Biblical Theology for Transformation - 20th Posting

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equility with God a thing to be grasped. But made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

-Philippians 2:5-11


Paul begins chapter two by encouraging the readers to understand that they need to be humble. In verse 3, Paul said, "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves." Paul was trying to get the Philippians to live lives that reflected the attitude and behavior of their God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So, Paul starts in verse 5 by describing the humility Christ took on in order to become the exalted King. Humility is a difficult thing live out. We certainly want to be humble, but the actual act of humility is much harder than the concept. However, Christ accomplished this and though we will never measure up to Christ, we should always be striving to be more like Him.

In Philippians 2, we are given the example of Jesus Christ's walk of humility through His life. It's short to say the least, but it is accurate and it magnifies His humility and it's result. Let's quickly walk through Philippians 2:5-11.

2:5 "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus."
Paul is encouraging the readers to live lives that reflect Christ in His humility. If in any case they are discouraged, thinking that it is an impossible task, Paul reminds them that they have this in Christ Jesus. What Paul is essentially saying is, Christ took on the ultimate form of humility in our place. We certainly need to strive to be humble, but Christ accomplished ultimate humility for us by being an atoning sacrifice. Therefore, be encouraged, and be like Christ...humble.

2:6 "who(Christ), though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped."
The beginning of Jesus' humility is that of greatest display. Of all people in the history of the world to be certain of their boasting in their rightful place of exaltation, it is Jesus Christ. He IS GOD! He had all the right in the world to stand up and declare Himself King of all. But rather, He made Himself an example as part of His atonement. He counted Himself as low in order to be lifeted up. This should be the attitude of the believer. If Christ humbles Himself and He is God, who are we, as mere humans and creation, to not be humble?

2:7 "But made Himself nothing"
Here, Christ, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, makes Himself NOTHING! How's that for an example. This is step 1 in Christ humbling Himself.

"taking the form of a servant"
Jesus takes another step down. He is the creator of the universe and He is humble enough (for our sake and His glory) to take on the form of a servant to the creation that He created.

"being born in the likeness of men"
Another step down. Jesus takes step after step, making Himself lower and lower to the point of being BORN. He is God and brings Himself to the point of incarnation into human flesh for the sake of His creation. In Genesis 1, He created man in HIS likeness and now, in the incarnation, He humbles Himself enough to be born into the likeness of MEN. Not only that, but Christ is eternal. Meaning that He always was and always will be. So the fact that he was even BORN, is an act of humility.

"and being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death."
Christ takes another step down in humility. Not only has He taken on the form of human flesh in order to redeem mankind, our eternal God took on death! It is interesting that the only time Christ is described as "humble" in this text is when it refers to His death. This magnifies the importance of this stepping down in humility. Had Christ been humble in all the previous things but not humble unto death, it would have all been in vein. But instead our Savior, makes Himself and example of humility and a sacrifice on our behalf and suffers death for us in our place.

"even death on a cross"
The final and ultimate step. There was no worse death in Christ's day than death on a cross. It was the most horrible way to die in those days. It involved the most amount of suffering prior to actual death and it was a place that thieves and the crooked died. It was the most disrespectful form of capitol punishment. And Christ took on that identity in the eyes of the world in order to make an atonement for us.

"Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
All these steps down that Christ takes in humility finally pay off. CHRIST IS EXALTED! This is the perfect picture of the results of humility. It is not our own exaltation that makes us great, it is the our humility that allows God to exalt us. And this exaltation is found only in Christ Jesus. What a wonderful display of God's perfect plan for man kind in providing for us a humble Savior, who after being humble is exalted above all. Notice how EVERYONE will declare that He is Lord. In heaven (even the angels will declare His glory). On earth (those who are still alive at His return). Under earth (those who are dead). EVERY tongue and EVERY knee will bow! Think of the person who refuses to ackowledge Christ as Savior and God. That person will one day bow before Christ and declare Him Lord, no matter their relationship to Him. In all this, Christ's greatest display of humility is that He knows it is not His own glory He seeks, but the glory of the Father, who in turn, glorifies the Son!

What an awesome Savior. What an awesome display of humility. We too, need to make less of ourselves, which in turn, makes much of Him and in the end, He will lift us up and exalt us. But our exaltation will be in HIS GLORY, not our own! Thank You Jesus!