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Did
Jesus Remain Fully God?
The first of our five
passages is
Philippians 2:5-11. We've
highlighted the words that are a
translation of morphe or
schema each time they appear.
"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, but made Himself of no reputation,
taking
the form of a bondservant, and
coming in the likeness of men. 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. Therefore God also has highly
exalted Him and given Him the name which
is above every name, that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of those in
heaven, and of those on earth, and of
those under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father."
When the Apostle Paul
under divine inspiration speaks of Jesus
"being in the form of God" and "taking
the form of a bondservant," which word,
morphe or schema, do you
think he uses? In this case it is
morphe —
an outward
appearance that agrees with the inward
nature.
The use of the Greek word
morphe in the
phrase "being
in the form of God" tell us two
things. First, Jesus' deity is the
outward expression of His inward nature
— the
morphe. Second, Jesus' deity is a
continuous state —
past, present, and future. In other
words, He did not empty Himself of, or
in any way diminish His deity when He
came into this world in a body of
flesh. In taking on the form of a
servant, Jesus voluntarily laid aside
heavenly privileges and prerogatives in
obedience to God the Father, but His
deity was not changed or diminished.
Jesus was still the God of the universe
while in this world.
The phrase "taking
the form of a bondservant" is in harmony
with this. It's morphe again.
It tells us that servanthood was
also an outward expression of Jesus' inward
nature. His deity remained intact when He took
on the form of a servant. Humanity was the means
by which He manifested His servanthood. This
passage echoes Jesus' own words in the Gospel of
John:
"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My
own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This
is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of
all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but
should raise it up at the last day. And this is
the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who
sees the Son and believes in Him may have
everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the
last day." (John 6:38)
"The Son of Man did
not come to be served, but to serve, and to give
His life a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28)
Jesus
is the Suffering Servant spoken of in
Isaiah 52:13 —
"Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He
shall be exalted and extolled and be very high"
— and onward
through chapter 53 culminating in
verse 11: "My
righteous Servant shall justify many, for He
shall bear their iniquities."
So, in
Philippians 2:5-11 we have our first
instance of morphe
— demonstrating that Jesus' deity and servanthood both
reflect His true nature as God. His outward
appearance changed, but His inner nature did
not. Jesus was — and is — both fully God and fully man at
the same time. In Him dwells all the fullness of
the Godhead in bodily form (Colossians
2:9).
Preaching
"Another Jesus"
Sadly, there is a tendency in
much of today's evangelical preaching to
over-emphasize Jesus' humanity to the point of
dangerously diminishing or even denying His deity. This is,
in fact, the preaching of "another Jesus." The
Apostle Paul warns us
against being taken in by such preaching:
But I fear, lest
somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his
craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ.
For if he who comes
preaches another Jesus whom we have not
preached, or if you receive a different
spirit which you have not received, or a
different gospel which you have not
accepted — you may well put up with it!
(2 Corinthians 11:3-4)
The Bible does
not speak of "another Jesus" who was anything
less than fully God during His earthly ministry
— quite the
contrary! The Suffering Servant is also the God
of the universe, the Lord of glory.
We'll see this in a different way
in our next passage.
[Next - Coming soon]
Articles in this series
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