Section 3
shedding His blood for our redemption. After His resurrection, He was uplifted to the heavens and with His human nature was brought back to the form of God in glory. Now He is our pat tern. The pattern of the Christian life is the God- man Savior who emptied Himself and humbled Himself and who was exalted and glorified by God.
REPRINTING THE PATTERN
The very pattern revealed in 2:5-11 must now become our salvation. This is indicated by the words "so then" at the beginning of verse 12. After giving us a clear view of Christ as our wonderful pattern, Paul says, "So then, my be loved,…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."
As our pattern, Christ is both inclusive and exclusive. The pattern is exclusive because it ex cludes everything worldly, fleshly, or sinful. There is no way for negative things to have any part in Him or access to Him. But, on the positive side, He is all-inclusive, for He is the God-man Savior who emptied and humbled Himself and who has been exalted and glorified by God. With such a pattern available to us, we now must work out our own salvation.