fashion of other men? and that he
assumed the form of a servant though he was in form divine? Where
would be the sense in my saying to you, "You are like a man, are made
in the fashion of a man, and take upon yourself the form of a
servant"? You would think I was mocking you, and might appropriately
reply: "I am glad you regard me as a man; I was wondering if I were an
ox or a wolf. Are you mad or foolish?" Would not that be the natural
rejoinder to such a foolish statement? Now, Paul not being foolish,
nor being guilty of foolish speech, there truly must have been
something exalted and divine about Christ. For when the apostle
declares that he was made like unto other men, though the fact of his
being human is undisputed, he simply means that the man Christ was
God, and could, even in his humanity, have borne himself as divine.
But this is precisely what he did not do; he refrained: he disrobed
himself of his divinity and bore himself as a mere man like others.

16. What follows concerning Christ, now that we understand the meaning
of "form of God" and "form of a servant," is surely plain. In fact,
Paul himself tells us what he means by "form of a servant." First: He
makes the explanation that Christ disrobed, or divested himself; that
is, appeared to lay aside his divinity in that he divested himself of
its benefit and glory. Not that he did, or could, divest himself of
his divine nature; but that he laid aside the form of divine
majesty--did not act as the God he truly was. Nor did he divest
himself of the divine form to the extent of making it unfelt and
invisible; in that case there would have been no divine form left. He
simply did not affect a divine appearance and dazzle us by its
splendor; rather he served us with that divinity. He performed
miracles. And during his suffering on the cross he, with divine power,
gave to the murderer the promise of Paradise. Lk 23, 43. And in the
garden, similarly, he repelled the multitude by a word. Jn 18, 6.

Hence Paul does not say that Christ was divested by some outside
power; he says Christ "made himself" of no repute. Just so the wise
man does not in a literal way lay aside wisdom and the appearance of
wisdom, but discards them for the purpose of serving the simple-minded
who might fittingly serve him. Such man makes himself of no reputation
when he divests himself of his wisdom and the appearance of wisdom.

17. Second: Christ assumed the form of a servant, even while