(Philippians 2:6-8.) "Who (Christ Jesus) subsisting (huparchoon ) in the form (the self manifesting characteristics shining forth from the essence) of God esteemed His being on an equality with God (to einai isa ΤΗeoo ) no robbery (harpagmon , not harpagma , which Ellicott's translated, 'a thing to be grasped at,' would require), but took upon Him the form of a servant." He never emptied Himself of His being on an equality with God in essence, but only of the form of God for the time of His humiliation. The antithesis is between His being in the form of God and His assuming the form of a servant.
"Image" implies His being the exact essential inner likeness and perfect Representative of God. "Image" (eikoon ) supposes a prototype of which it is the exact counterpart, as the child is the living image of the parent. "Likeness" (homoiosis ), mere resemblance, is nowhere applied to the Son, as "image" is (1 Corinthians 11:7; John 1:18; John 14:9; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Hebrews 1:3; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Timothy 6:16; Colossians 1:15), "the Image of the invisible God." "Found (by His fellow men's outward cognizance) in fashion, (scheema ) as a man" signifies His outward presentation, habit, style, manner, dress, action (Philippians 2:8).