The Form of God

The Hard Texts · Article 5 of 13

Philippians 2 contains one of the most loved passages in the New Testament. Paul writes of Christ Jesus, “who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:6-7). Many Trinitarian readers take these lines as the clearest statement anywhere of the incarnation: an eternal divine person who laid aside his glory to become a man. Readers who grew up with the Jehovah’s Witnesses were taught something close to it: a mighty spirit creature in heaven who gave up that life to be born on earth.

Both readings are held sincerely, and both deserve a careful answer. This article gives one. Paul wrote these lines to settle quarrels in a church, and he introduced them with the words “Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). Read in its own words and its own setting, Philippians 2 is one of the clearest chapters in the Bible on the one God, the Father, and the man he exalted.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), current eBible.org edition, checked word for word. The WEB prints God’s name as Yahweh. Notes on the Greek are at the end.

Our Case, Stated Plainly

There is one God, the Father. Paul says so in plain words: “yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.” (1 Corinthians 8:6). He says it again: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus prayed to “the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.” (John 17:3).

Philippians 2 ends with that same God. The passage closes with every tongue confessing “that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:11). God is the one who acts at the turning point: “Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9).

The apostles preached Jesus this way from the start. “Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36). “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus” (Acts 3:13).

Our conclusion, stated at the start: Philippians 2:5-11 is the story of the man Christ Jesus, who bore God’s image and authority, refused to seize equality with God, took the place of a servant all the way to the cross, and was exalted by God to the Father’s glory.

A Fair Question

Here is the question for this article: When Paul says Christ Jesus existed in the form of God, emptied himself, and was made in the likeness of men, is he describing a divine being who became human, or is he describing the mind of the man Jesus, which he tells the Philippians to share?

The Text in Its Setting

Philippians 2:5-11 is the middle of an appeal, and it cannot be read without the verses around it. Read Philippians 1:27 to 2:16 in one sitting.

The problem in Philippi. Paul pleads for unity: “make my joy full by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind” (Philippians 2:2). He names what was dividing them: “doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself; each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.” (Philippians 2:3-4).

The example. Then: “Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). The subject of everything that follows is named: Christ Jesus, the man who was crucified.

The passage itself.

“who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:6-11).

The application. Paul draws the lesson at once: “So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12).

Four things are explicit. First, the passage is an example given to believers to copy (Philippians 2:5). Second, its subject is “Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). Third, its key words answer the problem of 2:3-4: not grasping, humility, obedience. Fourth, God is the one who exalts and gives (Philippians 2:9), and the end of it all is “the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11). Our conclusion: Paul is setting before the Philippians a choice that Christ Jesus made and that they can make too, the choice to serve instead of seize.

What the Text Says

“Existing in the form of God”

Paul uses one word, form (morphē), twice: “the form of God” (Philippians 2:6) and “the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). The only other use of the word in the New Testament, in the longer ending of Mark, is of the risen Jesus: “After these things he was revealed in another form to two of them as they walked, on their way into the country.” (Mark 16:12). Mark 16:12 stands in the longer ending of Mark (16:9-20), which some editions mark as doubtful; nothing in our case rests on it. In Mark 16:12 form is how Jesus appeared to the two disciples.

Scripture tells us in whose image man was made: “God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27). Paul calls Christ “the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4), and he says of every man that “he is the image and glory of God” (1 Corinthians 11:7). Paul uses a different word for image (eikōn) than for form, so the link between the two is our step: our conclusion is that the form of God describes the man Jesus as God’s true image-bearer, who showed God in his words and works and carried God’s authority. Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9).

The word existing (hyparchōn) is an ordinary Greek participle meaning being. Paul uses the same form in 1 Corinthians 11:7 of every man, who “is the image and glory of God” (1 Corinthians 11:7), where the Greek is is hyparchōn, and in Galatians 2:14 of Peter: “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do” (Galatians 2:14). Peter uses it of David: “Therefore, being a prophet” (Acts 2:30). The word says what someone is; it does not by itself say how long they have been it (see the Notes). Our conclusion: existing in the form of God tells us what Christ Jesus was when he made his choice, and the name just before it, Christ Jesus in 2:5, has already told us who he is.

“Didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped”

The word translated a thing to be grasped (harpagmos) occurs only here in the New Testament. It comes from the verb for seizing, and lexicons give it two senses: the act of seizing, or a thing seized or to be seized (see the Notes). Thayer applies the second sense to Philippians 2:6 and glosses it “a thing to be seized upon or to be held fast, retained” (see the Notes). The word alone allows either not grasping at or not clinging to; our case does not depend on choosing, and the context shows why.

Scripture tells of a man who did reach. The serpent said, “for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5). Adam and Eve took what was offered. Paul elsewhere sets Adam and Christ side by side: Adam “is a foreshadowing of him who was to come” (Romans 5:14), and “as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19). Paul does not name Adam in Philippians 2; our conclusion is that the contrast fits the passage exactly: the first man, made in God’s image, grasped at being like God and fell into death; the second, the image of God, refused to grasp, became “obedient to the point of death” (Philippians 2:8), and was exalted.

The context settles it. Paul frames the passage with “each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.” (Philippians 2:4), and he closes it with “Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). Our conclusion: whether harpagmos is read as reaching for equality, holding fast what he had, or using it to his own advantage, Paul’s point is the same, that Christ Jesus did not look to his own things; and what he had, on every reading, was the form of God, the authority the Father had “given all things into his hands” (John 13:3), not the being of the one God, since the name above every name had still to be given him by God (Philippians 2:9).

Jesus was accused of the very thing he refused. In Jerusalem his opponents sought to kill him “because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” (John 5:18). The Greek equal there is the same adjective as in Philippians 2:6 (see the Notes). Jesus answered at once: “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing.” (John 5:19). Our conclusion: Jesus did not claim equality with God; he refused it, and he said so in the same breath.

“But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant”

Emptied himself (ekenōsen) is the verb kenoō. Paul uses it four other times, always in the sense of making something empty, void or of no effect: “faith is made void” (Romans 4:14); “that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void” (1 Corinthians 1:17); “I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void” (1 Corinthians 9:15); “that our boasting on your behalf may not be in vain” (2 Corinthians 9:3). The verse tells us how he emptied himself: by “taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7), and the next verse says it again in other words: “he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death” (Philippians 2:8).

The gospels show the servant at work. “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came from God and was going to God, arose from supper, and laid aside his outer garments.” (John 13:3-4). He washed their feet and said, “For I have given you an example, that you should also do as I have done to you.” (John 13:15). He said of himself, “For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45), and “But I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22:27).

Isaiah had described this servant: “Behold, my servant will deal wisely. He will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high.” (Isaiah 52:13). “Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death” (Isaiah 53:12). Paul does not quote Isaiah 53 here, so the link is our step; our conclusion is that Philippians 2 follows the same order as Isaiah’s servant, lowered to death and then exalted by God.

Our conclusion: the emptying is the servant life of the man Jesus, who had all authority from the Father and laid aside his own interests, his rights and finally his life, exactly what Paul asks of the Philippians in 2:3-4.

“Being made in the likeness of men”

The word likeness (homoiōma) is the same word Paul uses in Romans: “God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin” (Romans 8:3). Romans 8:3 does not say that the Son only seemed to have flesh, or that he was something other than flesh before. Our conclusion: Paul means that the Son shared the nature of those he came to save. Hebrews says the same: “Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers” (Hebrews 2:17).

Being made (genomenos) is the ordinary verb for become, come to be, and Paul uses it of the birth of Jesus: “God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Our conclusion: being made in the likeness of men describes Jesus coming to be what his brothers are, a human being in full, and Paul gives it as part of the servant’s lowly place.

“Being found in human form”

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:8). Form here is a third word, schēma, outward bearing or fashion (SBLGNT: end of 2:7). Paul’s only other use is “For the mode of this world passes away.” (1 Corinthians 7:31). Found is how others saw him. Our conclusion: Paul is describing how the man Jesus appeared to those around him, an ordinary man with no claim to rank, and he humbled himself further still, all the way to a criminal’s death.

“Therefore God also highly exalted him”

The turning word is therefore. Because Christ Jesus humbled himself, God exalted him. The exaltation is something God did and something God gave: “Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). The Greek gave is echarisato, freely granted (see the Notes).

This is the gospel the apostles preached. “Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you now see and hear.” (Acts 2:33). The risen Jesus said, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” (Matthew 28:18). And he said, “He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.” (Revelation 3:21).

Our conclusion: Philippians 2:9 describes a man raised to a height he did not have before, by the God who exalts him, which is exactly the pattern Jesus taught: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12).

“Every knee should bow … to the glory of God the Father”

The bowing knee and confessing tongue come from Isaiah, where Yahweh says, “I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not be revoked, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath.” (Isaiah 45:23). Paul quotes the same verse in Romans and applies it to God’s judgment: “For it is written, “‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘to me every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess to God.’”” (Romans 14:11). The same Greek verbs for bow and confess stand in Romans 14:11 and Philippians 2:10-11 (see the Notes).

In Philippians, the knees bow “at the name of Jesus” (Philippians 2:10), the name God “gave to him” (Philippians 2:9), and the confession is “that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:11). Our conclusion: Paul applies Yahweh’s oath to the honor God has given his exalted Messiah, so that bowing to Jesus fulfils the oath and gives the glory to the Father, as Jesus said: “that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.” (John 5:23).

What the Text Does Not Say

• It does not say Christ Jesus existed before his conception, in heaven or anywhere else. The word before is not in the passage.
• It does not mention heaven as the place he left, birth from heaven, or a change from spirit to flesh.
• It does not say what he emptied himself of. It says how he emptied himself: by taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7).
• It does not call him God the Son, and it does not say he was equal with God. It says he did not grasp at equality with God (Philippians 2:6).
• It does not say he had the name above every name before. It says God gave it to him (Philippians 2:9).
• It does not say the glory goes to Jesus as the one God. It says the confession is “to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11).

Objections Answered

“Existing in the form of God means he was God before he became a man.”

This is the strongest point readers raise, and it deserves a direct answer.

1. The subject is Christ Jesus. Paul introduces the passage with “Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5), the name of the man born to Mary and crucified. He does not introduce a heavenly being who later took that name. Our conclusion: the whole passage is the story of the one Paul names, and nothing in it introduces another subject.
2. The word is being, not pre-existing. Hyparchōn is used of ordinary men in their present state: a man being the image and glory of God (1 Corinthians 11:7), Peter “being a Jew” (Galatians 2:14), David “being a prophet” (Acts 2:30). The Greek has a separate verb for exist before (proüparchō), and Paul does not use it here (see the Notes).
3. The form of God is set against the form of a servant. Our conclusion: the contrast is between two kinds of standing, lord and slave, both of which Christ Jesus could hold as a man, and Paul contrasts the authority Jesus had from God (“the Father had given all things into his hands,” John 13:3) with the servant’s place he chose (John 13:4-5).
4. The passage is an example for the Philippians. “Have this in your mind” (Philippians 2:5). Our conclusion: the steps Paul describes are steps that people in Philippi could follow, refusing to grasp, serving, obeying, while leaving the exaltation to God. Paul does tell believers, “Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1), but he says at once how: “Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:2). Our conclusion: the pattern believers copy is the giving of a human life, and Philippians 2 sets out that same pattern, step by step, in Christ Jesus.

Trinitarian readers point out that form of a servant means real servanthood, so form of God must mean real deity. We agree that the servanthood was real. Our conclusion: the parallel shows that both forms were real standing held by one human life, real authority from God and real service, and it does not show that the first was the nature of the one God, which would make the next verse say that God was exalted by God (Philippians 2:9).

Some readers point to the order of the participles: existing (hyparchōn, present) in 2:6, then being made (genomenos, aorist) in 2:7, and read it as a heavenly being who later became a man. Paul uses the same participle of his own life: “being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers” (Galatians 1:14), where being is hyparchōn, and then “But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me” (Galatians 1:15-16). Our conclusion: hyparchōn describes what a man was, and a change follows within the same life; and God’s purpose for Paul reached back to the womb without Paul existing before it. In Philippians the present participle goes with “didn’t consider” (Philippians 2:6), and genomenos goes with “emptied himself” (Philippians 2:7) (see the Notes). Our conclusion: the order shows what Christ Jesus was when he chose, and then what he chose, both within the one human life Paul names in 2:5.

“Emptied himself means he laid aside his divine nature, or his divine privileges.”

The verse says how he emptied himself: “taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7), and “he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death” (Philippians 2:8). It does not name divine attributes, a heavenly glory or a nature that he laid aside. Paul’s other uses of kenoō are all ordinary: faith made void, the cross made void, a boast made void (Romans 4:14; 1 Corinthians 1:17; 9:15; 2 Corinthians 9:3). Our conclusion: Paul’s point is that Christ Jesus made himself nothing in the eyes of others, as the Philippians were to do in 2:3, and theories of what a pre-existent being gave up have to be brought to the verse from outside it. Paul says something similar in another letter: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Paul uses the same contrast of his own ministry: “as poor yet making many rich” (2 Corinthians 6:10). Jesus himself described the poverty he chose: “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). And the verses around 8:9 are about money given among believers, “that there may be equality” (2 Corinthians 8:14). Our conclusion: Paul holds up Jesus, who had all things from the Father (John 13:3) and gave up his own interests and his life for others, as the pattern for a generous gift, and rich and poor describe the life Jesus chose for others, as they do for Paul.

Thayer’s lexicon says Christ laid aside equality with or the form of God, but Thayer supplies that object himself, introduced by namely; the Greek of 2:7 names no object after emptied himself (see the Notes). The text names what comes next: “taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). And the verse before speaks of equality only to say what he “didn’t consider … a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6); it never says he possessed equality with God. Our conclusion: Paul never says Christ gave up an equality he had, and Thayer’s namely adds what the verse does not say.

“Made in the likeness of men shows he was something else first.”

Paul uses likeness in the same way in Romans 8:3, where God sent “his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3). Romans 8:3 is about the Son God sent into the world as a man; it does not say he was something other than flesh before. Hebrews says he was made “like his brothers” in all things (Hebrews 2:17), and Jesus was born like his brothers: “born to a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Luke tells how: “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35). Our conclusion: being made in the likeness of men describes his coming to be a man, which Scripture places at his conception, and the word likeness stresses that he shared human nature in full, as Paul uses the same word when he says believers “have become united with him in the likeness of his death” (Romans 6:5).

“Isaiah 45:23 is Yahweh’s oath that every knee will bow to him. Paul applies it to Jesus, so Jesus is Yahweh.”

We take this seriously, because Isaiah 45 is one of the strongest declarations of one God in the whole Bible: “There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior. There is no one besides me.” (Isaiah 45:21).

1. Paul himself says where the glory goes. The bowing and confession are “to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11). Paul does not end the sentence with the glory of Jesus as Yahweh; he ends it with the glory of the Father.
2. God gave the name. The bowing is “at the name of Jesus” (Philippians 2:10), and the name was given by God (Philippians 2:9). Our conclusion: the one who gives the name is the one Isaiah’s oath honors, and he is honored when every knee bows to the one he exalted.
3. Scripture has bowing to God and his king together. “All the assembly blessed Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads and prostrated themselves before Yahweh and the king.” (1 Chronicles 29:20). Our conclusion: honor given to God’s anointed king in God’s presence is honor to God, and it does not make the king into God. The ASV renders one verb with both objects there worshipped Jehovah, and the king.
4. Paul uses the same verse of God elsewhere. In Romans 14:11 the knees bow and tongues will “confess to God” (Romans 14:11), and the next verse says “each one of us will give account of himself to God.” (Romans 14:12). Paul says God will judge through Jesus: “in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.” (Romans 2:16). Our conclusion: Paul can apply Isaiah 45:23 both to God and to the man through whom God judges and rules, because God carries out his oath through his exalted Messiah.
5. The end of the story is the same. “When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

Answering the Trinitarian Reading

Trinitarian readers say: Christ was eternally in the form of God, equal with God; he emptied himself by adding a human nature; and he returned to the glory he had before. We take this seriously, and we answer from the passage itself.

• God exalts him. “Therefore God also highly exalted him” (Philippians 2:9). Our conclusion: if Christ Jesus were the one God, the verse would have God exalting God, and Paul gives no hint of that; he names the one who exalts as God and the result as “the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11).
• The name was given. “and gave to him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). Our conclusion: the uncreated God does not receive his name as a gift.
• The exaltation is a reward for obedience. Therefore (Philippians 2:9) ties it to his humbling and obedience to death (Philippians 2:8). Hebrews says the same: “though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered.” (Hebrews 5:8).
• The passage is an example. Paul tells the Philippians to have the same mind (Philippians 2:5). Our conclusion: the example works because Christ Jesus faced a real choice as a man, with real temptation to grasp, as the first man did.
• Paul’s creed is plain. “one God, the Father” (1 Corinthians 8:6); “one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).

Our standard is the text. The apostles proclaimed “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you” (Acts 2:22). Our conclusion: Philippians 2 speaks the same way.

Answering the Jehovah’s Witness Reading

Witness readers say: Jesus was not God, but before he came to earth he was a mighty spirit son of God, who left heaven and was born as a man. We share the conviction that the Father alone is the true God and that Jesus did not claim equality with him, and we are glad of it. But the passage does not supply a heavenly life before his birth either.

• No heaven is mentioned. Philippians 2:6-8 does not say where Christ Jesus was before taking the form of a servant. The heavenly setting has to be brought to the passage.
• The example is human. Paul asks the Philippians to share the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). Our conclusion: the passage is about what he did in his human life, the life they could imitate.
• His beginning is his conception. “the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35). Our conclusion: Scripture gives his conception as the reason he is called the Son of God.
• Colossians 1:15-20 will be weighed in Article 6, Firstborn of All Creation, and John 17:5 in Article 7, The Glory I Had With You.

Questions Readers Ask

Doesn’t the ASV say counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped? Yes (American Standard Version, 1901). The WEB reads “didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6). Both translate the same Greek, ouch harpagmon hēgēsato to einai isa theō, and both say he did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped. Neither says he already had it.

Doesn’t the ASV say in fashion as a man? Yes, for the WEB’s “being found in human form” (Philippians 2:8). Fashion is the older English for schēma, outward bearing. It fits our reading: others found him to be a man (see the Notes).

Isn’t Jesus called “the Lord from heaven”? Paul writes, “The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.” (1 Corinthians 15:47). He calls him the second man, and two verses earlier he names him: “The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (1 Corinthians 15:45). The SBLGNT and the ASV have no the Lord in 15:47 and read the second man is of heaven (see the Notes). Our conclusion: Paul is contrasting two men by their origin and kind, the man of dust and the man raised to heavenly life, as the next verse says: “As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.” (1 Corinthians 15:48). Restoring the Foundations Article 10 treats the resurrection life of the last Adam.

Why does it matter? Because Paul wrote this passage to change how believers treat one another. Our conclusion: if the passage is about the man Jesus, then the mind it describes is one his followers can truly share, and the promise of exaltation by God is one they can truly hope for: “who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory” (Philippians 3:21).

Summary of Tested Claims

1. Paul introduces Philippians 2:6-11 as an example for believers, with the subject “Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:3-5). Explicit.
2. Paul uses form (morphē) for both “the form of God” and “the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:6-7); its only other New Testament use is Mark 16:12 (in the longer ending, 16:9-20). Explicit, from the Greek.
3. The participle existing (hyparchōn) is used by Paul of a man who is the image and glory of God (1 Corinthians 11:7) and of Peter (Galatians 2:14). Explicit, from the Greek.
4. Christ Jesus did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped (Philippians 2:6). Explicit.
5. He emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, and humbled himself to death on a cross (Philippians 2:7-8). Explicit.
6. Likeness (homoiōma) in 2:7 is the same word as in Romans 8:3. Explicit, from the Greek.
7. God highly exalted him and gave him the name above every name (Philippians 2:9). Explicit.
8. The bowing and confession echo Isaiah 45:23 and are “to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11). Explicit; Isaiah 45:23 is quoted by Paul in Romans 14:11.
9. The contrast with Adam, who was told he would “be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Our conclusion; Paul does not name Adam here.
10. The form of God is the standing of the man Jesus as God’s image-bearer with God’s authority. Our conclusion.
11. Philippians 2:5-11 describes the man Christ Jesus from his servant life to his exaltation by God; Jesus did not personally exist before his conception. Our conclusion.

Verify It Yourself

• Read Philippians 1:27 to 2:16 in one sitting. Mark every command Paul gives the Philippians.
• Read Philippians 2:3-4 beside 2:6-8, and match the words: grasping, humility, the interests of others.
• Read Genesis 3:1-6 and ask what the first man reached for.
• Read Philippians 2:9-11 and underline every verb whose subject is God.
• Read Isaiah 45:21-25 beside Philippians 2:10-11 and Romans 14:11-12.
• Read John 5:18-19 and John 13:3-15.

Scripture Index

Genesis 1:27; 3:5 · 1 Chronicles 29:20 · Isaiah 45:21, 23; 52:13; 53:12 · Matthew 8:20; 23:12; 28:18 · Mark 10:45; 16:12 · Luke 1:35; 22:27 · John 5:18-19, 23; 13:3-5, 15; 14:9; 17:3 · Acts 2:22, 30, 33, 36; 3:13 · Romans 2:16; 4:14; 5:14, 19; 6:5; 8:3; 14:11-12 · 1 Corinthians 1:17; 7:31; 8:6; 9:15; 11:7; 15:28, 45, 47 · 2 Corinthians 4:4; 6:10; 8:9, 14; 9:3 · Galatians 2:14; 4:4 · Ephesians 5:1-2 · Philippians 2:2-12; 3:21 · 1 Timothy 2:5 · Hebrews 2:17; 5:8 · Revelation 3:21

Where We Stand

Our conclusions: There is one God, the Father, “of whom are all things” (1 Corinthians 8:6). Christ Jesus, the man God’s image was meant to show, did not grasp at equality with God as the first man did; he emptied himself, took the form of a servant, and was obedient to death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him and gave him the name above every name, so that every knee bows at his name “to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11). Jesus did not personally exist before his conception, and Philippians 2 is the story of his human life and its reward.

What Scripture does not say: God the Son; that Christ Jesus was equal with God; that he existed in heaven before his birth; that he laid aside a divine nature; that he gave himself the name above every name.

Notes

• Philippians 2:6: hos en morphē theou hyparchōn ouch harpagmon hēgēsato to einai isa theō (SBLGNT).
• Morphē (Strong’s 3444): Thayer: the form by which a person or thing strikes the vision; the external appearance. In fairness, Thayer reads Philippians 2:6 of a pre-human Christ, and Lightfoot and Trench (cited by Thayer) take morphē as essential, not outward, form; the word alone does not settle the question, and our case rests on the passage. New Testament uses: Mark 16:12; Philippians 2:6, 7 (SBLGNT).
• Mark 16:12 stands in the longer ending of Mark (16:9-20), which some editions mark as doubtful; nothing in our case rests on it.
• Hyparchōn (Strong’s 5225): Thayer lists Philippians 2:6 under to be, and on the Revised Version margin’s being originally he adds a question mark and yet cf. 1 Corinthians 11:7. The same participle form hyparchōn stands in 1 Corinthians 11:7, Galatians 2:14 and Acts 2:30 (SBLGNT). The compound proüparchō, to exist before, is listed by Thayer as a separate verb. In Galatians 1:14 Paul uses the same present participle hyparchōn of his former zeal, before God’s call in 1:15. In Philippians 2:6 hyparchōn goes with the main verb hēgēsato, considered; in 2:7 genomenos (aorist participle) goes with ekenōsen, emptied (SBLGNT).
• Harpagmos (Strong’s 725): Thayer: the act of seizing, robbery, and a thing seized or to be seized, booty. Only here in the New Testament. Thayer applies sense 2 to Philippians 2:6: a thing to be seized upon or to be held fast, retained.
• Isa theō (Philippians 2:6) and ison … tō theō (John 5:18): both from the adjective isos, equal (SBLGNT).
• Ekenōsen (kenoō, Strong’s 2758): Thayer: to empty, make empty; also to make void. Other New Testament uses: Romans 4:14; 1 Corinthians 1:17; 9:15; 2 Corinthians 9:3 (SBLGNT). On Philippians 2:7 Thayer writes “namely, τοῦ εἶναι ἴσα Θεῷ or τῆς μορφῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ, i. e. he laid aside equality with or the form of God”; the object is Thayer’s supplement, and SBLGNT 2:7 has no object after heauton ekenōsen beyond the following morphēn doulou labōn.
• Homoiōma (Strong’s 3667): likeness; the same word in Romans 8:3 (SBLGNT).
• Schēma (Strong’s 4976): Thayer: the habitus, comprising everything in a person which strikes the senses, the figure, bearing, discourse, actions, manner of life. Other New Testament use: 1 Corinthians 7:31. SBLGNT places kai schēmati heuretheis hōs anthrōpos at the end of verse 7; English Bibles, including the WEB, place it at the start of verse 8.
• 1 Corinthians 15:47: SBLGNT reads ho deuteros anthrōpos ex ouranou, with a variant mark at anthrōpos; the WEB’s the Lord is not in the SBLGNT text. We rest nothing on either reading.
• Philippians 2:9: echarisato, from charizomai; Thayer lists Philippians 2:9 under to give graciously, give freely, bestow (SBLGNT).
• Philippians 2:10-11 and Romans 14:11: kampsē … gony … exomologēsētai and kampsei … gony … exomologēsetai, the same verbs kamptō and exomologeō (SBLGNT).

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