Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant
Philippians 2:5-7.
The fact that our Saviour, the eternal Son of God, made Himself the form of no reputation and took upon Himself the form of a bondservant ever calls forth wonderment and worship in our hearts. He “emptied Himself” is the literal translation of the penultimate phrase of today’s text. What did this actually mean in our Lord’s life?
It does not signify that he surrendered His deity in becoming Man. In His extreme humiliation He remained the eternal God. But God anointed Him as a Man with the Holy Spirit and with power. Consequently, He did not act in His own power as God but in the power of the Spirit. God worked through Him when He was living as a Man here below.
Although He was the Creator of all things, we hear Him say, as a Man, that He was not authorized to decide who would sit on His right or left hand in the coming kingdom. Similarly, He occasionally made it clear to His listeners that it was not His initiative that gave rise to either His words or His deeds. He ascribed all to the Father. This “emptying”, which was indeed His own initiative, was necessary, so that He could truly take on the form of a bondservant. He adopted a position of dependence and obedience with all the consequences that it implied. And it was the obedience that led Him to His death on the cross. How worthy He is of our adoration!