Philippians Chapter 2 Verses 6 – 8

Here is the downward progression of God, Jesus Christ, and that sounds like a bad thing but it is a GREAT thing, because it ends in total deliverance, victory and exaltation. The way of the world is get higher! Soar further! Grow larger! Become superior! And then the watermark of those statements typically centers around personal wealth, individual importance, or becoming a somebody. Once a week I get an email saying, “You’ve been selected for inclusion in the next Who’s Who of the Aerospace Industry,” and I think to myself, “niccccce!” HA! I’ve yet to not delete that email! HA!

But in the economy of God things are so different and even not so different! Not so different in terms of everyone wants awesome. Everyone wants great… but so different in that Jesus said (and this is the sociology of eternity, the culture of the kingdom), Jesus said in Matthew 20:26-27, “Whoever desires to be great among you, let him be your servant (minister in the Greek). And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave…” Psychology, sociology and theology all merge to reveal the little pieces of heaven walking among us that we call “Christians!”

Psychology because those that serve others have settled something so powerful within themselves. That their security is solid. Their sense of inner purpose is far beyond the limitations of what they can get for themselves. They’re ok with what they’ve got already. Which frees them to desire and get crazy pleasure out of supporting and assisting and protecting and relieving the needs and shortcomings of others.

Sociology because those that serve others take their place as part of the whole. Interacting constructively, building, edifying and assuring the promise of a better collective future. And theology because this is precisely what God commands and expects us to do while also being the ethnology of eternity in the kingdom of God… ON EARTH!

The high exaltation of Jesus Christ by God the Father (the next verse) was through Him progressing in service towards even His own creation. So much lower than Him, so much less than His own worth, but He didn’t see it that way. John Chapter 1 verses 1-2, “Jesus Christ, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” then John 1:14, “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth!”

This stepping down into His own creation, making Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, humbling himself and becoming obedient even to the point of death, was His own personal promotion. A revealing of the “full of grace and truth,” and it was nothing anyone convinced him of, preached Him into, persuaded Him to do. The true revelation of the heart of a champion, the heart of God Himself, is that it was all His decision!

He didn’t get voted out 2 to 1 in heaven! HA! He looked upon those that had made themselves His enemies and because of His goodness, His maturity, His incredible strength of heart and character of power and love, He stepped forward and put me first, put us first. Because of His love for you. If your son or your daughter was in desperate danger and needed your help, would you need to be persuaded to help them? Just a glimpse of Jesus’ heart for you and for me… And so, He stepped down.

Paul gives us perhaps one of the most theologically important descriptions of what Jesus did in all of the Bible. Critical, essential to even understanding the core of Christianity. Not soteriology. Not the understanding of salvation. The understanding of how it is that Jesus is to continue to live His life through you. That is a part of “Christianity.” He says there in verse 8 that Jesus, “being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself….”

The word comes from a form of the word “kenoo” in the Greek meaning that He emptied Himself. (For you studiers, I believe the doctrine of Kenosis goes too far…) It’s a beautiful word in the Greek meaning that Jesus, for you, for me, for the sake of others and for the sake of what is right and because HE is good, assigned Himself to a lower rank and made Himself lower. He brought Himself to the human condition. Was He always fully God? Absolutely. Did He retain all of the privileges of divinity? Somehow, no. What He set aside and what He retained we can’t be sure of but we KNOW He hungered. He thirsted. He tired. He wept. He bled. But we also know Colossians 2:9, that “in Him, in Christ, all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form.” And so somehow in creating His own condition, He limited Himself, humbled Himself, literally assigned to Himself a lower rank.

That may not hit paydirt for you. What do you mean Jesus was humble? He walked on water. He commanded demons. He made money come out of the mouth of a fish. He could take 5 big macs and make 5,000 out of them. Yes, He could do all of those things… But even with that kind of capability, He was born in a barn, to a poor family. He was kind to those that were not kind to Him. Nathaniel said nothing good comes out of Nazareth. He grew up in working class family with brothers and sisters. He owned no house. He owned nothing. He was essentially homeless as a young adult. He prioritized giving rather than consuming. His reputation was certainly low in some crowds. He endured insults. He was the frequent target of disrespect and false accusations. He was rejected. He was despised. He endured an astounding lack of appreciation… He was murdered… and then He was buried in a borrowed tomb…. This same Man who could call 10,000 legions of angels to His side…

Why? Well for one because He is and was and forever will be the second Adam! The perfect man. The one filled with grace and truth. Strong in and of Himself in goodness and righteousness and wholly focused on doing and being right in the eyes of the Father… But on top of that…why? For all sorts of reasons!

One, to not be a fake. If He was to die in my place then He literally had to be in my place! If He was to be a true friend to mankind then He had to experience and understand what it’s like physically, emotionally, even spiritually. If He was to be our High Priest in representing us to the Father then He had to come from among us… He had to stand in my place so that I can stand in His place. Do you know that is what the gospel is? The message that who we are to God the Father is because of the blood of Jesus and that’s it? Saved by grace…through faith, not of works…why? IMPOSSIBLE! No one could have done what Jesus did but Jesus…,

And because of what Jesus did, this emptying of Himself, CHECK THIS OUT, somehow, in some mysteriously even arguable way (because its confusing and past my understanding) even God, all that God could be and all that God was for real for real, on the inside, became known and eternally significant as the citizenship of heaven exploded with countless souls! His full of grace and truth would never have been communicated, known, expressed, manifested unless Jesus LET this be His decision!

This is holy ground, man! This is what makes all levels of power of darkness look like a bunch of useless, sad and weak cock roaches! This is the more than conqueror, this is the rivers of living waters, this is the FULL OF grace and truth. This is what we signed up to follow! And check this out…, here’s the proof text on those statements!...

Philippians Chapter 2 Verses 9 – 11

Never would have happened unless Jesus had known His worth but submitted Himself to what was needed by those that He loved so much. God, the King of kings, Lord of lords, took (with His own hands) the form of a slave… Why? Because it was the wisest, strongest, smartest, best, most powerfully loving thing possible. That is the mind of Christ. And Paul says get saved, become a citizen of heaven, and then get Christianed…, and LET the mind of Christ be in you so that Christ would come back to the world through you.