For this series in Philippians, I am going to limit each post to one verse, and hopefully produce a short, succinct read for my friends who follow.

2:9   Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,

In our previous post on verse 8, we saw that Jesus went beyond the ordinary existence of a man on this fallen planet, that we are all destined for. He entered into death, though not deserving of the judgement, and beyond that, choose the type of death He would experience. A death that would be through extreme suffering, shame, humiliation, and terror. His death on the cross was a form of extreme cruelty, yet He directed the course of events to experience this horror!

Out of this complete and utter self humiliation, the Father has highly exalted Him.

Consider – He is the Son of God, who abandoned His glory for the sake of His mission. Was this abandonment of His glory a permanent abandonment, not of His person, but of His glory prior to entering the human race? Is the exaltation Paul speaks of regarding Jesus the attainment of a glory that was not His previously in His co-existence with the Father and Spirit.

I am treading on issues I freely admit my ignorance of, but the exaltation of Jesus is being addressed in this verse and it causes me to consider what Paul is revealing to us.

His self humiliation has provided the opportunity for God to declare Him as the One whose name is above every other name. The acts of the Son are being rewarded here, and not His character. The act of the Savior in His “stooping down” to our level, and continuing into even deeper humiliation that are on display here, and for which He has been exalted. These acts of humiliation are sourced out of His character, His spotless being.

But Paul is associating this exaltation with actions. In other words, He is exalted for what He did, not who He is.

Paul is looking for similar acts from us. And so is God. Acts of stooping down to others, to provide assistance to others for their sake.

Will you follow Jesus?

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Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion.