Philippians 2:5-8
Today we are going to continue our study in Philippians chapter 2. We saw last week that Paul exhorted and urged the church to be humble. Verse 1 is the motivation to humility – Christ’s love. Verse 2 is the goal of humility – unity. And verses 3 and 4 are the exercise of humility – don’t be selfish, don’t be vain, do consider others better than you and do actively look out for the interests of each other.
But this week are going to see Paul dive into the supreme example of humility. As he describes in verses 6-8 what is called the “Condescension” of Jesus Christ, we have some of the very most mind-blowing truth in all of existence – that God came down and became a man. I want to say that this week as I studied, I came to realize how pathetic I am to even speak on this. The truth of what is contained in these verses is so beyond and so above and so over me that I feel completely and utterly insufficient to even speak on it. F.B. Meyer said, "It is almost unapproachable in its unexampled majesty."
In trying to capture and convey for you the weight of this passage, my words are like trying to use crayola crayons to create the Sistine Chapel. Or, it is like trying to play Beethoven’s 5th Symphony with a kazoo. I only pray that God’s Spirit will impress on your hearts the weightiness and loftiness of what is contained here the way He has on my heart this week.
Let’s look at the layout of the verses to get us started. Paul says in verse 5, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus”. Remember that he is still speaking of the humility that they are responsible to have - as Christians who have received the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he is tying it into the humility of Jesus Christ, who humbly saved them; Paul is now pointing to the person of Jesus Christ as their model – the One whom they are to imitate.
Let me just say that this is the mark of a pastor who’s doing his job. It is all and entirely about Jesus Christ. A pastor doing his job is always pointing to Christ – always directing and guiding and leading and bringing people to ( and sometimes back to) Jesus Christ. He maximizes and magnifies Christ while minimizing himself.
John the Baptist said “He must increase and I must decrease.” He said this when he saw his own disciples leaving him to go over to become disciples of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist said “Look!” (with an exclamation point!) Here comes the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! I went before him to prepare the way for him. I am not worthy to tie his sandals. I’m not worthy to even wash the dirt of his shoes. I’m a nobody – He is someone. He must become more visible and I must become less visible. Promote Christ, diminish self.
I never want a disciple of Justin. I have failed miserably if people become disciples of me. We only follow spiritual leaders because we know they are following Christ and we follow Christ by means of following them. “Imitate me because I imitate Christ” is what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11. Therefore it is absolutely necessary for us to know our leaders – our pastor’s especially – are men who are following Christ.
And so, here we have Paul doing the same thing as he always does – the same thing John the Baptist did, and the same thing every pastor and preacher is to do. He says, “Look! Look at Jesus Christ!” See how humble Christ became for you – now you have the same humble mind as He did –without which you are lacking worthy conduct of the gospel. So I say, your example should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Attach, identify, associate, follow and worship Jesus Christ – not men.
I want you to see something here. Verses 6-8 are how Jesus treated Himself. We see here His choice in how he would regard Himself. But, we see in verses 9-11 how God the Father treats Christ as a result of His humility. God exalts Him. Christ lowers Himself in verses 6-8, and in verses 9-11 God lifts Him up. Remember Jesus words, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but, whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Listen, the reason Paul goes into this magnificent and poeticly styled Christology – this description of Christ’s humility – is to create the same humility in them. The doctrine of Christ’s humble Incarnation is the basis for our application. In other words, because it is true that Christ lowered Himself in humility toward us, we are to lower ourselves in humility towards each other.
Doctrine is the revealed truth of God that demands a right response from man. Don’t miss this: Doctrine is the basis for application. People yawn at the word doctrine, but, they’re always asking “How does this apply to my life?” You cannot have application of the Bible to your life without Biblical truth. Revealed truth is doctrine, and the right response is our application. Paul gives us some power-packed application in verses 1-4, and now he’s going to give us one of the most power-packed doctrinal truths in the verses that follow as a basis for that application.
The basis and foundation for our Christian humility is the humility of Christ. Paul doesn’t want the Philippians (or us) to raise ourselves any higher than Christ lowered Himself. Our estimation of our own rank shouldn’t be any higher than that lowly rank Christ submitted Himself to.
So today, in order to be more humble, we have to see the humility of Christ. We have to see the Christ that Paul is telling them about. This is not heavy application today, but, more doctrine. I want to emphasize the picture, or the portrait, of Christ so we see Him with greater clarity and greater awe. There are 3 things about this pictured example of Christ I want to share today: The Essence of Christ, the Emptying of Christ, and the Endurance of Christ.
First is the Essence of Christ. Look at verse 6 again, “Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped”
We need to stop right there - “Being in very nature God.” If we take those words out of the Bible, we can all go home right now. The foundation of our faith and our reason for being here would be gone. Much like what Paul said regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians 15, I will say regarding the deity of Christ. If Jesus Christ is not God, my preaching is useless and so is your faith; we are false witnesses about God because we witness that God came in the flesh; we are still in our sins, we are without hope, all is lost and we are to be pitied more than all men.
But, the claim of the New Testament is that Jesus Christ is in fact God in the flesh. Paul says it plainly here to the Philippians when he says, “being in very nature”. It is the Greek word “morphe” which means the unchanging, un-alterable, essence of something’s nature. The morphe – the very nature - of Jesus Christ is the same morphe – the same very nature – of God the Father.
John says in the first chapter of his gospel that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” Jesus Christ is the Word and before He existed in the flesh as a man He existed as the eternal Word of God - before all things existed. Only God is eternal - meaning He has no beginning and no end. Nobody caused God; nobody caused the Word. The Word of God is self-sufficient, or, self-existent, which is to say that He needs nothing and no one in order to exist. Instead, all of creation, everything else that is not God, needs the Word of God in order to exist. Jesus Christ already existed at the beginning of all beginnings, and John is saying here that Jesus Christ the Word is the eternal God.
But, John is not alone in declaring Jesus Christ’s deity. In Colossians 1 Paul says Jesus is “the visible image of the invisible God”. Who the invisible God is has been made visible to the world in the God-Man Jesus Christ. That’s why Jesus says in John 14 that anyone who has seen Him has seen the Father. And that’s why he says that if you know Him then you know the Father. All that God the Father is as God is all that Jesus Christ the Son is as God. The writer of Hebrews speaks of this in chapter 1 when he says, “The Son [Jesus Christ] is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being…” To know the being, the essence, the nature of who God is you must know Christ. Christ is the exact and perfectly precise representation of all that God the Father is.
When Paul says Jesus Christ was “in very nature God”, (or, if you’re reading the NASB, it says Jesus Christ “existed in the form of God,”) what he’s saying is that Jesus Christ is God. He has all the same attributes. He is in form and substance existing as God. The nature and essence of who He is is everything the same as that of the nature and essence of God. He is not only manhood, but, Godhood. He has the quality and fabric in His being of God. He is not like the created, because He is uncreated. He is the uncreated Creator. He sustains all things, holds together all things, and all things are from Him and for Him. He is not ‘godly’, the way non-god creatures are similar to God’s likeness. He is the same as God – He is God. His make-up, though He is not “made”, is of the same material as God. He is not creaturely and made with created things. The created things did not create the Creator. In every way, in every sense, in every facet, in every thing, the constitution of Jesus Christ is equal to everything of the constitution of God. He is equal to God. He is the same as God. He is God
This is the very heart and soul of Christianity. That Jesus Christ is God in the flesh is the very core of what Christianity is. Every other man who has walked this earth was a man only, but, Jesus Christ was fully man and at the same time fully God – as He had always been and always will be.
Secondly, Paul describes the Emptying of Jesus Christ. Look at the end of verse 6 and read with me to the beginning of verse 8. He “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but, made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man”
It is the nature of man to hold himself in high regard and to actively magnify his own importance to others. But, Christ Jesus came and demonstrated the prized humility so cherished by God the Father; He made himself nothing. Jesus Christ disregarded his Godhood to make Himself nothing. The NASB says he “emptied Himself.” The King James says, “He made Himself of no reputation.” What that means is that he stripped Himself of His divine prerogative. He willingly set aside certain rights, powers, dignity, and the glory of being God in order to humiliate Himself by becoming a man.
I want to point out the contrast in this humility of Christ to that of Satan. Satan did not empty himself, but filled himself with pride. He did not make himself of no reputation, but, sought to make a name for himself. He did not make himself nothing, but, wanted to make everyone and everything worship him. We see in Isaiah chapter 14 a picture into the attitude of Satan. The prophet says, “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth … You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” Satan in his pride wanted to ascend to the highest place – to the place of God. Jesus Christ in his humility, on the other hand, descended to the lowest place – into humanity as a servant. The higher Satan thought of himself, the lower God thought of him. That is true of us as well. God will humble those who exalt themselves.
When Paul says he made himself nothing, or, made himself of no reputation, or emptied himself, he is not saying Jesus stopped being God to become a man. Jesus did not lose His divine nature in becoming a man. Some teach that Jesus set his divinity aside in order to take on humanity. Some teach that He exchanged his humanity. Still, some teach that he mixed his divine nature with his human nature to become an entirely new nature altogether. These are gross errors. He did not empty out His divine nature and take on humanity, but, rather He added to His divine nature the human nature. He did not give up his divine nature, for Hebrews says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. His morphe, His God-nature is unchangeable.
Paul says Jesus was found in the appearance as a man. The Greek word for “appearance” here is “schema.” It is the outward appearance of something that is temporary and can change. The external expression of humanity that Christ chose is what Paul is talking about here. Schema is outward, temporary, changing. This is contrasted with the morphe of Christ, his “very nature”, or, “form” that Paul described in verse 6. Morphe is the permanent, unchanging, and un-alterable essence or nature of what Christ is as God.
A good illustration to help us understand is my humanity. I am a man. I am a human. That is my nature, my essence, my morphe and it is that which is unchangeable about me. But, my schema, my outward appearance as a man changes. I was a newborn, an infant, a toddler, a child, a teenager, a young adult. My appearance changes, but, my nature as a man does not.
We can see the “schema” with Jesus too. He was a baby in a manger. He was a 12 year old boy in the temple speaking with Pharisees. He was a carpenter. He was the 30 year old man preaching of repentance of sins and of the kingdom of God. We see in the Transfiguration in Luke chapter 9 the appearance of Jesus change. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up to a mountain for a prayer meeting and Luke says that “As Jesus was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning …. Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory…” It says that they saw his glory. That is what Jesus hid from the world beneath his humanity. Jesus hid his glory. In John 17:5 he prays to the Father and says, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” Jesus, in making himself nothing, and in being found in the appearance of a man, meant that he did not appear in any way to look like God. His temporary appearance, His changeable outward look, His schema was that of a man and not that of the glory of God that was His before the world began.
He became flesh according to John 1:14, made in human likeness according to our passage this morning. He was human in every way that you and I are human, except He knew no sin. He took upon Himself the human nature so that he participated in humanity – but did not participate in sin. He always was God and there never has been a time that He was not. And then, He became the God-Man - fully God and fully Man at the same time. I like how one author put it: “He emptied himself from His divine glory, but not his divine essence. He stripped himself of his expression of deity, but, not his possession of it. He clothed himself in humanity so that his divinity was not outwardly manifest.” Jesus clothed His Majesty with the humble attire of humanity so that it was not visible to people. He looked and appeared just like any other man. As a matter of fact, the Jews were so certain of Jesus humanity that they crucified Him. They charged him with blasphemy – they said, “You are only a man, yet you say you are God. You say you are equal with God, but, you are merely a man.” Jesus appeared in every way as a man because He was a man. But, what the Jews, and most of the world today didn’t believe, is that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh who emptied Himself, made Himself nothing, and came to them so as to be the One to save them.
Thirdly, we see the Endurance of Jesus Christ. Verse 8 says, “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!”
Jesus Christ’s humility is expressed in His obedience to God the Father, and His obedience endured all the way to His death. He obeyed Him perfectly in every way. Jesus says in John chapter 15, “…just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His love.” Paul says in Romans 5 about the accomplishment of Jesus perfect obedience, “…through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous.” Obedience is the expression of humility. Jesus Christ became submitted to God the Father out of humility, and He lived out perfect obedience to God the Father. He was not obedient to death – that is to say that Death told him what to do. Instead, as the NASB says, he became “obedient to the point of death.” He did not stop being humble in order to stop himself from dying. He remained humble, he remained obedient to the Father, and it cost Him His human life.
Are you obedient to the point of death? Actually, the Bible says that as a Christian you have died and are a brand new creation. Second Corinthians 5:17, “Anyone who is in Christ is a brand new creation; the old has gone and the new has come.” And in Galatians it says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but, Christ lives in me.” We, by faith, have been crucified with Christ. Our old selves are gone. The new has come. Christ lives in us. And Paul says in Romans 6, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to siin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” We are to offer ourselves as slaves to the teaching we were given, the teaching of Christ, being set free by faith from sin and no longer obedient to it’s form of teaching. We are slaves to righteousness in our obedience to what we have been taught. We are dead to sin, and dying to self; alive in Christ and living to God in righteousness.
Jesus started in verse 6 as God and we read how he makes this descent into humility. He becomes a man. He is born into poverty. He is of no reputation in the world because he’s just a carpenter. The Eternal God has come down into humanity as a servant. Furthermore, he died. He came into the world for the purpose of dying. But, He didn’t just die, he died on a cross. He has reached the lowest of the low. Crucifixion was the most degrading form of execution. Your naked body was pinned by 9” nails to a wooden cross. You were pierced through your wrists and your feet. Most often if you were crucified you died of asphyxiation. You suffocated. When you were in the slumped position you couldn’t breathe out. You had to push up in order to exhale. The loss of blood, the exhaustion, the torn flesh on your back because you most likely had been flogged before you were crucified, the excruciating pain of being nailed to a cross naked.
This was so degrading, so shameful, so humiliating of a death that all Roman citizens were exempt from this form of execution. Only those guilty of the highest form of treason would be candidates to be crucified. But no Roman citizen would be subject to such humiliation as being crucified. The Jews thought anyone who was crucified was cursed by God. In Deuteronomy it says “cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree.” They wouldn’t put anyone on a cross to kill them, although they had been known to put corpses on a cross as a sign of that dead man’s curse. But crucifixion was too shameful even for them. Yet, what did they shout to Pilate when he asked them in Matthew 27, “What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ?” Crucify him! Crucify him! And they shouted it louder and louder, “Crucify him!”
And so, Christ was obedient, not opening his mouth, not seeking his own will, but that of the Fathers. For it was the Father’s will to crush him and make his life a guilt offering. It was the time for the sins of the world to be laid upon him for the salvation of man. Christ came down from heaven, left His glory, set aside his rights, became a humble servant who perfectly obeyed God the Father. He perfectly fulfilled the Law not so He could live, but, so that He could die. In our place. His perfect life is our substitute, and His most shameful, most humiliating death is a death that has brought life to those who would believe. Where Christ suffered shame, the Bible says that “No one who puts their trust in the Lord will ever be put to shame.” Where Christ became sin for us, the Bible says that “even though Christ knew no sin, he became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God.
Conclusion
There is a passage in Mark chapter 9. In it Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they give some of the answers they heard around, “John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets”. People had all sorts of ideas about the identity of Jesus Christ. But then Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was. They answer and said, “You are the Christ.” You are the Son of God. John answered it when he said, “The Word was God and became flesh.” Paul had to answer that question. He answered it in our passage this morning, “Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, was found in the appearance of a man.”
I have had to answer that question. “Justin, who do you say that I am?” You have to answer that question. Who do you say Christ is? This will determine where you spend eternity. If you believe He is the God-Man who died for your sins and has given you eternal life, then you will go to heaven. If you believe anything less, like he was a good man, or a prophet, or an avatar who achieved a higher conscience, or that he never existed at all, then you will die in your sins. You will die in your sins and suffer the wrath of God. John 3:36 says that “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on Him.” I implore you today to answer the question, Who is Christ?
Today we are going to continue our study in Philippians chapter 2. We saw last week that Paul exhorted and urged the church to be humble. Verse 1 is the motivation to humility – Christ’s love. Verse 2 is the goal of humility – unity. And verses 3 and 4 are the exercise of humility – don’t be selfish, don’t be vain, do consider others better than you and do actively look out for the interests of each other.
But this week are going to see Paul dive into the supreme example of humility. As he describes in verses 6-8 what is called the “Condescension” of Jesus Christ, we have some of the very most mind-blowing truth in all of existence – that God came down and became a man. I want to say that this week as I studied, I came to realize how pathetic I am to even speak on this. The truth of what is contained in these verses is so beyond and so above and so over me that I feel completely and utterly insufficient to even speak on it. F.B. Meyer said, "It is almost unapproachable in its unexampled majesty."
In trying to capture and convey for you the weight of this passage, my words are like trying to use crayola crayons to create the Sistine Chapel. Or, it is like trying to play Beethoven’s 5th Symphony with a kazoo. I only pray that God’s Spirit will impress on your hearts the weightiness and loftiness of what is contained here the way He has on my heart this week.
Let’s look at the layout of the verses to get us started. Paul says in verse 5, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus”. Remember that he is still speaking of the humility that they are responsible to have - as Christians who have received the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he is tying it into the humility of Jesus Christ, who humbly saved them; Paul is now pointing to the person of Jesus Christ as their model – the One whom they are to imitate.
Let me just say that this is the mark of a pastor who’s doing his job. It is all and entirely about Jesus Christ. A pastor doing his job is always pointing to Christ – always directing and guiding and leading and bringing people to ( and sometimes back to) Jesus Christ. He maximizes and magnifies Christ while minimizing himself.
John the Baptist said “He must increase and I must decrease.” He said this when he saw his own disciples leaving him to go over to become disciples of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist said “Look!” (with an exclamation point!) Here comes the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! I went before him to prepare the way for him. I am not worthy to tie his sandals. I’m not worthy to even wash the dirt of his shoes. I’m a nobody – He is someone. He must become more visible and I must become less visible. Promote Christ, diminish self.
I never want a disciple of Justin. I have failed miserably if people become disciples of me. We only follow spiritual leaders because we know they are following Christ and we follow Christ by means of following them. “Imitate me because I imitate Christ” is what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11. Therefore it is absolutely necessary for us to know our leaders – our pastor’s especially – are men who are following Christ.
And so, here we have Paul doing the same thing as he always does – the same thing John the Baptist did, and the same thing every pastor and preacher is to do. He says, “Look! Look at Jesus Christ!” See how humble Christ became for you – now you have the same humble mind as He did –without which you are lacking worthy conduct of the gospel. So I say, your example should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Attach, identify, associate, follow and worship Jesus Christ – not men.
I want you to see something here. Verses 6-8 are how Jesus treated Himself. We see here His choice in how he would regard Himself. But, we see in verses 9-11 how God the Father treats Christ as a result of His humility. God exalts Him. Christ lowers Himself in verses 6-8, and in verses 9-11 God lifts Him up. Remember Jesus words, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but, whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Listen, the reason Paul goes into this magnificent and poeticly styled Christology – this description of Christ’s humility – is to create the same humility in them. The doctrine of Christ’s humble Incarnation is the basis for our application. In other words, because it is true that Christ lowered Himself in humility toward us, we are to lower ourselves in humility towards each other.
Doctrine is the revealed truth of God that demands a right response from man. Don’t miss this: Doctrine is the basis for application. People yawn at the word doctrine, but, they’re always asking “How does this apply to my life?” You cannot have application of the Bible to your life without Biblical truth. Revealed truth is doctrine, and the right response is our application. Paul gives us some power-packed application in verses 1-4, and now he’s going to give us one of the most power-packed doctrinal truths in the verses that follow as a basis for that application.
The basis and foundation for our Christian humility is the humility of Christ. Paul doesn’t want the Philippians (or us) to raise ourselves any higher than Christ lowered Himself. Our estimation of our own rank shouldn’t be any higher than that lowly rank Christ submitted Himself to.
So today, in order to be more humble, we have to see the humility of Christ. We have to see the Christ that Paul is telling them about. This is not heavy application today, but, more doctrine. I want to emphasize the picture, or the portrait, of Christ so we see Him with greater clarity and greater awe. There are 3 things about this pictured example of Christ I want to share today: The Essence of Christ, the Emptying of Christ, and the Endurance of Christ.
First is the Essence of Christ. Look at verse 6 again, “Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped”
We need to stop right there - “Being in very nature God.” If we take those words out of the Bible, we can all go home right now. The foundation of our faith and our reason for being here would be gone. Much like what Paul said regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians 15, I will say regarding the deity of Christ. If Jesus Christ is not God, my preaching is useless and so is your faith; we are false witnesses about God because we witness that God came in the flesh; we are still in our sins, we are without hope, all is lost and we are to be pitied more than all men.
But, the claim of the New Testament is that Jesus Christ is in fact God in the flesh. Paul says it plainly here to the Philippians when he says, “being in very nature”. It is the Greek word “morphe” which means the unchanging, un-alterable, essence of something’s nature. The morphe – the very nature - of Jesus Christ is the same morphe – the same very nature – of God the Father.
John says in the first chapter of his gospel that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” Jesus Christ is the Word and before He existed in the flesh as a man He existed as the eternal Word of God - before all things existed. Only God is eternal - meaning He has no beginning and no end. Nobody caused God; nobody caused the Word. The Word of God is self-sufficient, or, self-existent, which is to say that He needs nothing and no one in order to exist. Instead, all of creation, everything else that is not God, needs the Word of God in order to exist. Jesus Christ already existed at the beginning of all beginnings, and John is saying here that Jesus Christ the Word is the eternal God.
But, John is not alone in declaring Jesus Christ’s deity. In Colossians 1 Paul says Jesus is “the visible image of the invisible God”. Who the invisible God is has been made visible to the world in the God-Man Jesus Christ. That’s why Jesus says in John 14 that anyone who has seen Him has seen the Father. And that’s why he says that if you know Him then you know the Father. All that God the Father is as God is all that Jesus Christ the Son is as God. The writer of Hebrews speaks of this in chapter 1 when he says, “The Son [Jesus Christ] is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being…” To know the being, the essence, the nature of who God is you must know Christ. Christ is the exact and perfectly precise representation of all that God the Father is.
When Paul says Jesus Christ was “in very nature God”, (or, if you’re reading the NASB, it says Jesus Christ “existed in the form of God,”) what he’s saying is that Jesus Christ is God. He has all the same attributes. He is in form and substance existing as God. The nature and essence of who He is is everything the same as that of the nature and essence of God. He is not only manhood, but, Godhood. He has the quality and fabric in His being of God. He is not like the created, because He is uncreated. He is the uncreated Creator. He sustains all things, holds together all things, and all things are from Him and for Him. He is not ‘godly’, the way non-god creatures are similar to God’s likeness. He is the same as God – He is God. His make-up, though He is not “made”, is of the same material as God. He is not creaturely and made with created things. The created things did not create the Creator. In every way, in every sense, in every facet, in every thing, the constitution of Jesus Christ is equal to everything of the constitution of God. He is equal to God. He is the same as God. He is God
This is the very heart and soul of Christianity. That Jesus Christ is God in the flesh is the very core of what Christianity is. Every other man who has walked this earth was a man only, but, Jesus Christ was fully man and at the same time fully God – as He had always been and always will be.
Secondly, Paul describes the Emptying of Jesus Christ. Look at the end of verse 6 and read with me to the beginning of verse 8. He “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but, made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man”
It is the nature of man to hold himself in high regard and to actively magnify his own importance to others. But, Christ Jesus came and demonstrated the prized humility so cherished by God the Father; He made himself nothing. Jesus Christ disregarded his Godhood to make Himself nothing. The NASB says he “emptied Himself.” The King James says, “He made Himself of no reputation.” What that means is that he stripped Himself of His divine prerogative. He willingly set aside certain rights, powers, dignity, and the glory of being God in order to humiliate Himself by becoming a man.
I want to point out the contrast in this humility of Christ to that of Satan. Satan did not empty himself, but filled himself with pride. He did not make himself of no reputation, but, sought to make a name for himself. He did not make himself nothing, but, wanted to make everyone and everything worship him. We see in Isaiah chapter 14 a picture into the attitude of Satan. The prophet says, “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth … You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” Satan in his pride wanted to ascend to the highest place – to the place of God. Jesus Christ in his humility, on the other hand, descended to the lowest place – into humanity as a servant. The higher Satan thought of himself, the lower God thought of him. That is true of us as well. God will humble those who exalt themselves.
When Paul says he made himself nothing, or, made himself of no reputation, or emptied himself, he is not saying Jesus stopped being God to become a man. Jesus did not lose His divine nature in becoming a man. Some teach that Jesus set his divinity aside in order to take on humanity. Some teach that He exchanged his humanity. Still, some teach that he mixed his divine nature with his human nature to become an entirely new nature altogether. These are gross errors. He did not empty out His divine nature and take on humanity, but, rather He added to His divine nature the human nature. He did not give up his divine nature, for Hebrews says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. His morphe, His God-nature is unchangeable.
Paul says Jesus was found in the appearance as a man. The Greek word for “appearance” here is “schema.” It is the outward appearance of something that is temporary and can change. The external expression of humanity that Christ chose is what Paul is talking about here. Schema is outward, temporary, changing. This is contrasted with the morphe of Christ, his “very nature”, or, “form” that Paul described in verse 6. Morphe is the permanent, unchanging, and un-alterable essence or nature of what Christ is as God.
A good illustration to help us understand is my humanity. I am a man. I am a human. That is my nature, my essence, my morphe and it is that which is unchangeable about me. But, my schema, my outward appearance as a man changes. I was a newborn, an infant, a toddler, a child, a teenager, a young adult. My appearance changes, but, my nature as a man does not.
We can see the “schema” with Jesus too. He was a baby in a manger. He was a 12 year old boy in the temple speaking with Pharisees. He was a carpenter. He was the 30 year old man preaching of repentance of sins and of the kingdom of God. We see in the Transfiguration in Luke chapter 9 the appearance of Jesus change. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up to a mountain for a prayer meeting and Luke says that “As Jesus was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning …. Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory…” It says that they saw his glory. That is what Jesus hid from the world beneath his humanity. Jesus hid his glory. In John 17:5 he prays to the Father and says, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” Jesus, in making himself nothing, and in being found in the appearance of a man, meant that he did not appear in any way to look like God. His temporary appearance, His changeable outward look, His schema was that of a man and not that of the glory of God that was His before the world began.
He became flesh according to John 1:14, made in human likeness according to our passage this morning. He was human in every way that you and I are human, except He knew no sin. He took upon Himself the human nature so that he participated in humanity – but did not participate in sin. He always was God and there never has been a time that He was not. And then, He became the God-Man - fully God and fully Man at the same time. I like how one author put it: “He emptied himself from His divine glory, but not his divine essence. He stripped himself of his expression of deity, but, not his possession of it. He clothed himself in humanity so that his divinity was not outwardly manifest.” Jesus clothed His Majesty with the humble attire of humanity so that it was not visible to people. He looked and appeared just like any other man. As a matter of fact, the Jews were so certain of Jesus humanity that they crucified Him. They charged him with blasphemy – they said, “You are only a man, yet you say you are God. You say you are equal with God, but, you are merely a man.” Jesus appeared in every way as a man because He was a man. But, what the Jews, and most of the world today didn’t believe, is that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh who emptied Himself, made Himself nothing, and came to them so as to be the One to save them.
Thirdly, we see the Endurance of Jesus Christ. Verse 8 says, “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!”
Jesus Christ’s humility is expressed in His obedience to God the Father, and His obedience endured all the way to His death. He obeyed Him perfectly in every way. Jesus says in John chapter 15, “…just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His love.” Paul says in Romans 5 about the accomplishment of Jesus perfect obedience, “…through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous.” Obedience is the expression of humility. Jesus Christ became submitted to God the Father out of humility, and He lived out perfect obedience to God the Father. He was not obedient to death – that is to say that Death told him what to do. Instead, as the NASB says, he became “obedient to the point of death.” He did not stop being humble in order to stop himself from dying. He remained humble, he remained obedient to the Father, and it cost Him His human life.
Are you obedient to the point of death? Actually, the Bible says that as a Christian you have died and are a brand new creation. Second Corinthians 5:17, “Anyone who is in Christ is a brand new creation; the old has gone and the new has come.” And in Galatians it says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but, Christ lives in me.” We, by faith, have been crucified with Christ. Our old selves are gone. The new has come. Christ lives in us. And Paul says in Romans 6, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to siin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” We are to offer ourselves as slaves to the teaching we were given, the teaching of Christ, being set free by faith from sin and no longer obedient to it’s form of teaching. We are slaves to righteousness in our obedience to what we have been taught. We are dead to sin, and dying to self; alive in Christ and living to God in righteousness.
Jesus started in verse 6 as God and we read how he makes this descent into humility. He becomes a man. He is born into poverty. He is of no reputation in the world because he’s just a carpenter. The Eternal God has come down into humanity as a servant. Furthermore, he died. He came into the world for the purpose of dying. But, He didn’t just die, he died on a cross. He has reached the lowest of the low. Crucifixion was the most degrading form of execution. Your naked body was pinned by 9” nails to a wooden cross. You were pierced through your wrists and your feet. Most often if you were crucified you died of asphyxiation. You suffocated. When you were in the slumped position you couldn’t breathe out. You had to push up in order to exhale. The loss of blood, the exhaustion, the torn flesh on your back because you most likely had been flogged before you were crucified, the excruciating pain of being nailed to a cross naked.
This was so degrading, so shameful, so humiliating of a death that all Roman citizens were exempt from this form of execution. Only those guilty of the highest form of treason would be candidates to be crucified. But no Roman citizen would be subject to such humiliation as being crucified. The Jews thought anyone who was crucified was cursed by God. In Deuteronomy it says “cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree.” They wouldn’t put anyone on a cross to kill them, although they had been known to put corpses on a cross as a sign of that dead man’s curse. But crucifixion was too shameful even for them. Yet, what did they shout to Pilate when he asked them in Matthew 27, “What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ?” Crucify him! Crucify him! And they shouted it louder and louder, “Crucify him!”
And so, Christ was obedient, not opening his mouth, not seeking his own will, but that of the Fathers. For it was the Father’s will to crush him and make his life a guilt offering. It was the time for the sins of the world to be laid upon him for the salvation of man. Christ came down from heaven, left His glory, set aside his rights, became a humble servant who perfectly obeyed God the Father. He perfectly fulfilled the Law not so He could live, but, so that He could die. In our place. His perfect life is our substitute, and His most shameful, most humiliating death is a death that has brought life to those who would believe. Where Christ suffered shame, the Bible says that “No one who puts their trust in the Lord will ever be put to shame.” Where Christ became sin for us, the Bible says that “even though Christ knew no sin, he became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God.
Conclusion
There is a passage in Mark chapter 9. In it Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they give some of the answers they heard around, “John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets”. People had all sorts of ideas about the identity of Jesus Christ. But then Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was. They answer and said, “You are the Christ.” You are the Son of God. John answered it when he said, “The Word was God and became flesh.” Paul had to answer that question. He answered it in our passage this morning, “Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, was found in the appearance of a man.”
I have had to answer that question. “Justin, who do you say that I am?” You have to answer that question. Who do you say Christ is? This will determine where you spend eternity. If you believe He is the God-Man who died for your sins and has given you eternal life, then you will go to heaven. If you believe anything less, like he was a good man, or a prophet, or an avatar who achieved a higher conscience, or that he never existed at all, then you will die in your sins. You will die in your sins and suffer the wrath of God. John 3:36 says that “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on Him.” I implore you today to answer the question, Who is Christ?
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