Sharing in the Exalted Glory of Christ

The Cross Exalted by Lawrence OP

Still More Musings on Gospel Servanthood

Philippians 2:9-11

As we continue our journey into what it really means to be a servant to one another for Christ’s sake we have seen that there are tremendous incentives and glorious reasons to obey the call to consider others to be more important than you are.  There is not a command or call of God that you are able to do without the Gospel of God’s grace working within your heart.  There are no easy commands!   Each one requires God’s grace to do.  In fact all of Christ’s commands center on the issue of genuine love.  We are to love God and to love our brothers and sisters in Christ and even to love our enemies.  If you love then you are serving.  You are serving with the right motivation of heart. 

We object to serve and hesitate to show concern for one another (and especially for those difficult people) because we know that it will cost us something.  We will risk being hurt, rejected, shunned or at least not appreciated and thanked.  It also requires humility to serve this way.  Paul says, “in humility consider others to be more important than yourself.”  This call to serve exposes how self-centered we naturally are.  We are not more inclined toward genuine humility than we are to genuine servant love. 

It is for this reason that Paul reminds us and points us to the incentives of grace.  In verse one he reminds us of the impact that the Gospel should have on our hearts – our outlook and yes even on our affections and emotions.  In verses 5-11 he points us to the example of our Lord Jesus Christ.  This example has two parts to it.  First we see the self-denial and willing humility and obedience of the Son of God given for our sakes.  In his coming, taking on human nature as a servant and his death on the cross he was putting our interests before his own.   How can we who have personally benefited from his sacrificial service refuse to serve one another?   He, who was and is infinitely superior to us in every way, nevertheless considered us to be more important than himself.   It is inconsistent for us who say we trust in Christ and his cross work to object and refuse to follow in our Master’s steps here. 

Now we look at the second part to Christ’s example for us.  It is the reality of his glorious exaltation. Here, as we see, is contained the truth that we find expressed in Romans 8:17 where Paul says that you are heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ, provided that you suffer with him in order that you may also be glorified with him.   As Sinclair Ferguson says “only what goes down will go up.”  The path to glory is the same one traveled by our Lord Jesus.  The cross comes before the crown but here is the promise to you who take up the servant’s towel – the crown will come!    What goes down will go up because God the Father will see to it.  So we need to look to the reality of Christ’s exaltation as what we have to look forward to and find the hope to endure the hard, painful and lonely path of the servant.  Here we find reason to hope.  We need to believe that the path of humility if walked with faith in Christ and love for him is the safest of all paths to walk because it is the only one that leads to glory.  

 So we find two realities here.  First if we are to share in his glory we must be willing to share in his suffering.  This also means that being glorified together with him is where we are to set our gaze.  Second, that God’s way is that humility precedes glory. Yet for the humble of heart and mind glory is a certainty.  Only what goes down will go up!  So what about you?  Does the fact that Christ’s suffering led to his glory and ultimate relief and that it is presented to you in this text as a pattern of what you may expect from the Father encourage you to endure in serving others?  If this doesn’t what will!