Philippians 2:8

Being found. That is, men discovered Him in human fashion.

Fashion. Gr. schema, which emphasizes the outward mode or form. To all outward appearances Christ was a man, and was so accounted by those with whom He lived on earth (cf. Isa. 53:2, 3; Matt. 13:55).

As a man. Another careful phrase to indicate that Jesus of Nazareth was more than what He appeared to be. He resembled a man, He had man’s outward form, but He was more than that: He was God as well as man.

Humbled. Gr. tapeinoo, “to abase,” “to humble,” related to tapeinophrosune (see on v. 3). This is not the same as “emptied Himself” (v. 7), but is part of that emptying, and shows one of the ways in which the self-emptying manifested itself. The ultimate form of this voluntary humiliation is disclosed in the remainder of the verse.

And became. Rather, “having become,” showing that the supreme act of self-humiliation consisted in Christ’s voluntary submission to death.

Obedient. That is, to God. See on Rom. 5:18, 19; Heb. 5:8.

Unto death. Jesus’ obedience was rendered to the extent of laying down His life. It was humiliation indeed for God to become man; and then, being man, to die a shameful death on the cross. As Isaac had been willingly subject to his father when told that he was the victim to be placed on the altar, so Christ, who might have turned back from the cross, submitted, willingly, to die for sinful men.

Christ’s obedience was of the same nature as ours must be. It was “in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3) that Christ rendered this obedience. He was man, subject to the same desires to preserve His life as we are. He was tempted by Satan, but overcame the devil by the power of the Holy Spirit, even as we may do. He exercised no power in His own behalf that we may not employ. See on Heb. 4:15; see DA 119, 729, 734.

Death of the cross. The emphasis is not only on the fact that Christ died but on the kind of death. It was a death that involved intense shame as well as intense suffering. Crucifixion was reserved for slaves, non-Romans, and the lowest criminals. It was a death upon which the law of Moses had pronounced a curse (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13), and even the Gentiles considered it the most foul and cruel of all punishments. The message of a crucified Christ was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks (1 Cor. 1:23).

Paul’s mind may have been drawn to the contrast of his own position with that of Jesus. The apostle was in prison, but he could not legally suffer the degradation of dying on a cross, because a Roman citizen was not to be tortured (see Cicero Against Verres i. 5. 13); neither could the Philippians, as citizens of a Roman colony. The cross, the lowest point in Christ’s self-humiliation, would thus produce a profound effect upon Paul’s readers, and impress them with the force of the example their Saviour had left them. Paul well knew that if those to whom he wrote could come to grasp the astounding sacrifice made for them, there would be no place for selfishness in their lives (cf. AA 332, 333).