3 God the Son: His Identity and Birth: Philippians 2:5-11
3
God the Son: His Identity and Birth
Philippians 2:5-11
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
It is generally thought that the Apostles’ Creed represents an expansion of a very simple and basic confession of faith: “Jesus is Lord!” Christians have always insisted that there is something qualitatively different about Jesus that sets him apart from all other religious teachers or thinkers. There is a vitally close connection between the person and the message of Jesus. What Jesus did and the impact he made on those who encountered him make his message important. In Jesus the message and the messenger are one and the same.
GROUP DISCUSSION. What are the attitudes of a good servant?
PERSONAL REFLECTION. What other lords have you been tempted to honor besides Jesus? How has Jesus proved himself better than any of them?
If Jesus is just a man, a human being like the rest of us, he shares our need for redemption—in other words, he can’t redeem us. He is part of the problem, not the solution to it. On the other hand, if Jesus is God, and God alone, he has no point of contact with us. He cannot relate to those who need redemption. Jesus’ humanity provides that point of contact. And so we arrive at the conclusion that Jesus must be divine and human if he is to redeem us. Read Philippians 2:5-11.
1. Taking this Scripture passage as a whole, what is the relationship between Jesus and God?
2. In what sense(s) could Jesus be said to have “made himself nothing” (v. 7)?
3. How could Jesus be called a “servant” (v. 7)?
4. Jesus the Son of God was “found in appearance as a man” (v. 8). For you, what is most remarkable about the fact that God was incarnate in Jesus Christ?
5. What are the reasons for the exaltation of Jesus (vv. 8-9)?
6. The name of Jesus is now “the name that is above every name” (v. 9). Think of several great human leaders of the past and present. How is Jesus greater than each of them?
7. Verses 9-11 are full of adoration of Christ. When have you felt yourself caught up in that kind of adoration?
8. Try to envision the worldwide worship of vv. 10-11. What does it look like?
What does it sound like?
9. How does confessing Jesus as Lord bring glory to God the Father (v. 11)?
10. What does it mean for you that “Jesus Christ is Lord” (v. 11)?
11. What does it mean for you that Jesus Christ is your Lord?
Offer prayers of adoration to Jesus as Lord. Praise his particular qualities as they come to mind, such as his power, his humility, his unchanging nature, his mercy.