Can You Defend the Deity of Christ?

The Carmen Christi in Philippians 2

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. Today, we're going to be in Philippians chapter two, and we're going to be looking at one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible, something called the Carmen Christi or the Song of Christ.

This passage actually begins in verse five and goes down to verse 11. So I'm gonna read the passage now. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed upon him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Anyone who's been in our church for any length of time knows that often when it is my turn to give the elder prayer which is a prayer that we give at our church, that I will make reference to this passage, that I will say that I'm coming to the Lord in Jesus' name.

This is the way that I pray. Instead of saying in Jesus' name at the end of the message, I will often say, Lord, I come to you in Jesus' name as an introduction to the prayer. And I say, and the reason why I'm coming in Jesus' name is because there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

That's the words of the apostle Peter. And then I say, and at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

And of course, if you were listening, you'll note that that is the wording that the apostle Paul gives us here in this wonderfully expressive Christological passage. This is one of the most important Christological passages in the whole Bible.

And what I wanna do today is I just want to spend a few moments expressing to you why I think that this passage should be a part of everyone's memory bank whenever we're thinking of how we defend our faith.

Because remember, we don't just defend our faith against atheists. When people think about apologetics, people think about, well, we have to learn how to defend the existence of God. We have to learn how to defend the truthfulness of the Bible.

Those things are obviously things that are part of the apologetic necessities. We have to be able to defend those things, give a reason for the hope that's in us. But I will tell you this from experience and having spoken to many other apologists, apologetics often is not defending the Bible against unbelievers or defending the existence of God against a rampant atheist.

Often apologetics is defending the doctrines of Scripture against heresy. And one of the most important doctrines that we should know how to defend as believers is the doctrine of the deity of Christ, the doctrine of Christ as God and man.

The Deity of Christ in John 1 and Philippians 2

And of course, there are very important passages. John chapter one, verse one, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. That's a hugely important passage. Also in John chapter one, it tells us the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

That tells us that he was before he came in the flesh, that he became flesh. And that tells us he already existed prior to that. It proves his pre-incarnate existence. Well, this passage goes even a step further because not only does this passage tell us that Jesus pre-existed his earthly coming in Bethlehem, in his incarnation, but it also tells us that he had an equality with God.

And it does so in a very subtle way, but a very clear way. Because if you understand the context of what Paul is talking about here, he's calling the people of Philippi, he's reminding them of the importance of humility.

He says in verse three, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.

Okay, so the context is humility and looking to the interest of others. And so what does he use as the great example of humility? Jesus. And the reason why is because Jesus, though he was in the form of God, when he came to the earth, he did not count equality with God, something to hold onto or something to be grasped is the way that the ESV reads.

But if you look in the ESV, you'll see that it says a thing to be grasped. It actually means a thing to hold onto, something to keep for himself. When Jesus came into the world, he was submitting himself to the Father.

That doesn't mean he wasn't equal with the Father. The very doctrine of the Trinity, we believe that Jesus is co-equal with the Father. But when he came to the earth, he did not count that equality something to be grasped, but instead he emptied himself.

And how did he empty himself? Well, he tells us by taking the form of a servant. He who was God, he who is God came to earth as a servant. He was born in the likeness of men. He was found in human form.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross, which is the worst kind of death. You see, there is in the life of Jesus a grand humiliation. The humiliation isn't the cross.

The humiliation is the incarnation. When he came as a man, he was humbling himself. He was humiliating himself. He was stepping down into the position of a man. He was fully God and he did not give up his Godhood.

That's another part of this passage that's often misunderstood. There's something called kenosis and the concept of kenotic theology. When it says he emptied himself, the question is what did he empty himself of?

Some people believe he emptied himself of divinity. That is not true. Jesus Christ did not stop being divine when he became man. He was fully God and fully man. But yet he emptied himself. He divested himself of the glory that he had.

In fact, he tells us this in John 17 when he's praying in his high priestly prayer. He says, father, I want to share the glory again, which I shared with you before the world was. And there's an important word there, the word share.

They shared glory. Why? Because the Trinity is God and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit share that one being, which is the being of God. And so the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God.

But the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. And so when we talk about Jesus, we're talking about he who was the God-man. And when he came to the earth, he emptied himself not of divinity, but he divested himself of the, if one might say the advantages of the glory that he had.

He came as a man. Now he was still divine, and he still had the powers of his divinity at his disposal. And we see him putting them on display. We see Jesus exercising things that nobody else could exercise, the power to raise the dead, the power to tell the future, the power to give sight to the blind, and to heal the lepers, and to make things out of nothing.

He created, out of five loaves and two fish, he created enough food for 5 ,000 people. And he did that on multiple occasions. Jesus, of course, is divine. He is the God-man. And this passage reminds us of what the God-man did for us.

He humbled himself by becoming a servant. He who is God became a servant. Such an important passage, something that we should never, ever forget, and never, ever take for granted. And it goes on to tell us that because of what Jesus did on the earth, the Father, God, exalted him.

We know this. He has been given the kingdom. Why? Because of what he has done. Now he, in a sense, you could say, well, he always had the kingdom. Yes, but he came and he established the kingdom based on his blood.

He established a new covenant, a righteousness that he had come and demonstrated by keeping the whole law. He demonstrated himself to be king. And now it says, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus Christ is the God-man. And we should exalt in that as believers and as Christians. That should never, ever be something we doubt and never be something that we allow to be removed from our minds.

Because understanding Jesus as both God and man, fully God and fully man, is one of the most important and foundational Christian truths that we confess. And so this passage is one of those passages that reminds us of this.

And it reminds us of something else. One day, every knee will bow. Every knee will bow to Jesus. Now, if we bow the knee to Jesus now in this world, we will be saved. But one day, every knee will bow, whether they bow the knee in this world or not.

And those who bow the knee in the next life will be those who go to hell. And why? Because they have not received the only begotten Son of God, because they have not believed on him. And so, again, it's a reminder.

Every knee will bow, but not every knee will bow here. Some will bow there. It will all be willing, though, because when the unrighteous see Jesus in judgment, they will be, at that moment, dropped to their knees in absolute anguish at who they have rejected.

Because they rejected the one who came, the one who gave himself, and the one who has provided salvation for everyone who believes. So again, if you're a believer and you've bowed the knee to Jesus Christ, praise the Lord, because one day you will live with him forever.

Repent and Believe the Gospel

But if you haven't, let me remind you what the Bible says. The word, when the faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of Christ. So I give you the word of Christ today. Repent and believe the gospel.

Bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust in him as the only Savior, and you can be saved. I say that without any reservation or doubt in my mind. If you will repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved.

And the only way you're gonna do that is if the Spirit of God so gives you the grace. And I pray that grace would be given to you today. I hope that this video has been helpful. I hope that you are taking the opportunity to watch our daily videos and keep up with our daily Bible readings.

And if you are, I wanna encourage you to please take the opportunity to hit the thumbs up, like, comment, share this video with others as it helps us to reach a wider audience. Again, thank you for watching Coffee with a Calvinist.

My name is Keith Foskey, and I've been your Calvinist.