In The Form Of God

by Mike Ratliff

1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:1-11 (NASB) 

The Bible is very clear that our Lord Jesus Christ is God. He is not a created being. He is not an any way lower than God nor are we humans in any way on His level. I believe the passage I placed at the top of this post makes this very clear. In Philippians 2:1-11, the Apostle Paul used our Lord’s incarnation as an example of humility that we should emulate. For this study, however, we we will focus on vv6-8 which clearly show that our Lord is God, but humbled Himself on behalf of those He came to save. Here are those verses again from the NASB.

6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:6-8 (NASB) 

6 ὃς ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχων
οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο
τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ,
7 ἀλλʼ ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσεν
μορφὴν δούλου λαβών,
ἐν ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπων γενόμενος·
καὶ σχήματι εὑρεθεὶς ὡς ἄνθρωπος
8 ἐταπείνωσεν ἑαυτὸν
γενόμενος ὑπήκοος μέχρι θανάτου,
θανάτου δὲ σταυροῦ. Philippians 2:6-8 (NA28)

6 who, even though He existed in the form of God,
did not regard a thing to be grasped,
to be equal with God,
7 but He poured Himself out,
taking the form of a slave,
in the the likeness of men,
and  having been found in appearance as a man,
8 He humbled Himself
having become obedient unto death,
and that, a death by a cross. Philippians 2:6-8 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)

The point of contention here is, of course, in v6 where some scholars insist that this does not refer to the preexistence of Christ as part of the Triune Godhead prior to His incarnation as Jesus Christ. However, to assert this requires us to take a completely unnatural and “out of context” view of this passage. This is why I put the whole passage at the top of the post. In any case, the words translated in the NASB as “form of God” are the words μορφῇ θεοῦ (morphē theou).The word μορφῇ means the true and exact nature of something, possessing all the characteristics and qualities of something. Paul is telling us that Jesus Christ possesses all the characteristics and qualities of God and is, therefore, equal with God. However, Paul goes right from there to show that our Lord took the μορφὴν δούλου in v7. Here we have the accusative, singular form of μορφῇ. This form means that the direct object receives the action of the verb. Our Lord Jesus is the direct object while δούλου is the genitive, singular form of δοῦλος, which we have looked at many times. It is the word for bondservant or slave. The genitive form speaks of what we refer to in English as the “possessive case.” The genitive has many functions, but one, I think, fits this. It can indicate a familial relationship between a word and its head noun (relationship). Often the head noun is not expressed, so it is up to the translator’s skills to determine the exact nature of the the relationship. Just whose δοῦλος was our Lord Jesus? Was he the bondservant of sinful men? When it was not yet His time to fulfill His mission, no one could kill Him so, no. He was the δοῦλος of those for whom He came to purchase with His life, however, no one ordered Him around like a slave, He humbled Himself to serve them. Does this make sense? In this, He is our example.

Our Lord, even though He is God, took on the form of a slave on our account. However, even in that state, He never ceased being God. He could have claimed that at any time, but did not, and He obediently went to the Cross, sinless and in complete fulfillment of the Law. Both of these things are what bought salvation for all who belong to Him. Go back to the top of this post and read what the result is in this total victory.

Soli Deo Gloria!