What Does It Mean That Jesus Emptied Himself?
Some translations of Philippians 2 say that Jesus “emptied Himself,” while the NKJV says He “made Himself of no reputation.” Does that mean the eternal Son set aside His deity or stopped using divine attributes when He became man? Before drawing that conclusion, I want to follow Paul’s whole sentence. He explains the emptying by telling us what Christ took upon Himself.
Philippians 2 Begins with the Life of the Church
Paul wrote this teaching from prison to a church facing opposition. At the end of Philippians 1, he urged the believers to stand together for the faith of the gospel without being frightened by their enemies. Chapter 2 begins with the comfort they have in Christ and the fellowship the Spirit creates. They have received affection and mercy, so Paul calls them to share one mind and one love. His teaching about Christ addresses the life of that church rather than an abstract theological puzzle.
These were faithful believers, but even a good congregation can become divided. Pride can turn service into rivalry, and fear can begin to shape how people treat each other. We can even do something helpful because we want recognition. Paul answers those dangers by directing the church’s attention to the incarnate Son.
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
Paul tells believers to consider other people’s concerns instead of making everything revolve around themselves. Then he says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” He hasn’t changed subjects by beginning to speak about Christ. The Son’s becoming man gives us the deepest reason to let go of status and serve one another.
Later in Philippians, Paul asks Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. They appear to have been faithful women, yet their strained relationship still needed attention. In chapter 2, Timothy sought the welfare of other believers, and Epaphroditus risked his life in service. No one could repeat Christ’s unique descent, but these examples help me see why Paul taught it to this church. Ordinary believers needed to learn to put someone else’s good ahead of their own convenience and desire for recognition.
I don’t want to become so absorbed in the Greek words that I forget why Paul wrote them. He was helping a church learn humility. We can also go too far the other way and concentrate on the practical lessons of Philippians 2 until Christ’s deity fades from view. A wrong understanding of Jesus damages worship, and pride contradicts the Savior we claim to worship. Paul teaches who Christ is so that knowing Him will change how we treat one another.
How can I take the eternal Son’s willing descent seriously and still defend selfish ambition as though my status were too precious to surrender? Paul isn’t asking believers to think they have no value. He’s asking them to stop using their place in the church as a reason to overlook someone else’s good. The more clearly we see who Christ is and how low He willingly came, the harder it becomes to make recognition the purpose of our service.
We need to begin with what the Son possessed before He became man, then follow what Paul says He took and did. That will keep us from inventing a list of divine qualities He supposedly discarded. We also need to consider how His descent and obedience should change the church. Admiring the doctrine while refusing the humility Paul taught would miss his purpose.
The Eternal Son Took the Servant’s Form
Paul begins before Bethlehem, when Jesus was already “in the form of God.” The One who later took the form of a servant already existed in divine glory. He wasn’t a creature trying to become greater or someone who merely looked divine. Full deity is where Paul’s explanation begins.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
The Greek word translated “form” is morphe, which Paul uses both for God’s form and for the bondservant’s form Christ took. In this setting, it refers to real status or true nature rather than a temporary disguise. The repeated word helps me understand the comparison. If Jesus truly entered the servant’s condition, we cannot treat the form of God as a costume He only appeared to wear. He truly is God, and He truly took the servant’s place.
Verse 6 speaks of the form of God, and verse 7 speaks of the form of a bondservant. Paul places the glory that rightly belongs to the eternal Son beside the low condition He willingly entered. Neither description is a disguise.
We need to understand Christ’s glory to appreciate how far He humbled Himself. He was not a creature climbing toward greatness by obeying well enough. He already shared divine glory as the eternal Son and chose to come down for sinners. Equality with God was His before He began that descent, not a reward He received afterward.
When Paul says Christ did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or exploited, he isn’t saying it was wrong for Jesus to possess it or beyond His reach. That equality already belonged to Him. He simply did not use His rightful glory as a reason to refuse the servant’s place.
Readers debate whether the word translated “robbery” emphasizes seizing something not yet possessed or using what one already possesses for advantage. I don’t need to settle every disputed shade of meaning to follow Paul’s larger point. Christ was not trying to obtain equality with God. He began in God’s form, then took the servant’s place and entered human life. From there, He willingly humbled Himself all the way to death.
Jesus’ humility helps me see that being humble doesn’t require pretending to be less than we are. He knew the honor that rightly belonged to Him and never denied His glory. Yet He chose the Father’s saving will with full knowledge of His rights. He entered a world that would misunderstand and reject Him, where people would mock and beat Him before crucifying Him.
Possessing a right doesn’t mean we must always insist on using it for our own ease. Jesus deserved honor and worship because divine glory was His by nature. He knew exactly who He was when He accepted the servant’s condition. His humility was a choice to serve, not the unavoidable weakness of a creature or a denial of His identity.
Emptying Means Addition, Not Loss
The language of emptying comes from the phrase “made Himself of no reputation.” The Greek verb ekenosen can mean emptied or made empty. Understanding the word helps us read Paul accurately, but we still need his explanation of what Jesus did. The words that follow describe His self-emptying rather than leaving us to supply our own theory.
If I take ekenosen out of Paul’s sentence, I might picture an empty container and decide for myself what Jesus poured out. But Paul explains the verb by saying that Christ took the servant’s form and came in human likeness. Those actions describe what He added and accepted. A dictionary can give us the range of a word’s meaning, but the sentence tells us how Paul uses it here.
but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
Paul does not say Christ emptied Himself of omniscience or omnipotence, meaning His knowledge of all things and His unlimited power. Nor does he say Jesus gave up His deity. He describes Jesus making Himself of no reputation by taking a servant’s form and coming in human likeness. Those phrases explain the emptying: the Son accepted the servant’s place without removing divine nature from His Person.
That is why I understand the emptying as addition rather than subtraction. The Son did not pour away deity until less of God remained. He took a complete human nature and the servant’s condition, which He had not possessed before the incarnation. He accepted a low place and veiled the outward display of His glory while remaining fully divine.
The eternal Son took true humanity without becoming less than God. I can’t reduce that mystery to something easy to explain, but Philippians 2 does not leave us free to say Jesus stopped being omniscient or omnipotent. His divine nature never ceased to be divine.
Jesus Christ is one Person, not two persons joined together. His divine nature did not change into human nature as though Godhood were converted into flesh. Nor did a divine Person simply enter a human person who already existed. The eternal Son Himself took a complete human nature. From the incarnation onward, the one Lord Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.
Those two natures remain distinct. They are not confused or blended into a third kind of being. What belongs to either nature belongs to the one Person, but His humanity remains truly human and His deity remains truly divine. The related study on the hypostatic union of Christ examines this one-Person, two-natures truth in greater detail.
Some interpretations, often called kenotic views because they focus on the language of emptying, say the Son surrendered deity or set aside divine attributes in order to become man. Those readings try to take “emptied” seriously, but they supply content that Paul never names. Paul’s own grammar describes the emptying through taking servant form and human likeness. We should let that explanation set the boundary.
True Humanity Never Meant Less Deity
When Paul says Christ came in the likeness of men and was found in appearance as a man, he does not mean Jesus only seemed human. The people who met Him encountered a real man who ate and slept. His hunger and weariness were genuine, and He knew real sorrow. His suffering and blood were physically real.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John says the Word became flesh, so Jesus possessed a real human body and lived a real human life. At the same time, “likeness” allows for a distinction required by the rest of Scripture. Jesus shared our humanity without sharing our sin, and the man people met was also the eternal Son.
The view called docetism says Jesus only appeared human, often in an attempt to keep God distant from physical weakness. But that leaves His body and suffering less than fully real. Hebrews 2 says the Son partook of flesh and blood and became like His brethren. He entered the condition of the people He came to redeem while remaining completely without sin, so Scripture does not allow us to treat His humanity as an illusion.
Hebrews connects this humanity directly to Christ’s saving office. Because the children share flesh and blood, the Son truly shared that condition. He became like His brethren so He could serve as the faithful High Priest and make propitiation for the people’s sins. Propitiation refers to the sacrifice that deals with sin and satisfies what God’s holiness requires. His humanity was not a temporary illustration placed around an otherwise distant Savior. The Son genuinely came near to those He would redeem without ever sharing their guilt.
His humanity is necessary for salvation. If Jesus were not truly man, He could not stand in our place or shed real blood. He could not die a human death and be buried, then rise bodily as the firstfruits. Every part of that saving work was real.
We cannot protect His humanity by diminishing His deity either. A merely human Savior could not bear the weight of salvation or reveal the Father perfectly. The incarnation does not trade one problem for another: Jesus is fully human without sin and remains fully God.
Jesus’ obedience on earth did not make Him a weak creature separated from God. In John 5, He healed a man on the Sabbath, and His opponents accused Him of making Himself equal with God. His answer helps us understand His perfect unity with the Father.
Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
I notice that Jesus doesn’t stop at saying He can do nothing of Himself. He says He does whatever the Father does, and He does it in the same way. Then He speaks of giving life and carrying out judgment. We cannot read that as helplessness or a lack of divine power. His obedience is the perfect action of the Son with the Father.
Jesus did not perform miracles as an independent celebrity looking for applause. They revealed His authority and compassion in perfect agreement with the Father’s will. Demons and disease answered to Him, and nature obeyed His command. His authority extended even over sin and death, and He will exercise final judgment.
The Son never stopped being God, but He chose to come as the Servant who saves rather than demand the treatment He deserved. He would not use His power for pride or spectacle, or to escape the cross. We can see that choice clearly in the wilderness temptations. The devil offered Him a way to the crown without the cross, and Jesus refused it.
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
Colossians 2:9 says all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily. I cannot reconcile that with the claim that deity only visited Him for a time. The same Christ who took a real human body remains fully divine. The related study on the deity of Jesus gathers the wider biblical witness to that truth.
The Servant Path Reaches the Cross and Exaltation
Paul follows Christ’s humility beyond an attitude to what He actually endured. The eternal Son took true humanity and obeyed perfectly all the way to death. Having begun with His divine glory, Paul now draws our attention to the shameful manner of His death.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
The cross was neither an accident nor a loss of control. In John 10, Jesus says He lays down His life by His own choice and has authority to take it again. He suffered physically and shed His blood while bearing the punishment for our sins in His innocent body. He truly died and then rose bodily from the grave. The One who humbled Himself is the only Savior.
When I read about Christ’s love, I need to remember the nails and the blood He shed. His humility brought Him to that agony and public shame as He willingly went to His death. The Lord of glory did more than identify with human pain. He bore sin as the spotless Lamb.
Crucifixion inflicted terrible pain and exposed a condemned person to public shame. Wicked rulers authorized the sentence, and soldiers carried out the violence against the innocent Son. Other lawless people joined in rejecting Him. Jesus had the power to stop them, yet He allowed their punishment to fall upon His real body for our sins.
The Father did not punish His beloved Son. He neither cursed nor abandoned Him. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit remained united in the saving purpose while guilty people tortured and killed the One they should have worshiped.
I would miss the heart of Philippians 2 if I treated it only as inspiration to become a better person. Jesus is our example, but He is first our Redeemer. His humility saves because the sinless God-man went to the cross and gave His life for sinners.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
We receive salvation by grace through faith in the crucified and risen Christ, not by becoming humble enough to deserve it. Trying harder to overcome pride cannot save a sinner. Good works follow salvation as its fruit, and humble service grows from grace. Neither purchases forgiveness. As 1 Peter 1 explains, we were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver or gold, but with Christ’s precious blood. The study on the blood of Christ for salvation develops that cost more fully.
Paul goes on to show that Christ’s willing service did not end in defeat. God highly exalted the One who humbled Himself. This was not Jesus becoming divine as a reward for obedience, since He was already in the form of God. It was the public honoring of the Lord who had become man, been crucified, and risen.
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
Jesus is openly confessed as Lord to the glory of God the Father, and every knee will bow before Him. Some bow now in joyful worship. Others will finally bow in defeated recognition. The church gladly confesses today what all creation will acknowledge: Jesus Christ is Lord.
No one will finally remain outside that acknowledgment. The name above every name belongs to the same Person who took a servant’s condition and died on the cross. Resurrection and exaltation did not erase His humanity or make Him a different Christ. They publicly revealed the honor of the incarnate Lord whom His enemies thought they had defeated.
Paul’s wording recalls Isaiah 45, where the LORD declares that every knee will bow to Him and every tongue will take an oath. Philippians applies that universal acknowledgment to Jesus without setting Him against the Father. The confession that Jesus is Lord brings glory to God the Father because the Son shares the divine identity and fulfills the saving mission the Father gave Him.
The Mind of Christ Changes His People
We are called to imitate Christ’s humility, but we cannot take His unique place as the sin-bearer. Only the sinless God-man can redeem people through His blood. No Christian can atone for someone else’s sin. Those who belong to Jesus are called to share His lowly mind through obedience and love.
I don’t become my own savior by learning to be less selfish. Christ saves me, and His grace teaches me to turn away from pride. That keeps His example from becoming a program of self-improvement by which we try to earn salvation. We serve because our Savior loved us first, not to purchase His acceptance.
Christlike humility often appears in ordinary choices. Am I willing to do necessary work when it comes with no title and gladly let someone else receive the credit? If someone answers me harshly, I don’t have to make the exchange more heated. I can listen long enough to understand before defending my preference. Such patience leaves room for other believers to use the gifts God has given them. If I have done wrong, humility means admitting it without an excuse.
Jesus did not obey the Father only when it was comfortable, so we cannot measure faithfulness by convenience. In a church, obedience may cost us time spent doing work few people notice. We may need to give up the demand to win every discussion or be patient while a relationship is repaired. None of that repeats Christ’s saving descent. It shows His mind beginning to govern people who once put their own protection first.
Humility does not ask us to deny truth or pretend harmful conduct is acceptable. Jesus’ lowliness never made falsehood true. I can speak honestly without demanding admiration or insisting that I am the most important person present. Nor does every disagreement need to become a contest for influence.
Even humble-sounding words can conceal a demand for recognition. If I want people to notice how humble I am, I’m still making myself the center of attention. Christ serves the Father’s will and saves His people without using His service for self-promotion. His mind teaches us to give up that demand to be at the center of every room.
Alongside that command, we can find comfort in who Jesus is. He truly became man and understands human weakness without excusing sin. He also remained fully God and is mighty to save. If you have been born again, your life is secure in Him. You don’t have to secure it by defending your position or protecting your ego.
Reading this passage only as a moral example recognizes Paul’s practical purpose but overlooks its foundation. He calls us to humility because the eternal Son became man and obeyed to the cross. Who Jesus is and what He alone accomplished give the church its pattern for service. Grace brings new life, and service grows from that life as its fruit.
My Final Thoughts
After following Paul’s sentence, I do not believe Jesus emptied Himself by surrendering deity or switching off divine attributes. He made Himself of no reputation by taking true humanity and the real place of a servant while remaining fully God. His obedience brought Him to a physical, bloody cross where guilty people punished His innocent body, but the Father never cursed or abandoned Him. Jesus rose bodily and is openly exalted as the Lord before whom every knee will bow. He is our Savior before He is our example. Having been saved by Him, I need to let His lowly mind change my desire for status and recognition. I can then serve others without making myself the center.