The Result of Christ's Humility

Last Lord’s Day, we looked at the previous four verses of Philippians 2. And in those verses, Paul destroys any pride we could have by setting before us the example and depth of the humility of Jesus Christ when He came in the flesh.

We have been presented by Paul with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords setting aside His divine privilege, taking on the role of a servant, and humbling Himself in obedience to the point of death upon the cross.

Paul crushes us with the fact that God Himself came from on high to live amongst us, and to die for those who were His enemies.

And as I mentioned last week it almost felt like something of a downer if we did not keep a proper perspective of it. But there is a wonderous and glorious silver lining and that is what we will see this morning.

Paul now moves, at least for the moment, from his delivering of practical theology, that is, theological instruction that we are to apply to our lives, to clue us into what the result of Christ’s ultimate display of humility is. We will see in this text this morning the exultation of Christ and a glimpse into the future when all people throughout all time will acknowledge Christ as King.

And as we begin our look at this portion of Scripture, we see two responses, or results, to what Christ has done on the part of the Father. God exalts Christ and bestows upon Him a name.

Paul begins verse 9 with a “therefore,” depending on your translation. As we said before we know that the word therefore acts as a guide to bring attention to what was said and to bear that in mind with what is to follow.

But I appreciate what the translators for the NASB did here by translating it as “For this reason also.” It helps point us directly to what has come before to better understand what the response of the Father was and the reasoning behind it.

So, Paul wants us to know that everything concerning Christ, his attitude, and what he did that we have been told up to this point; taking on the role of a servant, coming in the flesh, being obedient to the point of death; it is for these reasons that God is going to exalt Christ, give Him a name, and all the world will recognize Him as Lord.

So here we have what we need to keep in mind as we move forward.

Because of this God has “highly exalted Him.” God did not just exalt the risen Lord. He highly exalted Him. The word used here could be translated as “super-exalted.” It is superlative.

But this should not be seen as a reward for His work. Or that it made Christ something that he was not prior to the incarnation. It should be understood that it was absolutely right for this to happen. It was the naturally divine act for Christ to be exalted, it was the logical next step, following His act of humility.

And we get glimpses of this in other places of the NT.

In Matthew 28, just before His ascension into heaven, Jesus is given what has come to be known as the Great Commission. We are all familiar with this passage.

As He opens with His parting instructions, remember what He says. Christ says in Matt. 28:18, “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” All authority. He is not subject to the laws of men, whether just or unjust, as he was during His incarnation. He is no longer submitted to anyone.

He has completed His role as a servant because He said upon the cross, it is finished. He has been exalted and all authority in all creation belongs to Him. He no longer has set aside His divine privilege as he had when He became a servant. All authority is His.

We have some further clues in the Book of Acts. In chapter 1, we see the actual physical ascension of Christ into heaven. Acts 2:9-11 reads, “And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

So, we see that this exaltation involved the literal ascension of Christ up into heaven. And we know from one other portion of Acts more precisely where Christ has been exalted to.

In Acts 7 Stephen bravely stood for Christ before the religious leaders in Jerusalem. After exposing their hypocrisy and rebellion against God, he was taken out of the city and stoned.

But before he died the Lord gifted Him with a glimpse. A beautiful glimpse of His exalted station with the Father, saying, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” What a wonderful thing Stephen saw because He got to see the one to whom he was going.

But there is also a passage in the OT where we see the exalted Christ. It comes from a prophetic vision that was seen by Daniel while he lived in exile far from His home. And, among some other thing that he was shown, He was shown the exalted Son of Man. If you wish, you can turn in your Bibles to Daniel 7.

Now, I know that once again we come to a portion of Scripture with no shortage of rabbit holes to jump down. But I’ve been finishing on time, so I will try to keep that trend going.

But in Daniel 7, a chapter of much speculation, we see an amazing vision of the ascended Lord through the eyes of Daniel.

Beginning in verse 13, “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. “And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.”

Just as Christ told His disciples, all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth.

So, because of what He has done, God has highly exalted Christ. And as a final note, to drive home the divinity of Christ again, the word that Paul used for highly exalted or super-exalted is the word used in the LXX when God is described as being exalted above all the gods. Paul cannot help but make the point that Jesus Christ is God Almighty.

But not only this, He has also given Him a name. And not just any name, but a name which is above every name. So, what is this name?

Some conclude that it is the name of Jesus itself. Going so far as to profess that there is inherent power in saying the name Jesus as if there were some magical qualities to it. That saying the name of Jesus over your life problems will make them go away.

There are other movements that insist, rather forcefully, that Jesus is not really our Lord’s name and to use the name Jesus is actually blasphemous. They follow in the same vein as the first group and insist that we call our Lord by His Hebrew name, Yeshua.

Well, there is no really good reason to do so. It is perfectly fine to use the Anglicized version of His name, Jesus, which is the English version of His Greek name, Ieasus, which is the Greek version of His Hebrew name. If the Bible, being the true Word of God is fine using a version of His name other than the Hebrew, I think it is just fine if we do the same.

But, getting back on track, Jesus was a fairly common name in 1st century Judea. There is archaeological evidence of graves from that time, not Jesus of course, where individuals bear that name. So, it is safe to say that this is not the name that is above every name.

If we look back into history, and in particular biblical history, we see that a name is not necessarily used to simply identify a person or a place. It was not just information if it will. But a name could be used to describe the innermost being of someone or something. It described the essence, the who that the name belonged to.

Remember that when God spoke of the Temple that would be erected for His people to come together and worship Him, God spoke of it being the place where He would cause His name to dwell.

Well, we know that the temple did not house the inscription of His divine name inside the holy of holies. While scribes, priests, and rabbis held the divine name in such high esteem and reverence that today the proper pronunciation of it has been lost to time due to their fear of mispronouncing it, its existence in the Temple was not the focal point of that building.

The divine name, Yahweh, the tetragrammaton, described God. I am. God is. Everything has come from Him and is upheld by Him. It is He who made all things and holds them all together. He is. And His name describes that for us.

So, when Jesus has been given a name above every name, it is a name that perfectly describes Him. That name is Lord. This is not just a name, as we just saw. It is who He is. Christ is Lord.

And we see in these next verses just what that means for all of creation.

“so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

We see two purposes for the giving of this name above all names: the bowing of every knee and the confession from every tongue.

Paul is pulling this directly from Isaiah 45 and what is spoken of there by the prophet is here applied to Jesus.

Isaiah 45:22-23 reads: “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. “I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.”

Here God is calling upon all people everywhere to turn to Him. Why? Because only God can save. It calls on everyone to turn to God and be saved because only Heis God and no other. There’s only one God. Which means there’s only one savior, and that is the one true God.

So, this one true God is the one who saves. And at the end of verse 23, we see that it is to Him that every knee will bow, and every tongue confess.

Paul takes this and applies it directly to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is Lord and God. The Apostle Thomas got it right when he exclaimed and spoke those words when He saw the risen Lord.

Paul then goes on to reveal the extent and the reach of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is revealed that the knee of everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth will bow to Jesus Christ. And this covers every created sentient being that has ever or will ever exist.

The three realms of created beings will bend the knee to Christ.

Heaven is the domain of the angels. Angels are holy beings. They are without sin and without the ability to defy God. We must understand that these angels are not to be compared to those angels who fell, which we’ll get to.

But these would include the seraphim and cherubim. The likes of Gabriel and Michael. These are powerful and mighty servants of the Lord. They will all bend their knee to Jesus Christ.

And the knees of all those on the earth will also bow. This is the realm of mankind. Every man and woman will one day bend the knee. Notice that there is no differentiation here between the people of God and those opposed to Him. When the text says every knee will bow, every knee will bow. And Paul will double down on this in the next verse.

And lastly, every knee that is under the earth will bow. This is the realm of Satan and his fallen angels, or demons. Make no mistake one day every single demon that dared to raise his fist in defiance of God, and the devil himself will bow before Christ.

And what’s more, they themselves know it. The demons that Jesus confronted during His incarnation knew full well who He was. They knew He was the Son of God and that they were utterly under His authority.

We see also in the book of Job that Satan had no power and authority outside of what God allowed and one day that allowance will be entirely revoked.

So, Paul is clear in telling us that to the Lordship of Christ, all will bow. Not only will all creatures bow, but they will also confess the Lordship of Christ.

“and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The all-encompassing list of who will bow, that being everyone, is also to be understood to mean that they will also confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

This will not be lip service. This will not be something mumbled under their breath begrudgingly by those who chose to deny God. This will be a clear and honest confession by both believers and nonbelievers. By believers because they have known the Lord and now finally see Him face to face. And by unbelievers because they no longer can suppress the truth in unrighteousness and must now acknowledge Christ as Lord.

The words of Isaiah 45 will prove true and all those who were angry with God will be put to shame and God will be glorified.

As a side note, in my studies for this week’s sermon I ran across something simple but it kind of hit me. (In Isaiah 45 God offers salvation to all who would come to Him but does not tell us how. However, that comes later in chapter 53. Just as we read last week, “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.”

At this point I want to take a moment to address something that still persists within the church which comes to mind when this passage is read. There is a portion of the church that for many years has insisted that you can have Jesus as Savior with no need or requirement to have Him as Lord. It was a debate that got rather heated some years ago and was commonly called the Lordship Salvation controversy.

There is a lot of nuance to the whole debate, as there often is. But there were people claiming that so long as you prayed a prayer or signed a card you could be assured of salvation regardless of how you might live the rest of your life.

They argued that if Jesus had to be Lord, which meant you had to be obedient, and that meant that grace was not a free gift. Well, long story short, they misunderstood the whole thing. But I bring this up because any flavor of Christianity that claims you can have only part of Christ is not Christianity.

Jesus Christ is indeed the Savior. But He is not partly a Savior and partly Lord. Jesus Christ is entirely Savior and Lord.

Lastly, there is a sense here of when this is taking place. Paul says that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, and every tongue confess. The question is when does this take place? It has been nearly 2,000 years since our Lord ascended into heaven.

Well, we don’t have a date and time, though countless people have tried to guess. This day is part of the culmination of all of redemptive history. It is the full and final consummation of the kingdom when Christ returns in all His glory, casts down His enemies, and brings about the new heavens and new earth. It is when the great white throne appears, the books are opened, and it is then that when every tongue will confess, and every knee will bow. There will be no excuse at that time. No ability to turn a blind eye. Every tongue of every person and angel will confess, either out of adoration or acceptance that has come too late. Every knee will bow either out of obedience or out of fearful recognition.

· Conclusion

As we come to a close, there are a couple of points of application. First, this revelation should create within us a more fervent love for our Lord. Knowing that He sits enthroned on high communicates to us His high station, His divinity, and His being worth of all adoration and praise.

Second, as we strive to be like Christ as exhibited by His humility.

Lastly, this is a warning to the lost. Paul does not mince words. A day is coming when time will run out and the Lord’s patience will reach its end. That day will be both joyous and terrifying. For those who belong to Christ and are united to Him, it will be a day of limitless joy.

But, for the lost, it will be a day of dread.

They will hear the most terrifying words in Scripture, “Depart from me, I never knew you.

It is my deep heartfelt pray that if you do not know Christ, if anyone who hears this message does not know Christ, do not wait another minute. We are not promised time. There is no security in living how we want now and getting around to Jesus later. And there is no virtue in believing you are too far gone to be saved.

Christ is Lord and he is a forgiving Lord. Let us pray.