Philippians 2:6 states, “(Jesus,) who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.” The theological term referring to the union of the two natures in one person as the “hypostatic union”.

Thereby the Apostle Paul notes that Jesus was in the form of God – this term, form – in the Greek original, refers to the unchangeable essential nature of a thing. For example, if we are to say that a person is in the form of man then what was meant was that he had the essential nature of manhood. So an orange, apple, banana, etc. all have the same form being fruits, but they have different outward characteristics.

If Jesus is in the form of God, then He has all the essential attributes of deity, or all those characterising qualities that make God. Thereby, Jesus is in the form of God is God. Paul is merely stating that Jesus did not surrender His divine attributes but chose voluntarily not to use them or to set them aside. Hence surrendering the glory, majesty, and the prerogatives of deity, but not the deity itself.