God-pleasing harmony among Christians
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the God the Father.
But the mighty basis on which Paul’s admonition rests includes not only Christ’s humiliation. It also includes his exaltation. As the God-man, Christ willingly humbled himself for us and for our salvation, but this humiliation was not a permanent thing. It was only for a definite, limited time, and it was undertaken only to accomplish a specific purpose. When that purpose was successfully achieved and man’s salvation was fully accomplished, Jesus’ humiliation ceased forever.
When Jesus’ mission was completed, “God exalted him to the highest place.” God himself thereby crowned the work that Jesus had done and declared it perfect and complete. In his state of humiliation, Jesus, the God-man, laid aside the full and complete use of his divine powers, covering them with the beggar’s cloak of lowly obedience. In his state of exaltation, the beggar’s cloak, the slave’s form, has been dropped, and Jesus no longer treats with restraint the fact that he is God.
Yes, Jesus is still the God-man, but he is no longer subject to the weakness and the frailty of fallen humanity. No longer does he use his divine qualities and powers in only a limited or restricted way. Now he fully exercises his majesty as the exalted God-man to rule over everything in heaven and on earth. The God-man, who once humbled himself to the lowest depths to save our race, is now exalted to the loftiest heights as the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The Apostles’ Creed lists the various events of Jesus’ exaltation: “He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.” What a glorious victory these words describe. Jesus, our Savior, having successfully completed his redemptive work for us, openly triumphed over the forces of hell. Death had to relinquish its hold on him. Earth could no longer contain him. Heaven opened its doors to receive him. Jesus, our victorious Savior, now holds in his hands the reins of the universe. He rules all things in heaven and on earth in the interest of his believers, and he will come again to end this age, judge the world, and take his believers to be with him and to share his glory in eternal life.
By virtue of his exaltation, Jesus has received “the name that is above every name.” He who in his humiliation made himself nothing has in his exaltation a name and a reputation second to none. His name—which was spoken with contempt by his enemies, especially by those who condemned him to death as a blasphemer—is the only “name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Only through Jesus’ name, and through faith in his name and the gospel revelation that stands behind it, can sinners be saved. Upon their relationship to Jesus and his name depend the eternal destinies of all human beings. Either by faith they accept Jesus and his saving revelation of himself and are saved, or they reject him and are lost. We who have been called to faith by the Spirit through the gospel rejoice in the privilege of knowing and confessing that name above all others, the name of Jesus, our exalted Prophet, Priest, and King.
In his humiliation Jesus submitted to the reproach and rejection of sinful men. In his exaltation it is the Father’s will that he receive the homage of all created beings. “At the name of Jesus,” Paul concludes, “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” All created beings must and will confess Jesus as Lord: the saints and angels in heaven, all human beings on earth, even the demons and the damned in hell.
The only question is how and with what spirit they will make that confession. Even now heaven rings with the perfect praise of the saints and angels. On earth sinful and imperfect believers faintly echo that heavenly praise. On judgment day the whole universe will stand before Jesus, the exalted judge. His glory and majesty will be fully revealed to all. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord. Unbelievers, of course, will make that confession to their shame and disgrace. The devils will openly admit their eternal frustration. But believers on earth and in heaven will rejoice on that great day to confess together the most important truth in all the universe. They will joyfully confess throughout eternity that Jesus Christ is Lord. This universal acknowledgement will also glorify the Father, who sent Jesus into the world on his saving mission and exalted him as a consequence of that mission’s success.
The humiliation and exaltation of Jesus were unique, because his person is unique. By his humiliation, the God-man Jesus satisfied divine justice, atoned for the world’s sin, and earned perfect righteousness for sinners; he alone merited the super-exaltation that confirmed the success of his work.
In that unique and redemptive sense, none of us can be like Jesus, but the apostle urges us Christians in our renewed lives to imitate the spirit of lowliness and humility that was basic to all of Jesus’ acts of self-renunciation. Such a spirit is also what Jesus seeks when he says, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Believers who cultivate this attitude and follow in Christ’s steps of humility have the promise that they will also share in the exalted Savior’s glory. “If we died with him,” Paul tells Timothy, “we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:11,12).
Christians do not earn a share of Christ’s glory by their lowliness and suffering for Jesus’ sake. The glory is theirs as a free gift. Nevertheless, to encourage believers in lives of lowliness lived for him and to his glory, the Lord graciously promises that in eternity he will acknowledge lives of selfsacrificing service as evidence that believers were truly loyal to him. And, even though they do not deserve any reward, he will reward believers for lowly, humble service. We call that “the reward of grace.” The Christian’s life, like Jesus’ life, travels the path from humility to glory, from cross to crown, because Jesus has graciously determined that it should be that way.
Moved by the perfect example of our Savior and empowered by his Spirit’s work in our hearts through the gospel, let us therefore strive to cultivate Christ’s attitude of self-sacrificing humility, that we may follow him through life’s humiliation to heaven’s glory. Let us joyfully and confidently confess him as our Lord and invite others also to confess him. When he at last reveals himself as judge of all the world, he will acknowledge us as his own, and we will join the saints and angels in singing unending hymns of praise to him and the Father in the eternal glory before his shining throne.