Philippians Part 10 Series

Philippians Part 10, Chapter 2:5-2:11

I. Purpose and Importance of Philippians (2:5-11)

A. Purpose –Christ the example concern for others leaves no room for self-concern.

1. Satan said, “I will . . .” Isaiah 14

2. Satan, the created, desired to be the Creator.

3. Christ the Creator desired to be the creature. Hebrews 2:17

B. Importance –Foundational Truth

In this confession, the early church confirmed:

1. The pre-existence of Jesus as God.

2. The incarnation of Christ as a true human being.

3. The death of Christ on the Cross.

4. The resurrection of Christ from the grave.

5. The coming of Christ the Lord of all.

C. Quotes concerning Philippians 2:5-11

1. In the whole range of Scripture this paragraph stands in almost unapproachable

and unexampled majesty. There is no passage where the extremes of our

Savior’s majesty and humility are brought into such abrupt connection.

(F. B. Meyer)

2. The passage of Philippians 2:5-11, the only doctrinal one in Philippians, is one

of the most important Christological statements in the New Testament.

(Ray Frank Robbins)

3. This is the foundational truth of Christianity. (Lawrence O. Richards)

4. In many ways this is the greatest and most moving passage Paul ever wrote

about Jesus. (William Barclay)

5. It is John 3:16 expanded theologically.

II. The Mind of Christ as an example. (v. 2:5-2:9)

A. In the form of God.

1. Morphe-not shape as schema, it is the nature or essence of Jesus

Was essentially and unalterably Go.

2. John 10:30 one-hen – one in essence, power, and quality

3. Trinity in action. John 8:12-18; Daniel 7:9-14; Acts 7:56-59; Revelation 5:1-8

B. Equal with God.

C. No reputation – In the form of a Servant. Emptied Himself

1. Pre-existence as God—Emptied of glories of heaven

2. Existence as man – pouring out His life to God in service to man.

3. Let this mind be in you.

D. In the likeness of men—fashion as a man.

1. He made Himself known and was recognized

2. The manhood of Jesus was not permanent; it was utterly real, but it passed (WB)

E. Humbled Himself – Obedient

1. Submissive mind

2. Doing the will of God

F. The death of the Cross. (v. 2:8)

1. The most degrading, the most painful.

2. Reserved for slaves, robbers, assassins, and the like.

3. Flogged (whipped) first—so cruel became known as intermediate death.

4. Jews did not crucify living persons, but did suspend the executed bodies upon

a tree. Men thus hanged were considered accursed by God.

Deuteronomy 21:18-23

a. Highest degree of disgrace and reproach.

b. Hanging between heaven and earth, forsaken by both.

5. Christ made a curse for us. Galatians 3:13

6. Figuratively became the mark of God’s redemptive action in history.

7. To bear the cross –we must refuse, abandon, deny self altogether.

a. Obeying the will of God.

b. The Christian’s cross is always voluntary.

8. Christ took the cross voluntarily

The characteristics of His life were humility, obedience, and self-denial.

Let this mind be in YOU!

G. Then, to let this mind be in you which also was in Christ, you must pour out

your life to God in the service of man.

III. The form of God (v. 2:6)

A. The word “form” here suggests that the form of the object is the expression of what it

really is. The reality discloses itself in the form. When Paul says that Christ existed

in the form of God, he implies that Christ was as the same nature as God, that the

principle of His being was essentially divine. (Interpreter’s Bible pg 48)

B. Morphe denotes the special or characteristic form or feature of a person or thing; it is

used with particular significance in the New Testament, only of Christ, in Philippians

2:6-7 in the phrases “being in the form of God,” and “taking the form of a servant.”

An excellent definition of the word is that of Gifford: “morphe is therefore properly

the nature or essence not in the abstract, but as actually subsisting in the individual,

and retained as long as the individual itself exist . . .” (Vine’s Expository pg 123-124)

1. It includes the whole nature and essence of Deity, and is inseparable from them,

since they could have no actual existence without it.

2. That it does not include in itself anything ‘accidental’ or separable, such as

particular modes of manifestation, or conditions of glory and majesty, which

may at one time be attached to the “form,” at another separated from it . . . .

3. The true meaning of morphe in the expression “form of a servant.” It is

universally admitted that the two phrases are directly antithetical, and that

“form” must therefore have the same sense in both.

4. We were created in the image of God, but Christ being in the form of God . . .