Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we constantly seek to dive into the ocean of truth. We have for some time now been going through a sort of Trinitarian Commentary on the Scriptures. As I’ve said before, we are diving, but do not think we have fully explored the depths of the passages we are studying. I hope this is a call to get others to explore on their own the wonder of the ocean of truth. Tonight, we shall be finishing up the Philippians 2 hymn by looking at verse 11. Let’s go to the text:
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Again, this passage started out with a focus on Jesus and the shame that he endured in that he was to be our example. Paul is not wanting to leave us at just suffering and humbling ourselves. He wants us to see what the results are when we esteem others as better than ourselves. For that purpose, he tells us about what God does for Jesus in response.
We saw that every knee would bow at the name of Jesus yesterday. Today, we see that every tongue will confess. Again, we go back to the Scripture in Isaiah 45 and we’ll read verses 22-24.
22 “Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no other.23 By myself I have sworn,
my mouth has uttered in all integrity
a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
by me every tongue will swear.24 They will say of me, ‘In the LORD alone
are righteousness and strength.’ ”
All who have raged against him
will come to him and be put to shame.
This is the full passage and it is a passage that is devoted in the book of Isaiah to God alone as Isaiah 40-48 is all about the monotheistic faith of Israel and how YHWH is the only true God as he challenges all the other gods to prove themselves before him.
His challenge goes so far however as to say that not only are there no other gods, but anyone who makes that claim will come and bow down before him and confess to him who he really is. What’s amazing for our purposes is that this is exactly what is to be said of Christ in the end. Everyone will come before him and acknowledge him for who he is. They will say that he is Lord, which is a term loaded with deity.
Why? For the glory of God the Father. Notice again that this juxtaposition is taking place. The title God is further explained by “the Father” so as to not confuse him with the Son, who has been proclaimed to be Lord. When we acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, then we honor the Father for the Son is the one through whom the Father’s reign exists.
Thus, throughout this hymn, we have the supreme example in Christ in that he had the highest position of all and lowered himself to the lowest position of all. In response to this, God the Father honored him again with the highest position of all. It is a wonder that someone could read this chapter and not see the deity of the Son.
May you not be one of them and may you follow the example he gave.