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Articles
The Humbled and Exalted Christ
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Phil. 2:5-8).
Paul was encouraging the brethren at Philippi to act in humility toward one another. To support this point, Paul pointed to the person of Jesus Christ as the ultimate example of this attitude. Paul was not teaching some new doctrine, nor was he seeking to defend a doctrine; Paul was calling attention to a doctrine commonly and strongly held by the church as the basis for maintaining unity and harmony in the church. In spite of this beautiful illustration of the humility of our Lord, some seek to destroy the whole concept by teaching that Jesus gave up His powers and attributes of God and came to earth to “live as a mere man.” To seek justification for this erroneous teaching they refer to the phrase “made Himself of no reputation”, or “emptied Himself” (NASV). Therefore, the question that must be answered is “of what did Christ empty Himself?” The teachers of this position say that what Christ did was to “empty Himself of all power.”
Jesus has always existed as God. He was actively involved in the creation of this world (John 1:1-3; John 8:58; Col. 1:15-16). Paul was looking back before the incarnation to the pre-existent state of our Lord and said that He existed as God and was fully equal with the Father in His essence. This is the meaning of the phrase “being in the form of God.” That is in His deepest being, what He is in Himself and that Jesus has always existed in the unchangeable essence of the being of God. In spite of this equality Jesus “emptied Himself.” He did not empty Himself of His deity or any portion of His nature. He didn’t stop being God and start to become man. What He gave up was His heavenly glory and majesty of Godhood. That is why Jesus prayed, “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5). Jesus gave up all of the glory He had in heaven. The disciples got a glimpse of that glory on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-8). In doing this He came to earth as the Servant of God and man. Over and over He stated He came to do the Father’s will. This is what Paul is asking the Philippians to do. Context is vital here. Paul is not telling the Philippians to lay aside, discard, or disregard their natural abilities and talents, (attributes and powers), but to submit them to the will of God and the good of the church. This is exactly what Jesus did. When Jesus humbled Himself to become the God-man this is the way the people saw Him and why they spoke of Him as they did in such a humiliating way. Then Jesus humbled Himself by dying on a cross, suffering such an excruciating, embarrassing, degrading, and humiliating death to save mankind.
The exaltation of Christ is revealed in vs. 9-11 of Phil. 2. “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
