Phil. 2:9-11; Romans 10:8-15, Exalted (2)

The exaltation of the Son of God was promised in eternity past as recorded in Psalm 2.  Speaking of the nations who exalt themselves (2:1-3) God sets His King on His holy hill Zion (2:4-6).  This King is His Son, and He promises to give to His Son the nations as an inheritance and possession (2:7-9).

There is a sense in which the exaltation of the Son of God began in His burial.  Though dying by crucifixion, the most humiliating of deaths, Jesus was buried with the rich in His death (Isa. 53:9).  That never happened with crucified criminals in Rome.  But in terms of the “events” of Jesus’ exaltation we usually begin with His resurrection, as Paul does in Eph. 1:20-23.  According to that passage Jesus’ exaltation …

began with His resurrection (v20a)

followed by His ascension to the Father’s right hand (where He is above all authority and above every name, v20b-21)

at which point He became “head of the Church” (v22-23).

This is not the end of His exaltation; He is sitting at the Father’s right hand to this day waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool (Ps. 110:1).  As Eph. 1:10 says we are still awaiting the fullness of the times when He will gather together in one all things in Christ.  This is the mysterious will of the Father (Eph. 1:9) which He spoke of in Psalm 2. 

All these events bring about the exaltation of our Lord that is spoke of in Phil. 2:9-11.  It is possible the phrase God also has highly exalted Him has in mind the “place” of exaltation at the right hand of God (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 1:3; 12:2).  This place is high above the heavens (Heb. 7:26; Eph. 4:10), above all authority, as we have noted.

But the emphasis in Philippians is that Jesus has been given an exalted name.  His earthly name was “Jesus”.  Many stumbled at the thought that this ordinary Man was also God in the flesh.  But what the Father has done is to so exalt His Son that when you hear the name “Jesus” you bow before Him.  And you bow before Him because you have come to know and confess that this man Jesus is Lord (Rom. 10:9-10; 1 John 4:20).

The “bowing of the knee” is critical.  This is what those who have taken the form of a bond-servant do.  Jesus became the bond-servant, determining only to glorify His Father.  We glorify the Father in one way and one way only: by bowing the knee to His Son Jesus and confessing Him as Lord. 

Jesus is at His Father’s right hand awaiting the day when His enemies will confess Him as Lord and will bow the knee to Him.  The good news is that you do not need to be the enemy of Jesus.  Today, ALL who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  Jesus is Lord!

Phil. 2:5-11; Matt. 23:5-12, Exaltation

Though Christ Jesus was in the form of God He emptied Himself taking the form of a bond-servant.  He saw Himself as having no rights but fully submitting to His Father.  Thus in obedience the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross!

The very next word in Phil. 2:9 is therefore.  What follows is perfectly connected to the humiliation of the Son of God.  Therefore God also has highly exalted Him.  This is a “therefore” (i.e. it is expected) because there is a universal principle in the wisdom of God.  We see this principle all over Scripture and if we were just mildly observant we would see it all throughout history and in our current place in history.  We would also, if we trusted in God, expect Him to work by this principle in the future.  The principle and it’s connection to the bondservant is stated clearly in Matt. 23:11-12:

But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.  And whoever exalts Himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

In Matthew Jesus is the One who is speaking.  The context is His rebuke of the Pharisees and Scribes.  They were those who exalted themselves; thus they would be humbled.  Jesus was speaking to the crowds and His disciples.  He was admonishing them not to follow the example of the religious leaders but to be those who would be servants, who would humble themselves.


King David, who was exalted by God from a humble shepherd to being king over Israel, by whom all other kings were evaluated, testified to this in Psalm. 18:27: For You will save the humble people, but will bring down haughty looks.


Isaiah applied this principle to our salvation in Isa. 57:15: For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Ezekiel, addressing the prince of Israel (a wicked king), put it this way: Remove the turban, and take off the crown; nothing shall remain the same.  Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted (Ezek. 21:25-27).


Hannah, who had been humbled because she had no children, and who humbled herself before the Lord in prayer, testified of God’s work like this: He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor (1 Sam. 2:8).

  Mary, mother of Jesus, saw this principle in her own life, saying: He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble (Lk. 1:52).

The supreme illustration of this principle is our Lord, Jesus Christ.  He humbled Himself.  THEREFORE God has highly exalted Him!  How has this principle been seen in your life?  Are you exalting or humbling yourself?

Phil. 2:5-8; John 3:14-15; Gal. 3:10-14, The Cross

·        Station #7: Even the death of the cross.

By our standards it would have been appropriate for the Son of God to die a glorious death, perhaps in battle or even of old age after a long and fruitful life.  But His obedience brought Him to the cross.  Why was it necessary that He die in this manner?

o   That Christ might be lifted up for all to see (Num. 21:4-9; Jn. 3:14-15; 12:32-33).

The story of Israel in the wilderness, when many were destroyed by serpents provides the backdrop for John 3:16.  The great love of God is seen in His gracious provision for the people.  All they had to do was look at the serpent on the pole and they would be saved (healed).  God’s grace was extended in that He told Moses to put the snake on a pole so it would be high enough for people to see.  Jesus said this exact thing about the cross: And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to Myself (Jn. 12:32). 

o   That Christ might become a curse for us (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:10-14).

The curse pronounced on those hung from a tree indicates the shame of that form of death.  Consider this quote from Dwight Pentecost:

It (the cross) was so unnatural a form of death that the Old Testament law forbade it and placed a curse on anyone who should die by this means.  It was such an unnatural and abhorrent death that the Romans outlawed it for all but the grossest of criminals.  This means of execution was forbidden any Roman citizen; it was reserved for those the Romans called ‘barbarians,’ that is, non-Romans.  The singular thing is that because Paul was a Roman citizen, he was protected from the kind of death that the Lord Jesus endured for sinners.  But, what Roman law protected Paul from, the Lord Jesus Christ could not and did not escape.  For He came as a creature subject to the Creator.  He came as a servant subject to a Master.  He submitted Himself in obedience to the will of His Master in death, a death by crucifixion, in order to provide salvation for sinful men.

Jesus death on the cross was a shameful experience.  Roman crosses were barely high enough to see over the crowd, but so low that as you passed by you beheld a naked criminal is the most terrible agony of dying.  Jesus endured the shame (Heb. 12:2) and thereby satisfied the demands of the law for the Jews (Gal. 3:10-12) and for the nations became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13-14).  For all, Jew and Gentile, He who knew no sin became sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21).  He, the Son of God, was despised and rejected!  This is not the end of the story; Hebrews speaks of the joy that was set before Him.  But it is the end of His humiliation and it could not be any more humiliating. 

Phil. 2:5-8; Luke 22:39-46, Death

We need to be sure we understand the significance of Jesus’ taking the form of a bondservant.  In Rom. 1:1 Paul described himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.  The key to Paul’s identity was that he was a bondservant, yielded totally to Jesus Christ so that His Lord could do whatever He wanted with Paul’s life.  What His Master decided was: “You will be an apostle for Me, with the special task of preaching the gospel to the nations” (see 1:5).

Now think of Christ.  The key is that He took on the form of a bondservant, becoming fully obedient to His Father.  What did His Father give Him to do?  The Father said, “You will become a Man with the special task of dying the death of a criminal.”  For Jesus to become Man is itself a great act of humility.  To become the Man of sorrows required yet more humility.  And we find that there is more humiliation to come as we come to the next station of the cross.

·        Station #6: And became obedient to the point of death.

Jesus became obedient “unto” death.  That term indicates there was a journey involved; it assumes the need to persevere to get there.  What made death so difficult for the Lord Jesus?  It is, of course, the connection of death to sin.  The wages of sin are death (Rom. 6:23).  The soul that sins shall surely die (Ezek. 18:4).  The Messiah, the holy and sinless Son of God, was numbered with the transgressors (Isa. 53:12). 

Jesus’ death was related to His role as the second or “last Adam.”  The first Adam stood for all men and when he sinned he brought death upon the entire human race (Rom. 5:12).  Jesus, born of a virgin, was not under the penalty of death; He had no sin.  But He died because He was obedient to His Father.  He became sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). 

And this was not easy.  The description of His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane was an indication of this.  He was in agony.  His soul was troubled (Jn. 12:27).  Yet He did not ask His Father for legions of angels to come and deliver Him.  As John 12:27 says: Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’?  But for this purpose I came to this hour.  He was obedient to the point of death!

His words on the cross also are an indication of His agony.  But they help us to understand the reason for the pain.  It was not simply the physical trial, which certainly was beyond imagination.  The problem was that for three hours of darkness the perfect and mysterious Oneness of the triune God was shattered.  Jesus became so identified with our sin that His Father could not look upon Him.  Again we must proclaim: Hallelujah!  What a Savior!!

Psalm 66

An oft memorized verse on prayer is Psalm 66:18: If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.  I memorized it years ago under the title Hindrances to Answered Prayer.  It is worth remembering.  If I come to God, while giving a place in my heart to sin, God will not hear me.  Pure and simple. 

But as is ALWAYS the case, one should never memorize this isolated verse without reference to the context.  Verse 18 actually is the verse that helps make sense of Psalm 66 in its entirety.  Having read the Song let us note the major movements first and then we can see how this verse presents an important truth for us in making sense out of every part of our lives.

·        66:1-4 calls all the earth to worship God (and they will, v4).

·        66:5-7 calls all the earth to come and see God’s awesome works.  The writer points out two similar events in the Exodus, the crossing of the Red Sea when they first left Egypt and the crossing of the Jordon River at flood stage when they were ready to enter the Promised Land.  These (and many other works of God) give reason to praise Him.

·        66:8-12 calls all the earth to bless God.  Now pay special attention.  To bless (Heb: barak) God is to praise Him, to speak well of Him.  But notice why God is to be blessed.  It is because He has tested us, refined us as silver, brought us into the net, laid affliction on our backs, and caused men to ride over our heads.  We went through the fire and through water.  But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.  This kind of “treatment” by God would cause many to curse Him; but we are called to bless God for these things, to speak well of Him.  Notice what follows.

·        66:13-15 records the commitment of the Psalmist.  Having gone through the time of affliction He is lead to a deeper relationship with God.  He is at the Lord’s house offering sacrifice and fulfilling the vows made to God in the time of trouble.  These vows are not a bribe of some sort meant to get God to change His treatment of us; they are the response of the sinner who through the affliction has learned to trust God rather than himself.

·        66:16-20 call all who fear God to come and hear the testimony of the Psalmist who has cried out to God and been heard.  He did not regard iniquity in his heart; and God did not turn away his prayer but was merciful.

The fact is that we often come to God while having a regard for sin in our hearts, whether we know it or not.  God is to be blessed because by affliction He has pointed out our weakness, our unbelief, our pride.  If He did not do this we would never know the iniquity hidden in the nooks and crannies of our hearts.  We would never know that God has heard us.  We would miss out on His mercy!

Friend, bless the Lord today.  Thank Him for taking you through the fire and water.  Thank Him for purifying your heart!

Phil. 2:5-8; Isaiah 53:1-6, Humility

·        Station #5: He humbled Himself.  As we have noted at each station, Jesus was active.  HE humbled Himself.  HE made Himself low.  In the great Messianic Psalm that describes the cross so clearly it is said of Messiah, I am a worm, and no man.  That kind of language is not permitted these days where we are told we must speak well of ourselves and have high self-esteem.  Perhaps you know an old hymn (entitled At the Cross) that has this line: Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I.  But recent versions have changed “worm” to “one”; to such a one as I!  To understand this consider this from Henry Morris (p73):

"When the female of the scarlet worm species was ready to give birth to her young, she would attach her body to the trunk of a tree, fixing herself so firmly and permanently that she would never leave again. The eggs deposited beneath her body were thus protected until the larvae were hatched and able to enter their own life cycle. As the mother died, the crimson fluid stained her body and the surrounding wood. From the dead bodies of such female scarlet worms, the commercial scarlet dyes of antiquity were extracted. What a picture this gives of Christ, dying on the tree, shedding his precious blood that he might 'bring many sons unto glory' (Hbr 2:10)! He died for us, that we might live through him! Psa 22:6 describes such a worm and gives us this picture of Christ. (cf. Isa 1:18)"

The Son of God did not come to earth as a great Man, wealthy, famous, full of glory as He had been in heaven.  He humbled Himself so that He was unrecognizable as the Son of God.  He had none of the things that belong to the rich and famous and He was so humiliated by those around Him that we hid, as it were, our faces from Him … we did not esteem Him (Isa. 53:3).  He was truly the Man of sorrows.  Hallelujah!  What a Savior! 

1.  “Man of Sorrows!” what a name For the Son of God, who came Ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior!	2.  Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned He stood; Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
3.  Guilty, vile, and helpless we; Spotless Lamb of God was He; “Full atonement!” can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior!	4.  Lifted up was He to die; “It is finished!” was His cry; Now in Heav’n exalted high. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
5.  When He comes, our glorious King, All His ransomed home to bring, Then anew His song we’ll sing: Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Phil. 2:5-8; Luke 1:26-38, True Man (2)

o   The attaining of Jesus’ humanity.

How did God become truly human?  The answer is bound up in the Virgin Birth.  Being born of Mary God fulfilled in perfect detail the first promise of a Savior in Gen. 3:15: Jesus was born of the woman.  This is the common way humans enter this world.  The event described in Luke 1:26-38 made this possible.  Jesus did not have a sinful nature.  But not having a sinful nature did not detract from Jesus’ true humanity; in fact it made Him as Adam and we can say more truly human than we who have been born in sin. 

o   The extent of Jesus’ humanity.

This idea that true humanity does not require the presence of sin is critical.  The record is very clear that Jesus had no sin: no sin nature, no sinful acts.

§  Jn. 8:46: when Jesus asked, “can any of you prove me guilty of sin,” no one answered.

§  Jn. 14:30: Jesus said the prince of this world (Satan) has no hold on Me.

§  2 Cor. 5:21: Jesus is described as He who knew no sin.

§  Heb. 4:15: Jesus was tempted in every way, as we are, yet without sin.  And remember, the fact that He never yielded as we do means His temptations had greater intensity.  When we yield the temptation is over.

§  Heb. 9:14: Christ offered Himself unblemished to God.

§  1 Pet. 2:22: Jesus committed no sin; no deceit was found in his mouth.

§  1 Jn. 3:5: IN HIM IS NO SIN!

How could this be?  Again, we note, the Virgin Birth is crucial.  The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the holy One to be born will be called the Son of God” (Lk. 1:35).

o   The purpose of Jesus’ humanity.  Why was it necessary for God to become Man?  The rich answers to this question are amazing.

§  So He could reveal God to man (John 1:14,18; Heb. 1:1-2).

§  So He could be exalted (Col. 1:19; Isa. 9:6-7; Luke 1:30-33).  The King exalted to David’s throne must be David’s Son.

§  So He could suffer and die (Heb. 2:9-10).  The eternal cannot experience our death unless He becomes one of us.

§  So He could identify those who need to be sanctified (Heb. 2:11).  Jesus is our Redeemer (Gal. 4:4), or more specifically, our Kinsman Redeemer (Ruth 1:4).  For this He must be nearest of kin, one of us.

§  To be able to destroy the one who had power of death (Heb. 2:14-15).

§  To be able to make propitiation, to satisfy our debt to God (Heb. 2:17).

§  To be able to be our merciful and faithful High Priest, our Mediator (Heb. 2:18; 1 Tim. 2:5).  The priest is taken from among those He represents.

Truly we must say, what a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord!

Phil. 2:5-8; Psalm 2, True Man

Let us summarize with a well-known quote from Pope Leo I written in a letter explaining the conclusion of the Council of Chalcedon in 451AD. 

Thus the properties of each nature and substance were preserved entire, and came together to form one Person.  Humility was assumed by majesty, weakness by strength, mortality by eternity, and to pay the debt that we had incurred, an inviolable nature was united to a nature that can suffer.

In addition let us reflect briefly on excerpts from some great Christmas Carols that express the great truth of Phil. 2:5-8:

“veiled in flesh the God-head see, hail the incarnate deity”

“mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die”

(Hark the Herald Angels Sing)

“There’s a tumult of joy o’er the wonderful birth;

The virgin’s sweet boy is the Lord of the earth”

(There’s a Song in the Air)

“Shepherds in the field abiding, watching o’er their flocks by night;

God with man is now residing, yonder shines the infant light”

(Angels From the Realms of Glory)

·        Station #4: coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man.

We now ask: When the Son took on the form of the bond-servant, what did the Father ask of His Son?  The answer is that the Father’s plan required that the Son become a Man.  Before we consider this in detail let us remember that the Father’s plan was not only the plan of salvation.  It was actually more than that.  The Father’s delight was to honor the Son, to give Him the nations as an inheritance (Psalm 2:6-9).  As the nations came to be immersed in sin the plan of salvation was necessary to the exaltation of the Son.

o   The fact of Jesus’ humanity.  The Bible does not speak of Jesus’ humanity as “partial” or “pretend” in any sense.  Just meditate on these passages.

§  Jn. 1:14: The Word became flesh.

§  Rom. 1:3-4: Jesus is the Son of David according to the flesh as well as Son of God as declared powerfully by His resurrection from the dead.

§  Rom. 8:3: Jesus was made in the likeness of sinful man.  He was not “made” a sinful man but made like sinful men (more on this tomorrow).

§  Gal. 4:4: God sent His Son at just the right time, born of a woman, born under law.

§  1 Tim. 3:16: Jesus appeared in a body.

§  Heb. 2:9,14: We see Jesus, made a little lower than the angels.  Since the children have flesh and blood He too shared in the same.

§  1 Jn. 1:1-2: John heard, saw and touched this Word who appeared to us.

Phil. 2:5-8; Isa. 50:4-9, Bond-Servant

Listen to others describe Jesus’ emptying of Himself.

Dwight Pentecost: The One who had rights as the eternal Son of God, subject to no one other than Himself, gave up His rights.

J. B. Lightfoot: (He did not give up) His divine nature, for that was impossible; but of the glories, the prerogatives of Deity.

Kenneth Wuest: His rightful natural desire as Deity was to be glorified, to give expression of His glory to the angels.  But to go to the Cross, He had to set that desire aside.  Setting that desire aside, He set self aside, He emptied Himself of self, He made self void, the very Person who had the right to assert self, which is the prerogative of Deity alone.  Here is the supreme example of the self-emptied life.

This is the definition of meekness, as in Gal. 5:22-23 (the fruit of the Spirit, often translated gentleness).  It is laying aside one’s rights and expectations.  Jesus’ move from heaven to earth began here.  Jesus rightly claimed this trait (Mt. 11:25).  And it is fundamental to our own blessedness (Mt. 5:5).

·        Station #3: taking the form of a bond-servant.

Again let us consider each word in this phrase.

o   Taking: Again, Christ is active.  He did this; it was not pressed upon Him.

o   Form: This is the same term as in v6.  The form of the bond-servant means this is not just external; it became His very nature.  The Master became slave. 

o   Bond-servant: This is the “servant” term in Greek that is the lowest, if you will.  The bond-servant has no will of His own but only that of His Master.  Remember that Jesus said this of Himself: I am among you as a servant (Lk. 22:27).  The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many (Mk. 10:45). 

The reality of this was seen in Jesus’ entire earthly life.  Upon entering the world He said, I have come to do Thy will, O God (Heb. 10:5-7).  For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me (Jn. 6:38).  In His greatest trial, in Gethsemane, He said Yet not as I will but as You will (Mt. 26:39,42).  The Servant Song of Isa. 50:4-9, speaking of Messiah, expresses this servant role with great power.

Now is a good time to remind ourselves of our context.  Paul is encouraging believers to stand fast together by having the mind of Christ.  Do you remember that Paul described himself as a bond-servant of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:1)?  What Christ did in the Incarnation was to make Himself the slave of His Father.  So we will be able to stand together as believers if we have the slave mentality. 

Phil. 2:5-8; 1 John 1:1-4, No Reputation

·        Station #2: but (He) made Himself of no reputation.

Jesus was God visiting mankind.  But most of us would say Jesus did not exactly live like a “God.”  He did not act in an “all knowing” (omniscient) way (Mk. 13:21).  There were things He did not have authority to do, which could only be done by His Father (Mt. 20:23).  He was weary at the end of a long day (Jn. 4:6).  Yet John said we beheld His glory (Jn. 1:14) and He manifested His glory (Jn. 2:11).  John knew that Jesus, the One he looked upon, handled and heard was truly the Word, God who became flesh (1 Jn. 1:1-4; Jn. 1:14).  So what did it take for God to become Man?

The answer to this rests in a truth that is assumed in our passage and throughout Scripture, the truth that God is triune (one God in three Persons).  We will not speak to this in this passage but we must acknowledge this in order to answer our question.  It begins when God the Son made Himself of no reputation or emptied Himself.  Let us consider the phrase in v7.

o   But: In exact contrast to grasping for equality or considering it robbery to be equal with God the Son did this.

o   He: This was a voluntary act on the part of the Son.  As the song (They Could Not, by Claire Cloninger/Ron Harris) says, when at last they took what willingly He gave. 

o   Emptied/made Himself of no reputation:

Of what did Jesus empty Himself?  Did He give up His deity?  Emphatically we say NO!  He was Immanuel, God with us (Mt. 1:21).  As Thomas said, He was “my Lord and my God” (Jn. 20:28). 

Did He give up His divine attributes?  Again we must insist this is not the case.  When John said He manifested His glory (Jn. 2:11) he was speaking of the miracle of “water to wine.”  This was a clear demonstrate of Jesus’ ability as Creator.  In no way did Jesus cease to be God. 

The Scriptures indicate Jesus gave up the right to use His divine attributes and powers whenever He determined.  Rather He submitted himself to His Father, seeking to please the Father and facilitate His Father’s plan (John 5:30).  Thus we see that though He was rich, for our sakes He became poor (2 Cor. 8:9).  He yielded up His glory except to manifest it as the Father willed.  Jesus did not make His earthly life easier by performing a miracle now and then.  When Satan tempted Him to turn stones to bread to satisfy His hunger Jesus refused, choosing rather to live by the Word of His God and Father (Matt. 4:4).  Jesus did not hold tightly to His position of Deity but emptied Himself of the right to use those attributes except at the Father’s discretion.

Phil. 2:5-8; Isaiah 6:1-7; Heb. 1:1-3, The form of God (2)

The Bible makes it clear that Jesus’ existed before He was conceived in the womb of Mary and born in Bethlehem.  Jesus claimed this (John 8:58; 17:1-5).  His Apostles claimed it (John 1:1).  It is confirmed in Phil. 2:6 as well.  He was in the form of God before He was found in the likeness of man.

At this station what we see is that Jesus did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.  Your translation may say something like this: He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.  Being in the form of God means He was God.  His Deity came easy, so to speak; He did not have to take it undeservedly as if He stole it or grasped it.  It was His! 

We have noted that God’s form is invisible.  This may raise a question about many “appearances” of God in the Old Testament.  If God appeared in a visible form that would seem to deny He is by nature invisible.  Further, there are times when humans said they “saw” God (e.g. Isa. 6:1; Ex. 33:18-23).  Sometimes what they saw was the appearance of a “man” (Ezek. 1:26; Ex. 33:18-23).  More than once people saw “the Angel of the LORD” and realized they had seen God (e.g. Jud. 6:22-24; 13:17-23).  How can that be if He is invisible?  And if they “saw” God how can Jesus say no one has seen God at any time (Jn. 1:18)?

The truth rests in the principle that we must accept all that the Bible says about God.  God cannot by nature be “visible” and “invisible.”  The only way to understand this is that people saw God manifesting Himself in a particular form that was significant in the situation.  What Isaiah saw (and it appears John saw the same scene in Rev. 4) was different than what Ezekiel saw which was different than the brilliant “shekinah glory” that the Israelites saw at Sinai.  As for the “Angel of the LORD” the above passages in Judges make us believe that this was a particular form chosen by God by which He manifested Himself and communicated to men in particular situations.  Read the story of Abraham in Gen. 18 when he meets three men, two of whom are angels and One is “the LORD” to Whom Abraham prays (18:22-33).

God appeared at various times and in various ways in the past (Heb. 1:1).  If these were appearances that reveal the essential form of God which one would it be since there were so many?  None of these appearances had the intimacy and permanence of the Incarnation.  God graciously visited men in these ways; but nothing compares with the way He has, in these last days spoken to us by (His) Son (Heb. 1:1-4).

Let us rejoice with David: What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him (Psa. 8:4)?  The Incarnation is a signal event when God became Man, truly, in reality.  What a God of grace!

Psalm 65

What a marvelous, encouraging Psalm.  Praise awaits God in Zion, He who is the confidence of all the earth.  Blessing from His house satisfies the one He has caused to come and worship Him.  What joy, what fullness there is for mankind, to be found in a relationship with their Creator!

Note several things of importance.

·        The blessing is offered “to all flesh” (v2) who come to God in Zion.  No matter how you consider it this is the case.  Today God’s blessing is extended to those who have come to the cross of Christ, the altar on which He was sacrificed for the sins of the world.  In the Messianic Kingdom all flesh will find their fulfillment in the One who sits on David’s throne in Zion.  By His own sovereign plan, the God of all the earth is the God of Israel.

·        Blessing is defined as being satisfied with the goodness of Your house.  To be satisfied is to be filled.  In the New Testament believers find this emphasis on fulfillment especially in Colossians.  Believers are complete in Christ.  This is true satisfaction of the soul.  Of your house means we experience God’s goodness by a relationship with Him.  His holy temple in Zion was where the people of Israel made pilgrimage, so as to fellowship with God.  Today, for believers, our bodies are the temple of God (1 Cor. 6:19-20).  God dwells there.  But in both cases that relationship is only through Christ whose blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat of heaven.  There is NO OTHER WAY (Jn. 14:6).  David knew and believed in this: as for our transgressions, You will provide atonement for them  (65:3).

·        God is the confidence of all the ends of the earth.  While God is the God of Israel, and Zion is critical to the story, He is the confidence of the whole earth.  God’s blessings in this Psalm (v6-13) are described in terms of the land.  He sends rain, visiting the earth (paying attention to earth), crowning the year (every season) with His goodness.  This fits the setting of Old Testament Israel (and of the future earthly kingdom of Christ).  Every spiritual blessing of believers today (Eph. 1:3) is dependent on God as our confidence.  Confidence is critical in the story of Job.  As Job suffers terribly the question keeps coming up.  Is his confidence in himself? Or in his own righteousness?  Or in gold or silver?  These are confidences that do not satisfy the soul!  They are like a spiders web that will not hold (Job 8:14; 31:24).  Solomon said, “in the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence” (Prov. 14:26).  That is the point of Psalm 65. 

David rejoiced in this song of Zion.  Praise to God for the atoning (satisfying) work of Christ.  Is your soul satisfied in the Confidence of the whole earth?

Phil. 2:5-8; John 4:19-26, The form of God

As we study the “humiliation” (2:5-8) and “exaltation” (2:9-11) of Christ let us be careful to maintain the context.  Paul is encouraging believers to stand fast in one spirit (1:27) and the key to this oneness is to let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (2:5).  This call to a crucified life should be no surprise; Jesus said that to follow Him one must take up his cross (Mt.16:24).

In Phil. 2:5-8 seven statements detail Jesus’ humiliation, His leaving the glory of heaven in a journey that would end at the cross.  I like to call these the true Stations of the Cross, if you will.  We see step by step the process by which the Son of God became the Son of Man and the Savior of the world.

·        Station #1: who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.

What does form mean?  The root meaning is “outward appearance; the mode in which a nature reveals itself.”  If you see a creature with wings and a beak you know it is some sort of bird; it has the form of a bird.  If you see a creature that stands up straight on two legs you know it is a human; that is its form.  Thus in this phrase the question is, What is the form of God?

Before we answer this from Scripture let us note three other terms from the Bible that speak of Christ in the form of God.  In Heb. 1:3 Christ is the exact representation of God.  In Col. 1:15 Christ is the image of God.  And in John 1:1 Christ is the Word of God.  All these “titles” make it clear that Jesus was (and is) what God is; but since Jesus is a Man you may think therefore that God has a human form.  That is a lie; the Bible does not teach this.

To deny what the Bible says about Jesus in this matter is heresy and is a fundamental identification of a “cult.”  Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, claim Jesus was an “angel” (angels are spirit beings, Heb. 1:14).  But before coming to earth Jesus was in the form of God, not in the form of an angel.

In the Book of Mormon this confusion is seen in a passage which reads: “I saw the finger of the Lord, and I feared lest he should smite me; for I knew not that the Lord had flesh and blood” (Ether 3:8).  This fits the foundational Mormon teaching: “As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become.” 

Here is what Jesus actually said, from the Bible.  First He said, God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24).  Then the resurrected Jesus said to His disciples, Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself.  Handle Me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have (Lk. 24:39).  In other words the form of God does not involve anything that can be seen.  God is by nature invisible as the rest of Scripture confirms (Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16).  In His essential nature God exists in a form that is not physical, that cannot be seen. 

We must continue at this station tomorrow.  For now let us commit to worship God in spirit and truth.  Truth means we accept and affirm all that the Bible says about God.

Phil. 2:5-11; 1 John 3:24-4:3, Mystical Union (2)

·        MONOPHYSITES, EGYPTIAN COPTICS: The God-nature and human-nature in Christ combined to form a yet different nature.  (If this is true we cannot say Christ was one of us, tempted as we are.)

·        NESTORIANS: Jesus was two separate persons; some things he did as God, some things he did as man.  (If this is true then Jesus had an unfair advantage in living on earth; He was not truly one of us.)

·        ORTHODOXY: This is the definition of the Council of Chalcedon in 451AD.  They admittedly struggled with correct terminology because they were seeking to describe something that was completely unique in all history, something for which there was nothing comparable.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father, as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respect, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ.

To understand what is at stake, consider these Scriptures:

ü 1 John 4:2-3: Every spirit that acknowledged that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.  And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. (Being approved of God demands the truth about the Deity and Humanity of Christ.)

ü Heb. 2:17: Therefore in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Propitiation, Jesus’ work saving on the cross, demands the truth about the nature of Jesus.)

ü Heb. 4:15: For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize without weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.  (Jesus Priestly intercession for sinful humans requires the truth about His nature.)

Phil. 2:5-11, Mystical Union

Jesus asked, Who do people say that I the Son of Man am (Matt. 16:13)?  Peter gave a crisp, clear answer: The Christ, the Son of the Living God!  

This presents an important question: How can “the Son of Man” be “the Son of God”?  How can someone who is God be truly Man at the same time?  The wise men of Babylon said that the gods don’t dwell with flesh (Dan. 2:11).  In typical mythology when gods come to earth do have dealings with men they never ceased to be gods; they never truly became what we are.  The wisdom of this world cannot understand what Christians call the mystical union.  It is unquestionably deep, but it is an essential doctrine for on it rests the salvation of sinful men.  The passage before us explains, yes, explains, this mystery. 

We are first going to briefly answer some of the explanations that have presented throughout the centuries.  In what sense was Jesus the God-Man, the Word become Flesh (John 1:14), the Son of David and Son of God (Luke 1:32; Rom. 1:3-4)?  We want to review the wrong answers before we give the classic statement of orthodoxy.  We need to consider answers that deny Scripture because they can at times be tempting, easy answers to a hard question.  But the false answers must be exposed because they deny essential truth about our Lord.  Here are a few of these deceptions.

·        DOCETISTS: Jesus’ life in a physical body was a mirage, a mere appearance.  After all, God cannot be contaminated with human flesh.   (But Jesus said, A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have, Luke 24:39).

·        APOLLINARIANS: Jesus’ body and soul were human, but the spirit was divine.  (Can it then be said that Jesus was truly tempted in all things as we are, Heb. 4:15?  Did He really become a brother to us, Heb. 2:11,14?) 

·        SOCINIANS, UNITARIANS: Jesus, the best of men, was adopted or promoted to divine status, perhaps at his baptism.  (But John 1:1 says the Word was God.)

·        ARIANS, JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES: Jesus, the first and highest created angel, began life as a mere man and after his death was exalted to a higher creaturely status than before.  (Besides John 1:1, our passage says Jesus was in the form of God before He became a man.)

·        SOME MODERNISTS: Jesus was fully human even with a sinful nature.  Though he sinned he is the finest symbol of divine love ever.  (We ask then, what glory did Jesus have with the Father before He was born, John 17:5?)

·        NEO-ORTHODOX: Jesus was fully human, even with a sinful nature, but he did not sin.  God acts in the world through him.  (If Jesus was truly God as He claimed, the great I AM, how could God exist in a sinful nature?)

(We will continue with this in the next post.)

Phil. 2:1-4; Rom. 15:5-6; 1 Co. 1:10, Gospel Conduct (4)

Fleshly lusts keep us from being souls together.  What will enable us to be souls together?

·        Thinking the same thing. 

You may think this to be impossible, that in the average church or even above average church you could get everyone to think the same thing.  But it is quite apparent that the Lord believes this to be of high value because it is commanded often.  We are to glorify God one mind and one mouth (Rom. 15:5-6).  We are to be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment (1 Cor. 1:10).  This “one mind” has a special focus to it.  It glorifies God; it recognizes the name of Christ.  The result is that we are in no way divided.  We would suggest there are two sides to this “mind”.

o   It is a mind set on Christ.  This is clear throughout the Scriptures.  We are to set our minds on things above where Christ is (Col. 3:2).  We are to be looking unto Jesus who endured the cross (Heb. 12:1-3).  He is the focus of attention and this will be explained in detail in Phil. 2:5-11.

o   It is also a mind that has a proper thought about the people around us in the body of Christ.  Phil. 2:3 makes this clear: in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.  To esteem is to consider something to be true.  We don’t need to sit around and think about others and find ways that they are better than us.  It is simply our attitude towards them where we honor them and put their needs above ours.

These two thoughts go a long ways to helping us understand how it is possible to be a body of believers with one mind.

·        Having the same love.

This begins with having the same love focus, as in Matt. 27:37-39.  We all are to love God with all we have and are; and we are to love all those around us.  Further we can say it is the same love in that it is defined by the sacrificial love of our Lord and Savior; it is the willingness to lay down our own lives and interests for others (1 John 3:16).  Phil. 2:4 gives a statement of this love: it is looking out for the interests of others in the same way we look out for our own interests.  It is easy, sometimes, to say we should be willing to die for others.  But that rarely happens.  The question is: will we, day by day, look unselfishly to the needs of those around us and seek to be part of meeting those needs?

If you still wonder how this can ever happen we encourage you to come back for the next few days as we consider one of the greatest passages about Christ in all the Bible where we will learn the mind of Christ!  For now let us seek, by God’s grace and Spirit, to see those around us in the Body of Christ as people of value, as the honored people who belong to Christ (Titus 2:14).