Christ’s Self-Humiliation and Super-Exaltation (1)
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
We are called to live as kingdom citizens by having the same mind as Jesus Christ. Now Paul comes to the heart of his letter and explains the mind of Christ. Here in this beautiful and powerful poem he centers everything in Christ. The whole letter must be read in the light of and through the lens of these verses. Everything before has been building up to this Christ-centered poem. Everything after flows out of the truth of these verses. All Paul’s appeals, exhortations, and teachings are based on who Jesus is and what He has done. The gospel of Christ is summarized here in short but powerful statements that go deep. Paul gives us the full scope of God’s salvation plan from a bird’s eye view — from eternity to eternity, from creation to recreation, from Genesis to Revelation.
Throughout history human leaders (Alexander the Great, Ceasar Augustus, Chinggis Khaan) have considered themselves as gods and have been made gods by people. Even today we see how quickly and easily we put our trust and hope in human leaders for our salvation and future. We may not worship them as gods but the personality cults around leaders, the ways we follow them blindly and revere them make you ponder whether they have not become gods, idols, in our minds. And if we do not worship others, you could think that we worship ourselves considering the ways we revere self, are focused on self, looking out for our own interests. Of course, this is nothing new. Adam and Eve, the first humans, grasped the chance to be like God, to be gods. Since that time this is what the human race has been doing. We want to be lords of our own lives. We want to be our own gods.
In Paul’s world and in today’s world, the gospel of Christ proclaims that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, who became human, was crucified on a cross, and resurrected. He is the Messiah, the Savior, and the true Lord of the world. Then and now, people find this difficult to believe because it turns their culture and views upside down. It goes against their worship of self or other idols. This may even be counter-cultural for some Christians who have created their own views of Jesus.
Are we taking Jesus seriously as our living Lord and Savior? When we say we believe in Jesus Christ, what do we believe? Some may even ask — Why should I believe? Why should I take Jesus seriously? These verses answer these questions. He is God, the Son of God, who humiliated himself by becoming human to save us. He is the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of the world. God the Father resurrected Him and exalted Him, super-exalted Him by giving Him the Name that is above all names. He is Yahweh, the sovereign Lord who rules over the whole universe. This is the Jesus we follow. He calls us to have his mind and heart, follow his example and serve others in love and humility. Today — the self-humiliation of Christ. Next week — the super-exaltation of Christ.
1. Jesus Is Eternally Humble
Jesus is God in his very being and nature. From all eternity He existed in the form of God. He is the Creator of the universe. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind” (John 1:1-4). “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers 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).
Anyone who has seen Jesus has seen the Father (Jn 14:9). He is the image of God (2 Cor 4:4; Col 1:15). “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Heb 1:3). From all eternity He shared in the glory of God. Jesus prayed in John 17:5, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”
Here we have Jesus, the Son of God, Creator and Ruler of everything. He has the power to look out for himself, to use his being God for his own advantage. He could have refused the mission to save the world. He could have destroyed humanity and began over. That would have been just and righteous. They deserved God’s wrath. But He did not consider his equality with God as something to be grasped. The Greek word is a strong, violent word—hold on by force to something you already have or to take something from someone else by force. Jesus refused to use his power and glory for his own gain.
Rather, He understood that his equality with God was not about getting but about giving. His equality with God qualified him to humiliate himself, empty himself, and become human. Jesus did not become humble. He was and is eternally humble. God’s plan of salvation was in place before creation. The Lamb was slain and the kingdom prepared from the creation of the world (Rev 13:8; Mt 25:34). From eternity Jesus obeyed, gave himself, humbled himself to save the world. It is only as God that Jesus could do what he did. We cannot save ourselves. No human savior, no worldly efforts can save us. We and all our efforts are under the power of sin. There is no one righteous, not even one (Ro 5:9-10). Without Jesus we are lost and without hope; without hope in this life and without hope in the next. But Jesus, exactly because he is God, because he is perfectly holy, righteous, and humble, could he gave himself, empty himself, and humble himself. This is the true meaning of who God is. He is the God of self-giving, self-sacrificing love.
2. Jesus Humbled Himself in His Incarnation
Jesus emptied himself, humbled himself by taking on the very nature, the form of a slave. He did not stop being God. He gave up his rights and privileges and became like a slave with no rights. He displayed his nature as the eternally humble, self-giving God in and through the nature or form of a slave and by becoming human. Just as he was in his very nature God, he became in his very being and nature a slave in order to serve.
Let us look at what happened among the disciples — James, John, and their mother asked Jesus for special positions in his kingdom (Do you see—use their position to grasp, gain something for themselves). “When the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers” (Mt 20:24). Imagine angry words, gestures, tempers ran high. Here is Jesus’ response to them: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:25-28).
Look what happened later — Peter and John prepared for the Passover. They forgot to make arrangements for a slave to wash their feet before the meal. Here they were, all lying at the table ready to eat. Imagine them looking at each other. Since there is no slave, who is going to do this. Uncomfortable silence. No one would volunteer for the lowly task. Forgot Jesus’ words—in at one ear out at the other. How very human they were. How like us.
Then Jesus stood up and served them as a slave. “The incarnate Son, God himself, had dressed like a servant and washed the feet of his prideful, arrogant creatures.” (Hughes, 82) Then he said, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him” (John 13:14–16).
Jesus emptied himself, humbled himself by becoming or being born in the likeness of humans. He identified fully with us and fully participated in our human experience. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Heb 2:14-18). It is because Jesus is God and fully human that he could become obedient, fulfilled God’s plan of salvation, and sacrificed Himself on the cross. He is the God of self-giving love who humbled himself and became human to save us.
3. Jesus Humbled Himself in His Death
And so, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross. Jesus became human in order to obey God’s will perfectly and so fulfill the law (Mt 5:17). He did for us what we could not do ourselves. “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Ro 8:3-4). Jesus remained obedient to God’s plan of salvation, all the way to the cross. “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (Ro 5:19).
He gave himself, emptied himself. He humbled himself. No one humbled him; not Pontius Pilate, nor Ceasar, nor the Pharisees, nor the people. He humbled himself. “I am the good shepherd … and I lay down my life for the sheep … The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (Jn 10:14-18).
Only Jesus could do this because He is God, because He is eternally humble, because He humbled himself to become human like us, and because He was obedient. This is truly extraordinary love and amazing grace. This is what it means to be others-centered and to put others-first above ourselves.
This is the example we should follow and imitate. This is the mind of Christ we should have, cultivate, and live out as kingdom citizens. But oh, how quickly do we push out the mind of Christ and follow our own minds and hearts. We are so self-centered that we do not take Jesus seriously. We are like the disciples, we are like John and James — the poem of Robert Raines (quoted in Hughes, 82):
I am like James and John Lord,
I size up other people
in terms of what they can do for me;
how they can further my program,
feed my ego,
satisfy my needs,
give me strategic advantage.
I exploit people,
ostensibly for your sake,
but really for my own sake.
Lord, I turn to you
to get the inside track
and obtain special favors,
your direction for my schemes,
your power for my projects,
your sanction for my ambitions,
your blank checks for whatever I want.
I am like James and John.
If we take Jesus seriously, if we truly believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, then every one of us is called to serve others in love and humility. We are called to be others-centered, others-first — in our marriages, in our families — parents and children, in our workplaces, communities. When we have the same mind and heart as Jesus Christ, when we follow his example, then He becomes real in our lives. Others will see Him in us, and He will become real to others.
“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him” (John 13:14–16).
Are we taking Jesus seriously? Then let us have the mind and heart of Christ. Let us follow his example. Because Jesus Christ is alive. He is real. And He is our Lord.