The Exaltation of Jesus Christ - PH38-01

Advanced Bible Doctrine - Philippians 2:9-11

© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1976)

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians 2:9-11. This is the exaltation of Jesus Christ. As you will remember, the apostle Paul has urged the Philippians to complete his joy in them by displaying a mental attitude of humility. Our local church is not a community of competition, but it is a coordinated effort of an army in combat. When a local church becomes a community of competition, it ceases to meet the purpose for which God has designed it. It is a coordinated effort of many members performing a specific job or a specific task. It is, first of all, a training station; a point of preparation; and, a staging area for the spiritual combat to which all of us have been called. The Lord Jesus is the supreme example of this spirit of coordinated effort. He is the supreme example of humility and of the spirit of concern and consideration for others. This is seen in the doctrine of the kenosis, which we've been studying, where the Lord Jesus Christ veiled the outward appearance of His glory, and set aside the independent use of His divine attributes. He was humiliated on the cross. The Bible tells us that He went to a death on the cross-type of suffering for us.

Death by crucifixion was deliberately designed in the Roman Empire to be a humiliating thing. It was deliberately designed to be shameful, and it was specifically geared to be used upon slaves and criminals. It was a contemptuous expression on the part of society toward that individual. The Roman orator, Cicero, on one occasion said, "Let the very name of the cross be far removed, not only from the body of a Roman citizen, but even from his thoughts, his eyes, his ears." In other words, to die on the cross was something that no Roman citizen wanted even to think about, let alone to experience.

Thus, when the apostle Paul was condemned to death, he was executed with dignity because he was a Roman citizen. Consequently, he was simply beheaded. But when the Roman society wanted to spit upon you and to demonstrate its utter contempt for you, they put you to death by crucifixion. That was the whole point of this method of execution. It was extremely excruciatingly painful, as well as shameful. It was something that was reserved for those who were the most contemptuous in the eyes of society.

While on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ, who did suffer this indignity, was also assailed by Satan and his demons from below. Sinful men all around the cross heaped scorn upon Christ. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit above covered the Savior with darkness and withdrew themselves from His humanity. Within Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ cried out over the abandonment of Himself on the cross by the Father and by the Holy Spirit. So the Lord was abused. He was humiliated, insulted, and beaten, and that, of all things, by the very people He had created, by those for whom He was dying.

However, after all of this was over, after all of this humiliation had run its course, all of which Christ knew about, anticipated, and willingly accepted, then the God man was exalted. That's the part that we're looking at now. The Father honored His Son's mental attitude of humility with a supreme exaltation after the work of redemption was completed.

Philippians 2:9

So we begin reading in Philippians 2:9, "Wherefore, God also has highly exalted Him." The word "wherefore" in the Greek is the little word "dio." It means "because of." It indicates a conclusion which is based upon the verses which preceded that describe the humiliation of Christ. It introduces the consequences of the Lord's mental attitude of humility, as expressed in His death on the cross. It says, "Wherefore, God," and it is "the God," because it has a definite article in the Greek. Therefore, it indicates to us that it is God the Father specifically that is in view here. It is God the Father doing something for God the Son. "Wherefore, God also has highly exalted Him." "Highly exalted" is the Greek verb "huperupsoo." The word means "to exalt to the highest rank and power." It means "to raise to supreme majesty." It is only used here in the New Testament. God the Holy Spirit took this Greek word, and He gave it a very special use (once, in this place only), and He never used it again in the New Testament. That is because it was speaking about a fantastic highly supreme elevation of dignity and of honor that was only true of the God man, Jesus Christ.

It comes from two Greek words. "Huper" is a preposition which means "over," and the verb "hupsoo" means "to lift up." So it means "to lift over" in the sense of maximum exaltation. It is in the aorist. The aorist idea, as you know, is one point. It's an action, but it can be several points put together. As a matter of fact, that's what this one is. It is a constative aorist. It is emphasizing this thing as a whole. But in this aorist, it's a whole of four specific items that constitute the exaltation of Jesus Christ. It is all bound up in one here. Sometimes the aorist stresses the first part of an action. Sometimes it stresses the last part of this action. But we are looking at the thing as a whole, and it is made up of several individual little pieces. The word "exalted" is active because God the Father is doing it. It's indicative. It's a statement of fact. "Exalted Him" which means the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Himself told us in His Word what the principle of exaltation basically is. You can read this in Matthew 23:12, James 4:10, and, 1 Peter 5:6. The Lord's principle of exaltation was to be a servant. The Lord's principle of exaltation was not to be pushy. You'll find that these verses tell you not to promote yourself, but let God promote you. That's exactly what Christ demonstrated. He did not promote Himself, but He permitted the Father to promote Him. Then the Father elevated the God man to the position of sitting at His right hand in heaven (Mark 16:19, 1 Peter 3:22).

Of course, this exaltation refers only to His humanity, as did His humiliation. Christ's deity is already highly exalted. This is a permanent exaltation in His humanity (Acts 5:31). The exaltation, in other words, was the reversal of the humiliation. That's why we have this little word "also:" "Wherefore God also." It's the Greek word "kai" connecting the two together.

The Exaltation of Jesus Christ

Let's take a look at what is involved here in this exaltation. There are four stages to the exaltation of Jesus Christ. This is the exaltation, remember, of a human being. This is the God man particularly stressing that here was a Man who was exalted in this position.
  1. The Resurrection

    First was His resurrection. That was stage number one of the exaltation of Jesus Christ. Of course, Jesus Christ predicted this exaltation about Himself. We have this in John 2:19-21 and Matthew 16:21. The Lord Jesus said, "I am going to die, but I'm going to come back to life." You must remember that nobody had ever been able to make that kind of a declaration before. Therefore, they had to look at Christ, those who hurt Him, and they had to make the decision on what ground He could make a statement like that. The only ground upon which He could make a statement like that was that He was God. The Jewish leaders understood that remark in exactly that way. That's why they sought to kill Him. They considered that He was committing blasphemy. But His disciples listened to Him, and they concluded also that He was God. But they accepted the fact. They believed that He was indeed the Son of God.

    Well, as you know, Christ actually did die on the cross physically (John 19:33-34). The Word of God says He did die. Every description and every evidence of that act indicates that He died. For example, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ was placed in the tomb because He was dead. It also left the tomb after the resurrection (Luke 23:50-53, Luke 24:1-7). Jesus Christ appeared alive to many people who had known Him. After His burial, He appeared alive to people who knew Him (1 Corinthians 15:3-8, Luke 24:39-40). These were people who knew the sound of His voice. They knew the appearance of His face. They knew the contours of His shoulders. They knew His height. They knew His general physical structure. When they saw Him again, they clearly recognized Him for the person that He was.

    Also, the resurrection showed a very important thing. It showed that His work of redemption was successful, and that He had conquered death and defeated Satan forever (Romans 4:25). You remember that He said, "I'm going to die and then I'm going to come back to life." That immediately put everything He said on the line for testing, for if He did not rise from the dead, then He could not be trusted concerning anything that He had to say. But He did rise from the dead. He said, "I'm going to die in order to pay for your sins. When your sins are all covered, and the price is all paid, then I'm going to come back to life. Immediately that people saw Him alive, what do you think they concluded? Well, the moment they saw that He was alive, they said, "Our sins have been paid for. God Jehovah the Father is satisfied." That's exactly what it meant. It was a very critical sign to them that God had completed what He had set out to do.

    Also, since Christ died in place of all mankind, this guarantees that all believers will be physically raised to eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:14-23). The reason you know that you will live again is because Jesus lived again. We will be in exactly the same pattern physically as He was. We have, therefore, that assurance. This is not a small thing when someone dies in the family, and the sorrow comes within the family. It is not a small thing to comfort one another with the reminder that that person has taken a journey that is going to be an extended departure, but we'll see him again. We are used to doing this on a human level. During the war years, many of us learned to get used to extended separations from people that we loved in the nature of what was happening in the world at that time and the separations that were enforced upon us. The same thing happens when a person dies. He has been called to an extended journey, but he will return and you will see him again. How do we know that? Because Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

    The fact of His resurrection is also seen in the transformation of the disciples. They went from utter disheartenment to an unshakable conviction (Luke 24:17-21, Acts 4:33). The disciples at one time were tremendously discouraged, and suddenly they changed from discouragement to fantastic witnesses. What made the difference? Because they knew He was alive.

    Resurrection also established the absolute truthfulness of Christ's claims on all subjects, including the fact that He claimed to be God. Jesus Christ, in His resurrection body then, as people saw Him, could breathe. He could eat, but He didn't have to eat. He could breathe, but he didn't have to breathe. He could drink water, but he didn't have to drink water. He had flesh and bones. He walked through closed doors. He could appear and disappear at will. He could move in any direction. He could move horizontally. He could also move vertically. He was free of gravity. He retained all of the voice qualities He had. He retained all of his physical features. Every one of these things will someday be true of you. I would not suggest that you try to stop breathing now, or that you stop eating or drinking water. I would not suggest that you try moving vertically very far, from very high up. However, the time is going to come when you'll be able to do that just as easily as anything in the world.

    Today, you better open the door when you leave this room. Someday you'll walk right through it. If you happen to be in the millennium; you're walking along with one of these people who does not have a resurrected body yet; you happen to be chatting with him; you come to the door; you walk through; and if he's not thinking, he's going to slam right into it because he's going to have to open it to go through where you don't. The same thing that happened to Christ is going to happen to you. The resurrection body of the believers will be like Christ. It will work in the same way (Philippians 3:21, 1 John 3:2). Jesus Christ, for this reason, is said to be the first fruits of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20-23). Other people who have in the past been raised from the dead have only been resuscitated. They were raised back up with the same old bodies and with the same old sin natures that they had before. They were not resurrected with glorified bodies as Christ has been resurrected. He only has this glorified body. He is the first of resurrection.

    For this reason, the first day of the week, Sunday, was used in the New Testament church to commemorate this phase of the exaltation of Christ (Acts 20:7). Remember, this is the first step of the exaltation of Christ. He who suffered such humility on the cross experienced this exaltation at the hands of the Father. This was exaltation to a human being. The first exaltation was getting Him back to life. This was commemorated by the Christians by meeting on Sunday from then on instead of on Saturday as they had previously.

  2. The Ascension

    His ascension was the second step. The ascension of Christ is step number 2 in His exaltation. The resurrection body of Jesus Christ was capable of space travel into the third heaven (Acts 1:9-11, March 16:19, Luke 24:50-51). We don't know how far out in space the third heaven is. It may be billions of light years away. But the human body of Jesus Christ was perfectly capable of space travel. That's exactly what He did. The ascension of Jesus Christ is confirmed by the fact that He is seen in heaven after leaving the earth (Acts 7:55-56, Revelation 19:11-16). He indicated that He was going to go back to His Father from whence He had come. His Father was in heaven, and that's where He was going. On the Mount of Olives, the time came when the disciples actually suddenly saw Him leave, and they saw the human body of Jesus start going vertically up. They watched Him just as long as they could until clouds moved in under and shielded Him further from their sight. He moved all the way to the third heaven. Subsequently, Christ is seen in heaven on these various occasions.

    The nature of His ascension included the fact that the whole person ascended. The body of Christ went; the soul of Christ went; and, the spirit of Christ went. The disciples actually saw Him move from earth up into the sky toward heaven. Thus, heaven is a place just as earth is a place. Heaven is a place. It is not just an idea. It is a place. Hell is a place that is very real. All of this is part of Christ's exaltation (Acts 2:32-33).

    The fact that Jesus Christ could go into heaven as a human being guarantees the acceptability of all regenerate mankind in heaven (Ephesians 1:6, Hebrews 1:3). Because He was accepted in heaven, you and I will be. The ascension marked the end of Christ's earthly ministry, and it marked the return to the glory that He had before He came--the glory which he had set aside and shielded while on earth. Christ returned to heaven with great triumph. He was fantastically welcome because His mission was completed. The ascension resulted in the descent to the earth of the Holy Spirit (John 16:7). Christians now await the return of Christ from heaven. That's where we look for Him. That's from whence we anticipate His coming (1 Thessalonians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 4:16).

    The ascension phase of His exaltation began a new segment in the angelic warfare (Ephesians 1:20-22, Ephesians 4:7-10). Up to that time, Jesus Christ had been the target of all demonic attack, but once Christ descended into heaven, a new phase of the angelic warfare began because the target of satanic attack now became the individual believer. Jesus was out of their reach. They could no longer approach Him. Therefore, they had to approach His body, and thus to approach Him through us who make up His body.

    The ascension also begins what the Bible refers to as project footstool (Psalm 110:1, Acts 2:33-35). Project footstool is what the Father is now executing. That is where He is bringing all intelligent beings in the universe into subjection to His Son. Suddenly the day is going to come when the last human being has brought into alignment with God's plan. Then the Father will turn to His Son and say, "Now you may return to earth. Now all intelligent beings, angel and human, have been made Your footstool. That is, they are all under Your domination and Your direction." The ascension explains the uniqueness of the church age (John 7:37-39). Because Christ is in heaven, God the Holy Spirit is here on earth. We have the power of God operating through us, and the fact that Christ is in heaven gives us the absolute certainty that we too shall someday be there.

  3. The Session

    The third step of his exaltation was what we call the session of Christ. He has been up there now for almost 2,000 years, and He is doing something up there. Jesus Christ is now in heaven, seated at the right hand of God the Father. I don't care what the late Bishop Pike of the Episcopal Church had to say in denying that there could possibly be any such concept even imaginable as Christ sitting at the right hand of God. You will find that that's exactly what the Bible says He is doing at this moment (Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:1, Hebrews 12:2, 1 Peter 3:22). Jesus Christ is now in heaven seated at the Father's right hand. Furthermore, He is sharing the father's throne. He is not on His own throne. The throne of Jesus Christ is the earthly throne of David.

    Every now and then, some sneaky amillennialist will give you these verses that tell about Christ sitting on the throne in heaven and say, "You see, He is already on the throne of His kingdom." But He is not on His throne. Revelation 3:21 very clearly says that He is on the Father's throne, and the time is coming, that verse says, when He will share His throne with us. His throne is here on this earth, and it is going to be set up in Jerusalem. Matthew 25:31 also tells us about this. This is exactly what is shaping up in our day. Things are becoming very, very awesome--more so than any of us almost dare to believe. The nation of Israel has drastically devalued the pound. Gasoline now costs more in Israel than anywhere else in all of the world.

    The Arabs have been able to talk to the United Nations, that wonderful organization for peace upon whom all of us have our hopes set. They were able to talk the United Nations into letting the Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Arafat speak at the United Nations. He was a bum. He was a criminal. He was a hood. He was a terrorist. He stood there before an august body of intelligent men and said, "I bear an olive branch in this hand, and I bear a weapon in this one. He was threatening the world--this bandanna-wearing mafia godfather hood is running around telling the world, "I've got an olive branch for you, or I've got a gun to stick up your nose. Which will you have?" Who does he think he is? And all of the United Nations, these men of character and distinction and wisdom, sit there applauding him. It was great to hear the Israeli minister get up and ream that guy out after he was through. He really called him for what he was.

    Jesus Christ is sitting up there while all this is shaping up, and He is sitting on His Father's throne. But all of this must come to pass down here so that His throne can be set up, and He can then come and He can sit upon His throne. Meanwhile, He shares His Father's throne above. What's he doing? For one thing, He is acting as our High Priest in heaven (Hebrews 8:1-2, Hebrews 4:14-16, Hebrews 9:24). As our High Priest, I'm happy to tell you, that the Lord Jesus Christ is interceding for you as a believer (John 17:9, Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:34). That means that Jesus Christ is praying for you. Now, I personally appreciate that very much. I appreciate when my name comes up in the Berean prayer guide each month that I hope that many of you are systematically and very faithfully using, and that my name comes up for your remembrance before the Lord. People praying for me I value and esteem very highly--more than really anything else you can do for me, as a matter of fact. To think that the Son of God is sitting up there all day long praying for each of us by name is absolutely unbelievable. But I guarantee you that there's a whole lot of devilment that you didn't get into this week that you would have had He not been praying for you.

    You remember how He prayed for Peter on one occasion when Satan was trying to sift him; to move him around; and, to use him. The Lord says, "Peter, I'm praying for you, and I'm outmaneuvering Satan in your behalf." That's the session of Jesus Christ. Again, make no mistake, this is not just God the Son who is doing this. This is the God man. There's a Man in heaven who is doing this for you and me. That's what the session of Jesus Christ is. He is a man to be exalted to the place where He could sit in heaven to pray for us.

    Furthermore, He is also our advocate (Hebrews 9:24, 1 John 2:1, Romans 8:34). The Bible tells us in Revelation 12:12 that Satan runs around day and night reminding God the Father of all the things that you and I do that are wrong. He is upholding our sins. Our secret sins here on earth are open scandal before God the Father because Satan, the scandalmonger, is making the information known. Jesus Christ sits there as our defense attorney and He pleads the evidence of His shed blood, the wounds in His body, and God the Father keeps saying to Satan, "Not guilty. The sin has been coverage. You have no accusation." The case is thrown out of court. Satan has been thrown out of court so many times, he hates to get up and come back in again. Jesus Christ intercedes for us. Furthermore, He defends us.

    You and I, as believers, are to be occupied with Christ. Do you know what that means? That means to be thinking concerning Him in His session in heaven; to be aware of what He is doing for us; and, to be aware of the protection; the defense; the intercession; the prayer; and, the representation of us that we have from Him. The Father hears the Son, and He answers those prayers.

    From heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ is also in His session adding believers to the church (Acts 2:47). Here and there, people are being added to local church bodies. This is part of the session of Christ. Jesus Christ is waiting until His enemies have been made His footstool (Hebrews 10:13). That's why He is sitting in heaven now as Lord of the church. He is not King yet. He is not the king of the church. He is the Lord (Ephesians 1:22, Ephesians 4:10). If somebody talks to you about Jesus Christ being your king, he's talking bad doctrine, and he's signaling that he does not understand the role of the Lord Jesus Christ in this age. He is today our Lord. He will yet be the King of the world.

    So Jesus sits in heaven. He has full authority in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18). He is now executing His session.

  4. The Second Advent

    The fourth factor in the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Second Advent. And again, I'm speaking about a Man; a Man who experienced resurrection because God wanted to exalt Him above anybody who had ever been elevated in all the universe; a Man who had ascended right to heaven and who had moved vertically from this earth into the third heaven physically; a Man who sits in heaven on the Father's throne, executing His ministry of a High Priest in behalf of us through prayer, intercession, and defense; and, now a Man who is going to come back from that heaven and who is going to rule this whole world. Christ will return to earth from heaven at the close of the tribulation era. He'll touch down on the Mount of Olives (Matthew 25:31, Acts 1:11, Zachariah 14:1-4).

    It is at this second return to the earth that Jesus Christ becomes King of Kings of all the kings upon the face of the earth (Revelation 19:16). He will at that time also be Lord of Lords. The Second Advent is going to be a glorious event, and all the world is going to see it (Revelation 1:7, Matthew 24:30). The way God is going to do this is that He's going to turn the whole world into a theater, and the Lord is going to turn the lights off. He's going to black out the sun, and there's going to be darkness all over the face of the globe of the earth. Then the heavens are going to break open, and Christ is going to appear. There will come with Him all the mighty army of angels and redeemed, including you. As the earth turns, the earth will be illuminated by the glory of the returning God man. In time, the earth will revolve, and all the earth will see this mighty army streaming out of the third heaven. It will be a glorious event, and it will be the climax of the exaltation of the Son of God.

    At His Second Advent, Jesus Christ is accompanied by a dramatic procession of saints and angels, as we've said (Revelation 19:11-16). As He approaches the earth, the armies of the world will be gathered on the field of Armageddon to do battle with the returning Savior. He will judge them, and with a simple statement of His mouth, He will destroy them (Revelation 19:15-21). Christ will then regather Israel to judge them in order to determine which of them shall enter His Millennial Kingdom (Ezekiel 20:34-38). He will also gather the gentiles, and He will judge them to determine which of them are born again, and therefore can enter in their physical bodies into His Millennial Kingdom (Matthew 25:31-46). This is what the Scriptures refer to as the baptism of fire. Then the Lord will establish His Kingdom on the earth in fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant, the thing He came to do the first time, but which the Jews rejected and did not allow Him to do. The Second Advent will conclude project footstool (Daniel 7:13-14, Colossians 2:15, Revelation 20:1-3). All will now be under His domination. The Second Advent will then complete the exaltation of the God man.

All of these four things are what are included in this statement here in verse 9, "Wherefore, God also, because of His humiliation, has now in turn most highly exalted Him." The exaltation of Jesus Christ was His resurrection; ascension; session; and, His Second Coming again.

Then the father has given him a supreme name. Philippians 2:9 says, "And given Him a name which is above every name." The word "given" is the Greek word "charizomai," and it means "to be graced." God, the Father graciously bestowed something on His Son after the humiliation of the cross. It is in the aorist tense which means it was done by the Father at the point of the exaltation of Christ, which was the resurrection; ascension; session; and, Second Advent. It's middle, meaning that it was done by the Father for the fulfillment of the Father's own plans. It was for the Father's benefit. It is indicative--a statement of fact. This is the same word that is used in Romans 8:32 where we are "graced" by God.

"He has given Him (that is, Jesus Christ) a name." "Onoma" is the way it looks in the Greek, but in the Greek it has a word in front of "name." It is "the" name. It has the definite article. It is "the" name. The words "the name" do not refer to the name Jesus. That's what you might think. That's wrong. It isn't that He gave the name Jesus, or even Lord Jesus Christ. This has a technical meaning. Actually, you must view it as, "God has given him the name." That's what it is saying. God has given him "the" name. What this refers to is a dignity, an office, or a rank. For example, we recognize that some people carry authority; they carry dignity; and, they carry rank. So we will say, "The man." If you are asked a question, and you have to refer the answer to that question to some authority, so you say, "Ask the man about it." We mean the person who's in charge--the person who bears the rank. That's what this means. "The" name is what God gave to His Son. He gave him an office, a rank, and dignity.

It is a name which is above every rank and dignity and office of anybody in the universe. In the Old Testament, the expression, "the name of God" denotes the divine presence and majesty. So the bestowal of the title, "The Name" on Jesus Christ identifies Him as the object of worship and honor, and as deity. It was conferred upon One who is true humanity. Again, I remind you, it is the Son of Man who received "The Name."

Do you remember what the Lord asked the Father to do the night before He was crucified? Here's a prayer request from God the Son recorded in John 17:5, and this is the answer to that request: "And now, O Father, glorify Me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world was." That prayer request offered the night before He was crucified to have the glory which was His, in His pre-existent state of deity, restored to Him now that He was a God man, it was answered. That prayer was answered here when Christ was exalted by the Father, and He was given the title of "The Name."

Christ received as a gift the glory He voluntarily renounced as a prize to be grasped. This is a name above every name. It's a supreme title, because His name will be King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So we may translate verse 9 as saying this: "Because of which humiliation of death on the cross, God the Father has bestowed maximum exaltation on Christ, and has graciously granted Him the title to rank, dignity, and honor above all others." Jesus Christ, the God man, could not take this to Himself, and neither can you or I. If you and I promote ourselves, we have not been promoted. If God does not promote us, we are not promoted.

Philippians 2:10

Now look at the act of subjection that all of this is going to bring to the whole world in verses 10-11. Philippians 2:10 says that this exaltation, represented by giving Him the title of 'The Name' is to this purpose: "That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow: things in heaven; things in earth; and, things under the earth." "That" is the Greek word "hina," and it expresses purpose. "At the name of Jesus" is better than "in the name of Jesus." "The Name" is the title of rank of Jesus belonging to the exalted Christ Jesus ("iesous"). This rank was given to Jesus. The rank which is described by the title "The Name" was given to this Man who we know as Jesus. The word "Jesus" is the transliteration of the Hebrew "Joshua." "Jesus" is just transliteration from Hebrew of "Joshua," and in Greek we transliterate "iesous" into English as "Jesus." "Joshua" meant "Jehovah is salvation." Jesus was a common name among the Jews. Thus it really means "Savior." It's "Joshua" in Hebrew; it's "iesous" in the Greek; and, it means "Jehovah is salvation." So it means "Savior." It identifies the One to whom the Father gave this exalted rank of "The Name."

This Man will have every knee bowing to Him. "Every knee" refers to human beings. "Should bow" is the Greek word "kampto." It refers to recognizing the exalted rank of Jesus Christ. The human race today does not view the Lord in such a way. His name is merely a curse word. This is aorist tense which means the point of completion of the exaltation, which is the Second Advent, which is coming. It is active. Every human being is going to recognize "The Name"--that Jesus is "The Man," whether they like it or not. It is subjunctive which means it's a potential future event.

How far is this exaltation going to go? The Bible says it's going to go and it's going to cover all those who are in heaven. "Epouranios" is the Greek word, and that means heavenly. It means that all the people who are born again, who have died and gone to heaven, they're going to recognize Jesus as "The Name." Those who are angels, the elect angels in heaven, they're going to recognize Jesus as "The Name," the most highly exalted One in all the universe. It'll be for those who are in earth "epigeios." That means earthly. All those who are living believers on the earth, they're going to recognize Jesus as "The Name." All unbelievers on the earth who are alive, they will recognize Him (Revelation 6:12-17). Then it's under the earth "katachthonios." That means subterranean--what pertains to hell. Satan and his demons, they're going to recognize that Jesus is "The Name." Unbelievers who have died, and who are in Hades and ultimately in hell, they're going to recognize that Jesus is "The Name." That's what it means that every knee will bow in recognition and respect.

Philippians 2:11

Finally, verse 11 says, "That every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father." "Every tongue" is the word "glossa." It means simply "speaking" here. It refers to the actual organ as a means of expression. The tongue is used to express our mental attitude. It includes all human beings. And they're going to confess. Here's that little different word for "confess:" "exomologeo." We usually know of it as "homologeo" for "confess." But when you put this "ex," it means "to acknowledge openly." This is like we have in James 5:16, where we acknowledge openly to one another that we have an old sin nature, and we need to be praying for each other in order that we may be defended against that sin nature. "Exomologeo" means "to acknowledge openly." It's aorist--at the point of the Second Advent, this is going to be openly acknowledged that Jesus is "The Name." It's middle. Each of us will do it on his own. It's subjunctive again. It's a future potential thing.

"That" introduces purpose: "hoti". "Jesus Christ is Lord," or "unto." "Resulting" is the idea: "that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory." That "to" is "eis." It means unto (resulting) in the fact of the glory of God the Father. All men are openly going to acknowledge the supreme position of Jesus Christ in the universe. Men do not hold this view today. Someday the whole universe will have to admit the fact that the God man is the sovereign Lord of all. "Lord" is the translation, by the way. When it was used in the Septuagint, the Greek word translated "Lord" was the word that they used to translate the name of Jehovah God--the name Jehovah, which was the supreme majestic name of God in the Old Testament.

This is going be to the glory (that is, to the honor of God the Father), confessing and recognizing who His Son actually is. Let's put it together. One writer has translated verses 9-11 this way: "Because of which voluntary act of self-renunciation, God also super eminently exalted Him to the highest rank and power, and graciously bestowed upon Him 'The Name,' the One which is above every name, in order that in recognition of the name belonging to Jesus, every need should bow: of things in heaven; of things on earth; and, of things under the earth, in order that every tongue should plainly and openly declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, resulting in the glory of God, the Father."

Dr. John E. Danish, 1973

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