“Many scholars think that Paul is quoting an early Christian poem or hymn of some kind,” said Ortlund, referencing Dr. Bart Ehrman, a New Testament scholar who was once an evangelical Christian but later left the Christian faith.
“If that’s right, that means we’re dealing with very early testimony of how Jesus was viewed by Christians,” said Ortlund. Philippians is thought to have been written in the first century in the late 50s or early 60s. If it was written in the late 50s, “then this hymn must date much earlier than that,” Ortlund said. “So we’re talking maybe two decades or so after Jesus’ death,” or at the very least earlier than the writing of Philippians.
What’s more, said Ortlund, “Many scholars think this passage reflects something that is recited or sung during corporate worship.” Therefore, he concluded, “This is some of the earliest information in history about Christian worship and specifically how Christians regarded Jesus.”
Having established the premise that early Christians adhered to the ideas in Philippians 2, Ortlund went on to break down what Philippians 2:6-11 says about Jesus’ identity, beginning with the statement that he was “in the form of God.”
Christians take this phrase to mean that Jesus is God and that he existed as God prior to his birth on earth. However, some people push back on that idea. One scholar interprets it as Christ being made in the image of God as Adam was, although there are a few problems with that perspective. Ortlund said a “more common objection” is the idea that the passage does say Jesus existed before his birth as a man but that he was not divine.
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Ortlund acknowledged that it is not immediately evident what the phrase “in the form of” means. “That is a difficult phrase to interpret” because being “in the form of” something does not necessarily mean being that thing. So we need to look at the context of the passage to find the true meaning. Ortlund observed that Verse 7 also uses the phrase “in the form of” when it says that Jesus took the form of a servant.
“‘In the form of God’ and ‘in the form of a servant’ are best taken as two parallel, contrasting states or phases in the appearance or manifestation of the Son of God,” said Ortlund.
Ortlund pointed out that the passage associates being in the form of God with equality with God, while it associates being in the form of a servant with being born in the likeness of men. “And that latter state—being born in the likeness of men—is described as an expression of emptying and humility,” said Ortlund.
“Now just to be clear here,” he continued, “Paul is not teaching that Christ renounced his deity in the incarnation. Rather, he’s speaking about the assumption of a human nature as a genuine act of humility and service.”
“Now just think about the logic of this,” said Ortlund. “The assumption in this passage is that taking on a human nature, rather than clinging to equality with God, is an act of humility, and that sheds light on what it means to be in the form of God.”
