Saturday, October 29, 2011

A Little More on the Deity of Jesus in Philippians 2

Philippians 2:9-11 
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so 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 God the Father.

It's not getting any easier or less deep than verses 6-8! Paul is still talking about the nature of the man, Jesus. God exalted Jesus and gave Him the name above every name. Verses 10 and 11 are two more all-inclusive statements. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. There is none greater, on Earth or in heaven, than Jesus. This means that Jesus is God, or (how absurd!) Jesus is greater than God.

Philippians 2:6-11 is a remarkable, deep, picture of the nature of Jesus. Paul said what he meant, and meant what he said. The curious thing is that, unlike similar passages in Colossians (1:15-20 and 2:9-10) the nature of Jesus is not Paul's main point. In Colossians, Paul was correcting errors in how the church in Colossae understood Jesus. In Philippians, Paul is referring to Jesus' true nature to illustrate the extreme to which Jesus regarded others as "more important than" Himself and looked out for the interests of others as well as His own.

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