He is Lord

Scripture — Philippians 2:5-11 (CEB)

Though he was in the form of God,
he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.
But he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave
and by becoming like human beings.
When he found himself in the form of a human,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Therefore, God highly honored him
and gave him a name above all names,
so that at the name of Jesus everyone
in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow
and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Devotion

Growing up in church, I sang hymns in worship services, Sunday school classes, and youth group meetings. But this changed when I was a teenager. We began singing contemporary songs, featuring guitars rather than organs or pianos. At first, we sang about God with songs like “He’s Everything to Me” or “Pass It On.” But in my later teen years, we started singing songs to God, not just about God. They were simple songs like “I Love You, Lord” and “Father, I Adore You.”

Many of the “praise and worship” songs in the 70s were paraphrases of Scripture. I’m thinking of songs such as “Thou Art Worthy” and “As the Deer.” Today, simple songs like these are rarely used in worship services. But it’s now quite common in many church settings today for the majority of songs to address God directly. Back in the 70s, however, the chance to sing new, simple, familiar songs to God was freeing, inspiring, and transformative. I was one of many people who experienced a depth of worship through those songs, unlike anything I had ever known before. One of the songs I found most moving was “He is Lord”:

He is Lord, He is Lord.
He is risen from the dead, and He is Lord.
Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess,
That Jesus Christ is Lord.

Often, the worship leader would encourage us to sing a second verse directly to Christ: “You are Lord, You are Lord. You have risen from the dead and you are Lord.” If I close my eyes, I am transported back in time to my college days, singing “You are Lord” in my little church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, worshiping God with heart, soul, mind, and strength.

We don’t know for sure who wrote the song “He is Lord.” We know it emerged from the Jesus Movement and was popularized by Marantha! Music. Of course, whoever was the first to compose that song relied heavily on the Apostle Paul and the Christ Hymn from Philippians 2:5-11.

As we have seen in recent devotions, that hymn begins with a stunning depiction of Christ, who was in very nature God, giving up his divine privileges by becoming human and even dying on a cross. You might say that Christ went from the very highest place in all creation to the very lowest place. He did this, as we say in the Nicene Creed, “for us and our salvation.”

At the midpoint of the Christ Hymn, with Christ being humbled through “death on a cross,” everything changes . . . dramatically, profoundly, and gloriously, because of Christ’s sacrifice:

Therefore, God highly honored him
and gave him a name above all names,
so that at the name of Jesus everyone
in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow
and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

As we examine verse 9, we learn that God “highly honored” Christ. More traditional translations prefer “highly exalted,” translating more literally the Greek verb, which means “raise above all heights, raise to a high point of honor, or exalt.”

The latter part of verse 9 adds that God “gave him a name above all names.” In the Old Testament, there is only one name above all others, that is YHWH, or Yahweh, the name of God. Thus, Psalm 8:1 can exult, “LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!” Psalm 148:13 adds, “Let all of these praise the LORD’s name because only God’s name is high over all.” So God, identified in verse 11 as God the Father, gave to Christ God’s very own name.

This is confirmed by the rest of the Christ Hymn, which continues, “so that at the name of Jesus everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (2:10-11). The language of these verses is drawn from Isaiah 45:22-24:

Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn,
from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness
a word that shall not return:
“To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear.” (NRSV)

In Isaiah, God makes it clear that “there is no other.” This is an example of foundational Jewish monotheism, based on God’s own revelation and claim. Yet, in Philippians 2, we find something scandalously different. There, all creatures confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The Greek word kyrios, translated here as “Lord,” had a range of meanings. It could be used for a property owner, a person in authority, or a god. But most significant when it comes to the use of kyrios in Philippians 2 is the fact that this word was used by Greek-speaking Jews for the divine name, Yahweh. So, in the Christ Hymn, given the fact that all creatures bow before the exalted Christ, it’s clear that he is not just a human lord, but the one true Lord, Yahweh. This is the name above every name, the name so sacred that faithful Jews wouldn’t even say it out loud. When they came upon the name Yahweh in Scripture, they would say adonai, the Hebrew word meaning “lord.” (Today, many Jews avoid even adonai, preferring to say HaShem, “the Name.”)

Now we see the full, unprecedented, mind-expanding, heart-filling, praise-inspiring story of the Christ Hymn. Christ, once in the form of God and equal to God, emptied himself, moving from the highest rung of the ladder to the lowest. He became human, even like a slave. And he chose the way of humility, dying a slave’s death on the cross. Therefore, God the Father lifted him higher than all others, giving him God’s own name, Lord. In response, all creatures will bow before him in worship and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. All of this was instigated by God the Father and leads to the Father’s glory.

Before I finish working on Philippians 2, I want to circle back and reflect with you on how the example of Jesus teaches and inspires us to live and lead for the good of others. I’ll do this next Monday. For now, let me encourage you to consider the following.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Servant at Work (Isaiah 40ff.).