The KJV
seems to be saying that before the incarnation, Jesus’ being equal with God was
not robbery or taking away from God.
This seems a little strange to say if He was in the form of God, which
means he was God, and was willing to set it aside.
It seems the other translations make more
sense when they place “equal” before “robbery” and translate the former
“equality” and the latter “grasped” or “held on to.”
Therefore, though He was in the form of God,
He did not consider equality something He needed to hold on to.
KJV Phil 2:6: “who, being in the form of God, did not
consider it robbery to be equal with God,”
NIV “Who, being in very nature {Or in the form
of} God, did not consider equality with
God something to be grasped,
Then we read
in verse 7 that he made himself of no “reputation”—as the KJV reads.
Other translations say he “emptied himself,”
as in the ASV: “but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made
in the likeness of men.”
The NIV says
“made himself nothing.”
He emptied
himself of that “form” of God and became the “form of a servant,” coming in the
“likeness of sinful flesh”—becoming man to live and serve God as such, even
onto death.
Setting
aside the “form” of God as in the manifested glory of God seems easy to
understand, but did He set aside more?
It seems He set aside the exercise of his divine attributes and depended
on the Father and Holy Spirit in the miraculous works he did.
After His
resurrection and ascension, we know His “glory” was to be restored, John 17:5. But wasn’t there an earned glory now because of what He did?
So doesn’t the
Son function as a glorified human, in an exalted capacity and authority because
of what he did, besides his identity as God ( being the Son of God)? Is the
“hypostatic union” the best way to understand the unique nature of the Son of
God?
Jesus was
exalted and given authority because of what He did:
John17: "1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes
to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that
Your Son also may glorify You, 2 "as You have given Him authority over
all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3
"And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
4 "I have glorified You on
the earth. I have finished the work
which You have given Me to do. 5 "And now, O Father, glorify Me together
with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”
Phil 2:8-11: “8 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. 9 Therefore God also has highly
exalted Him and given Him the
name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the
earth, 11 and [that] every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ [is] Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
No comments:
Post a Comment