Christ Humiliation and Exaltation

Jesus became for us the perfect model of humiliation. who, although He existed in the form of God… (Php 2:6a) Form (μορφή): morphe = manifestation, copy, reproduction, statue Morphe truly and fully expresses the being which underlies it. In other words, it is a word that refers to essence or essential being or nature. Here applied to God, the form of God. It means His deepest being, what He is in Himself, His essential being. The statement then is saying that Jesus Christ existed in the essential being of God. And He has always and continuously and unalterably existed in that essence. To make it simple, he is saying Jesus is God. He possesses the very being and the very nature of God and He has always possessed that. And that interpretation of that first phrase is certainly strengthened by the second phrase in which He speaks of Jesus having equality with God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. (John 1:1-3) Jesus is the Creator Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8:58) God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” (Ex. 3:14) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. (Col. 1:15-17) PATH TO HUMILIATION First Downgrade …did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, (Php 2:6b) For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. (John 5:18) There was no question that Jesus claimed this and there was absolutely no question at the people who listened to Him knew He claimed it. BUT He did not clutched, embraced, held tightly, or prized that position. He refused to cling to all the rights and honors that went with it. He was willing to give them up, that's the idea. Second Downgrade but emptied Himself… (Php 2:7a) empty (κενόω): kenoo = empty, deprive, render void Did Jesus empty himself of His diety? NO, he will ceased to exist as God, he cannot do miracles, he cannot transfigure, he cannot resurrect if he empty himself of His diety. He is not like Superman who went inside the glass chamber to remove his superpowers to live with loise lane and decide to put it on again to beat the bad guys. (Superman III 1983) What did Jesus give up? First, Jesus gave up His heavenly glory or covered up His glory. He only showed glimpses of His glory but He emptied Himself of some of the outward manifestation and the personal enjoyment of heavenly glory. Second, Jesus emptied Himself of independent authority. He completely submitted Himself to the will of the Father. He learned to be a servant and He submitted Himself. And He was obedient, it says in verse 8. He was obedient. In the garden He says, "Not as I will but as you will be done." (Mt. 26:39) He learned obedience by the things He suffered, Hebrews 5 says. He said I am...I am come to do the Father's will, John 5:30.  Third, He set aside the voluntary use of His attributes. He didn't give up any of His deity but He gave up the free exercise of those attributes and limited Himself to the point where in Matthew 24:36 He says, "No one knows when the Son of Man will come," not men, nor angels and not even the Son of Man. He restricted His omniscience. So He gave up the prerogatives of His deity. Fourth, He gave up His personal riches. “Though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9b) Lastly, He gave up a favorable relationship to God. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf” (2 Cor. 5:21a). And as a result He cried out with a loud voice, saying “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mt. 27:46b) Third Downgrade “…taking the form of a bond-servant…” (Php. 2:7b) Jesus gave up something and took on something, the form of a servant. Jesus submits to God’s purpose which is to submit to the needs of men. Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men. (Isaiah 52:14) He had to borrow a place to be born and not much of a place at that. He had to borrow a place to lay His head, He didn't even have a home. Many nights He slept on the Mount of Olives. He had to borrow a boat to cross the little Sea of Galilee. He had to borrow a boat to preach from. He had to borrow an animal to ride into the city when He was being triumphantly welcomed as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He had to borrow a room for the Passover because He didn't even have a house in Jerusalem. He had to borrow a tomb to be buried in. The only person who had the right to everything wound up with nothing, became a servant. He came into the world as King of Kings, Lord of Lords, rightful heir to David's throne as well as God in human flesh, but He had no advantages, He had no privileges in this world. He came as a servant. Nobody gave Him anything. Nobody entrusted Him with any treasure. Nobody gave Him a home. Nobody gave Him animals to ride. Nobody gave Him land to call His own. Nobody gave Him anything. He served everyone. He had no advantages. He had no privileges. He became a slave to men, washing a nobody’s feet. Fourth Downgrade “…and being made in the likeness of men.” (Php. 2:7c) He became man...truly human, really human. Didn't stop being God. And He didn't take on some body. He isn't God in a body, He is God-man and man is more than a body. All of the essence of humanity...body, soul, mind, truly human. That's why in Luke 2:52 it says, "He grew in wisdom and stature." He was growing as a human. Colossians 1 verse 22 it says, "Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body." He had a body like your body, a fleshly body. He's not a phantom...a real body. In Galatians 4:4 it says He was made of a woman, made under the law. In Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14, "Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same." The same flesh and blood that we have. And I don't want you to be confused by this that when He came into the world He came in and the flesh that He took on was normal human flesh that felt all the effects of the Fall. It was not a kind of pre-Fall humanity like Adam's but a post-Fall humanity in the sense that it could know sorrow and tears and crying and suffering and pain and thirst and hunger and death. And death can only touch humanity that is touched by the Fall already. So He felt the effects of the Fall without ever knowing or experiencing or touching the sin in the Fall. And Hebrews says He partook the same as the children who take flesh and blood. He made...He was made like His brethren in all things, Hebrews 2:17, in all things. Why? That He might become a merciful and faithful high priest. How is He going to know what we feel unless He's felt what we feel. And if He feels it in an unfallen humanity, He won't feel it cause it isn't there. He was human in the sense that He experienced all the test and temptation of men. And that's why He's such a faithful and understanding high priest. Yet He never sinned, Hebrews 4:15, yet without sin, never sinned, couldn't sin because God can't sin. Fifth Downgrade Being found in appearance as a man,… (Php 2:8a) Jesus was called a demon (Mk 3:22), And the Jews said, "We know this man, we know His mother and father. We know where He's from (Jn 6:42). They recognized His humanity. They missed His deity. Here He is God in human flesh, King of Kings, the regal royal majestic King of the universe and they don't even know it. And they treat Him not only like man but the worst of men. They treat Him like a criminal. Sixth Downgrade He humbled Himself … (Php 2:8b) Look at Him at His trial. The humiliation is absolutely unbelievable. And the thing that amazes you in this humiliation is that He answers never a word. And finally He admits who He is when He's asked and He says, "You said it." Utter humiliation. They are mocking Him. They are punching Him. They are pulling out His beard. They are treating Him like scum and He is God. And He doesn't say a word. And they pass Him from mock trial phase to phase and He doesn't say anything and He accepts it. And He doesn't demand His rights. Seventh Downgrade (Ultimate Humiliation) by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Php 2:8c) This is the bottom. This is the end of the line. Not just death but even death on a cross, crucifixion, excruciating embarrassing degrading painful humiliating cruel...devised originally by the Persians and perfected by the Romans it was only fit for a slave and the worst riff-raff among the criminals. The Jews hated it because they remembered Deuteronomy 21:22 which said, "Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree," Paul quotes that in Galatians 3. They hated it. They despised it. This is the ultimate in human degradation, hanging in the sky, stark-naked, as it were, before the watching world with nails driven through your hands and feet, the mocking object. There He is. This is God. This is the God who created the universe. Somewhere along the path down you'd think He'd say to Himself, "You know, these people aren't worth redeeming. This is too degrading. This is too humiliating." This is what He did. That's the grace of God. That's the love of God for sinners. And He did it to die for you and die for me. This is an amazing plan, is it not? This is a plan that no man would have devised. Is it any wonder when the Apostle Paul looks at salvation not...not from the historical perspective here but from the doctrinal perspective and for eleven chapters in Romans he shows how God became man and died and rose again to provide salvation, and at the end of it all in Romans 11:33 he says, "O how unsearchable are Your judgments and Your ways past finding out." He's literally in awe. God, what a plan. Who would have ever dreamed of this? Who would have imagined that God would do that?