The word `robbery' has been variously explained: The Schofield Bible margin gives

`a thing to be grasped after' and suggests the comparison of Gen. 3: 5-6, where Eve

considered that to `be as gods' was something worth disobeying the explicit command of

God in order to obtain it. The Concordant Version renders the phrase `deems it not

pillaging to be equal to God'; another suggestion is that He "thought it not a robber's

prize". Christ's equality with God was not considered by Him to be of such value as to

merit the deliberate disregard of God's will, nor to the extent of violently clinging to it at

all costs. Here is the basic principle of Christian humility; nothing, nothing at all must

hinder us from submission to the will of God. Our `rights', any intrinsic `worth' we may

consider we have, reputation or standing, all must be laid under the mighty hand of God.

The next two verses of the passage go on to detail the extent to which Christ Jesus

submitted to the will of God. He `made Himself of no reputation', as the A.V. renders it.

More accurately `He emptied Himself'. This does not for one moment suggest that (as

some say), He became a mere man, with a man's limitations--`a child of His times' is the

phrase often used. He emptied Himself in the sight of God, not before men. An

illustration which perhaps gives some help is that of a prince who wishes to discover for

himself how some of his countrymen live; he divests himself of all his `royalty', dresses

and lives exactly as do his countrymen, and goes to live among them as one of them. He

is still `royal', he has not renounced royalty, and could, if he so wished at any time,

exercise all the authority of royalty; but for the time being he has `humbled' himself

before the king. Having thus emptied Himself, Christ then further humbled Himself,

"and took upon Him the form of a servant"--He took upon Him the essential form of a

slave. He obviously became what all men should be, the bond-servant of God; He chose

to have no will but the will of His Father.

"And being found in fashion as a man" continues Paul, saying in effect "as if this was

not sufficient for such an One", "being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself

(yet further), and became obedient unto death". He hearkened to the point of death.

There were no limits to His submission to the Father. Indeed, when the disciples returned

from the city where they went to buy meat, to Jacob's well where the Lord had spoken

with the woman of Samaria, He told them (John 4: 34) "My meat is to do the will of Him

that sent Me, and to finish His work". It was as necessary for the Lord to do the Father's

will as it was to eat, even though that will meant death. Here we touch the mystery of

Christ's humility and obedience; the Deathless One becoming obedient to the point of

death. Could there be greater abasement, greater submission than that? Yes! for He

"became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross". We find it difficult to

appreciate the full force of `even the death of the Cross'. The appropriation of the Cross

as the symbol of various organizations of mercy such as the Red Cross, has surrounded

the Cross with an aura of kindness, if not sentimentality. The sheer brutality, horror,

shame and suffering of death on the Cross would have given tremendous force to Paul's

readers in the words `even the death of the Cross'. In His humility and submission to

God, Christ Jesus held back nothing. Had greater submission and humiliation been

possible, and a necessary part of God's will for His Son, it would still have been His