who, being in the form of God, did not consider it to be robbery to be equal with God, (7) but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men.  (8) 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.  (9) Therefore God has also highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.  (10) that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and of those under the earth, (11) and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The letter to the Phillipians was written by the Apostle Paul from a prison probably in Rome.  Paul was born a Roman citizen and he invoked his right to be tried before Caesar – he had been accused by Jews of civil disobedience. Prior to this Paul had founded the church at Phillipi and he was exercising his pastoral authority by warning the early Chrisitians there of coming persecution because of their faith.

Paul used his own circumstance as a prisoner as an example of fortitude in face of danger and then turned to the suffering of Christ Jesus as the example of ultimate humility as opposed to self love.  This passage is about humility versus self esteem – our culture versus this Biblical teaching on humility.  The Bible does not advise us on building self esteem but rather how to lower our view of ourselves.

Christ voluntarily took on the nature of man – He did not cease to be true God but added a human nature to His divine nature. He was without sin but his body was human and subject to the results of the Fall (Adam) such as pain, aging, weariness, and death.  He came as a servant and died as a criminal.  His death was a shameful public death – keep in mind that Roman citizens were exempt from crucifixion.

Our text today is a narrative in itself. We are told that Christ put aside His divine essence and took on the essence of true man – He did not cease to be God, did not reduce His divine essence but added sinless humanity to His deity.  Our Lord did serve man as Savior but primarily He was obedient to the will of the Father.   Our verses lead to chapter 2 verse 11:  All will acknowledge Him as Lord.  Ultimately the glory of God is what is intended  – that is the goal of God and the Son of God.  Yes, we have been saved by the sacrifice of Christ but glory to God is the end.

We know the end and it is certain. The Father has exalted Christ Jesus above all things , showing that He accepted the perfect sacrifice Christ offered on our behalf. Every creature – some willing and some not so much – but ALL will bow before Christ Jesus and confess Him as Lord.

who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, (8) though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.  (9) And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him

The author of the letter to the Hebrews is unknown but there is enough evidence in the letter to tell us that the author was steeped in the Old Testament  and had a Jewish viewpoint.  The letter was written to probably a small group of Christian Hebrews and likely written before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD.  The audience for this letter was evidently undergoing some persecution by fellow Hebrews – it is clear that persecution of early Christian believers was becoming severe in the Roman Empire and the Hebrew Christians may have been tempted to revert to Judaism to avoid suffering to come.   So this letter was written to tell these committed Christian Hebrews to remain steadfast in their faith and to argue to those yet unbelieving Jews that in Christ the world has the fulfillment of the Old Testament.  That Christ, true God and true man, was the perfect sacrifice yielding eternal salvation.

Christ Jesus is the once and for all time high priest  for man – He is superior to the Old Testament high priest in all ways.  He was true man and is true God.  As  true man Christ can identify with man, having been tempted by sin, yet He was perfect man as He was without sin.  Even though Jesus as sacrifice was God’s predetermined plan, Scripture tells us how He wrestled in agony over the prospect of His death.  And not just of death on a cross, but the terrible agony of His coming separation from the Father as the Christ became sin for us.  I had often wondered at the story of the agony of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane and finally realized that the most terrible suffering that He could barely endure was this coming separation from God.  Of all that is written about Jesus being true God and true man the story of this agony convinces me that He was indeed just what He said He was:  the Son of God, made man.  This was the ultimate sacrifice and the perfect gift made by the perfect man.

In the Old Testament, the human high priests were to mediate between men and God.   In the Jewish point of view, God is absolute majesty and absolute holiness.  If man were to see God, man would die.  In the Jewish world of the Old Testament no Jew was free to enter into the Holy of Holies to meet directly with God.  Even the high pries was allowed in there on one day a year – the Day of Atonement.  All Jews were aware that they needed a mediator between themselves and God.

If men were not sinners – separated from a holy God – there would be no need for a mediator.  Jesus Christ was seen as the ultimate high priest and mediator between God and man.  Because His was the perfect and acceptable sacrifice it never has to be repeated.  Once and for all time we have been made right with God through the free gift of our perfect high priest.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) (6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (7) that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  (8) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

The letter to the Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul while he was a prisoner in Rome.  It was likely a letter intended to be circulated and read among all the churches in Asia Minor and since Ephesus was the capitol of the Roman province of Asia – modern Turkey – that may have been the reason for the name.  This is not only a letter of encouragement to the early churches, it is a letter of correction and admonition.   After Paul left Ephesus, false teachers, not understanding Scripture, preached harmful  and false interpretations of Paul’s gospel.  The verses we study today emphasize the theology of the gospel Paul preached –  in what would come to be known as the New Testament.

Chapter 2 of Ephesians spells out the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ:  man is fallen and has a depraved nature – a hopeless condition as a result of sin.  God is merciful and salvation is freely given to those who believe through the completed works of Christ Jesus.  The faithful are justified – made right with God – not through any actions of man but solely through faith in Christ.  This gospel is Christcentric and is not for the glory of man but for the glory of God. Not only is salvation through faith by God’s free grace an unearned gift, even that faith is a gift from God and cannot be exercised through man’s own power.  Salvation is first to last of the Lord.

Paul attends first to the depths of the condition of lost men.  Man was dead because of sin – the irony is man wasn’t even aware of this until he was saved.  Living in sin men were  deceived into thinking they were enjoying life to its fullest – until they were dead and it was too late.  what a terrible fate to be spiritually dead; lifeless, without power, unable to help oneself and to be beyond hope.

But the good news of the Gospel is we are alive in Christ through God’s grace.  Man did nothing, Christ made us alive.  God was motivated for this great gift by His mercy and love and we should be humbled and deeply gratified for this unending joy.  The faithful have transformed lives by virtue of their belief – we behave as we believe.  in the Bible we are told that we see reality as through a glass darkly but i find that true belief in Christ Jesus gives us real glimpses of the radiance which waits for us.  God’s love for us sparks our love in return but the difference is He loved us while we were His enemies and were dead in sin.  God’s love is from His goodness, not from our worth.

The primary purpose of salvation, demonstrated by the grace of God, is all for the glory of God.  His purposes are eternal, not temporal.  His hope does not disappoint.  Paul makes it very clear that Salvation is of the Lord and His grace is undeserved.

For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; (23) but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, (24) but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  (25) Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.               

The first letter to the Corinthians was written by the Apostle Paul to address problems of strife and disunity in the church at Corinth.  The root problem there seems to have been pride and Paul answers with rebuke and rebuttal – Christ is all and salvation is of the Lord and not the work of man. There is no room for pride in the work of salvation – the gospel destroys pride because it contradicts human wisdom and human pride.

Those who are not saved are perishing. They think the gospel is foolishness.  Those believers who are saved think it is the power of God. To the unbeliever the cross is shameful but for the faithful, it is Salvation unearned by man.  The secular world has been stood on its head by God all through history.  Man never imagined Gods work – which was not to glorify man but to glorify Himself.

The Jews and the unbelieving Gentiles did agree on one thing; the cross is foolish.  The Jews expected power through signs and wonders.  The Gentiles thought power was through mans gifts. The humble life of Christ and the shame of death on a cross are to them counterintuitive – BUT it is the way of salvation and the wisdom and power of God.

All through history God uses the weak and the despised and humble instead of the honored and the highly regarded. God used the weak to shame the wise – not because the weak and foolish are better men than the powerful but so all glory goes to God and not to man.  God is sovereign and this is His purpose.

In studying the verses today I kept thinking of the episode of Seinfeld where George chooses to to the opposite of what he would normally do – and each opposite choice works beautifully.  This is a humorous way of showing that the “wisdom” of man is not so much. I think Paul is pointing out here that man would never guess the wisdom of God and man learns only through revelation from God.  The problem is not that people think too little of themselves but that they think too much of themselves.

What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us?  (32) He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  (33) Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?  It is God who justifies.  (34) Who is he who condemns?  It is Christ who died, and futhermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

The letter to the Romans was written by the Apostle Paul.  It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of this letter for it’s theological truths, its beautiful Doxologies, its breathtaking revelations assuring the justification, sanctification and glorification of the faithful.  Every Christian man and woman should carefully read the letter to the Romans – it is the soaring affirmation of eternal life through Christ.

Our verses today’s follow text telling us that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.  God is sovereign of all things and His purpose is to glorify Christ – Christ is the firstborn among many brethren and the salvation of those who believe in Him is secure.  Paul is thinking of this when he asks “What then shall we say to these things?”

Paul is focused on how believers can endure suffering for the sake of the gospel – endure persecution. Jealousy, hatred and even death.  This was an issue in the time when Paul wrote these words, no less than today with extreme Islam bent on the eradication of Christianity in large parts of the world.  Few in this country know firsthand about this direct persecution and it is unlikely that Christians in the United States will face what is happening In the rest of the world.  However, in this day of secularization- marginalizing Christianity – we might know ridicule, Condemnation, discrimination because of faith – probably not prison or confiscatory practices and bodily harm.

Verse 31 infers that a response is required by Christians to God’s promise of salvation – they need to act and obey.  Paul speaks of confidence in salvation and gives us the reason for confidence and this is not in ourselves but by God’s free unmerited grace. Christians are delivered from the consequences of sin by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. We know God is for us because of this ultimate sacrifice.   And who, indeed, can then be against us?  Salvation is first to last of the Lord.   amen