How Jesus Emptied Himself And Why It Changes Us

What if the cure for division isn’t stronger opinions but a different mind altogether? We open Philippians 2:5–11 and sit with the most stunning vision of Jesus: fully God, yet choosing the path of a servant, emptying Himself to meet us at our deepest need. This is not abstract theology; it is the heartbeat of unity. When pride fuels comparison and murmuring, Paul points us to the Christ who lays down rights, embraces the cross, and shows that the way up is down.

We walk through the text carefully: what it means that Jesus is in the form of God, why equality with God was not something He had to grasp, and how “emptied Himself” reveals not a loss of deity but a laying aside of certain rights and honors. We explore the incarnation with clarity—God becoming man without ceasing to be God—and why this matters for everyday life. The result is a blueprint for communities that want real peace: take on the mind of Christ, renew your thinking in the Word, and let the Spirit turn status into service.

From church conflict to family tension to workplace ambition, we bring this passage to the ground with practical steps. Humility is not weakness; it is courageous love in action. It looks like listening more than winning, serving more than showing, and being part of the solution instead of the noise. The promise at the end of the hymn is hope-filled: the path of obedience leads to joy and honor, and every knee will bow at the name of Jesus. If you’re hungry for a faith that changes posture, not just opinions, this conversation will give you both clarity and courage.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Pastor Timothy Word.

Reading The Christ Hymn

Why Humility Heals Church Division

SPEAKER_00 0:26

The New Testament. And so if you have a copy of God's word, turn to Philippians. Amen. Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Verses 5 down through verse 11. The Bible says the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is writing to this church at Philippi. And there's a lot of themes throughout this letter. Some people have called it the letter on joy because that's one of the words that's mentioned over and over throughout the book of Philippians. It's all about joy. But in this section, the apostle was writing to the church, and he's talking about unity. Specifically, unity achieved through humility. And in the middle of this is probably, in my view, my opinion, one of the greatest passages ever written about Jesus Christ. So follow along with me as I read beginning in verse 5. The word of God says, 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, of those on the earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen. And we'll stop here. This is God's word. Precious, holy, infallible, completely sufficient, authoritative word. In my opinion, one of the greatest passages ever written about Jesus Christ. And it paints the perfect picture of humility, the humility of Jesus Christ. No one has ever come close to humbling himself like Jesus Christ did. And in truth, no one ever will. And yet, the context of this passage in the middle of this letter is if the problems of the church and of the world at large are to ever be addressed, to be impacted, and to have some of them solved, we must humble ourselves as Jesus did. That's really the context of this. The church is too often divided. The church is too often rumbling with criticism. And I'm not talking about Providence Church. I'm just talking about the church at large. It's riddled with division and rumbling with criticism and murmuring and differences and jealousy and envy and ambition and outside talk and negative feelings and desires for position and recognition. I'm so grateful that really over the last 12 and a half years, we've just never had to deal with much of that in the life of Providence Church. I'm so thankful for that. But maybe you've been in a church situation where that's been prevalent. You know what it can be like. And the only answer is the declaration of this passage. And that's humility. Letting the humility of Jesus Christ flow in and out of our minds. Let this mind be in you. The unity of the church really depends upon this thing, and that is its members walking in humility, in the humility of Jesus Christ. But this passage is primarily about Jesus. And that's what I want us to focus on as we think about this God with us. This is one of the most beautiful passages that really focus in on the incarnation of Jesus. And so incarnation means what, Susan?

unknown 4:41

The act of flesh.

Incarnation Defined And Explored

Taking On The Mind Of Christ

Christ’s Equality With God Explained

Emptied Himself And Became A Servant

What Jesus Laid Aside And Why

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Very good. The act of coming to earth in the flesh. It is God becoming flesh. Right. Tell me what's the origin of the word? What language did it come from? Robin. Latin. Very good. Latin. It's not English. It's Latin. It's a Latin word that really came to the forefront in the Middle Ages, and it was just kind of adopted as the word. But the Latin word that we have in our English language, incarnation, literally does mean the act of becoming flesh. And so this passage is primarily about Jesus, and it's about the incarnation of Jesus. What do we see here? Well, let's pull out some things as it relates to this humiliation, this humility demonstrated by Christ that is to be in us as Christians. Well, what we see first is verse 5, and it's that Christ is the supreme example of this humility. Verse 5 again, let this mind. Some translations render it, let this have the same attitude as Jesus. Or think like Jesus. It really does mean have the mindset of Christ. Almost in a literal way, have the mind of Christ. Think like. We'll get to that more in a minute. Jesus Christ is God, and yet he humbled himself and became man. Jesus Christ is the person who dwelt in all the glory of perfection. But he humbled himself and he came to this corruptible world that, in all honesty, knows little else than selfishness and greed and death and evil and wickedness. I mean, just imagine the enormous step down that Jesus Christ had to take to become man. It's utterly impossible to grasp, I think, the humiliation that went along with this. The humility that it took. And yet it's exactly what he did. And again, just to remind you, by way of application, it's what the scripture says that we must do as well. That we humble ourselves. This very same mind that existed in Jesus Christ that led him to give up everything that he was and had, that very mind is to be in us as well. So the point, this is the point of this present passage as it relates to Jesus. Jesus Christ set and he focused his mind upon humbling himself. He took all he was and all he had, and he came down where we are and met our need. Isn't that something? And now, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. In other words, take the mind of Christ as a believer, as a follower of Jesus. Now, if you're not saved, if you're not truly born again, you can't take the mind of Christ. That doesn't even make sense to you. But if the Holy Spirit of God resides in you, if you are born again and indwelt by the Spirit of God, you have the mind of Christ. You need to believe that. And then that takes a deliberate action of your will. This just doesn't happen by osmosis. This just has to be something that you determine to do, and you set yourself to renew your mind daily so that you yield your mind, your thinking, your thought processes to the thoughts of God. And that's revealed where? In the Word. The mind of God's revealed in the Word of God, and the Spirit of God teaches you that. And you begin to take the mind of Christ and you let the humility and the lowliness that ought to be there really begin to surge through your thinking. So every time, I'm going to get down to Jesus here in a minute, but I want to work through this application a little bit because verse 5 is very applicational driven. Every time that you begin to have this idea of ego driving you, right? And you know what ego stands for anyway, right? Edging God out. That's what that stands for. Edging God out. Every time your ego drives you, and you're more concerned about your standing, your position, your ambition, your recognition, all of that, if that's the motivation of your heart, as a believer, what you need to know out the gate is that's not from God. That is not from God. That's your flesh, and that's satanic. You know the sin of Satan, right? It's pride. It's what caused him to fall. And so anytime we have pride in our life, it's not of God. It's from Satan himself. That's hard for us to hear. Because we have these messages that say, well, you need to take pride in your work. Well, that's good. We need to have a good work ethic. But in what way, right? Is it so I can be recognized, so I can be lifted up, so I can get the highest recognition, I can be the top salesman, I can be the best at whatever I do. That's what drives us. We want to be the goat, right? Isn't that weird how that changed in the last 10 years? Because it used to be if you were the goat, that was a bad thing to be. You were the worst. But now it's the greatest of all time if you're the goat. We all want to be the goat. I didn't ever want to be the goat. I thought that was bad. And of course, in scripture, that's a bad thing too. You don't want to be a goat in scripture. You want to be a sheep. Anytime these things of, man, I want to show off, that's not from God at all. Wow. That's hard for us. We struggle with that. We want recognition. So he's saying, take all you are and all you have and really get down where the needs really are. With your brothers and sisters in the world. Do all you can. If there's some sort of divisiveness rising up, or click rising up, or grumbling, or murmuring, or selfish ambition and pride, desire for position and power, greed and selfishness, or hurt and pain, if all of that you see is kind of bubbling up somewhere or rising up, whether it's in the church or in your family or whatever, he is saying, do all you can to solve those things. How? By taking the mind of Christ. Humble yourself, and you do all you can to let God work through you, dealing with those problems that can afflict the church and afflicts the world and the community in which we live. Humble yourself as Christ did and become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Look at the mind of Christ. Lay hold of it, right? And here's what we're going to try to do for the next few minutes. We see it descriptively pictured in these verses that follow. So we really shouldn't miss out on the opportunity of an eternity, and that's the glorious privilege of possessing the very mind of Christ Himself. Let's see what we see here. Verse 6. Something that stands out here is in verse 6 is Christ Jesus is of the very nature of God. Now we're making it all about him. Not about us now. It's all about him. Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Christ is of the very nature of God. I think this is critical to note because it means that Jesus Christ was not like God. He is what? He is God. He's not like God, he is God. Jesus Christ did not just achieve a high level of righteousness when he was on earth, like we talked about last Wednesday night. He's the very embodiment of righteousness. Jesus Christ did not just walk more perfectly than other men and women walk. He was the very picture, he was the very essence of perfection. When Jesus, this is saying to us that Jesus Christ did not become God when he was on earth. He's been God throughout all eternity. There's three points in this verse that I think very clearly show that Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is of the very nature of God. Look what it says. Who, verse 6, who? Being in the form of God. Jesus Christ is of the being of God. That word being in the Greek language means existence. It's what a your being. That is what a person is within and what a person is without. What you are on the inside and what you are on the outside. That's your being. It's the very essence of a person. It's what a person is. It's that part of a person that really cannot be changed. It's who a person is in all that he or she is. And so this is the most glorious truth because it means, again, that Jesus Christ is God. He is the very, to use the word of the text here, being. He's the very being of God. Remember John 1.1? We touched on it last week, the gospel, John 1.1. In the beginning was the what? Word, and the word was with God, but the word also what? Was God. So clear. So clear. It also goes on to say here, Jesus Christ is in the form of God. Who being in the form of God. Now that word form, it's actually the word from which we get our word metamorphosis, but it the morphe, without the meta, morphe means the permanent, constant being of a person. It's the very essence of a person. It's that part of you that never changes. It's the unchangeable being. Barclay points out, and I thought it was helpful to me, William Barclay, he points out that there's another Greek word that's translated form, schema. There's morphine and schema, two different Greek words, but we have it in our English language form. What's interesting is in contrast, that word, schema, that's translated form, means the fleeting outward form of a person that's always changing. For example, a man and woman is always changing. Schema in looks because of fashion. Maybe you're getting more beautiful. Maybe you're getting more handsome. Well, you're going the opposite direction than I am, I'll tell you that. But that's the schema, that's the outward form. That's always changing. But the morphe, the manhood, the womanhood, never changes. That's something our culture needs to hear. It never changes. So that means a most glorious thing, and that is that Jesus is the very essence of being and the image of God. He is the divine, unchangeable God Himself. He dwells in the very perfection and the essence of God. He possesses the very attributes of God Himself. I hope you're seeing this beautiful picture of Jesus tonight. And you worship him because of this. Jesus Christ, it says in this verse, is equal with God. Who meaning the very form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. The word equal means, in the English, I mean in the Greek, Isa, it means to be on equal basis with God. So it means to possess all the qualities, all the attributes of God Himself. Again, I want you to also note the word robbery here. Robbery. It's a picture, the word picture here would be a picture of a thief sneaking in, seeking to try to snatch or take away something that's not his or not hers. And so when Jesus Christ was on earth, he was constantly claiming. It amazes me the people that say, well, Jesus never claimed to be God. Have you read the Bible? Have you read the gospels? I mean, for real. It's interesting, I'll tell you a secret. I was preaching Sunday, of course, if you were here, and I was preaching out of Isaiah 9 and that passage of mighty God. He will be called mighty God. And man, I was hammering down on how he is God. And you remember that? Came to find out after the first service, we had a Jehovah's Witness with us Sunday. Who does not believe that he is God? And so that was kind of cool. But she sat and listened all the way through, never left. I pray she comes back this Sunday. Of course, if the word gets out she was here, they'll give her a hard time. He was constantly claiming to be God. He was claiming to be the Son of God. I mean, he's the one that said John 3.16. Right? They gave his only begotten son. He claimed to have the very nature of God. He claimed to be one with God. He claimed to be on an equal basis with God. Was he a thief? No. Was he robbing and snatching the title of God? Or was he truly God? He's God. The answer is obviously a most glorious truth. Jesus did not have to rob or snatch at equality with God. He did not have to rob and grasp after the deity of God. Why? Because he was already on an equal basis with God. We just heard it from John 1.1, what John the Apostle's testimony was. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But Jesus Himself said, I and the Father are one. He also said, the scripture says, Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father. For which of these works do you stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy. And they knew what he was saying. Because that you, being a man, make yourself what? God. Make yourself God. Jesus also said unto them, and this really blew their mind and really really set them on the hunt to have him crucified. John 8, 58, Jesus said unto them, truly, truly, most assuredly. Or for those of you who just love the King James, verily, verily. Verily, verily. I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. We read that as I as I am, right? But uh he is doing a double meaning there. He's using Using the covenant name of God and calling himself Jehovah. And they knew it. And so that's the beautiful picture we see here in verse 6. We were seven. But made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. Here's the truth of verse seven. Christ emptied himself and became a man. Emptied himself and became a man. Made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. Now remember that we're dealing with the subject of humility. That's the context. We're dealing with the subject of humility. The very fact that Jesus Christ took one great step down from the glory of eternity past with Almighty God, with the Father, the Holy Spirit, to earth. And this step down was so great and so far that theologians don't call it the humility of Christ. They really do call it the humiliation of Christ. The humiliation of Christ, the sovereign Lord of the universe, who existed in eternity and in perfection, who existed in glory and majesty, who existed in dominion and power, stepped down and became a man. But more than this, he who was Lord and master of the universe, who deserved all the honor and all the service of all living creatures, it says he took upon himself the form of a servant, truly of a slave. He became the servant of men and women, the servant of sinners. He became the servant of men, not only of God, but the servant of men. I mean, imagine. The Lord whom we're to serve came and served us. The Lord whom we are to love came and loved us. The Lord whom we are to adore came and adored us. The Lord who we're to wait upon came and waited upon us. The Lord whom we're to minister to, he came and ministered to us. The Lord whom we are to seek came and sought you. The great distance between the majesty of Christ in heaven and the humiliation of Christ upon the earth really can't be measured. Our understanding of that difference, of that distance, our understanding of that difference, of that distance would amount to no more than you taking a small bucket of water and standing on the beach and comparing it to the ocean. That's a feeble comparison. But yet we're commanded here to let the same mind of Christ, the same mind of humility, flow through us. And therefore, we have to study the deep humility of Christ and do our best and ask the Holy Spirit of God to help us grasp it and to help us practice it. I want to ask you, do you demonstrate this humility in your home with your spouse? Or are you always demanding your way and your rights? I see some folks punching each other right here. Is that your attitude in the church? The Bible says there's two statements in this verse that really need some study just a little bit here. Jesus Christ made himself of no reputation. Literally in the Greek, it says he emptied himself. The word emptied means to completely empty. It's the picture of pouring water out of a glass, or I could take this bottle and pour water out until it was completely empty. Or of dumping something until it's all removed. The very picture of being completely empty, I think, kind of stirs a feeling of just how far Christ went in humbling himself for us. I mean, what was it that was poured or emptied out of Jesus Christ when he left heaven and came to earth? That's a debate. That's a question. This is what theologians called the kinosis theory. That's a Greek word, the kenosis theory of emptying himself. Now I want you to note that this passage does not say specifically what he emptied himself of. It just simply says he emptied himself. He made himself of no reputation. There's some other scriptures that do give an indication. You could read Mark 13, 32, maybe for some more thoughts there. But I want to tell you what he did not do. He did not lay aside his deity when he came to earth. He could not cease to be who he was. God. He was God. No person ever can cease to be who you are in your being, in your essence. You may take on different traits, you may behave differently, you may change your behavior and you may change your looks, but you are the same person in being. You're the same person in nature. You're the same person in essence. Jesus Christ is God, therefore, he's always God. And he always possesses the nature of God. He did not empty himself of his deity. But what did he do? Well, he laid aside some of his rights as God. What do you mean? Well, he had every right to experience only the glory. Only the majesty. Only the honor. Only the worship of heaven. He laid aside that right to experience only the glory and majesty and honor and worship of heaven. And in coming to earth as a man, he was actually to experience anything but glory and honor and majesty and worship. People would treat him far differently than God, than the glory that he was. He laid aside his right to appear only in heaven and to appear only as the sovereign God of heaven. In coming to earth as a man, he was, of course, to appear as a man on earth. And it's not just an appearance, it's in reality. Again, one of the classic commentators I like to read, and Matthew Henry, he has a very brief but excellent statement on the fact. He says he emptied himself. Divested himself. That's a good word. Divested himself of the honors and glories of the upper world, of his former appearance, to clothe himself with the rags of human nature. That's good. So as I've stated above already, Jesus Christ emptied himself of certain rights that he had as God, the right to appear only in heaven, and the right to experience only the glory of heaven. That's exactly what Jesus himself said when he was about to be crucified and returned to heaven. He was praying to the Father, John 17, when he said, And now, Father, glorify you, will you glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world was. Man, the glory that he had with him before there was even creation. Before the Trinity said, Let there be light, and there was light. Before the Spirit hovered over the face of the deep. The glory that they had together. This is also the point of other scriptures. For example, Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2, 16 through 18 says this. For indeed, he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted. Thank God for that.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

You've been listening to Foundations of Truth, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor Timothy Mann. At Providence Church, Ormond Beach, Florida. You're invited to join us on Sundays at 1151 West. Could not afford Ormond Beach or service time at Bible Fellowship Proof. And more information on activities at ProvidenceChurch.org. Join us again at tweet for Foundation.