Philippians 2:5-11: December 27—Hark! The herald angels sing

Dec 21, 2009
By WILEY RICHARDS

Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

The beautiful carol highlighted above was written by Charles Wesley. We are indebted however to George Whitefield who substituted the lines we know. Wesley’s opening line read, “Hart! How all the welkin rings: Glory to the King of Kings.” We can be grateful for the opening lines substituted by Whitfield. Unless one knows that the welkin refers to the sky or upper air, Wesley’s intention for the words would be lost one us. However, many of his phrases marvelously describe the theology recounted in the verses for today. Four magnificent doctrines about our Lord stand out. In exhorting believers to think and live as did Jesus, the Bible leads us from His pre-existing glory, through his earthly life, death, resurrection, and ascension to His former glory.

The Bible begins with a clear affirmation of His deity (vv. 5-6). For the mind to comprehend such lofty concepts, it must be renewed, as admonished in Romans 12:2. Only then can it begin to grasp the significance of Christ being in the form of God. The Greek word for form, employed again in verse 7, refers to the external appearance of a thing as it appears to the eye. Our word morphology comes from the word. Jesus is being in the form of God, exhibited all the characteristics of what God is like in His essence. As God, His deity was not something which He coveted. It is who He is. The Godhead is not some level above Him to which He might aspire.

The next affirmation about Him, the essence of the Christmas story, affirms His incarnation (v. 7). He became man. In the language of literature, God wrote Himself into the story to reveal Himself to us on our level. In asserting that Jesus made himself of no reputation, we must exercise care in the way we state it. This “emptying” is the word kenosis in the Greek; hence the theological doctrine of the Kenosis. Liberal theologians in the latter 19th century interpreted it to mean He laid aside His deity. That is theological nonsense at the least, but heresy in its impact. He laid aside some of the prerogatives of deity by assuming the form (morphe) of a servant. To His essence, or form, of God, He assumed the essence, or form, of a servant. The Creator assumed the essence of the creature. In theology, therefore, we call Him the God-Man, truly God and truly Man. In His role as servant, He took the “likeness” of man. His appearance in the form of the Man, Jesus, changed with His growth as a human being, but His servanthood never varied. The word for likeness is the basis of our word schematic. The schematic of a piece of electronic equipment is the outline of the final product, its shape or form.

The Bible then states the next crucial aspect about Jesus, His death (v. 8). His obedience stands out. In Gethsemane, He prayed to the Father somehow to take the cup of crucifixion away from Him, except that by drinking it the Father’s will would be done (Matt. 26:42). The writer of Hebrews picked up the theme, declaring that the Son, crying for deliverance, “learned obedience by the things which he suffered” (Heb. 5:7). As Romans 5:19 confirms, “For as by one man’s [Adam’s] disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one [Jesus] shall many be made righteous.” Although space does not allow an extended discussion of the doctrine of the substitutionary death of Christ for sinners, His obedience is a part of the requirement of a sinless life in order for the death on the cross to be a ransom (Mk. 10:45), a redemption, justification, and propitiation for sin to make forgiveness possible (Rom. 3:24-25).

His death and resurrection are but prelude to His glorious exaltation (vv. 9-11). The Bible here skips over the account of His resurrection and ascension (Acts 1:10-11). Instead, it escorts us to the very throne of God (v. 9), where Stephen beheld Him “standing on the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). The Bible does not reveal the “name which is above every name,” but for all believers the name of Jesus suits us just fine. Unsaved people ought to tremble at the thought that all creation shall some day bow before Jesus and confess that He is the Christ. For them, their delayed confession will amount to admission of the eternal damnation.

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