly in His grasp*, but was willing to give up these outward equalities with God that he might take upon Him the ‘form of a servant’. And when He voluntarily became a servant, we must carefully note He did not take the ‘likeness’ of a servant but ‘took upon Him the form of a servant’. The mystery of His Person is that while retaining the ‘morphe’ (essence) of God, He took the ‘morphe’ (essence) of a servant and became all that a master could desire.

The Lord never served men. He was Jehovah’s servant ‘Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth…’ (Isaiah 42:1). The history of Adam and his race can be summed up in the expression, not thy will but mine. Christ is the only man who said ‘nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done’ (Luke 22:42).

‘Of His own will, He divested Himself of His prerogatives as God, choosing not to command as God but to obey as a servant’.          –William Kelly

 

*

• ‘did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped’ NASB
• ‘did not consider equality with God something to be grasped’ NIV
• ‘ did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped’ ESV

.

.

.

This article is part of the “Fridays in Philippians” series.