Philippians 2:5-11:  The opening phrase in verse 5 is in the present, continuing tense: "Let this mind go on being in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God (the Greek word form means "subsisting as") which is also in the present tense meaning that He existed forever in the form of God. Yet He did not consider it robbery ( robbery is a word that is translated in I Thessalonians 4:17, caught up, which we refer to as the rapture; it means to take hold of, to seize for oneself).  He did not consider this subsistence as the Second Person of the Trinity something to be grasped or prized to such an extent that He would not subordinate Himself to the office of Redeemer. Instead He made himself of no reputation, assuming the form of a bond slave. Coming in the likeness of and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should, shall, and will bow, of those in heaven, of those on earth, and of those under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

These verses constitute the greatest Christological passage in the New Testament.  In verse 1 of this chapter, we discover that Paul sets forth a four-fold incentive: if there is any consolation, comfort of love, fellowship of the spirit, affection of mercy, ("If" is a first-class condition in the Greek which means "since there is." ); in verses 2 and 3 he sets forth a three-fold directive: In verse 2, he shows that there is to be a spirit of "oneness"; in verse 3, there is to be a spirit of "lowliness,"; in verse 4, there is to be a spirit of "helpfulness," all of this in light of the fourfold incentives declared in verse 1. The supreme embodiment of these truths and the enablement for such a lifestyle as they require is perfectly exemplified in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. (2:5-11)

Hollywood, and the world of make believe, has given us Superman and the $6 million man.  Heaven,  and the world of reality, has given us the God-man -- Christ Jesus. The first Christmas celebration was not one of God in man.  This is what happens when a person becomes a Christian -- God takes up his abode in man. The first Christmas celebration was not God and man coming together to work cooperatively. It was a celebration of the God-man -- Jesus the Christ. It was the union of two natures, Godhead and manhood in one glorious person.

I submit that verses 5-11 of this 2nd chapter of Philippians weigh in at the heavyweight level.  Every phrase, almost every word, in these verses has been the subject of great controversy throughout the centuries and continue to be the subject of debate unto this very day. The identity of Jesus is still the central issue of human history.  Was Jesus simply a good man, or the God-man?  Was Jesus a spiritual guide into the truth, or the Sovereign God who gave the truth?  Was Jesus just another created being, or was He the Creator of all beings?  Was Jesus a way-shower, pointing others to the way, or is He the only way to God?

Hymn writer and pastor John Newton was absolutely correct when he penned these words:  "What think ye of Christ?  Is the test to try both your state and scheme?  You cannot be right in the rest unless you think rightly of Him."  If you are wrong concerning the identity of Jesus, then you will be wrong concerning what constitutes salvation; you will be wrong as to what constitutes the church; you will be wrong as to what constitutes heaven and eternity.

The controversy is just as intense and the consequences of being wrong are just as indescribable as ever.  This text divides itself naturally into three parts. Notice first of all:

I. The Position Possessed by Him - v 6

A. The Deity of His Person

The first word in this verse revealing His deity is the word "form." It is the Greek word "morphe", which means an outward expression that is totally consistent with the inward nature of something.  The Spirit of God very carefully and selectively impresses these words upon the mind of the Apostle as he writes. The great theologian B.B. Warfield said of this word "morphe": "The thought concerning the expression, "who being in the form of God" ,is not that he is describing a past mode of existence of our Lord, but that he is describing what is intrinsic in the very nature of His being."  In other words, that Jesus always existed as God.  Thus, the deity of His person is declared.

B. The Eternity of His Person

The present tense condition of the words connotes continuing, unbroken action. Therefore they declare that there was never a time when He did not subsist as God of very God.

John Piper states, "The Bible teaches that this Eternal God has always had a perfect image of Himself (Colossians 1:15), a perfect radiance of His essence (Hebrews 1:3), a perfect stamp or imprint of His nature(Hebrews 1:3), a perfect form or expression of His glory (Philippians 2:6).

John 1:1 declares: "In the beginning was the Word."  What beginning?  The beginning of all things.  Before there was anything, the Word, the Logos, which is another expression for the Second Person of the Holy Trinity - Jesus, existed. Therefore what existed before time always had existence.  The first verse continues by revealing that "the word was with God".  The preposition was is the Greek word "pros" which carries the thought of the Word being face-to-face with God.  Whatever is face-to-face with God is equal to God.

John 1:14 states:  "And the Word was made flesh."  Incarnation is the theological expression that defines the above phrase.  The Latin word "carnal" means flesh. So, the Word was in-fleshed and dwelled among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

The word begotten has caused many to conclude that Jesus had a beginning.  The word translated “only begotten” is the Greek word monogene and the word does not mean “the only begotten.” This is the same word that is used in Hebrews 11:17, which says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.”  Again, the problem surfaces. You see, Isaac was clearly not Abraham’s “only begotten son.”  Thirteen years before the birth of Isaac, Abraham had sired an illegitimate son to Hagar, the boy named Ishmael.  Then what does this mean?  The key is in the word itself.  “Monogene.”  The word “mono” means “one” or “only.”  The word “gene” is the word we get our biological word “genes” from (as in “genes and chromosomes”).  So the word does not mean “only begotten,” it means “the only gene-type son,” or the “one-of-a-kind son,” or the “unique son.”  That’s it!  Isaac was Abraham’s unique son, his “only-one-of-a-kind son.”  Isaac was Abraham’s only son of promise. 

I might add almost as an aside that, while James Watson and Francis Crick, winners of the 1962 Nobel prize in science for discovering the DNA molecular structure, discovered that every person ever born has two sets of genes, one for each parent, this word used in describing Jesus, monogenes, suggests that once in all history, a child was born with just one set of genes!  Now we see the meaning of John 3:16.  Jesus was not God’s only begotten Son.  Why, I myself am a begotten son of God!  James 1:18 says, “Of His own will God begat us with the word of truth.”  Every Christian is begotten of God, or He could not have been born again!  But no other son of God is a Son like Jesus.  Jesus is the unique Son of God.  God has many sons, but He has no other Son like Jesus!   And Jesus is God’s Love Gift for man’s salvation.  He is God’s Love Offering to the world.

The Old Testament anticipated His deity through the many names by which He is identified.  He is referred to as the Ancient of Days, the Altogether Lovely One, the Begotten, the Bridegroom, the Chosen, the Elect, Emmanuel, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, etc.

The New Testament, without equivocation, declared His deity.  Paul writes in I Timothy 3:16, And without controversy...God was manifest in the flesh. Jesus himself declared His deity when He said "Before Abraham ever had existence, I am."  That's the expression that God gave Moses in answer to his question, "Lord, who am I going to tell them sent me?"  God said, "Tell them I AM sent you," which meant the One who is who He is and has always been who He is. Jesus said, "You're looking at the One who, as to His essential nature, has always been what He is. I AM that I AM."  This was a claim to absolute deity.

The Three Persons of the Godhead are one in substance, one in the depths of common consciousness, one in purpose, with absolute equality, power and glory. They agree with one another in nature, being life, time, dignity, glory, or anything else pertaining to the Divine essence.  In all these they are one and the same, consequently, co-essential, co-equal, and co-eternal. This is the mystery of all mysteries -- the fact that God is One in Three and Three in One.  He is not Three in the same that He is One, nor is He One in the same that He is Three. We are not tri-theist, worshipping three gods; nor are we mono-theist -worshipping a non-Trinitarian god. We are Trinitarians. All true Christians are Trinitarians.  We can hear someone saying, "Please explain the Trinity!"  We can't nor can anyone else!  If we could explain it, we would be God.

Daniel Webster, that great statesman and orator, was dining with a company of literary men in Boston.  The conversation turned to the subject of Christianity. Since the occasion was in honor of Daniel Webster, he was expected to take a leading part in the conversation. This he did by frankly stating his belief in the deity of Christ, and in his definite need to depend upon Christ for salvation.

A Unitarian minister sitting across from Daniel Webster responded by inquiring:  "Mr. Webster, how in the world can you believe that?  Can you comprehend how Jesus Christ could be both God and man at the same time?"  Daniel Webster replied: "No, sir, I cannot understand it and I would be ashamed to acknowledge  Christ as my Savior if I could comprehend the Trinity.  For if I could comprehend it, He would be no greater than myself and such is my conviction of my accountability to God, the sense of my own sinfulness before God, and my knowledge of my own incapacity to recover myself, that I feel I need a superhuman, incomprehensible, infinite Savior; and I have that in the God-man, Jesus Christ."

C. The Dignity of His Position

He was equal with God. What He is saying is this:  this equality was not something He had gained or was to gain, it was there. Colossians 2:9 says: "In Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily."  This position was His natively, essentially, eternally, and immutably. When the God-man walked this earth, He had all power. When He emptied Himself, He did not cease to be God.  God cannot cease to be God anymore than man can become God. When He was on personally present on earth, He had all power. When He was here, where was God? The same place God has always been. Where is God now? All of God is everywhere present at the same time throughout every portion of this universe.  God was still in Heaven. I do not understand this truth, but it is true, foundational, and absolutely essential to the Christian faith.

These verses declare that Jesus Christ was none other than God who became flesh and did so without a mingling and mixing of the natures so that man became God and God became man.  They came together in what Unitarians refer to as a mathematical absurdity. They say one plus one plus one equals three. That is not the proper mathematics to employ.  It is one of the same, times one of the same, times one of the same, equals One. Three glorious Persons consisting together of the same substance and essence. One glorious God manifest as Father, Son and Holy Ghost!

II. The Self-humiliation Undertaken by Him

A. The Humility that He demonstrated - v 8

"He took upon Himself the form of a servant and humbled Himself." No one humiliated or humbled Him. He made that choice Himself. The scripture says He gave up certain things. What was it that He temporarily relinquished? It was not His essential being, His Godhead, but the visible manifestation of it, the outward glories of it.  He let these glories shine through occasionally.  For instance, on the Mount of Transfiguration He let what was true of His inner being break forth and with the results being that the three disciples who witnessed it were overwhelmed at the majesty and glory of His person.

What did He give up?  First, He gave up His favorable relationship to the law of God.  The Bible says in II Corinthians 5:21, "He who knew no sin hath become sin for us in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."  He gave up His favorable relation to the law by becoming sin for us, therefore He became indebted to the law.  He honored it's precepts and then endured it's penalty vicariously for those named in the New Covenant.

Secondly, He gave up His riches.  II Corinthians 8:9: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich yet for your sake He became poor that you through His poverty might become rich." Think how the Owner of all things had to borrow a place to be born and a house to live in, a boat to preach from, an animal to ride into Jerusalem on, a room in which to initiate the Lord's Supper, and a tomb in which to be buried.

But that's not the half.  He gave up His true riches - His heavenly glory.  The fact that all the creatures in glory bowed down and worshipped Him continually saying, "Worthy is the Lamb."

He left the glories, adulation and admiration of Heaven and condescended to come to this sin-cursed earth. During His earthly sojourn He was spit upon, reviled and rejected of men.  A Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. There was no outward manifestation, no outward demonstration in His appearance that naturally attracted men to Him.  It took a miracle to open the eyes of an individual in order for them to perceive the glory and true identity of His person.

B. The responsibility that He assumed - v 8

   "He became obedient even to the point of death, and that death being that of the cross."  Jesus did not merely shorten His life, shorten the inevitable, by dying on the cross. You and I may shorten the inevitable, but sooner or later, we do not have any choice about becoming obedient to death. If the Lord tarries, we are going to die. This was not true with Jesus. He would have never died. At the exact moment of His choosing,  He died upon the cross, but He did not die by the cross. The cross did not kill Him.

Consider the load that rested upon His shoulders. This mighty God-man was sent on a mission.  Galatians 4:4 says, "God sent forth His Son..." He was sent out from heaven on a designated mission. This mission required the laying aside of the outward appearance of His God-head, taking the nature of the man, the form of a servant, the likeness of a sinful people.  Found by the law in the likeness of man, He must do what man ought to but which man cannot and will not.  He must suffer what man deserved to suffer but could not. He must eat His bread in the sweat of His brow. He must be a few days and full of trouble.  He must endure the displeasure of God against sin. He must become obedient even to the point of the death on a cruel cross. He must become accursed. He must die the death of a guilty felon, a slave -  deserted by His friends, derided by His enemies, forsaken of His God.  He must meet and defeat legally the devil, death, sin and the grave.  He must be able to bear up under the waves and billows of God's wrath,  sin's weight and hell's wickedness.

"On Him almighty vengeance fell which must have sunk a world to Hell.He bore it for a sinful race and thus became their hiding place." 

 C. The Labors that Resulted in Success

The God-man had cleansed the leper, healed the sick, cured the crippled, expelled demons, given sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and even brought the dead back to life.  But the test of all tests was in that moment when He met that ultimate victor -- DEATH.  The question was, could He, upon dismissing His spirit and entering into those dark cavernous jaws of death, come back from the prison house of skulls and skeletons? Could He overpower that evil monster that had the authority of death -- the devil? Could He wrest the keys of death and hell from his hands, throw that evil jailor aside, swing back the gates of the grave, re-enter the sepulcher, see His body lying there, re-enter that body, reanimate it, resurrect it, glorify it so that death would never touch it again. Could He after three days in the tomb come out victorious, never to die again, ascend above all spiritual powers to the place of absolute preeminence at the place of absolute authority in glory?  If He could do that, then He was none other than the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!! Hallelujah, the truth of the Gospel is that this is exactly what He did!

When the light broke on the first day of that Easter week, the load was lifted and the mighty God-man had walked out victorious over death and hell. God was satisfied. The law of God was magnified. Sin had been nullified, Heaven glorified, the devil horrified and all who put their faith in Him were justified!  That, dear friends, is what is meant in that phrase: "He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross."

 D. The Exaltation that is Bestowed upon Him - v 9

Notice in verse 9 the indescribable coronation.  God the Father said in essences: "I have and I am super-exalting you to the place of absolute pre-eminence as ruler over all the universe." Listen closely, Jesus is Lord now! Jesus is ruling now! His reign is not confined to Heaven. He rules over every particle and person in this universe.  Sin and Satan is not reigning over this inhabited earth.

Because of His super exaltation, He can never be deposed by a superior, displaced by a successor, or defeated by a stronger one!

He rules! His administration is not subject to the voters' ballot. The wrath of all wicked men combined cannot overthrow the administration of King Jesus. He is not subject to the alluring bribe, nor is He vulnerable to the assassin's bullet.

Notice in verse 9b the invincible denomination.  "God has given Him a name which is above every name." "Thou shall call His name "Jesus", which means "Jehovah saves."

Go through a hymnal and note the number of hymns that mention the name of Jesus. Hymns like:

"Precious name, oh how sweet; hope of earth and joy of heaven."

Oh, precious name that perfects peace, the hope of pleasure, of full release.  O, gracious name, love's furious reign that sheds glad joy through in this day.  O, wondrous name that doth prepare true access to the throne in prayer."

"All hail the power of Jesus' name, let angels prostrate fall."

"Sweetest name on mortal tongue, sweetest carol ever sung."  Yes, there is something about that name - the name of Jesus.

We read in verses 10 and 11 we discover the inevitable confession of the God-man. One day, at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in submission to, in acknowledgement of, and in confession of the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that to the glory of God the Father.  Every tongue will say the same thing that God has to say about the Lord Jesus Christ!

Since every tongue will confess eventually, when we share the good news we do not ask, "Will you confess Jesus?" We ask, "Have you confessed Him yet?"  You are going to.  Either in time, which means salvation or in eternity, which will mean your damnation.  Have you confessed Jesus yet?

In the words of S.M. Lockridge, "He is the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world.  He is God's Son.  He is the sinner's Savior, the centerpiece of civilization. He stands in the solitude of His own glorious person. He is august and absolutely unique, unparalleled, unprecedented.  He is the loftiest idea in literature, the highest idea in philosophy. He is the supreme problem in higher criticism, the fundamental doctrine in true theology. He is the core and the necessity of true spiritual religion. He is the miracle of the age. He is the superlative of everything good that you choose to call Him. He is the only One qualified to be the all sufficient Savior." Have you confessed Him yet?

He supplies strength for the weak. He is available for the tempted and the tried. He sympathizes and saves.  He strengthens and sustains and guards and guides and heals the sick and cleanses the leper, forgives sinners, discharges debtors. He delivers the captives.  He defends the feeble and blesses the young, serves the unfortunate, regards the aged, rewards the diligent and beautifies the meek. Have you confessed Him yet?

My King of Glory is the key of knowledge, because in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge abide.  He is the well-spring of wisdom, the doorway of deliverance, the pathway of peace, the roadway of righteousness, the highway of holiness, and the gateway to glory. His office is manifold, His promise is sure, His life is matchless, His goodness is limitless. His mercy is everlasting, His love never changes. His word is enough, His grace is sufficient, His reign is righteousness, His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.  Oh, I wish to God I could describe Him to you, but He is indescribable.  He is incomprehensible, and I want to tell you He is invincible. Let me tell you something else -- He is unavoidable and irresistible.

You see, you can't get Him out of your mind.  During Christmas, with all its commercialization and profit taking, one enters into establishments that curse the name of Jesus, that pay no attention to the music that is being played over their sound system, and hears those great old hymns of the faith, "O Come Let Us Adore Him!"  One hears "veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, hail Incarnate Deity!"  One cannot but help reflect on how that "even the tongue of the wicked shall ultimately praise Him!" You can't get Him out of your mind; you can't get Him off your hands; you can't outlive Him, and you can't live without Him. The Pharisees couldn't stand Him but they found out they couldn't stop Him. Pilate couldn't find any fault in Him. The witnesses couldn't get their testimony to agree. Herod couldn't kill Him. Death couldn't handle Him and the grave couldn't hold Him.

Have you confessed Him yet?

"No mortal can with Him compare among the sons of men, fairer is He than all the fair who fills the heavenly train!"      

Confess Him today!