made in the likeness of men". The aorist here is of "coincident action" (J. H. Moulton)

and the clauses are therefore explanatory. In other words these phrases are explaining

what "emptying" means. This again guides us and prevents us from importing ideas into

the context which are not really there. Christ emptied Himself by taking the form

(morphe) of a slave, and by being made in the likeness of men.

We have seen that morphe means more than "essence" on the one hand or "external

appearance" on the other but is a combination of both. So if the question is asked--did

Christ empty Himself of the morphe He had originally? the answer must be that He

divested Himself of the external glory of that morphe, for this could not be a part of the

status of a slave. One thing is certain. This was voluntary. It was not that the Father

stripped Him of His dignities, He stripped Himself of all external attributes of that glory

which then became concealed or veiled. Calvin says, "He laid aside His glory in the view

of man, not by lessening it, but by concealing it". Lightfoot puts it, "He divested Himself

. . . . . of the glories, the prerogatives of deity".

This concealed glory on one occasion only shone through His human body, at the

Transfiguration (Matt. 17: 1-8), and its effect was to almost stupefy the three disciples

who were with Him. It is obvious then that He could not walk among men like this, for

they would have been overwhelmed and his ministry would have been impossible.

That we are on the right lines here is amply confirmed by the Saviour's prayer

recorded in John 17:, "And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self with

the glory which I had with Thee before the world was" (17: 5).

It was of this tremendous outward glory that He divested or emptied Himself, and thus

His Deity was untouched.

But what love, what condescension is here! Can we even begin to fathom it?

Having attempted to get an understanding of the profound statement in Phil. 2: 7,

"He emptied Himself" (R.V), we noted that the next two phrases were explanatory,

"taking the form of a slave, being made in the likeness of men".

We have already seen that if we keep the meaning of morphe to external appearance

only, we make it practically synonymous with schema, and the words are not identical.

To say, as some expositors do, that Christ as the Image and Glory of God fulfils all that

morphe means, is thus not going far enough, and, as we have already pointed out, if we

place such a limitation on the meaning of this word in verse 6, we must consistently do so

in verse 7, which will then mean that the Lord in taking the morphe of a slave, merely