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Different Interpretation on “Emptied”

Gottfried Thomasius, said that Jesus “could not have maintained His full divinity during
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the incarnation.” While Jesus, after His incarnation, did not give up the “immanent
divine attributes” which are “absolute power, truth, holiness, and love,” He gave up
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“relative divine attributes,“ namely; “omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.”
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Also, Peter T. O’ Brien notes that some scholars observes that Jesus gave up the use of
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“relative attributes of deity,” namely; “omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence.” Further, other
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scholars observe that Jesus did not give up “essential attributes of holiness, love, righteousness.” But
how can Jesus be fully man and fully God at the same time? To understand Philippians 2, we must be
able to answer this question.

Summarized Exegesis of Philippians 2:1-11
Paul exhorts the believers at Philippi to practice unity in Christ (vv2-3). On one hand, he encourages
them to practice the following virtues: encouragement resulting from the unity with Christ (v1a),
comfort resulting from love (v1a), common sharing in the Spirit (v1b), and tenderness or compassion
(v1b). The result for the practice of those virtues would be Paul’s complete joy (v2a). On the other hand,
he discourages ambitions that are driven by selfishness (v3a). Instead, they needed to value others
above themselves (vv3b-4). In they would follow those instructions, they would be on right path of
achieving the like-mindedness in Christ. Next, Paul gives us an example of humility, Christ. In their
relationship with one another, he encourages them to have the same mindset as that of Christ Jesus
(v5). Christ’s incarnation was for the demonstration of His interest in others by means of giving them
what they really needed; salvation.

So, what did Jesus do? Well, initially, even though by nature He is God, He did not consider equality with
God something to be used to his own advantage (v6 [NIV/HCSB/NRSV]). Simply put, Jesus did not
consider His deity as something that should stand in the way of taking on the human flesh (Luke 24:36-
43; John 20:26-29; Acts 1:11; Rev 1:13) in order to pay the penalty for man’s sin allowed Him to not use
equality with God to His advantage.

Jesus chose to empty Himself (v7). The verb “emptied” comes from a Greek main verb
ekenōsen (to “deprive of power,” “make of no meaning or effect” ). Its action is described by
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the next three participles, namely, “taking the very nature of a servant” (v7b), “being made in
human likeness” (v7c), and being found in appearance as a man (v8a). So, Jesus never ceased
to be God nor exercising His attributes. Chafer observes; “A change of position or relationship
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is implied, but no surrender of essential Being is indicated” (cf. Rom. 1:3, 4; 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21;
Gal. 4:4). Scripture says while adding a human nature, “All fullness dwells in Him (Col. 1:19), and even

45 Gregg R. Allison, Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011),
381.
46 Ibid.
47 Ibid.
48 Ibid.
49 Peter T. O’ Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians: The New International Greek Testament Commentary, eds. I.
Howard Marshall and W. Ward Gasque (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), 218.
50 Ibid.
51 Aland, The Greek New Testament, 99.
52 Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1976), 1 & 2: 376.

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