Resurrection: Exalted to the Highest Place
He humbled himself… 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 (Philippians 2:8-10).
Jesus Christ was crucified, he died and was buried. And what happened next? Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph over his enemies. He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign. This victory is the greatest that has ever been, and today we celebrate with this as our own. Jesus won this victory from much humility that is summarized in one word: the Cross! Writing to the Philippians, Apostle Paul is full of evidence of his own celebration – in his living hope despite mundane sufferings, in the new citizenry imputed by Christ, and in his testimony about Jesus Christ.
Paul uses Christ’s experience of suffering to call upon his hearers to humility that will finally result in being exalted just like Jesus was exalted to the highest place. Philippi was a city full of Roman veterans trained in the Roman wars to hardness and discipline and loyalty; they were proud of being Roman citizens. Paul exhorts them to behave as citizens worthy of the gospel of Christ (Php 1:27), and he reminds them that though they were proud of their Roman citizenship, as was he, they all had become members of a heavenly commonwealth, citizenship in which was a much greater benefit. He later explicitly states that “Our citizenship is in heaven” (3:20). This has been facilitated by the humility, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Philippians is a letter of love and joy. Paul is elated, and one theologian has summarized the message of this letter as, “I rejoice, rejoice ye!” He might be scourged in one city and stoned in another, imprisoned in a third and left for dead in a fourth, but as long as he retained consciousness and as soon as he regained consciousness, he rejoiced! Nothing could dampen his spirit. Nothing could disturb his peace. In Philippi he had been scourged and cast into the inner prison and his feet had been made fast in the stocks, but at midnight he and Silas were singing hymns of praise to God. He later wrote the letter in prison in Rome, but he is still rejoicing! Paul is old and worn and in prison, but some 20 times in the course of this short letter to the Philippians he uses the words, joy, rejoice, peace, content, and thanksgiving. Paul’s life similarly paints a picture of one that humbled himself and was exalted.
The fullest and most important putting of theology of the incarnation and exaltation is a short passage in Php 2:5-11; he is exhorting the Philippians to humility, and he says to them, ‘have the mind which was in Christ who emptied himself and then was exalted’. He was equal with God, but He emptied Himself of the omnipotence and the omniscience and the omnipresence, and was found in form as a man, a genuine man obedient to God in all His life. May his humility and the power that raised him to life and to the highest place be your aspiration this Easter season and beyond.
God bless you and enjoy a Blessed Easter!