One is struck by the parallel structure of Paul's teaching in Philippians 2 and the prophet's lament in Isaiah 53 - the exaltation of Christ after His humiliation.
But exaltation does not just follow humiliation - rather, Jesus is exalted BECAUSE He was humiliated!
In Philippians, Paul describes Christ's humiliation, but not its purpose. But in many other places, Paul makes it clear that Christ died as a substitute for His people, that He might redeem us from the judgment of our sin.
Paul also makes it clear that Christ stepped down from great glory, honor, and power into His humiliation.
But then Paul exults in this: that Christ has been highly exalted by the Father because He submitted Himself to the humiliation of death by the cross. The power and glory of Christ exalted exceeds all others.
In contract, Isaiah goes into great detail describing Christ's humiliation, and the precise purpose it served: that He might be God's Lamb of sacrifice for the sin of His people, and that Jesus might be punished in our place so that He might justify us. He was treated as guilty for our sin, and punished by God Himself, and we knew it not.
In contrast, Isaiah's treatment of Christ's exaltation is brief and ambiguous. But in other places, Isaiah describes in detail the crowning of the Lord Jesus as ruler of all the world!
Like Paul, Isaiah connects Christ's exaltation in chapter 53 with His suffering: it follows "because He hath poured out His soul unto death."
So Paul and Isaiah agree: Christ's exaltation by God is the consequence of Christ's humiliation and death.
How blessed we are to bow before Christ now, and know He loved us so much in His humiliation!
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...
