Jesus Christ the God-Man, What We Believe, Part 6

The Show Opens and the Hosts Introduce the Episode

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18 plus terms and conditions apply. See website for details. One, two, three. Welcome to The Wrap Report with your host, Andrew Rappaport, where we provide biblical interpretation and application. This is a ministry of striving for eternity and the Christian podcast community.

For more content or to request a speaker for your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.

Well, welcome to The Wrap Report. I'm your host, Andrew Rappaport, here for another episode and joined by the Niners fan. We'll have to figure out what that means. The illustrious co-host. Yeah. Jim Osmond.

Pastor Jim, how are you? Very good. It's a pleasure to be on the program. You have some love for Nice to be back. You have a love for the number nine, right? Is that it? No. Well, the 49ers, that's my team.

Oh, that's right. 49ers. Yeah. I don't follow football. So I know you love to. You love to. That's okay. I enjoy football.

That's how I am. You think there's going to be football in heaven? I do. Really? I think there'll be all kinds of sports in heaven. New heavens and new earth. Glorified bodies, athletes. I think there'll be all kinds of sports and competition in heaven.

Actually, that might be a fun topic to go. I never really thought about that before, but hey, this is episode 200. So we've made it that far. Some of you never thought we would make it this far. You were like co-hosting with me back in like episode one.

Well, I don't know if I was co-hosted, but you did an interview or two with me and I was pleased to be on way back in the beginning.

Podcast Rankings, Reviews, and the Value of Consistency

So let me give some stats for folks that just looked this up just before we started recording. This kind of neat just to see, you know, and I tried to encourage folks in our Christian Podcast Community Facebook group that like, you know, people are always asking, how do you get more downloads?

How do you get higher rankings and things? And I ended up posting the rankings just to say, look, it's really simple. Produce good content and stick with it. Just don't quit. I mean, it's really, that's what you do.

So we're ranked as of right now, the Rap Report Podcast is ranked 51 in the United States in religion. Now, religion is a broader section than Christianity, but we're ranking in the religion section. We're number 51 in the United States, 153 in Great Britain, 67 in Canada, 133 in Australia, and 34 in Ireland.

And so we've moved up nine slots from we were at 60 and we moved up to 51 in America. So to all of you who are listening, who are sharing these episodes, thank you, because that's what helps. Actually, this is a little known fact that most people have.

I should say a little known myth, I'll put it that way. If you ever listen to podcasts, you'll sometimes hear podcasters say, write us a review, give us a five-star review, and that helps to get us better rankings.

Okay, insider tip, it does absolutely nothing for that, okay? It doesn't help you in rankings. What actually helps in rankings is the number of people that are following the podcast for a given timeframe.

So we were, I remember we were number one in the Philippines, not just for religion, but religion and spirituality, the broader topic. We were number one in Philippines when I spoke in the Philippines, and 1 ,500 people, and I encourage them all to subscribe, which we used that language back then, now we say follow, but that followed the podcast, and all of them took out their phones and did that.

And so because so many people were doing that, we jumped to number one because they look at how many follows you have. However, reviews are very helpful, and what we announced to you right now, because we've pre-recorded some episodes, we had Jim Wallace, J. Warner Wallace, on his book Person of Interest, and if you do write a review for us, then you will be able to get a hold of that.

And so the way to write a review is, it's in the show notes, it has a link to it, but just go to lovethepodcast .com slash rap report, that's rap with two P's, lovethepodcast .com slash rap report, leave a review there, and two lucky winners will get a free copy of Jim's latest book that we, not Jim Osmond, but Jim Wallace, that's right, we got two Jims there, Jim Wallace's latest book, Person of Interest.

I wonder what you were signing me up for there, giving away books.

Well, actually, I do need to, we should talk about this offline, but I do need to place an order for your book, God Doesn't Whisper, I'm Out of Them. We could thank our friend Justin Peters for that, because we went to an event and he didn't have, I brought all the copies of all of your books, we sold everything that I had for his ministry, and so the only thing I have left, I think, is one copy of Truth and Territory.

So, I'd be happy to give away your books, of course I would, you want me to buy them.

Andrew, I just want to say congratulations on the 200th episode, congratulations on being in number 51, and what most people don't know is that under that broader rubric of religion and spirituality, and then you go down to a narrower category of Christianity, and then narrower evangelical, and then narrower than that reports, and then underneath that podcast named Rap Report, you are number one overall podcast.

I think it's Todd Friel who says, like, we're the number one on this radio station at this time, you're limited down to where this is the only one in that category. You know, that's kind of the way people do things nowadays, so let's dig into...

You are also the fastest growing podcast in that category I just mentioned as well. There you go, that is helpful. And the highest rated podcast in that category. And the only.

What We Believe and the Doctrine of God the Son

So, what we're going to talk about today, folks, is we're doing our series, going through what we believe. This is the doctoral statement that you can find at strivingforeternity .org under the about section, and it's what we believe.

So, if you go there, and we're in the section under God, we're picking up now with God the Son, and so we're going to look at some different things that we see with God the Son. I think this is probably, just to give you guys a heads up, I'm thinking this is probably going to take four episodes.

That's my guess. We'll see how well Jim and I can do just to get through God the Son. But, Jim, if you wouldn't mind reading for us the first... Let's be very optimistic and think we can get through the first four paragraphs there.

I'll be ambitious and read those first four paragraphs. Here we go. God the Son. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, possesses all the divine excellencies, and in these he is co-equal, consubstantial, and co-eternal with the Father.

John 10, 30, and John 14, 9. God the Father created according to his own will through his Son, Jesus Christ, by whom all things continue in existence and in operation. That's John 1, 3, Colossians 1, 15 -17, and Hebrews 1, verse 2.

Paragraph 2. In the incarnation, God becoming man, Christ surrendered only the prerogatives of deity but nothing of the divine essence, either in degree or kind. In his incarnation, the eternally existing second person of the Trinity accepted all the essential characteristics of humanity and so became the God-man, Philippians 2, 5 -8, and Colossians 2, verse 9.

Jesus Christ represents humanity and deity in indivisible oneness, like 5 -2, John 5, 23, John 14, 9 -10, and Colossians 2, 9. Paragraph 4. Jesus Christ is virgin-born, Isaiah 7, 14, Matthew 1, 23 -25, Luke 1, 26 -35.

He is God-incarnate, John 1, 1, and verse 14, and the purpose of the incarnation was to reveal God, redeem men, and rule over God's kingdom. Psalm 2, 7 -9, Isaiah 9, verse 6, John 1, 29, Philippians 2, 9 -11, Hebrews 7, 25 -26, and 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19.

Those are the first four paragraphs. Okay, so let's dig into this first one. Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. Now, we've already looked at the Trinity in the previous episode that we had done on this.

The Trinity properly defined, and this is important because any time that we deal with cults—and remember, a doctrinal statement is saying what we do not believe as much as it is saying what we do believe, and so a lot of this is to answer false views that have come up on different subjects here.

So, the Trinity is something that is often misunderstood, really misdefined. So, you'll see this with different cults. You'll see this in Islam that will say that the Trinity is the belief in three gods.

You will see that throughout other cults that try to do that. The Trinity properly defined is three separate and distinct persons in one Godhead, one being. And so, the reason that becomes important is we are seeing that God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit are separate and distinct from one another, and yet they are God.

They're not three gods, they're one God. And this first paragraph is going to dig into that. Now, why I want to focus a little bit more energy on this is because people mostly battle over the deity of Christ and not the deity of the Holy Spirit.

If someone accepts the deity of Christ, accepting the deity of the Spirit is easy. But what is hard for most people is the deity of Christ, especially because so much of the flesh, and a lot of people don't understand that the passages that are talking about that being mostly written by John are dealing with Gnosticism that believe that Jesus didn't come in the flesh.

He was a spirit. As spirit, He's God. Anything of the flesh is evil and bad. Anything of the spirit is good. And so, Jesus didn't come in the flesh in that thinking, and therefore, they didn't believe He actually came in the flesh.

He just appeared to be in the flesh. So, a lot of what we end up seeing is the deity of Christ is contested by many groups. Let me say what also we're going to see in this, and we're going to see this in the definition that we have here for the Son.

There is a view that many people hold within, let's say, Christianity. Broadly speaking. Broadly speaking. Someone, Jim, let's name names, T .D. Jakes, very well known. He holds to a view of the Trinity called modalism.

Modalism is the idea that God the Father was God in the Old Testament. He changed modes. So, it's one person, one being, but in the Old Testament, He was the Father. He walked on earth as the Son. Now, in the church age, He is the Spirit.

He changes modes as He needs to be. But they would say it's one person, one being. Now, that is easier to understand. It's just not true.

And, Andrew, what is important there is the recognition that T .D. Jakes can affirm the deity of Christ while denying the doctrine of the Trinity. And that's key. So, a lot of people like Jehovah's Witnesses would deny the deity of Christ and deny the doctrine of the Trinity.

It is possible to deny the Trinity while affirming the deity of Christ or to believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and was fully man, and at the same time, deny the biblical doctrine of the Trinity, Trinitarian theology.

And that's important to keep in mind when you're defining what the Trinity is and who Christ is and how He is related to the Father. Because not everybody who denies the Trinity, the biblical doctrine of the Trinity, actually denies the deity of Christ.

And that's an important distinction to keep in mind that when we're talking about the deity of Christ, we're not talking about the doctrine of the Trinity as if they are synonymous with one another.

And that's true. But yet, when talking with someone, we have to ask, what do you mean by Trinity? Because T .D. Jakes would say he believes in the Trinity. Mormons would say they believe in the Trinity.

And yet, both of those groups would have very different understandings than I just defined. So, this is the thing we want you guys to understand as you're listening to us. You got to dig into the definition of terms.

That becomes really important in any of these things.

And we wouldn't say that T .D. Jakes is a brother or that Phillips, Craig, and Dean are brothers or that Motilis are brothers because they have a different view of God as a Trinity, though they would affirm the deity of Christ.

So, it's important to remember that you can come across somebody who would affirm the deity of Christ. That doesn't necessarily make them believers because they may have a different doctrine of God. They're worshiping a different God.

You know, in fact, this is so important. By the time this drops, the next day, I will be doing Apologetics Live, where I'll do a debate. And this is an interesting debate. I was being challenged to debate.

This is the topic, Jim. I don't know if you saw this, but the topic is Calvinism is useless and dangerous. Now, I've said I don't even have to be a Calvinist to argue that one because, you know, here's the thing.

I just asked the guy, what's your definition of Calvinism? I can teach Calvinism. Okay. I didn't ask if you could teach it. Can you define it? I mean, if you could teach it, you should be able to define it.

Can you define it? He's like, he says TULIP. Okay. Can you define TULIP? So he gives me the acronym for TULIP. Well, close to it. He got the last one right. He said preservation of the saints instead of perseverance of the saints.

Difference there. But he still didn't define it. I said, no, you have to actually define it. If we're going to debate, we got to make sure that we're using the same terminology. His response was to block me.

So this debate should be very interesting because really what it's going to come down to is exactly what we're trying to express to you guys here. Definition of terms matter. If he is defining Calvinism incorrectly, then yes, I could actually agree with him that it might be useless and dangerous, but he's defining it as soteriology.

Well, if you're just saying Calvinism is soteriological, which means the doctrine of salvation issue, I think that all I have to do is show that it has a use. And if the argument is that God's sovereign in salvation, then done.

I mean, it's not only useful, it would be necessary.

Chapter two, salvation is of the Lord.

So definitions can change everything. So if he's going to not define it and just open it up to anything, all I have to do is say Calvinism is that God's sovereign in salvation, and then he's stuck, right?

This is why we want to spend the time looking at these things. So Jesus Christ, the second person of Trinity, possesses all, notice all, not some, all the defined excellencies. What do we mean by that?

What I'm trying to say, there's all the attributes, but attributes isn't enough. And so some people use the term excellencies. Some of the Puritans use that in praising. There's other phrases that people will use for attributes, but it's basically if you look at the attributes of God, and if you take our Striving for Eternity Academy course on systematic theology, the first thing we do is we look at the attributes of God and we define them in three ways.

Attributes of divinity, those things that only God possesses. Attributes of personality, what defines a person. And attributes of morality. So that's how we end up classifying the different attributes.

But what we're trying to emphasize here is he possesses all the divine attributes, or perfections, if you'd like to use that term.

Yeah, that's a really good word for that category.

And I think either of those, perfections, excellencies, I think have a better notion. But this is the essence of who God is.

What we say about God that is true, right? True things about God, that's what we're talking about.

Correct. Because you're claiming someone or something is God, and it doesn't have these attributes, that person's not God. That becomes the issue. So any human being that claims they're God and can't prove that they're omniscient,.

They're not God, okay? When we talk about perfections, if I could just interrupt here for a second, we talk about God's perfections, we're talking about the things that make God, God. So God is loving, he's kind, he's gracious, he's good.

God has a personality, God has an intellect and a will. But we also possess these qualities, but we're not God. But when we describe God's attributes, and we use the word perfections, what we're describing is these things that are true of God that have no imperfections or limitations in them.

Because they're not just excellencies and perfections, but they're, God possesses all these qualities in infinite degree and to an infinitely perfect measure and an infinitely perfect being or quality with them.

We have these certain communicable attributes that we possess in a limited measure that are reflections of the divine image, but God possesses these things. And because he possesses them to the degree and with the excellency with which he possesses them, the perfection of them, that's what makes him God.

We can have some of the same attributes as God, but we don't have them in perfection. These are the perfections. We talk about God's attributes, we're talking about uniquely the degree to which God possesses these excellencies and these attributes that make him divine, and without which, if he, God did not have any one of these perfections, he would not be God.

In other words, all of these things are necessary in their fullness and to the perfect degree for him to be considered God, for him to be divine.

And so Jim used a term that maybe is new for so many folks, but this is how the theologians refer to them as communicable and incommunicable. What that means is there are attributes that we as human beings possess.

Angels possess certain attributes that we could see, but we being made in the image of God have certain attributes that angels would not have. And so when we see these things is we have attributes that God has.

We have emotions, we have intellect. These are things that are communicated. That's the word communicable. They're communicated to man. Incommunicable are those attributes that are only that of divinity.

So only God possesses. Things like omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, those sort of things being eternal. So this becomes a major thing, and we'll get into this at some point, that Jesus is not created.

He can't be created because if he's created, he wasn't eternal. And if he's not eternal, then he doesn't have all of the divine excellencies. He's missing something. And missing that would mean he's not God.

Because those incommunicable attributes are true only of God. Those ones that aren't communicated to us. And so we say here that he possesses all of them. All of those divine ones, Jesus possesses completely.

And the thing with that means he can't lose them. It's not like he could be omniscient one moment and not the next. So we continue on, and it says, Now these are very important words to have, and there's reasons we have them.

Co-equal. This is going to be out of John 10 .30. I and the Father are one. The Jews pick up stones to stone him, and he says, For what good works are you going to stone me? And they say, Not for good works, but for you claiming to be God.

So in that day, the Jewish leaders of that day understood when he said, I and the Father are one, they understood what that meant. He also says that before Abraham was, I am. And they picked up stones to stone him then too.

Why? Because they understood that phrase at that time. Words change. They knew that that was a claim of deity. You being a man claimed to be God. That means Jesus was claiming that he was equal with God.

Exactly what Philippians 2 ends up saying. That he is equal with God. He didn't consider it robbery to be equal with God. That is important because what he's saying is he's claiming those divine excellencies.

Co-substantial. Meaning he is of the same essence. He's the same. This is important because some people in the first century made a big argument over Greek words, homosapiens versus homosapiens. One letter change.

Homoousius. Homoousius. Or homoi, homoousius and homoousius. The letter is one single letter's difference.

And yet the meaning is completely different. Meaning whether it's the same essence.

One means of the same substance and one means of a similar substance.

Which if it's a similar substance, then Jesus isn't God. If it's the same substance, he is God. This is why we're saying this one is to say he is of the same substance as God. He shares in that. And he's co-eternal.

Meaning he had no beginning. He was not created. He has no end. This is the idea that you and I, any of the folks who like geometry class. I know some of you, it's like, no, that was so long ago. If you remember the difference between a line and a ray.

A line is a line with two arrows on either end. Meaning it has no beginning and no end. It just goes on infinitely in both directions. That's God. Everything else is a ray. That's where you have a dot with a line and an arrow.

Meaning it had a starting point. A point where it's created and then goes on forever. Well, that's you and I. We are that. So, and this is the difference between being eternal and being immortal. Now, you might see the word immortal in the Bible referring to God because we've become more specific in language with some of these things.

Eternal being that God never had a beginning and will continue forever. Where immortal, you and I, had a beginning and go on forever. You know, a very interesting thing, Jim. I think it was Ligonier that put the study together.

And they do this every couple years, a systematic theology study. See how people are in Christianity. He asked the question about Jesus being a created being. And unfortunately, it was very high. Now, I think it was like 40 some percent of evangelicals agreed that Jesus was created.

Not realizing they just agreed with Jehovah's Witnesses.

I wonder what's to blame for such a low ability to understand theology in the church today. It's just horrible that pastors are not teaching the people theology. Correct.

They should. So, the second sentence that we have is, God the Father created according to his own will through the Son, Jesus Christ, by whom all things continue in existence in operation. So, this is specific language that's going to answer the issue of the way Jehovah's Witnesses will try to argue.

Now, the argument becomes for Jehovah's Witnesses is that God the Father created Michael the Archangel, who later became Jesus. But God the Father creates Michael the Archangel, and then through Michael the Archangel, creates everything.

And it's God who holds everything in existence. But let's turn to some scripture here and see what scripture says. First, I want to look at Hebrews chapter 1. And it says, chapter 1 in verse 2, 2 is really the one we want to focus on.

But God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets, in many portions and 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.

So, what you end up seeing here is it's very clear that Jesus is the heir of all things and sustainer of all things, and he made everything with the Father. Here's an issue that some would have is the Jehovah's Witnesses will say, but see, that's okay, because God made Jesus, and then Jesus created everything, that could be fine.

And Jesus would be a created being.

That way they can maintain that he's the creator of all things, while maintaining also that he is a created thing.

Correct. And in fact, as we turn to Colossians 1, we're going to see that they actually have to add to scripture. We see in Colossians 1, verses 15 to 17. We read 17. So, here's what it says. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created, both in the heavens and the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things that have been created through him and for him.

He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. Now, four times you have the term all things. Jehovah's Witnesses have to add to the Bible. They have added the word other, all other things.

Why do they have to add? They argue that it's to clarify the meaning of the passage. They say, well, just like you have in the King James translation, words in italics that help clarify the meaning of the passage, or put words in there that were not in the original text,.

Those are inserted for that purpose. And they're a little bit deceptive on this, Jim. I don't know if you know the history, but what the Jehovah's Witnesses had done early on, they had, when they first came out with the New World Translation, they had it in italics, showing that it wasn't in the Greek.

And people started pointing that out. So, they, actually, sorry, originally, they had it without the italics, and people pointed out that that's not in the Greek. And so, they added the italics. But they recently updated the New World Translation, and they have removed the italics again.

Oh, interesting. Because this is such a strong point. Because if he created all things, and I argue, this doesn't need clarification. It's, now, if you're adding something that changes the theology, and that's what this does, saying he created all things versus saying he created all other things changes the theology.

And therefore, they should recognize their position is wrong. Now, it's okay to add, when you're doing translation words, to help in the meaning.

But if it is... Smooth out, smooth out the translation.

I mean, if you and I speak English, but if we were to be translated into some other language, they would need to move words around, smooth things out, so that it is better understood for that language.

That's perfectly acceptable. The problem is, when you do that smoothing out, actually changes the meaning, and it's a point of theology, then that's wrong. So, they end up saying that the firstborn of creation, it means that he is the first created thing.

Again, culture, words, have meaning within a culture. Firstborn doesn't always mean the first one born. David is called the firstborn. Abraham, or Sir Isaac, is referred to as the firstborn. They are not the firstborn.

In fact, David was the last of his siblings. So, how could they be the firstborn? It means the preeminence one. And in fact, if you read this, that's the idea, is the preeminence of all creation. He is the image of the invisible God.

That right there says everything. But to emphasize that, Paul is going into saying he's the firstborn of all creation, meaning he is the supreme of all creation. He's above it all, for by him all things were created.

And he lists everything, so there's nothing left out. Anything that was created was created by him. Now, let me give you a passage I love to go to when I take Jehovah Witnesses. You take them to Colossians 1, 15 to 17, then take them to Isaiah 44, 24.

And before you go to Isaiah, what you do is you ask them, who created everything that was created according to Colossians? And they say, Jesus. And then you turn to Isaiah 44, 24. Thus says the Lord, Jehovah.

They make big emphasis of that being Jehovah. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you in the womb, I am Jehovah, am the maker of all things. Okay, let's just stop there. Who is the maker of all things?

Jehovah. And you could stop them and say, okay, how can that be? They say, well, Jehovah did it through Jesus. Okay, so does that mean there's two people that were involved in creation? There's, you know, Heavenly Father, God the Father, and Michael the Archangel.

And they would go, yes. Well, then let's read that again. I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by myself. And I stretch out the earth all alone. Oops, the scripture doesn't support the view that God had help.

He says he did it all alone. The idea there is, if Jesus is involved in creation, it means he cannot be a created being. If he created all things, he could not be a created being.

A good way of getting the Jehovah's Witnesses to admit this is to ask them the question, what is a thing? And eventually you want to get them to give the answer, a thing is something that is created. So then would Jesus be a thing since he is created?

Well, yes, he would be a thing. So if God, if Jesus created all things, then how can he himself be a thing? Because then he would, the text would have to say he created all things except for one thing, namely the thing that is Jesus Christ.

Which is why they have to add that word other, all other things for time.

Because they're trying to have their cake and eat it too. They're trying to say that Jesus is a thing and yet the creator of all things that are not him.

And this is why folks, for you who are listening, it's important to go through a doctrinal statement like this and explain it so that you know. I mean, the reason we're taking the time is the doctrinal statement that we have here doesn't explain all these ways that this phrasing, this definition of things helps you to know what's right versus heresy, right?

Jehovah's Witness comes to your door, you can take this and go, oh, here's what the scriptures say. Here's what we can turn to scripture. So let's look at the second paragraph. On the first paragraph, we have identified that he's co-equal with God.

Second, in his incarnation, which the incarnation means, and I put it in parentheses there, God becoming man. So in his incarnation, God becoming man, Christ surrendered only the prerogative of deity, but nothing of his divine essence, either in degree or kind.

And so what we're trying to say here is that he never stopped being God. This is important because there are people who will say that Jesus became God at his baptism, or some will say after his resurrection.

Some will say that when he was on the cross, he gave up his attributes. You'll hear Muslims say this often, how could God die? God's eternal, he can't die. Now, one thing with that, if you listen to what I said earlier, we don't die in that sense either, okay?

What is death? When we speak of physical death, we're talking about the separation of our physical body from our spirit. There's a separation. That's what death is. Death is really a separation of something.

Either us from God is spiritual separation, that's spiritual death. Eternal death is that spiritual death for eternity. But what we end up with is it doesn't mean that what makes us us stops living. We don't have a body, but we continue to live.

So, as we look at this, some will claim in Philippians chapter two, that what that teaches is what's called the kenosis theory. The word kenosis is the Greek word for emptying. And what people will try to argue is that Jesus on the cross gave up his attributes of deity, and just when he was on that cross was just a man.

Now, we're going to look at Philippians two, but let me explain why that's so important to understand that that's wrong. If Jesus was just a man on the cross, and he was just a temporal being, then his death on the cross was a temporal punishment.

And not an infinite one. Correct. And the whole fact of how we have salvation is that the fact that Jesus Christ being an eternal being can pay an eternal fine. Why did he have to become a man? Why the incarnation?

Because as a man, he lived perfectly, never breaking the law, and can be a substitute for us because he lived perfectly. So now, as a perfect man who never broke the law, he can be a substitute. But guess what?

If he was just a man, he can only pay for one person at one time because he's temporal. Being eternal, he can pay that infinitely. And so that is a very, very important thing to understand and remember.

That when we talk about him becoming a man, he never gave up all of his deity. So let me turn to Philippians two, verse five. Have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking on the form of a bondservant and being in the form of 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 the cross.

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.