5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ~ Philippians 2:5-11
Paul wasn’t speaking on his own authority but according to the Spirit of God. This is important to understand that Jesus, while on earth, acted as a man. He lived as a man. He felt pain, sorrow, and temptation as a man. He had to get up and pray to receive strength to make it through His days. Why?
Because if He overcame sin by being God, then we have no hope of overcoming sin because we will never be God. This is why Jesus said in John 8:28, I do nothing of my own accord. Because He had to learn. He didn’t come down omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. He was in His Father’s house, learning from His Father. When He was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon Him.
This is also why He says in John 18:28 that He has to return to the Father because the Father is greater. As Paul explains in great detail in Philippians 2:5-11, Jesus had set aside His Godliness to come down to the earth and become man. So, Jesus, as a man, had to return to the Father in order to present Himself as the sacrifice so that the Father could accept His sacrifice and elevate Him to His rightful place in order to forgive the sins of all who believe and repent so that He could send the Holy Spirit. If Jesus overcame the world as God, we would have no hope, but because Jesus came as a man, all men now have the opportunity to overcome the world through Him. We now have hope.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Follow The Man Jesus.
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