but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;
Phil 2:7
This particular verse is so interesting. We can approach it from a layman’s (lay person’s) point of view and look at what “Jesus emptied Himself” actually means? Or we can tackle it is a theologian and investigate the fullness of the meaning of Jesus’ Kenōsis, that is to turn the word into a technical term and theorise on all aspects of that term. I think I will keep it on the level of the lay person. For that reason I deliberately gave you as many of the translations for “but He emptied Himself” as I thought were necessary. Some of you get lost when I give you the interlinearised Greek and others long to be given the Greek line laid out alongside an English translation. (Sorry, I did’t give you an interlinearised Indonesian or Brazilian Portuguese version because time and ability doesn’t permit.)
One look at the versions I gave you will expand your understanding of the meaning of “He emptied Himself” exponentially.
- (ASV) but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;
- (BBE) But he made himself as nothing, taking the form of a servant, being made like men;
- (CEV) Instead he gave up everything and became a slave, when he became like one of us.
- (CJB) On the contrary, he emptied himself, in that he took the form of a slave by becoming like human beings are. And when he appeared as a human being
- (ERV) Instead, he gave up everything, even his place with God. He accepted the role of a servant, appearing in human form. During his life as a man,
- (ESV) but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
- (GNB) Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like a human being and appeared in human likeness.
- (GW) Instead, he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, by becoming like other humans, by having a human appearance.
- (ISV) Instead, poured out in emptiness, a servant’s form did he possess, a mortal man becoming. In human form he chose to be,
- (JUB) but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, made in the likeness of men,
- (KJV) But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
- (LITV) but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, having become in the likeness of men
- (MSG) Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!
- (Murdock) yet divested himself, and assumed the likeness of a servant, and was in the likeness of men, and was found in fashion as a man;
- (NLT) Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,
- (TLB) but laid aside his mighty power and glory, taking the disguise of a slave and becoming like men.
- (TLV) But He emptied Himself—taking on the form of a slave, becoming the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man.
- (TPT) Instead he emptied himself of his outward glory by reducing himself to the form of a lowly servant. He became human!
With the orange / yellow highlighting you have the choice the translators made to render the meaning of “but he emptied himself
alla heauton ekenōsen
but himself {he emptied}
He emptied Himself, made Himself as nothing, gave up everything, even His place with God, gave up all He had as God of His own free will, made Himself of no reputation, set aside the privileges of Deity, set aside His Divine privileges, divested Himself of all connection and powers of Deity, laid aside His power and glory, He exchanged the form of God for the form of slave.
There you have a summary of what those three little words mean but there is more. As those of you who have done any level of Deeper Bible know, there is always more!
Firstly, don’t forget we are dealing with a series of relative clauses. It is no coincidence that verse (2:7) is a collection of four relative clauses:
he emptied himself of his form of God, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of mankind (human), he took on the form of a man.
There I think I have captured the process pretty well with my choice of words. Notice what I have done above by selected those translations which convey in their translation the connection between the relative clauses – by . . . by . . . by . . . in that . . .
It is as though Paul himself added a series of parallel thoughts to the first idea “he emptied himself”. How did he empty himself? Well, he relinquished the form of God to replace it with the form of a servant. He subjected himself to become a human being, being formed in the likeness of a man, with all the manly functions. Need I say more. Just meditated on it for a while and you will GET what Paul was meaning. Notice I have left in the text the capitalization of He and Himself, deliberately to keep the Divine / Human contrast ever before you.
If we approach this study from a theologian’s view point we would come up with something like the following:
- He emptied himself of the form of God.
- He emptied himself of “equality with God”.
- He emptied himself of his glory, majesty and prerogatives.
- He took a lower rank in the levels of created beings to be clothed in human flesh, he was incarnated in the form of humanity with all that entailed.
It is without doubt that we could unpack this shocking series of statements yet further. We could take each element here and investigate it to the Nth degree. For instance, in terms of Glory, Majesty, Abilities, Omniscience, Omnipotence and Ominpresence and I am sure you could come up with more for yourself. I am merely giving you the layers which fall out beneath Paul’s layered approach for you to think through some more of what all of this meant. Then having done that we could sit around like theologians and debate what exactly “that” means.
I don’t intend to turn this reflection in a crude direction but just reflect for a moment what it must have been like for Jesus to go cross culturally as human from Deity. I can give you a little snapshot from an Ian Story:
I remember the time when I first went to the bathroom in Bonelemo. I descended to the river and I was squatting there doing my business (busy) while looking around at the rice fields and the grandeur of the scene, being busy. [the same word Elijah used when ridiculing the prophets of Ba’al – with the earthy Hebrew expression “Is your God busy?”]. As I surveyed my bathroom wallpaper, I noticed a woman squatting not five metres from me across a little spit or ridge of ground which sloped down to the river. She had wisely chosen the spot because the little ridge shielded most of her body from the view of anyone else who came down to do busyness. I actually used her spot from then on, it was a strategic one. She gave me a little wave of welcome or recognition and I waved back.
I deliberately painted a little word picture for you with the words I chose to describe one of my first cross cultural experiences going to the toilet in Bonelemo. Just imagine what Jesus’ cross cultural experiences would have been when God became a man. Need I say more? I think I have said enough already and not spelled it out too graphically for you. Just enough really.
Now let me add something else which Paul did for us and then I will add something I first did when explaining the meaning of John 1:11 years ago.
Paul has taken his first statement of Jesus emptying Himself of His Deity and expanded it with three other statements. All of which are layered in the Propositional Analysis.
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a servant,
being made in the likeness of mankind (human);
and being found in fashion
(the form) of a man
That dear readers, captures the shock of the contrast of what it meant for Jesus to become a man – for the Word (God) to become flesh. Now this is the moment for me to return to the revelation I first had years ago which I used in Bible Gem 6 to describe what John meant when he wrote:
He came into the very world He created, but the world didn’t recognize Him. He came to His own people, and even they rejected Him.
John 1:11
John tells says “He (Jesus) came to His “ta idia” but his “hoi idioi” rejected Him.” Wow. Effectively He came to his inanimate created things (neuter plural objects – puppets) [his things] and after he had given them life his (masculine plural people) [his creation] rejected him. Allow me to paint another word picture, the second one for this Gem. Imagine for a moment that God takes two handfuls of dust into His hands and fashions a man, the very words Paul uses in Phil 2:7. Perhaps He needed a little water to make the clay puppet thing (ta idia). Then after he had fashioned the man thing he breathed life into it and it became a living, moving, talking puppet thing (a man called Adam). Then God took a part of the first puppet thing which He called a rib and He made a second human form called Eve. These two living, breathing, talking human forms ran around on the top of His work table in His workshop. He then paused and called them to himself and told them to go and make more living breathing puppet things (called humans) because He, God, had made them in such a way that they could have baby puppet creatures.
But one day He told them not to do a certain thing but they exercised their will and said, “No! We want to do what we want to do, not what you want us to do.” If you were God, what would you have done at that moment? Let’s reduce them back to what they were, animated puppets made from the dirt. I think if I were God I would have squashed them back into clay lumps and remade another set of puppets who would listen and done what I told them.
He made them inanimate, He breathed life into them, then when He came to them to tell them He wanted relationship they rejected Him. And yet in His grace He ALLOWED them to reject Him. Oh the majesty and the horror of that mammoth moment when Adam and Eve turned their back on what God intended. All of heaven (the angels) held their breath when God made mankind and saw them turn their backs on such a gracious God. Yet God in His grace allowed it to happen to fulfil His intention of giving them free will.
Love is not true love (agapē) without free will.
Ian Vail
We ought to be holding our breath ourselves to keep uppermost in our thoughts the implications of exercising our free will.
Ian Vail
The most momentous moment in human hIstory, when the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, is what we celebrate every Christmas. Our celebrations across the globe should be SO MUCH BIGGER!
Ian Vail
The INFINITE squeezed HIMSELF down to the size of an infant.
Deron Spoo
The ULTIMATE is now the INTIMATE, the veil has been removed.
Ian Vail