Christ's exaltation.
Can the public spirit displayed by Jesus Christ be allowed to terminate in the tomb? Or will it receive a gracious recognition and compensation? It is to this we are next brought by the apostle. The Father set his seal upon the Son's self-sacrifice by highly exalting him and conferring on him a superlative Name. And here we learn—
I. THAT EXALTATION IS PROPORTIONAL TO HUMILIATION IS the FINAL ARRANGEMENTS OF GOD. (Philippians 2:9.) The humiliation of Christ, as we have seen, is the deepest which the universe admitted of; and so his exaltation is the greatest. Just as water descending front the highest height will return to its own level; so Christ, in condescending to the cross and the grave from the eternal throne, comes back to more than pristine glory, and gets a Name which is above every name. Hence if we were wise, we should gladly abase ourselves in the assurance that self-abasement, is the plain and only path to real exaltation (Luke 14:11).
II. THE FATHER HAS GIVEN UNTO JESUS A NAME WHICH IS ABOVE EVERY NAME. (Philippians 2:9.) Now, when we consider what a "name" is, we find that it is a revelation of what a person or thing is. Of course, names may be given where their appellative character is not regarded; but when a name is given as a glory, it contains a revelation. Thus it has been pertinently said, "Names are mysteries, labelled. A thing not labelled is a mystery directly. If it has not been named, we look at it, we smell it, we taste it, we wonder at it; and finally ask—What can it be? Naming is the annihihation of curiosity. Names are disguises put upon things to conceal from us their mystery. Things without names would be too wonderful for us. Only a few people continue to wonder as much after a thing is named, as before." Now, the Name which the Father sets above every name is that of Jesus. The signification of this name is Savior (Matthew 1:21), and the whole course of Providence is to exalt this above every other name. Hence the deep significance of this passage seems to be this—that salvation is the greatest glory which can be attributed to any individual. Even the world is coming round to this idea, that for a man to be the "savior of his country" in any sense is the highest position to which he can attain. When public worth is recognized, it is in connection with some salvation which the hero has wrought for men. The world is steadily moving towards this Divine idea, that the highest glory attainable in the nature of things is the glory of saving in some way others.
III. AT THE NAME OF JESUS THE UNIVERSE SHALL YET BOW. (Philippians 2:10, Philippians 2:11.) Among the saviours of mankind the Lord Jesus Christ is, of course, pre-eminent. All other salvations will be made to appear in their essential insignificance when compared with Christ's salvation of his fellows from sin and death. Hence the long procession of the ages shall yet issue in the universal acclaim, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing" (Revelation 5:12). This is only another way of putting the truth that self-sacrifice shall yet be recognized as the sublimest manifestation of personality, and that in self-sacrifice Jesus has been pre-eminent. The homage of the universe is yet to be made before the self-sacrifice which is embodied in Jesus Christ.
IV. THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS SHALL BE UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED. (Philippians 2:11.) Not only shall the Name of Jesus be put in honor above all other names, but his right to reign shall be recognized by all. The sovereignty of self-sacrifice is the goal of intellectual and moral progress. Jesus, as embodying the principle in absolute perfection, will yet receive the homage of the universe. Even his enemies shall be constrained to bow to his authority and submit to his holy will. The triumph of self-forgetfulness and consideration for others is to be embodied in the acknowledged sovereignty of the Savior.
V. But lastly, THE GLORY OF THE FATHER SHALL PROVE TO BE THE LAST END OF THE WHOLE PLAN. (Philippians 2:11.) For what is this but a similar compensation coming in natural order round to the Father again? The Father in the present dispensation has set himself to glorify, not himself, but his self-sacrificing other self, the Son. He is himself exemplifying the self-forgetfulness and consideration for others for which his gospel calls. The Father is not looking on his own things, any more than the Son. Each Person of the adorable Trinity looks away from self to secure the glory of his mate. Is it not right and beautiful in these circumstances that the glory of the great Father should result from the consideration for others he has shown, and that the mediatorial honors of Jesus should in the end be laid at the Father's feet? It is sometimes thought that it savours of selfishness to say that God arranges all things for his own glory. But when it is analyzed we find that the seemingly selfish arrangement has been really the most absolute unselfishness. God has been looking upon the things and interests of others all the time. He has been laying himself out for the good of his creatures. Disinterestedness has characterized his whole history; and if it be arranged that eventually the universe recognizes and adores the self-forgetfulness of God, if this is to be hailed at last as the only real glory,—then surely we could not desire it otherwise.—R.M.E.
The awful responsibility of personal inspirations.
The purpose of the present passage, as we have seen, is to secure in the Philippian converts that consideration for the welfare of others which is the grand secret of Christian unity. The example of Christ has been brought forward for the same object. Salvation, as wrought out by Jesus, has been the pre-eminent example of public spirit. But now we seem to have come across a break in Paul's idea, as if he would center the converts in self once again, while laboring to deliver them from self. And the passage has been torn from the context and split up into antagonistic exhortations, so that it seems a theological battle-ground rather than a call to Christian power and peace. Let us see if we do not altogether escape the difficulty by holding hard to the connection of the apostle's thought,
I. PAUL SPEAKS HERE UNQUESTIONABLY OF PERSONAL INSPIRATION AS POSSESSED BY THESE PHILIPPIAN CHRISTIANS. Of course, we are here using inspiration in the sense that the Philippians were each tenanted by the Holy Spirit. They were inspired men, inspired for action, if not for authorship. The Holy Spirit had got their wills in his control and also the issue of their wills in action. Here is the broad fact, therefore, of their personal inspiration. Now, the Holy Spirit's influence upon the will is a most interesting as well as intricate subject. It is not, however, either an unreasonable or a tyrannical influence. It is not unreasonable, for it is upon the line of reason and of moral suasion that the Holy Spirit always moves. It is not tyrannical, for it is by his inspiration we are delivered from the prejudice and partiality which sin induces and which mar our liberty. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 2:17). We are never so free as when we are surrendering ourselves implicitly and completely to God's inspirations. But the power to carry out the impulses of the inspired will is also the gift of God; so that the Christian is an inspired instrument for the accomplishment of the will of God. He is moved from within by the almighty Spirit.
II. PERSONAL INSPIRATION MAY WELL BE ENTERTAINED WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING. (Verse 12.) If it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God when we have risked and courted his displeasure, it is surely no less fearful a thing to lie in his hands as an instrument of his good pleasure. We should regard our personalities with awe and reverence as sacred things. The temple on Mount Moriah was not half so sacred as we are ourselves if the Holy Spirit really dwells within us. It is this tremendous thought which Paul feels assured will vanquish fornication and all the lewdness which invested Corinth (1 Corinthians 6:9-20). We are Divine temples; we walk the world as inspired men; we may well contemplate the organisms we are with fear and trembling. Just as we handle with a fear and nervous tremor some exquisite piece of mechanism which some mighty genius has devised for some admirable purpose, afraid lest rash handling might disarrange it; so are we to handle our inspired personalities, and make body, soul, and spirit with a sober, awe-inspired joy tributary to God's praise.
III. PERSONAL INSPIRATION ISSUES IN EARNEST WORK. (Verse 12.) God does not inspire men that they may turn out lotos-eaters. The inaction which Brahma induces, for example, can never be induced by the Christian system. Inspiration is for work. The movement in earnest life is the proof positive that the spiritual force has entered into the professedly Christian soul. But what will the work be? This is the question. Does working out our own salvation mean living in a perpetual fever of spiritual anxiety? Does it mean a never-ending attack of spiritual despondency? By no means. It will be found in the spiritual life, as in life physical, that the hypochondriacs are in danger, and that it is those who have no time to think upon their own ailments, they are so busy ministering to the welfare of others, who are really making most progress towards the spiritual perfection which is salvation in its fullness. And here it will be seen how consistent these verses are with all that has gone before. Paul wishes the Philippians in Verse 12, just as in Verse 4, to be living the self-forgetful life. It is only when we look away from self to Christ as the ground of our salvation, and when we look away from self to others as the sphere of our special work, that we are living the earnest Christian life. Our salvation is assured when we are enabled to make Christ's work our chief anxiety and Christ's glory our constant aim. Inspired lives lead to self-forgetful and self-sacrificing work. The secret of all safety and nobleness lies here.—R.M.E.