Letting Go of Equality With God?

2:6-7a although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself

In portraying Jesus as the epitome of self-sacrifice, Paul says that though He was in very nature God, yet He did not cling to this state of being, but took on the form of a man (v.7).

This almost sounds like Jesus gave up His divinity in order to become a man. In other words, it could be taken to mean that when Jesus was a man He was not longer God. Indeed, some have actually argued that this is the case.

But can God choose not to be God? Can God stop being God? One of the characteristics of God is that He does not change. And if He never changes, He certainly can’t stop being God. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (Heb.13:8)

In order to understand what Paul is saying here we must understand an important distinction between inherent glory and perceived glory. It is not that God the Son gave up His deity or even His glory as God. But He allowed His inherent glory to be obscured, to be hidden, in order that He might appear as a man. By and large, when Jesus came as a man, He did not come cloaked in the glory of God. He came looking rather like a mere man, even though He was far from a mere man. For the most part, His deity and His glory were veiled, for a time. This is what it means that Jesus, "although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself..."

O Jesus Christ, Savior of my soul, Name above every name, fully God and fully man, I pour out my life before You as a praise offering. For You have loved me with a unfathomable love. You gave up so much in order to seek my salvation. Even though I was Your enemy, You willingly surrendered Yourself to the great humiliation of incarnation and crucifixion in order to save me from my own guilt and rebellion. You emptied Yourself for me; help me empty myself for You and for others. Help me not to cling to my own comforts and pleasures, but to pour out my life for the sake of the ones You love.