It isn’t that God the Son ceased to be God while he walked and ministered on the earth. Rather he voluntarily and willingly suspended the independent exercise of those divine attributes that would have been incompatible with his living an authentic human life in dependence on the Holy Spirit.

That title may have put you off, but if you are still reading, I trust you will recognize how critically important this issue of Kenosis is to our understanding of the person of Christ and the incarnation.

(1) The word translated kenosis is related to the Greek noun kenos and the verb kenoo. Kenos has the sense of empty or to no purpose and kenoo means to deprive of power or to make of no meaning or effect. It is the verb form that is found in Philippians 2:7 (see also Romans 4:14; 1 Cor. 1:7; 9:15; 2 Cor. 9:3). where it says of the pre-incarnate Son of God that he “emptied himself” (ESV) or “made himself of no reputation” (KJV).

(2) The translation “he emptied himself” inclines many to ask the question: “Of what did Christ empty himself?” In spite of the fact that the “it” or “content” of which Christ allegedly emptied himself is nowhere stated in the text, many have insisted on supplying an answer.

The argument has often been made that he emptied himself of the divine nature or the “form of God” (v. 6). Others point to his position or status of “equality with God” (v. 6) as the content of which he emptied himself. H. A. W. Meyer, for example, writes: “Christ emptied himself, and that, as the context places beyond doubt, of the divine morphe[“form”], which he possessed, but now exchanged for a morphe doulou” [“form of a servant”] (88).

The theological implications of such a view must be noted. It would mean that by virtue of the incarnation, the second person of the Trinity ceased to be God. This view, known in history as the doctrine of Kenosis (hence Kenotic Christology), entails a form of divine suicide.

But it would seem that Paul intends us to interpret this verb in precisely the way he uses it elsewhere in his epistles. In each of the other texts the meaning is “to make void,” “to render of no effect,” “to nullify,” “to despoil,” “to make of no reputation,” or the like. The point of the word is not to specify some content of deity or divine glory of which Christ emptied or divested himself. Rather, it is designed to emphasize the radical and far-reaching dimensions of his self-renunciation.

(3) A significant phrase is “although he existed in the form of God” (NASB), or “though he was in the form of God” (ESV). The word certainly points to the prior existence of the Son, i.e., he existed in the form of God before or antecedent to the activity described in v. 7. It would be reading too much into the word to say it speaks of eternal pre-existence (although, of course, we know this also to be true from such texts as John 1:1ff.; 8:58; 17:5). The translation “although” he existed is accurate, because the subsequent context alerts us to the idea of sacrifice, i.e., in spite of the fact that he existed in the form of God, he emptied himself.

(4) The pre-existent Son was in “the form of God.” The Greek word translated “form” (morphe) is used only twice in the NT, both instances in Philippians 2 (vv. 6 and 7).

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