Salvation Workout, Phil. 2:5-13

Phil. 2:5   “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,   but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

In our culture today, we are constantly hearing about some new workout that is being touted as the latest surefire way to get in shape.  There is the Pilates workout, the Zumba workout, the Crossfit workout.  Many years ago I tried to do the Navy Seal workout.  Unfortunately, it didn’t really work out.  Rather than getting stronger I just wore myself out. Nowadays I’ve started doing the YouTube workout. It’s pretty easy.  You just watch other people work out on the videos.  But we are increasingly recognizing as a culture that while we may have been given relatively healthy bodies when we were born, if we want to stay healthy we need to exercise them.  And a similar principle is true in our Christian life as well.  We must be born again into a new life, but God’s intention is for us to grow and mature and become stronger spiritually.  So today we’re going to be looking at what I have titled the Salvation Workout.

In our ongoing study of Philippians we have been looking at this passage which contains one of the premiere portraits of Christ in the Bible.  Last week we looked specifically as Christ as our Sovereign, as the Son of God, as a Servant, and our Savior.  And today I would like to continue that series of illustrations with Christ as our Example.  Christ is presented in vs. 5 as our example for us to pattern our lives after.  Christ is not just our substitute, which indeed He was, but He also is the pattern for us to live our lives even as He lived His. 1Pet. 2:21 confirms this; “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”

And the key to how  we  accomplish that is found in vs. 8 in the word obedient.  It says that Christ humbled Himself by becoming obedient even to the point of death.  And though Christ being obedient may sound strange to us, we need to understand that Christ was obedient to the Father for our sake, for the sake of our salvation, and also for our example.  Hebrews 5:8 confirms this point.  “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”

So even though Christ was equal with God, yet while in the flesh He humbled Himself to be obedient to the predetermined will of the Father.  Hebrews 10:7 "THEN I SAID, 'BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'"  Jesus himself said in John 12:49 "For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.” 

This is how Jesus  could say “I and the Father are One.”  Not only were they equal in position, but they were united in purpose, in word and in deed.  But lest  we think this is just some theological treatise that Paul is propounding here, we need to remember the context of the passage, and realize that Paul is using the example of Jesus’ obedience to the Father as an illustration for how we are supposed to live.  Too often in our selfish, human nature, we are more than content to let Christ be our sacrifice, to let Him be our substitute, to let Him pay the price so we can live our lives any way we want.  But what Paul is really saying here is that even as Christ humbled Himself, so we too are to humble ourselves.  Even as Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice, we too must offer our lives as a sacrifice in service to Christ.  Even as Christ was unified with the Father in purpose, word and deed, so we are to be unified to Christ in purpose, word and deed.  “Have the same attitude, the same understanding, the same mindset as Jesus Christ.”  That is what Paul is saying here. 

Now Paul goes on to show Christ’s reward for this sacrifice, for this humiliation that He suffered.  And again the same principle of Christ as our example applies to us in this passage as well.  As it was for Him, so it will be for His followers. Romans 8:17 tells us that if we are children of God, then we are “heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”  But notice the order.  Sacrifice comes first, then exaltation comes afterward. 

So then in vs. 9, it says, “For this reason…”  For what reason?  The reason is because Christ humbled himself, became a servant, was obedient unto death, for this reason, “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” 

Because Christ was obedient even unto death, God raised Him from the dead, He ascended into heaven, and He took His seat at the right hand of the Father above all principalities, above all rule and authority. Eph. 1:20 says God “raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,  which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

So God exalted Christ by giving Him it says, a “name that is above every name”.  And what is that name above every name?  It’s not Jesus.  Note it doesn't say that at the name Jesus. But it says that at the name OF Jesus. And what is the name of Jesus? The name of Jesus is Lord.  In Hebrew, the name of God was written as a tetragrammaton for Yahweh which spelled out L O R D. In the Greek that word Lord is kurios, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord.  

This is the confession that every creature in the universe will give one day.  And this is the confession that Romans 10:9 says is necessary for salvation today; “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Unfortunately, in our society today the word Lord has come to mean just another name for God which has little significance for us.  But when Paul wrote to the Romans, as well as to the Philippians which was also a Roman colony,  that they must confess Jesus as Lord, the full significance of these words meant a lot to those Roman citizens because Caesar had been declared to be god.  And men and women of the Roman Empire were eventually forced to swear an oath of allegiance to Caesar as Lord and Savior of the world.  The early Christians saw this as idolatry and refused to bow the knee to Caesar as Lord and consequently many of them lost their lives.  So when Paul says to the 1st century Gentiles that they must confess Jesus as Lord, they knew that this required absolute surrender and submission to Jesus Christ as Lord and King of all, and they knew that it would cost them everything to make that confession. 

And for the 1st century Jew it had a special significance as well. Because Paul is quoting  these words from Isaiah 45: 23  “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.”  And for the Jew, they knew from the context of that passage that the One speaking in Isaiah was Yahweh, the most sacred name of God which they refused to even say, so instead it was translated LORD.  So Paul is making a direct quotation here from the OT saying that you must confess Jesus Christ as Yahweh, and every knee will bow to Him.    For the Jew then, to confess Jesus Christ is Lord was to recognize that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God in the flesh, the promised King of Kings from the line of David, the One in whom all their blessings resided in, and whom they had crucified. 

This confession that Jesus is Lord Romans 10:9 tells us results in being granted the  righteousness of Christ.  This is the way man becomes saved.  By faith in Christ, that is believing all that He was, all that He came to do, that He was God in the flesh, that He was our substitute, that His atonement on the cross was sufficient for our salvation, but also confessing Jesus as Lord.  Confessing Him as King of our lives, ruler of our lives, and surrendering our will, our purpose and our lives to Him, willing to be changed by Him, and willing to be used by Him.

Not just to say I’m sorry for the mess I’ve made of my life.  I’m sorry that I haven’t been all that I could be.  Or to wish that God would change the circumstances of my life.  Or to wish that God would bless my finances.  Or to say I want to go to heaven when I die, because the alternative sounds a bit dreadful.  None of those things are confessing Jesus as Lord.    But a total capitulation of all that I hold dear, surrendering everything for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ and being found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, but having His righteousness. Phil. 3:8 Paul said, “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things [all he once counted as gain], and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

This confession is more than just a mere acknowledgement that Jesus lived, or even exists, for the devils also believe and tremble. But salvation, righteousness realized, depends upon a broken and contrite heart, that is wholly dependent upon grace, and fully cognizant of my own unworthiness and inability to be righteous.  A willingness to bow my knee before Christ in repentance, a willingness to turn over all of my heart to Him.  To come to the end of yourself and a willingness to become all that God would have me to be, and follow the example of Jesus Christ.

I’m afraid that isn’t the kind of salvation that is being espoused in modern Christianity today.  I’m afraid that there is a desire to be ok with God, but keep the world and all that comes with it as well.  We want to be in the ballpark, but not in the game.  We want to be somehow on the sidelines and let others do the playing and we remain spectators.  But real Christianity isn’t like that.  IF we are willing to suffer with Him, then we get the right to reign with Him. 2Tim. 2:11 “It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him.  “And the things that you must be willing to suffer is the loss of the priorities of this world and the pleasures and lusts of this world for the sake of following Jesus Christ.  And for those who are willing to suffer the loss of those things which are dear to them here, God promises to exalt those people to rule and reign with Christ in the world to come. 

The problem for most of us  is that this world seems so appealing, so promising, that we have no appetite for heaven.  Heaven is not enough of a motivation for us to sacrifice everything that we see here for a future we can’t see there.  So Paul gives us an allusion to another motivation.  If the positive motivation of heaven is not enough, then perhaps the negative motivation of a judgment to come will help.  He says, “at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” 

Some have wrongfully concluded from this verse that somehow at the end of the ages everyone will have a second chance of being saved, of  confessing Jesus is Lord.  But that would render salvation worthless wouldn’t it?  That would discount the priceless sacrifice of Jesus to the value of a yard sale leftover, the stuff that they leave on the side of the road for free.  No, what it means is that on this side of Christ’s coming again salvation is obtained through faith, faith in what isn’t seen.  But one day, every eye will see Him come again not as a baby in Bethlehem, not as an ordinary looking man, but every eye will see Him coming in the clouds with fire and all His angels with Him, and Matthew 24 tells us then that the whole earth will mourn, because it will be too late for confession resulting in righteousness, it will be a confession that results in condemnation and a sentence of eternal damnation for rejecting the Lord of all creation when He gave His life for our reconciliation. 

Matt. 24:30 says "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory.” But on that day, it will be too late for salvation by faith.  Christ comes on that day not to save, but to judge the world.

Paul says, “those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”  Those who are in heaven refers to the angels of heaven, 10,000 times 10,000 times 10000, or untold millions of angels. Revelation 12 refers to angels as stars of heaven, and I think that the number of the angels in heaven may approximate the number of the stars.  The estimated number of the stars is between 10 sextillion and 1 septillion stars. That’s a one with 21 zeros after it.   The stars comprise and are organized into about 80 billion galaxies.  So it’s possible that God created angels of that number as well as they are often referenced in the scripture being as plentiful as the stars.  All this innumerable multitude of heavenly creatures worshipping Christ as Lord.  And one day, the Bible says, those of us who reign with Christ will judge angels. 

And in the earth obviously refers to men and women who are living on the earth at the time of Christ’s second coming.  And under the earth refers to the dead, both those that are dead in Christ and those that are dead in their sins, that exist in the subterranean abode which the Bible calls Hades and Paradise, which Christ referred to in His story of Lazarus and the rich man who both died and the rich man was in torment, while Lazarus was being comforted in Abraham’s bosom.  

So, there is a negative motivation for surrendering to Christ now, and that is that there is coming a day of judgment, a day when Christ will judge the living and the dead, when He will separate the sheep from the goats as spoken of throughout the Bible.

And then finally, Paul gives an exhortation for us to continue in Christ’s example.  Vs. 12  “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” There is that principle of obedience again, not only for Christ, but for us.

So then, Paul says, since God has shown us the example of Christ that we are to follow, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.  Now, Paul isn’t contradicting all the gospel that he has previously given regarding salvation as a work of faith.   For instance, Paul says in Gal. 2:16  “nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.” 

So if Paul isn’t talking about working for your salvation, then what does he mean?  I think a good illustration of what he is talking about is when David was brought before King Saul because he had volunteered to go out and fight Goliath.  And Saul gave David his own armor to wear.  And David said, “I cannot wear this, because I have not proven it.”  And what he meant by that was he had not proven it in battle.  He had not worn it in battle.  The armor had not been tested in the trials of war.

And this is what Paul is getting at here.  He is saying your salvation which was won for you is not to put on a shelf. It’s not for sitting on the sidelines.  But exercise your faith.  Live out your faith.  Take your Christianity into the field of battle and use it and wear it and prove it to be worthy.  It’s a command to exercise your salvation.  You were saved to live out the righteousness that God granted to us by doing deeds of righteousness within the sphere of the world that we exist in.

So we could say the first aspect of it then is to work out or exercise in daily conduct what God has put in. Walking by faith.  Day-to-day holy living, that's the idea. I am to be committed to the process of my salvation coming to fruition in the sense that it's manifest in my conduct, my behavior.  We are to pattern our lives in the same pattern that Jesus laid for us, to be obedient to God’s word, to be a servant to the church, to live like a child of God, to be concerned with the salvation of men and women.  This is working out our salvation.  In Jam 2:22, speaking of Abraham it says, “You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected, completed.

And then vs. 13 gives us the other half of the equation for sanctification: “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  Just as Jesus didn’t do anything that wasn’t the Father’s will, didn’t say anything that the Father did not tell Him to say, so it is also to be with us.  Now that we’ve been made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit lives within us.  We become temples of God.  And God lives in this temple to do His will, to work for His purposes, His good pleasure, and not to be diverted to do our pleasure.  This is the purpose of God, to sanctify us, to use us to live for Christ, for His glory. 1Cor. 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

The purpose of the Holy Spirit is not to give us goose bumps, or to give us some ecstatic experience.  But God in the presence of the Holy Spirit lives in us so that we might live as Christ lived.  Our obedience is evidence that God lives in us, it’s the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in us so that we might do the works of righteousness, that which God has prepared us for.  So that God might use this once sinful, selfish body for His glory. 

So what is Paul’s message here for us this morning?  One is that salvation and righteousness, in other words acceptance by God, is only possible when we come to a place where we are willing to confess Jesus is Lord.  Jesus as our Savior, our Substitute and our Sovereign.  And God promises to grant us the full measure of Christ’s righteousness to those who have faith in Jesus Christ and confess Him as their Lord.  But then secondly, the next essential part of our salvation is our sanctification, wherein we follow His example and in obedience to His will, follow Christ in humility, in obedience, in servitude and sacrifice and even if necessary suffering for His sake, working out this great salvation that we have received with fear and trembling, full of reverence and awe for the great responsibility and stewardship that God has entrusted us with.   

And finally, the message is that if we suffer with Him, we will also reign with Him.  That as God exalted Jesus Christ and gave Him a name above every name, He has also reserved an inheritance for us, that one day we will be fellow heirs with Christ and sit on thrones with Him in glory and share in all that the Father has planned for those that love Him. 

An attitude of servitude, Philippians 2: 5-11

The text we are looking at today is one of the premiere portraits of Christ, and essential doctrinal statements in all  of Scripture.  Verses 6-11 are often presented as a great portrait of Christ and a doctrinal statement about Christ, but in context with verse 5 we learn what our response is to be to this example of Christ.  Vs. 5 says, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus…”  And this is so important to recognize that Paul is giving us a directive here to be like Jesus Christ.  To have the same attitude as Christ.  Not just to recognize the characteristics of Christ, but since we are His disciples we should respond in obedience by following the pattern of Christ.

This principle is sorely missing today in contemporary Christianity.  We present Christ from His glory to His suffering, as our Savior and our Substitute, but we fail to teach what our proper response should be to the gospel.  We teach that we just need to have a relationship to Christ, we need to praise Him, to recognize His sacrifice for us, but then we basically want to end our responsibility with just saying the sinner’s prayer and maybe walking an aisle in church during an invitation.  But just as Romans 12 told us that following salvation we now were to begin our reasonable service of worship in response to our salvation by presenting our lives as living sacrifices for the kingdom, so Paul here in Philippians tells us that now that we are saved we are to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being servants of the kingdom of God.  This should be our purpose in this new life, now that we are saved,  to now glorify Christ in our lives, by everything we do.

And Paul is not alone in this message.  Jesus Himself said “You are my disciples IF you continue in my word.”  In another place He says, “if you love Me you will keep my commandments.”  And “a true disciple bears much fruit.”  And also Peter said in 1Pe 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,”  The  Greek word for example there is hypogrammos: which literally meant a writing copy of all the letters of the alphabet, given to beginners as an aid in learning to draw them.  What that meant is that when you were learning to write, you would trace your line over the lines on the hypogrammos, and thereby you would learn how the letters were to be written.  And in the same way, Jesus Christ is our example, and we are to live our lives as He lived His life, following in HIs footsteps.  We have His pattern for our lives and we are instructed to follow Him, to live as He lived, to do as Jesus did in the world.  That’s what it means to be a disciple.

So then verse 5 is the preamble to this great doctrinal statement about Christ.  And so it should prompt us to ask,  who is Christ Jesus?  If we are to be like him, to follow his attitude and example, then we must know who He is.  And Paul gives us four pictures of Christ here in this passage;  that of the Sovereign, the Son, the Servant, and the Savior.  And we will look in detail at each one so that we might know what Christ’s attitude was that we might be able to copy it.

First of all, Christ is Sovereign.  Still in verse 5 we note that the usual order of Christ’s name is reversed.  Instead of the usual Jesus Christ, Paul turns it around to Christ Jesus, to emphasis the Messianic title of Christ.  This was the preferred order for Paul when referred to Jesus, because it emphasizes not the humanity of Christ, as the other apostles who had known Jesus as a man first, but the divine nature of the risen Christ, as Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus long after Jesus had risen from the dead and been exalted to heaven. 

So Christ is not the name of Jesus, but a title. The Messianic title of Christ was the Greek word for Messiah, who was foretold by the Old Testament prophets.  The One who was to come from the lineage of David, a King that would sit forever on the throne and rule over the nations.  As Isaiah prophesied in Isa 9:6   “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.”

But who Paul presents to us here in verse 6 is so much more than merely a human sovereign, but the divine Sovereign.  Paul says in vs. 6, “who, although He existed in the form of God…”  Paul is establishing the deity of Jesus Christ.  That Jesus Christ is God, existing in the form or the nature or eternal essence of God.  This principle is critical to Christianity.  You cannot be a Christian and not believe in the deity of Christ. 

(Heb. 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please [Him,] for he who comes to God must believe that He is and [that] He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.)

In the first book of  John, the very first verse, the apostle John establishes the deity of Christ this way;  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made which was made.”  I find it awesome that John uses the title, “the Word” to describe Jesus.  He goes onto say in verse 14 of the same chapter, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  It not only reveals the deity of Christ, but the paramount importance of the Word of God, existing in Spirit, in Soul, that is the mind of God articulated in Word, and then becoming flesh.

Both the deity of Christ and Christ as the Word of God is presented in Hebrews chapter 1, the very first verse as well.  “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.  And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”  So we see that Christ is the Word of God, He is the Creator, He is the Sovereign over all the world, the King of Glory.  In His very nature God. 

Then secondly, Paul presents Jesus as the Son.  Vs. 6; “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”

The word for “form” used in this verse is from the Greek word “morphe”.  We get words like metamorphosis from this root.  And we already looked at what it meant when Paul used it in vs. 6 in relation to God.  He possessed all the essential nature and essence of God.  He was in the form of God.   And then Paul uses this same word “morphe” to describe His incarnation.  “He took the form of a servant.”  It’s the same word. Paul juxtaposes the form of God with the form of a servant.   Christ divested Himself of His rights and privileges and glory that was His as God, and took on the clothing of a servant.  He never stopped being God, to having the nature of God, but put on the clothing of humanity, to become a servant.  Christ was fully God, existing before creation with God, then laying aside His glory to become one of His creation, to become one of us, to become a servant. 

Verse 6 says, He “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped…”  that means that He did not regard that equality with God as something to hold onto.  He was willing to relinquish His glory, His privilege, the honor  that was due Him, to become the Son of Man. The Son of God became the Son of Man so that sons of men might become sons of God.

Look at verse 7: “Being made in the likeness of men.”  Vs. 8 says it another way, “being found in appearance as a man.”  He was still  fully God.  But the Word, John says, became flesh and dwelt among us.”  Yet “John 1:10 says, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” 

What this means is that when Christ took on flesh and became man, He looked like a man.  He didn’t walk around with a halo over his head.  Other than at the transfiguration, He didn’t have a glow emanating from His person.  He looked just like an ordinary man.  Isaiah 52 tells us, that “He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”  He looked like a man.  He hurt like a man.  He cried like a man.  He grew tired like a man.  He sweated like a man.  He hungered like a man.  He grew thirsty like a man.  He was both Son of Man, and Son of God.  And we didn’t recognize Him as God.

Thirdly, He was a Servant.  And I think this characteristic of Christ is at the heart of the message that Paul is saying that we should have; an attitude of servitude. God has by his grace saved us from being condemned, cursed sons of men, to become Sons of God.  God has granted through his grace that we who were enslaved to sin might rule and reign with Christ as kings.  But all of that was made possible by the fact that Christ was willing to lay aside all His glory to become a servant.  And the attitude of a servant is what Paul is saying through the Holy Spirit that we also are to have now that we have been made sons of God.  This is our response to the sacrifice of Christ.  We become servants of Christ, by becoming servants of the body of Christ, the church.  This is the way we will bring about the unity of the church that Paul was speaking of earlier in this chapter. 

So Christ our example as a Servant.  Look at verse 7; He “emptied Himself.”  The KJV says it like this;  “He made himself of no reputation.” He came into the world in a way that people did not recognize him as God.  He did not come in the power and glory of the Almighty God, the Lord of all the heavens, the Creator of the universe.   He did not even come with all the fanfare of an earthly king, but he came as the lowest form of man; that of a servant.  “But emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”

Nothing illustrates that attitude of servitude more than John 13:3; “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, so got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.  Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.”  The disciples were all fighting and squabbling over who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and Jesus laid aside His garments, and washed his disciples feet. What a picture of humility.  Vs. 8 says, “He humbled Himself.” 

Humility is an attitude that is so lacking in the church today.  Our theology is so “me first” oriented.  God is little more than a Santa Claus type of genie that exists to make us happy and successful.  We’re like children at Christmas that are so fixated on what we are going to get.  And we don’t understand Christ’s words that it is better to give than to receive.  Christ gave up His throne in heaven for a stable on earth.  He gave up heavenly homage for earthly hatred.  He gave up the glory of heaven for the rejection of the world.  

But Hebrews 12:2 says He was willing to do that for our sake, “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” So we also need to consider the joy set before us, as we endure the hardship of taking up our cross and following Christ, so that one day we too might be welcomed into heaven and sit down on thrones with Christ.  Jesus emptied Himself by taking to Himself another posture, another personage, another position, that of a servant.

And fourthly, Christ is our Savior. Phil 2:8 says “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” What was the point of the cross? 2Cor. 5:21 tells us that “God made Him who knew no sin (that is Jesus) to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  Way back before creation, God decided to make a special race of creatures, made in His likeness, in His image.  We were made body, soul and spirit.  A triune being like our Father. Man’s body made him world conscious, able to live in a physical world. Man’s soul made him self conscious, aware that he was an individual with a particular personality, nature, responsibilities.   And man’s spirit made him God conscious, aware that he needed to worship God and initially able to do so.  At creation man had fellowship with God because he was without sin. 

But Satan in his jealousy seduced Eve to sin against the Word of God, and eat of the fruit and give it to her husband. So according to the law of God, man died spiritually because of His sin.  Sin entered the human race and death through sin.  When man’s spirit died, God’s order of creation was turned upside down and instead of being governed by the Spirit of God, we were governed by our bodies, the lusts and passions of our bodies ruled our minds which became depraved, selfish and self serving as described in Romans 1, leading to all sorts of depravity.  Man was sinful by nature, thereby sinful in practice and without hope of restoring our relationship with God.  Man’s sin broke our relationship with God who is holy. 

But God’s plan was for man to be reconciled to Him.  “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe on Him might be saved.”  Jesus came to earth to live the perfect life in perfect submission to the Father’s will that we could never live.  Jesus was man the way God always intended man to be.  And by faith in Christ, faith in His deity, faith in His sinlessness, faith that He was the Messiah, faith in His righteousness, faith in His atonement for our sins on the cross, we receive the righteousness of Christ.  “God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  That we might become as righteous as Christ.   

This is the purpose of the cross, to reconcile us to God, that the order of human creation might be restored right side up.  That having been made holy, righteous by faith in Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit who gives life to our spirit again, (You must be born again.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit) and having been born again we are now Sons of God.  Yes, we’re still sons of men in the flesh, but thank God we are sons of God in the spirit.  And one day Christ will come back to take us home and He promised to remove this body of death and give us a new, glorified body to live forever as kings with God in His kingdom. 

But for now Paul is saying in vs. 5, we are to live like Jesus lived.  In appearance as just men.  Yet as Jesus our example living according to the Spirit of God who lives in us.  Our attitudes are to be ruled by the Holy Spirit.  Our actions are to be  ruled by the Holy Spirit.  Our language is to be ruled by the Holy Spirit.  Our wisdom is from the Holy Spirit.  Our discernment is through the Holy Spirit. Our emotions are under the control of the Holy Spirit.  Christ lives in us and through us. 

Our responsibility to God is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Phil. 3:7 says, “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” 

Have you become conformed to His death ladies and gentlemen?  Have you considered all things that you once claimed as your reputation, have you counted it as loss for the sake of knowing Jesus?  Have you emptied yourself of your pride, taking on the form of a servant even as Christ served the church and gave himself up for her?  Are you being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ?  Have you been transformed from a son of man to a son of God by faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ?   

Vs. 11 tells us that one day, “at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”   In the days of the Roman empire when this was written the emperor of Rome, Caesar, was considered deity. The law of the land was to worship Caesar as god.  They called him Savior and Lord.  That was inscribed on coinage of the empire. He was the savior of the people of nations that he conquered. He was the lord of all the known civilized world.  Caesar’s word was absolute authority.  You obeyed the will of Caesar by threat of your life.   

So in that day, it meant something to confess Jesus Christ as Lord.  I’m afraid in our culture, words like Lord and Savior have become so common that they have little meaning.  But in that day, one knew the consequences of confessing Jesus Christ is Lord.  It meant absolute obedience to the Sovereign of the universe.  It meant living in accordance to His will.  To forsaking all that living in the Roman world could offer, in exchange for all that the world to come in Christ would bring.  But though the times have changed, the confession has not.  Jesus Christ demands and deserves our all.  We are to be completely transformed in His image.  We are to live as He lived, serve as He served.  This is Christianity.  There isn’t any such thing as coming to Christ half way, but we need to follow him all the way, conforming to His death. 

Jesus was hung on a cross by the Roman soldiers with the inscription above His head, “The King of the Jews.” Luke tells us that the Jewish rulers hurled insults at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.” The soldiers mocked Him saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.”  And there were two thieves nailed to crosses on either side of Him.  One of them even joined in the blasphemy saying, ““If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” None of those believed in Him, that He was the Messiah, that He was the King of Kings, the Son of God, therefore none of them were saved by His death.

But there was another criminal hanging on the other cross, and what He said revealed His faith in Jesus as the Messiah, as the holy Son of God, the righteous King of Kings.  He rebuked the other thief, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” In that short, concise statement, the dying thief made a confession of faith that encapsulated all the essential doctrines of who Jesus is and what He has done to procure our salvation.  

And in return Jesus gave him forgiveness of his sins, and eternal life, even though physically this man would die on that cross in just a few more minutes.  Jesus said, ““Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” And just a few minutes later Jesus gave up His life, and perhaps after a few more minutes the thief took his last breath and died.  And the angels of God came and carried his soul away to Paradise.  And I can imagine a few surprised people on the other side, seeing this convicted criminal who had been crucified for his crimes now appearing in heaven, saying “How are you here? How did you get here?” And the thief on the cross pointed to Jesus standing at the gates of Paradise, and said, “He invited me.”  “I came with Him.”  

That is salvation, ladies and gentlemen.  Simple, uncomplicated. Jesus invites you.  Believe in Him, and trust Him that He is able to forgive your sins, to pay your penalty, to give you His righteousness so that you may stand blameless before God and have your death penalty changed to a sentence of eternal life with God.  I pray each one here has made that decision, to believe in Christ and be saved and follow in His footsteps.