By Kayode Crown

Philippians 2:7

but emptied himself
by taking on the form of a slave,
by looking like other men,
and by sharing in human nature.

ANNOUNCEMENT 1: Please check the new weekly segment following the bible commentary: From Addiction to Freedom by Favour Oyinloye. Or you can scroll immediately to it, I won't mind.

ANNOUNCEMENT 2: Going forward, beginning from Sept 1, I will add a segment to my thrice weekly newsletter. I call it weekly chant. You will get to hear the Weekly Chant (not music, because I am just repeating one or two phrases). The weekly chants are words and melodies I am hearing in my spirit.

A slave does not do his will. We see that in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus said not my will but yours be done (Matthew 26:39). He chose to be born, chose to share in human nature. That is the ultimate in humility. He was struck on the face by those he created (Mark 14:65), but he was still lord of all.

The prodigal son parallel

There is a parallel to the parable of the compassionate Father here in which Jesus is the son who was a slave in a foreign land and suffered (Luke 15:11-32). But in contrast, Jesus did not suffer for his own sin and decision to move away from the Father.

Jesus took on the form of sinful men, took on the sin of men, and was treated like a rebel (Isaiah 53:12), the one who knew no sin was treated like a sinner (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The one that was close to the Father was taken far away. He did not forsake the Father like the prodigal son; the Father forsook Him (Mark 15:34).

The second son was emptied of all he had because of his own headstrongness. But Jesus emptied himself at least in the way he presented himself because of his submission to the Father. That is why we thought he was suffering for his own sin; anything otherwise does not seem reasonable to us (Isaiah 53:4). No, he was suffering for our sin; our rebellious nature was put on him; he bore our sin.

In sin, man chose to leave the fellowship of the Father. We see that in the garden, just as there was no apparent trigger for Adam eating the forbidden fruit, with the bible saying that Adam was not deceived (1 Timothy 2:14), we were not told of any reason why the prodigal son chose to depart from the father. But both faced the consequence.

Away from the father means we are subject to sin and death, we serve sin and death in a far country, away from the presence of God, away from the garden of Eden where God made everything perfect, just like the prodigal son with his father, and became emptied of everything he has (we too) and now took on the form of a slave and tasted suffering because on his own error.

But not Jesus, who took on suffering but not for his own error. But that is not the end of the story.

Jesus came back to the Father in resurrection, so to speak, and went up to sit with the throne where he has all authority (signet ring that was given to him by the Father.

In Christ, we are also restored to God. We were dead in trespasses and sin, now we are raised up into righteousness (Ephesians 2:5).

We were dead in our arrogance and willingness, now we are in Christ, we are raised up through repentance from dead works and faith towards God.

But what about the elder brother? Jesus is the elder brother, but not the one who did not welcome the prodigal, but sulked, but the one who chose to be made like his brothers, so that he could be a fitting high priest (Hebrews 2:17).

He is not jealous because God has now made us like unto him, even though he was perfect and we are not. That is what he wants (Hebrews 2:10).

He is not jealous that we did nothing (we actually did bad things), but we now have everything, fully restored to the Father.

He is not jealous that we have been restored to a position we did not deserve. He is not shaken in his identity as the firstborn, as the firstborn in that story was.

He was not resentful of the decision of the father to respond to our repentance with full restoration back to his presence (not saying we need to prove ourselves first), in which the state after sin is now even greater than the one before sin.

Jesus, our firstborn, knows that everything the Father has is his (John 16:15), and we did not displace him; we are joint heirs with Him (Romans 8:17).

He rejoiced in the decision of the Father to bring many sons into glory for us to share in His glory (John 17:22-24), to become one with him who did not deserve it, just because it pleases the Father.

Jesus looked like other men, but he was not exactly like other men. He looked like the first son in that story, but not all the features are parallel.

Yes, he broke no law, and was always with the father doing what the father wanted, but always in the presence of the father and not apart from him.

He sees us from the Father's eyes and smiles at us with the Father's smile because when we see him, we have seen the Father.

And we see the father give gifts to the repentant son. That is a picture of the gift of the Holy Spirit that we receive, an act of God's seal, putting a spiritual signature on us, that our high position is now permanent, even before we did anything good or bad.

Just as the Father, Jesus, who welcomes us and pours out the gift on us, and we have now come to the very presence of God (Hebrews 12:22-24), and we are now served by God's servants, the angels, who minister to us as heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14).