“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.”
We admit the difficulties in this passage, but we agree with The Expositor's Greek Testament when it says with regard to it, “This is not a discussion in technical theology. Paul does not speculate on the great problem of the nature of Christ. The elaborate theories reared on this passage, and designated ‘kenotic,’ would probably have surprised the Apostle.”
Perhaps the first thing to notice about these verses is that Paul does not say that Jesus pre-existed; that idea is implied by certain commentators from some of the things which Paul does say. For example, “Jesus, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” Lightfoot and others have translated Paul as meaning that Jesus “did not look upon his equality with God as a prize to be clutched”; i.e., that Jesus already possessed something to which he was resolved not to cling!
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Author: P. H. Adams
Keywords: Trinity, Triunity, Trinitarianism, Trinitarian, Arianism, Arian, Three in one, Three gods, Three gods one person, Triune, Jesus God, God the Son, homoiousios, Homoousios, Homoiousian, Jesus emptied himself, made himself of no reputation, Jesus made himself of no reputation, Jesus in the form of God, form of God, Christ in the form of God, incarnation, God incarnate, incarnate, equal with God, equality with God, God made flesh, word made flesh, word became flesh, God incarnation, Jesus incarnation
Bible reference(s): Philippians 2:5-8
Source: “Did Jesus Christ Pre-Exist?,” The Testimony, Vol. 23, No. 272, August 1953, p. 256.
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