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 . . .
C. Jesus was man, Jesus is God. (v. 2:8)
1. “So Paul begins by saying that Jesus was essentially and unalterably God.”
(WB pg35)
2. “two whole, perfect and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood were
inseparably joined together in one person . . . very God and very man, yet
one with Christ . . .” (Muller pg 85)
3. Had He come into the world emphasizing His equality with God, the would
have been amazed, by not save. He did not grasp at this. The rather He
counted humanity His prize, and so laid aside the conditions of His pre-existence state and became man. (Word Studies of the New Testament pg 432)
4. He divested Himself of that particular mode of existence which was proper
and peculiar too Him as one with God. He laid aside the form of God. In so doing, He did not divest Himself of His divine nature. The change was a change of state: the form of a servant for the form of God. His personaility continued the same. His self-emptying was not self-extinction, nor was the divine Being changed into a mere man. In His humanity He retained the consciousness of deity, and in His incarnate state carried out the mind which animated Him before His incarnation. He was not unable to assert equality with God. He was not to assert it. (Word Studies of the New Testament pg 433)
IV. The Cross
A. Cheap Crosses –Illustration (WW pg 64) (v. 2:8)
At a religious festival in Brazil, a missionary was going from booth to booth,
examining the wares. He saw a sign above one booth: “Cheap Crosses.”
He thought to himself, “That’s what many Christians are looking for these
days—cheap crosses. My Lord’s cross was not cheap. Why should mine be?”
B. There is one reason here given which has reference to Christ. He that is hanged is
accursed of God, that is, it is the highest degree of disgrace and reproach that can be
done to a man, and proclaims him under the curse of God as much as any external
punishment can. Those that see him thus hang between heaven and earth will conclude
Him abandoned of both and unworthy of either; and therefore let him no hang all night,
for that would carry it too far. Now the apostle, showing how Christ has redeemed us,
illustrates it by comparing the brand here put on him that was hanged on a tree with the
death of Christ, Galatians 3:13. Moses, by the Spirit, uses this phrase of being accursed
of God, when he means no more than be treated ignominiously (shamefully), that it might
afterwards be applied to the death of Christ, and might show that in it he underwent the
curse of the law for us, which is a great enhancement of His love and great
encouragement to our faith in Him. (MH pg 813)
V. Christ Humbled (v. 2:8)
A. The characteristics of Christ’s life were humility, obedience, and self-denial. Christ did
not try to coerce or manipulate others: He only desired to serve others. He did not
attempt to exalt Himself; He only tried to bless others. As a consequence of Christ’s
humility and obedience, God “highly exalted Him.” (RFR pg 67) (v. 2:9)
B. Christ was not half man and half God. He was wholly man, and wholly God. We meet
with incidents in His life which compel us to say categorically, “This is God”; and
we also meet with incidents which force us to say as emphatically, “This is man.”
Jesus prayed because He was a man. (Spiros Zodhiates pg 1450)
VI. Christ Exalted (v. 2:9-11)
A. Men ask, “Who should be greatest?” Mark 9:33-37
B. “Grant us to sit . . .” Mark 10:35-45
There are plenty among us like the two brethren who would sit right and left in the
Kingdom, who will never be able to attain thereto because they will not pay
The price of drinking His cup and being baptized with His baptism.
C. Even parents ask. Matthew 20:20
D. Worshipping Him, and desiring a certain thing.
E. God’s law requires humility before exaltation, descent before ascent.
Matthew 23:12; James 4:10
1. Christ “humbled Himself”
2. “God also hath highly exalted Him.”
F. Christ is given a name above every name –JESUS. He is LORD-kurious
1. Began meaning master or owner.
2. Became official title of Roman Emperors.
3. It was the word used by which the Hebrew Jehovah was translated in the
Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures. So, then, when Jesus was
Called kurious, Lord, it meant that He was the Master and Owner of all
life; He was King of kings; He was the Lord in a way in which the heathen
gods and the dumb idols could never be; He was nothing less than divine.
G. Be humble was He also was humble. Though existing before the worlds in the
Eternal Godhead, yet He did not cling with avidity to the prerogatives of His
Divine majesty, did not ambitiously display His equality with God; but divested
Himself of the glories of heaven, and took upon Him the nature of a servant,
Assuming the likeness of men. Nor was this all. Having thus appeared among
Men in the fashion of a man, He humbled Himself yet more, and carried out
His obedience even to dying. Nor did He die by a common death: He was crucified,
as the lowest malefactor is crucified. But as was his humility so also was His
exaltation, God raised Him to a preeminent height, and gave Him a title as a
dignity far above all dignities and titles else. For to the name and majesty of Jesus
all created things in heaven and earth and hell shall pay homage on bended
knee; and every tongue shall declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, and in and
for Him shall glorify God the Father. (J. B. Lightfoot pg 110)
