What did Jesus give up in the Incarnation? What was He “emptied”
of? Two very important Greek words in the Christ hymn help answer those questions.
The first word is morphe, translated “form.” Morphe
occurs only twice in the entire New Testament, both times in Philippians 2.
The first reference is in verse 6, referring to the preexistent Christ; and
the second is in verse 7, referring to the incarnated Jesus. In very early
Greek writings morphe always signified a form that truly and fully expressed
the being that underlies it. “This word could never be used to describe
a wolf in sheep’s clothing, for the outward appearance would not at
all conform to what the creature really was in itself.”1 Morphe is always
more than meets the eye. So the Incarnation is also more than what can be
seen. “The form of God,” therefore, may be understood as the essential
nature and character of God.
The second word is harpagmon, translated as “something
to be exploited” (v. 6). This is the only appearance of the word in
the New Testament and the Greek version of the Old Testament (Septuagint).
It is a very difficult word to understand, as evidenced by the many different
renderings of it. Some have suggested its literal meaning is “a snatching
after,” “an aggressive action,” or “a thing to be
clutched and held on to.”
But it is important to remember that Paul is talking here about
an attitude—a mind-set. Thus when the hymn says that Christ “did
not regard equality with God harpagmon,” it intends to say that He did
not at all believe His equality with God gave Him the right to snatch, grasp,
or acquire everything for himself. Rather quite the contrary: “Jesus
saw God-likeness essentially as giving and spending oneself out.”2
It is important to note that the grammar structure at the beginning
of verse 6—“who being in the form of God”—is often
misleadingly translated as “who though he was in the form in God.”
It should, however, on the basis of the context more correctly be translated
in the causative way: “Precisely because [Christ] was in the form of
God, he reckoned equality with God not as a matter of getting but of giving.”3
God’s love is not motivated by what He will receive from us, but by
what He can give of himself.4
Nowhere does this text indicate that Christ emptied himself
of His deity. Rather He was expressing himself as God to us. The Incarnation
was the fullest expression of God’s nature. The very essence of God’s
love is not to take in—it is to pour out. Hawthorne helps us grasp this
in summary: “Thus when the hymn mentions the self-emptying act of Christ,
it does not put the emphasis on what he gave up, but rather on what he added
to himself—‘the form of a servant,’ ‘the likeness
of man.’ It implies that at the Incarnation Christ became more than
God, if this is conceivable, not less than God.”5
This mystery of God’s redemptive work in Jesus Christ
is beyond our comprehension to grasp. The most comprehensive word we have
in our language to describe it is love.
Christ’s self-sacrificing attitude, His fundamental attitude
toward sharing, giving, and serving is nothing more than the truest expression
of God’s character. Therefore, the need is not merely to imitate Christ.
Rather, by its very nature it is an appeal reminding the church that such
a life of self-giving is in reality the outworking of the life of the Spirit
of Christ within us.
In the spirit of Paul’s fondness for hymns, God’s
answer can be summed up in a single verse of Charles Wesley’s “And
Can It Be?”
He left His Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace!
Emptied himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race.
’Tis mercy all, immense and free!
For, O my God, it found out me!
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
The true mark of life in the Spirit is agape. Just as Jesus
Christ was willingly poured out for others, so we who share in the nature
of God love others as God has first loved us. We follow Christ’s example
only because we know that through faith in Christ we may also experience the
fullness of His Spirit. It is only in that fullness of His love we are empowered
to live a life marked by unselfish love.
(For the full manuscript
of this sermon go to www.preachersmagazine.org and click on “Sermons.”)
Most people in our congregations do not quarrel with the truth
that God is love. The questions arise in how the nature of that love is expressed.
Our conversations, Bible studies, and prayers betray a misunderstanding of
the difference between sentimental love and sacrificial love. This sermon
provides the preacher opportunity to clarify the distinctions.
Thomas Long states that the preacher’s task is not to
replicate the biblical text but to regenerate the impact of some portion of
that text. In this sense, the biblical text is like a stone tossed into a
pond. Its immediate impact is felt where it falls—the historical situation
into which it originally landed—but this impact creates ripples that
flow in time across the surface. The task of preaching is not merely to recover
the text’s original breaking of the surface, but to express what happens
when one of the ripples sent forth by that text crosses our spot in the pond.6
Though the word “love” is not explicitly mentioned
in this passage, the entirety of the Christ hymn drips with the love of God.
Helping your congregation experience again what Paul’s congregation
must have felt in first hearing this read is a daunting task. Explaining God’s
love in a technical way will not do. But there is now higher calling of a
preacher of the good news of Jesus Christ than to evoke through the mystery
of the Word and the Spirit the mammoth love of God.
Take the time to reflect on some personal experiences where
you have been overwhelmed by the love of God. Ask yourself why they were significant.
What contributed to their impact? Then search for ways to express those same
dynamics in the mood of the sermon. One teacher of homiletics advises students,
as a step in exegesis, to imagine appropriate music for the biblical text.
Trying to decide between a flute and a trombone can go a long way toward determining
the text’s mood. This sermon is a ballad that draws its hearers into
the arms of God.
The Incarnation is a love story. The close of this message would be an ideal
opportunity to invite those who are not believers into a relationship with
Jesus Christ.
1. Hawthorne, Themes, 67.
2. C. F. D. Moule, “The Manhood of Jesus in the New Testament,”
in Christ, Faith and History, ed. S. W. Sykes and J. P. Clayton (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1976), 97.
3. Ibid.
4. Hawthorne, Commentary, 85-87.
5. Hawthorne, Themes, 72.
6. Thomas Long, Preaching and the Literary Forms of the Bible
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1989), 127.
