START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Philippians 2:5-11
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OBSERVE:
This passage is one of the clearest and most concise statements in the New Testament about the nature and work of Christ. This passage is believed by some to be part of an early Christian hymn.
The Apostle Paul anticipates the Nicene Creed which was written 300 years later. The Nicene Creed says that Jesus is:
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God….
…. for us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.
Paul rehearses what is called the kerygma (i.e., the proclamation of the saving work of Jesus Christ) about what Christ has done:
- He has come to earth for us, though he was preexistent and equal with God.
- He has been perfectly obedient by accepting death on the cross.
- He has been exalted to the highest place with God the Father.
Paul begins with an exhortation to the Philippians that they are to imitate Christ:
Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus
The theme of the “imitation of Christ” appears repeatedly throughout the New Testament, not least when Jesus tells his disciples:
Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Mark 8:34).
Paul unpacks his exhortation to have the mind of Christ by exploring the character and ministry of Jesus.
First, Paul’s doctrine supports the doctrine established in the Gospel of John, that Jesus is the preexistent Son of God, and that he is divine. However, Paul tells us that Jesus voluntarily humbled himself. Jesus:
existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped…
There is a paradox here — Jesus is God, and is equal with God; and yet, Jesus does not presume to exploit his divine nature, but fulfills his unique role as Son of God. He becomes a human being.
Instead of arrogating power and position to himself, Jesus:
emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.
Not only does Jesus, the divine Son of God, take upon himself human form, he takes upon himself the form of a slave! We see this clearly in the Gospel of John in the Upper Room, when Jesus washes the feet of the disciples as an example to them of the servanthood they need to emulate (John 13:1-20). We see it when Jesus says of himself in the Gospel of Mark:
whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be bondservant of all. For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:43-45).
And then there is the twist, the reversal that should astonish us, except that we’ve become too accustomed to the story — as low as Jesus humbles himself, even unto death, he is raised even higher!
Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
While Paul doesn’t mention the resurrection here, it is assumed. Jesus is exalted, and given the name above every name — Lord.
Here we are reminded of Paul’s roots in Judaism. The name of God in the Hebrew Bible is holy and transcendent. This is the name I AM revealed in Exodus 3. In the Septuagint (which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), the name Lord is the equivalent of I AM. Paul is clearly identifying Jesus as God.
So we have here the true nature of Christ. He is of the nature of God — which becomes very important in understanding the deity of Christ and the Trinity; but he humbles himself and takes on the form of a servant, which means he is also fully human.
The only Savior who can save us is one who is both fully God and fully human.
There is a cycle that is completed — Jesus is equal with the Father, but descends to the lowest place, even death; and then because he is obedient even unto death, he is exalted again to the highest place.
Therefore, those who follow Jesus and seek to emulate his servanthood will worship him as Lord. Not only that, every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord!
This is an eschatological statement. In the end all will acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus — whether they are willing to do so or not. For some, this will be the essence of heaven — for others, who rebel against surrender to God’s authority, it will be hell.
APPLY:
There is so much doctrine packed into these few verses!
We have here a kind of synopsis of Trinitarian theology. Jesus Christ is the preexistent Son of God, who was present with the Father at the beginning, who shares in the nature of God. He is fully God, and yet distinct from the Father.
We are reminded of the doctrine of the Trinity as historically taught since the church Fathers— God is one God in three persons.
And Jesus is also the Word made flesh, who empties himself and takes upon himself the form of a servant, identifying with our sin on the cross so that we may receive his righteousness in exchange.
And he is the exalted High Priest who returns to his rightful place at the right hand of the Father.
Therefore he deserves our unrestrained worship and praise.
But we mustn’t neglect Paul’s injunction, that we are to have the mind that was in Christ. For us to have his mind requires that we worship him, study his life in the Scriptures, and imitate him. And we become most like him when we humble ourselves and serve others.
Above all, we must remember that all this is Christ’s doing. I love the verse from Charles Wesley’s great hymn, “And Can It Be,” that emphasizes Christ’s self-emptying love.
He left his Father’s throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!),
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam’s helpless race.
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
RESPOND:
St. Irenaeus, one of the early church Fathers, said something quite radical to our ears:
The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.
Isn’t this what Paul is telling us to do when he tells us that we are to have the mind that was in Christ Jesus?
However, we must remember that if this is to happen, it is Christ’s doing. That’s what we mean by grace, that God is at work in us.
I really love C.S. Lewis’ analogy in his essay The Grand Miracle. He says that what Jesus has done follows a:
huge pattern of descent, down, down, down, and then up again. . . one has the picture of a diver, stripping off garment after garment, making himself naked, then flashing for a moment in the air, and then down through the green, and warm and sunlit water into the pitch black, cold, freezing water, down into the mud and slime, then up again, his lungs almost bursting, back again to the green and warm and sunlit water, and then at last out into the sunshine, holding in his hand the dripping thing he went down to get. This thing is human nature.
Jesus, of course, is the diver who begins his descent after diving from the very throne of God itself, and then descending into human flesh at Bethlehem, living as a Jewish man in Galilee and Judea, descending to the cross and the grave, and, according to many Christians, descending even into hell. And this same Jesus rises from the deepest, darkest place, from death itself, and returns to heaven in the ascension.
Jesus comes into this world in order to identify with us and take our sin upon himself, and then takes us back with himself into heaven! That is great news!
Lord, with angels and archangels, and all Christians throughout time, I join in praise of your saving work! I am in awe of your amazing descent from the right hand of the father to the lowest point with us, and your dizzying reascent into heaven. Help me to have your attitude of servanthood and sacrifice, knowing that without your Spirit in me that is impossible. Amen.
PHOTOS:
“Philippians 2 Typography Gradient” by Tyler Neyens is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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