“Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).

Having plumbed the depths of Christ’s humiliation (Phil. 2:5-8), Paul now soars to the heights of His exaltation (vv. 9-11). Like Paul, the apostle Peter affirmed that the great theme of Old Testament prophecy was the sufferings of Christ and the glory to follow (1 Peter 1:11). Regarding Christ, the writer of Hebrews says that “for the joy set before Him [He] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). Christ understood His sufferings in light of His exaltation.

Paul’s purpose in Philippians 2 was not simply to detail the humiliation and exaltation of Christ but to use those truths as a practical illustration. He was calling for unity produced by humility (vv. 2-4), with Christ as the preeminent example of humility (vv. 5-11). But beyond the humiliation of Christ, Paul also affirms that He was exalted. The implication is that when we willingly humble ourselves as Christ did, God will lift us up. As James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”

It is true that the man who humbles himself is the one whom God exalts, and the man who exalts himself is the one whom God will humiliate. In the divine economy, it is by giving that one receives, by serving that one is served, by losing one’s life that one finds life, and by dying to self that one lives. These principles follow one another as surely as night follows day.

Like Christ, you will be exalted in Heaven one day. Meditate on that truth, and be encouraged by it as you go through your earthly trials.

Read the following verses: Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14; 1 Peter 5:6. What principle do they all teach?

Exaltation

Now THERE is something that will draw Mormons out to play!

According to the Plan of Salvation, under the direction of God the Father, Jehovah (the premortal Jesus) created the earth as a place where humanity would be tested.

After the resurrection, all men and women—except the spirits that followed Lucifer and the sons of perdition—would be assigned one of three degrees of glory.

Within the highest degree, the celestial kingdom, there are three further divisions, and those in the highest of these celestial divisions would become gods and goddesses through a process called "exaltation" or "eternal progression".

The doctrine of eternal progression was succinctly summarized by LDS Church leader Lorenzo Snow: "As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be."^[2]^[3]

According to Smith's King Follett discourse, God the Father himself once passed through mortality as Jesus did, but how, when, or where that took place is unclear.

The prevailing view among Mormons is that God once lived on a planet with his own higher god.^[4]^[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_cosmology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exaltation_(Mormonism)

for the joy set before Him [He] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). Christ understood His sufferings in light of His exaltation.

That phrase "despising the shame" really stood out to me today. Jesus endured the shame and humiliation of the crucifixion for us, but He sure didn't like going through it! He is GOD in the flesh by whom ALL things were created and yet He willingly submitted Himself to those cruel "religious" individuals who falsely accused and condemned Him. The soldiers then mocked Him, berated Him, slapped Him, spit on Him, stripped Him, crammed a "crown" of sharp thorns into His scalp, beat and whipped Him bloody, forced Him to carry His own heavy crossbeam on His bloody flayed shoulders down a long street filled with laughing spectators who mocked and threw rocks at Him, they nailed His hands and feet unto the rough wood of the cross and then dropped the cross into a hole so that His body was jarred by it tearing at the fresh wounds on His hands and feet, they continued to laugh, mock and berate Him as every breath He would take produced more agony. And then after hours of this torture Jesus died and, in one last effort to make sure He was dead, a soldier thrust his spear into Jesus' side and out poured the final blood and water of death. I don't think we can ever appreciate just how much humiliation and agony He willingly accepted so that we could be redeemed. This "joy" had to be overwhelming what was despised in order to be worth it. I can't imagine ever thinking about our redemption the same again. Praise the Lord for His unspeakable gift!

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