Jesus Emptied Himself

Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, [6] who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by 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 2:5-8 LSB

Exposition of the Biblical Text

Jesus is eternally, truly, and totally God: "the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature" —the complete and perfect "form of God" throughout eternity past.

[Hebrews 1:3 LSB — who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power; who, having accomplished cleansing for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,]

That reality makes what Paul writes here in Philippians 2 all the more staggering.

Jesus—this divine, preincarnate Son of God-"did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself..."

In other words, instead of holding on to His own uninterrupted glory, He chose to set it aside, and although He was under no obligation to do so, He came to our fallen, helpless world—and He did so on our behalf.

He made Himself nothing, becoming a servant to His own creation.

The Christ-child's sign that first Christmas was not a chariot but a manger; it was not a scepter but a stable.

He became as much an earthly servant as He had been (and is) a heavenly sovereign.

From all appearances, He was nothing more than a mere man.

What does it mean—and what does it not mean—to say that Jesus "emptied himself"?

Well, it can't mean that Jesus ceased to be God, or gave up some of His divine attributes, because Matthew tells us in his Gospel that Jesus' birth "took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us)."

[Matthew 1:22-23 LSB — Now all this took place in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, [23] “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.”]

Although He "emptied himself," Jesus was still 100 percent "God with us"! He was not somebody who appeared to be God with us; He actually was God with us.

So what does Paul mean?

"Emptied himself" is not the end of the sentence, and the next two words describe another aspect of the same action:

Jesus "emptied him-self, by taking..."

The "emptying" and the "taking" are

linked.

Alec Motyer, who was a wonderful scholar, once suggested that it is more helpful to ask,

"Into what did He empty Himself?" than

"What did He empty Himself of?"

Asking the question in that first way enables us to see that it was what the Lord Jesus took to Himself that humbled Him, not what He laid aside. It was in taking to Himself humanity that He became nothing.

Now, none of us knows the mind of God, and there's no illustration or analogy that can really help us comprehend what He has done, but think about this:

if you were God, to come down a natural birth canal, to be born in the way Jesus was born, to live as an outcast, to die as a stranger, to bear the abuse and the ultimate curse of the law... that sounds a lot like becoming "nothing."

Jesus ate, He drank, He worked, He slept, He relaxed-just like everybody else. Yet although He was "In the likeness of men," He was not merely what He appeared to be. There was something more about Him.

He proved His humanity from His birth until His death. But He also proved His deity throughout those same days.

Think about the way He could control the wind and the waves by His word. Think about how He brought the dead back to life.

At the heart of Christmas is the truth that Jesus is both fully God and fully man.

And so we must avoid two equal and opposite dangers. Some of us are in danger of so deifying Christ that we don't have a human Christ at all. Others of us are so preoccupied with His humanity that we might lose sight of His divinity.

The Scriptures, however, hold both in perfect tension. And it is as we do likewise that we are brought to marvel at this God, who would become "nothing" by becoming a creature-by taking on human flesh.

When the great fifth-century theologian Augustine of Hippo was asked, "What are the central principles of the Christian life?" he replied (paraphrasing here), "Number one is humility, number two is humility, and number three is humility.”

At the very heart of Philippians 2 is a call to humility. The apostle Paul points to Christ taking on flesh as the pinnacle of humility, and then he essentially says, Your attitude should be the Christmas attitude.

Jesus did not approach the incarnation asking, What's in it for Me? so much as What do they need Me to do for them?

He approached the incarnation saying, Because they matter so much to Me, I will live as if I don't matter. I will lay down My life for them.

He who was somebody became a nobody so that we who are nobodies might in Christ become somebodies.

Jesus must never be less than our Savior, but He is also our example.

What the church requires-what this world requires—is not that we would seek to be somebodies but that we would embrace being nobodies who have crucified their egos and found their new identity in Christ alone.

Here is our God-the God who became a servant for the sake of others. We are called to marvel at this truth, and then to do likewise.

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