The Hidden Glory of the Cross

I. Equal With God — 2:6 “He existed in the form of God, [having] equality with God.”
A. The story begins with Jesus as God (the Son) in heaven.
B. Equal with God! What an shocking statement! Just the saying of it is awesome.
C. One of the frequent sayings of the OT is that there is no one equal with God (e.g. 2Sam.7:22; 1Chron.17:20; Psalm 86:8). He is the holy One, different from all the others.
D. And yet now Paul comes along saying that there is one who IS equal with God. How can it be?
E. We take the deity of Christ for granted, since this doctrine has now been around for 20 centuries. We have outlived the wonder of a Jesus who is equal with God Himself.
F. May a day never pass in the course of which we fail to offer worship to our great God and savior, Jesus Christ!
II. Letting Go of Equality With God — 2:6-7 “although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself.”
A. Paul says that though Jesus was in very nature God, He did not cling to this state of being, but took on the form of a man (v.7).
B. This could be taken to mean that when Jesus became a man He stopped being God. Indeed, some have actually argued for things like this.
1. But can God choose not to be God? Can God stop being God? One of the characteristics of God is that He does not change."Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (Heb.13:8) And if He never changes, He certainly can’t stop being God.
C. In order to understand what Paul is saying here we must understand that God the Son did not give up His deity or even His glory as God. But He did allow His inherent glory to be obscured on the earth, to be hidden from mankind, in order that He might appear as a mere man.
1. By and large, when Jesus came as a man, He did not come glowing with the glory of God. He came looking like a regular man, even though He was far more than that. For the most part, His deity and His glory were veiled, for a time. This is what it means that Jesus, "although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself."
III. The Incarnation of Christ — 2:6-7 “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.”
A. We don’t appreciate what an enormous step of humility it was for God the Son to take on human flesh. We think of His humiliation at the hands of the Jews and Romans as substantial: getting stripped and whipped and spat upon, getting mocked and crowned with thorns and unjustly charged with a crime, and finally nailed to a cross in public display.
B. But really the humiliation of the incarnation is even greater than this. In other words, the step from God-ness to humanness is far greater than the step from normal humanness to criminal crucifixion and mockery. By far the biggest step along the way was the step from Creator-ness to creature-ness. The distance from humanness to criminal is finite. The distance from God-ness to humanness is infinite.
IV. The King Becomes a Slave — 2:7-8 “taking the form of a bond-servant... He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
A. In Paul’s description of the process of Christ’s humiliation, he makes much of His subservience.
B. Though by nature he was Lord, He did not come acting like a Lord, but like a slave. He subjected Himself to the Father and to human institutions, though, in reality, all human institutions were far below Him. He obeyed parents, religious leaders, civil magistrates, even though He was rightfully their king. Remember when they came to collect the temple tax and Jesus paid it (albeit strangely) even though He said that in terms of justice He was under no obligation to do so (Matt.17:24-27)?
C. Though He was God, He humbled Himself and obeyed.
V. Obedient to the Point of Death — 2:8 “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.”
A. If the concept of a man who is equal to God is shocking, so is the concept of a man who is God dying.
B. But it was a step that had to be taken if man was to be saved. Man’s sin could only be paid for by man’s blood, and so "the Son of God became the Son of Man so that the sons of man could become the sons of God."
C. And not only this, but His death was not accidental. “He was obedient to the point of death.”
1. It was more than just a bad turn of events. It happened according to the plan of God.
2. Jesus, our verse tells us, was obedient to death, even death on a cross. He submitted to it.
3. He wasn’t carried off against His will. "I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again." (John10:17-18)
VI. Death on a Cross — 2:8 “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
A. We are so used to the idea of Jesus hanging on a cross that we miss its shock value, we miss its scandal. To talk of a good man dying on a cross is jarring. But to mention God and a cross in the same sentence screams of incongruity.
B. In coming to the cross, we come to the end of Christ’s humiliation process, the lowest rung on the ladder. Verse 6 started with equality with God, verse 8 ends with the cross. The highest One went to the lowest place.
C. One might have thought that death would have been the end of the list, but Paul goes further: "obedient to the point of death, EVEN death on a cross," as if crucifixion is one step below death.
D. In the first century AD crucifixion was a haunting reality in the Roman Empire. Only slaves, non-Romans and the lowest criminals were crucified.
E. Cicero said, "Far be the very name of the cross, not only from the body, but even from the thought, the eyes, the ears of a Roman citizen."
F. Rome used it as an instrument of execution through torture (we get the word "excruciating" from "crucifixion") and also as a means of public mockery reserved for the worst and lowest. The victim was stripped naked and commonly jeered. It was the epitome of pain and of shame.
G. We have our nice little gold crosses, but the cross was never used as a symbol in Christianity in the early years of the church. Why? Because the cross was a part of their culture: they knew its horror, its stigma, its scandal.
H. And yet the greatest agony of the crucifixion of our Lord was not its physical anguish, but the hell of bearing the weight of the guilt of our sin and being rejected by His heavenly Father.
1. Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning, Was there ever grief like His? Friends through fear His cause disowning, Foes insulting His distress; Many hands were raised to wound Him, None would interpose to save; But the deepest stroke that pierced Him Was the stroke that Justice gave. ("Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted" by Thomas Kelly)
VII. Conclusion
A. From the glory of heaven to the agony of the cross. Jesus went as far as it’s possible to go, and He did it all for us. What a melody of love is being sung here! The highest One took the lowest place in order that the lowest ones could be taken to the highest place!
B. This is why the cross, for all its shame, is our glory. That’s what the story goes on to say.
1. 2:9-11 “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.”