The Sevenfold Descent and Ascent of Jesus–Part 1
Jesus didn’t consider it robbery to be equal to God, but He planned to descend. In the infinite eternity before us, the Father and the Son made the resolution. This agreement was a declaration of love to a fallen humanity, in order to win them back.
“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:8-11).—A celebration of the miracle of salvation, and an exploration of its unfathomable depth.
There are currently around 8 billion people living in this world. So, let’s ask ourselves: Is there even one person out of these 8 billion that God wouldn’t love? A single person for whom Jesus’ righteousness wouldn’t be effective?
When the Bible says that God loved the world and gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16), every human being is included. Every individual who avails himself of salvation through faith will be saved. “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life” (Rom 5:18). The ESV says it this way: “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.”
It’s impossible to fathom this salvation in its depths; there will always be unanswered all questions. Nevertheless, we will examine God’s love in Christ by considering the sevenfold descent and ascent of the Lord as it pertains to our salvation.
The Sevenfold Descent
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil 2:5-8).
1. Jesus was in the form of God.
“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.”
The underlying Greek word for “being equal with God” is isos, and means “to be congruent” or “as equal as possible.” Jesus is the eternal Son of God (John 17:5). His existence didn’t begin at conception; He was always in the bosom of the Father (1:18). He is the eternal Word, which was with God in the beginning, and is Himself God (1:1-3). He became flesh (man) and dwelt among us (1:14). Nothing exists that wasn’t created by Him (John 1:1-3; Col 1:16). Only He Himself was never created. Before Him there was nothing else. He is the image, the radiance (revelation) of the invisible God and His nature (Col 1:15-17; Heb 1:3). Therefore, He could say, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). And, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). The Apostle Thomas said to Him, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). And God the Father Himself bears witness to His divinity: “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever” (Heb 1:8a).
Satan was a robber who wanted to ascend to be like God (Isa 14:13). Jesus didn’t consider it robbery to be equal to God, but He planned to descend. In the infinite eternity before us, the Father and the Son made the resolution, “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Ps 40:7-8).
This agreement was a declaration of love from God the Father and God the Son to a fallen humanity, in order to win them back. It was a declaration of war against sin, death, and the devil: “If we intend to bring people up to heaven, we’ll have to go down to earth to fetch them.”
2. Jesus emptied Himself.
“But made himself of no reputation.”
Other translations say, “made himself nothing,” “gave up his divine privileges,” or “emptied himself.” Who would want to do that? Who wants to voluntarily become nothing? We all want to be something, stand for something, represent something. We strive for recognition, for a career. But God chose the opposite.
Jesus wasn’t forced to walk this path. He did it of His own accord, in complete agreement with the Father. This means that Jesus was also able to say, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:17-18).
Jesus didn’t cease to be God in nature during His earthly ministry, but He laid aside His heavenly glory and independent authority. During His earthly ministry, Christ submitted completely to every human limitation and need. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Tim 2:5-6).
As a man on earth, He didn’t know the time or hour of His return. He had every need that a man has. Nor could He do anything of His own accord (John 5:19), but only what the Father had tasked Him with. If He had wanted to summon a legion of angels, He would have had to ask the Father. He didn’t rely on His deity as His fallback plan. And this is precisely what constituted His self-abasement. As Hebrews 5:8 says, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.”
Compare that to a billionaire, who completely relinquishes his wealth and the power that comes with it … resolving not to fall back on it, in order to live among the poorest of the poor. He’s still a billionaire, and yet not.
Imagine this love: Instead of judging people, blotting them out, and creating a new world with new people, God is willing to become fully human, in order to die in their place. He takes on the full debt of their guilt.
Theologian Hans-Joachim Eckstein writes about the Lord’s statement on the Cross, “Now is my soul troubled” (John 12:27a): “If even the Son of God became tired and thirsty as a man on this earth, when he contemplated the reality of dying, loss, and despair, then what makes you think that you must always be strong and cheerful, and not allowed to show weakness? If Jesus Christ himself was deeply saddened and shaken in the hour of trial and suffering, and lamented his earthly suffering to his heavenly Father, why wouldn’t you also be allowed to weep, lament, cry out, and plead before your God? Do you really want to seem more tireless, serene, and unmoved than Jesus Christ himself? Are you seriously trying to be more superhuman than God’s own Son was on this earth?”
3. Jesus became a servant.
“And took upon him the form of a servant.”
The Lord became the servant of God and the servant of man. “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28).
The Greek word used for “servant” can also be translated as “slave.” A slave is a serf, a bondsman. Before the Lord died, He was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, a sum corresponding to the compensation for a slave killed by a bull (Ex 21:32).
In Christ, God became the servant of us all. People could do what they liked to Him. He was mocked, spat on, whipped, treated like a criminal, and finally crucified. He allowed Himself to be overcome by the people, in order to overcome. It was similar when Jacob fought with the Lord, and God said to him, “as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Gen 32:28b). From His apparent defeat, the Lord created our redemption, so that we might be ransomed from the slavery of sin, the devil, and death.
4. Jesus became fully human.
“And was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man.”
He became human in every respect—“in the likeness of men.” Where does that happen? A God who becomes one of us? Son of God and Son of Man. He became what He hadn’t been: human. As it’s been said, many men wanted to be God, and only one God became man. There is no depth in any man to which He did not descend, in order to redeem our guilty souls (Heb 4:15).
Max Lucado wrote: “If he was willing to be born in a barnyard, then expect him to be at work anywhere. No place is too common. No person is too hardened. No distance is too far. There is no limit to his love.”
Jesus became so fully human that He submitted to all human limitations. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, grew, and aged. He was tired, hungry, thirsty, and didn’t know everything. He grieved, wept, and was afraid (Is 53:8; Luke 12:50). He could do nothing of Himself (John 5:19). There was only one respect in which He wasn’t like everyone else: He was born without sin, and He lived to the end of His life without sinning (Heb 4:15; 1 Pet 2:22; 2 Cor 5:21).
5. Jesus humbled Himself.
“He humbled himself.”
No religious image can represent what Jesus made Himself into. Just imagine: A moment ago, He was still the all-powerful Creator, and now, suddenly, He is what He was not before. He is wrapped in diapers, in need of help, in need of care, lying in a manger. He needs to be fed; his diapers need to be changed. God is doing His utmost to save us. There’s nothing more He could possibly do. He completely became one of us!
• He makes Himself nothing, so that we can become everything.
• He humbles Himself, so that we can be exalted.
• He becomes a slave, so that we can be set free.
• He takes on every sin, so that we can cast off every sin.
• He is betrayed for a price, so that we can be ransomed.
It’s as the psalmist says, “Thy gentleness hath made me great” (Ps 18:35b).
6. Jesus was obedient unto death.
“And became obedient unto death.”
Obedience “unto death”: this took place in Gethsemane. His death began there. Some think that the devil wanted to kill Him in Gethsemane, to keep Him from going to the Cross, and that Jesus was praying not to die yet. Hebrews 5:7 says, “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.”
However, this statement is referring to His whole life: “in the days of his flesh.” And it doesn’t mean “from dying” but “out of death.” Jesus wasn’t saved from death in Gethsemane, but from out of His death on the Cross. This pertains to His resurrection. He arose as the firstfruits from the dead.
Jesus would never have died in Gethsemane, even if death drew very close to Him there. He announced three times in the Gospels that He would die on the Cross. Death couldn’t touch him before that appointed time. When Peter objected to this announcement, Jesus said, “Get thee behind me, Satan” (Matt 16:23).
The Lord was on a path to His death from the beginning, from the manger to the Cross. And He was obedient in all He did. The Bible says, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Heb 5:8-9).
In the Garden of Gethsemane, we can see that Jesus consciously chose to walk that path of death to the Cross. His agony began there. We read in the Gospels that He “began to be sorrowful and very heavy” (Matt 26:37; cf. Mark 14:33). “Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me” (Matt 26:38). “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). “And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt 26:39). “He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done” (verse 42).
What is the cup that the Lord Jesus spoke of? It wasn’t death in Gethsemane, but rather the cup of death on the Cross. Yet, the struggle began in the Garden. Whenever He spoke of His cup, He meant His sacrificial death on the Cross:
“Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?” (Matt 20:22). “And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt 26:27-28). “Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11).
These passages provide the answer to the question of the cup. The Lord didn’t ask the Father to remove it. He simply said, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt 26:39).
This isn’t the same as asking not to go to the Cross. To the contrary, it expresses His devoted decision to walk that path. Don’t forget that Jesus was fully human. He didn’t say, “Let this cup pass from me,” but rather, “If it be possible … not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
By doing so, Jesus made two things clear:
First, His path was incredibly difficult and anxiety-inducing (cf. Luke 12:50). If there had been another option, He would have preferred not to walk this path. And if He had prayed, “Father, take this cup from me,” without adding, “if it is possible”—if He had not said, “not as I will, but as thou wilt”—then He wouldn’t actually have had to taste death on the Cross. But secondly, that isn’t what Jesus did. Instead, He said, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” That means He consciously chose the Father’s will: “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Ps 40:8).
Jesus was obedient unto death, and it began in Gethsemane.
7. Jesus walked this path to the Cross.
“Even the death of the cross.”
It’s about the lost world. Your salvation is at stake with the Cross. You are saved through the Cross; without the Cross, you are lost forever. No other Redeemer is coming. There is no other salvation.
He was accursed by hanging on its wood (Gal 3:13; Deut 21:23). It is where He was charged with the sins of the entire world. All the debts of all people were placed on His account. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Pet 2:24).
This is best expressed by His cry on the Cross: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46).
He cried out. Have you ever heard a dying man scream? Jesus was true man, and as true man He was abandoned by God, because He became sin there on the Cross (2 Cor 5:21).
Normally, every dying person wants nothing more than for His family to be with him in his most difficult hour. For them to hold his hand, comfort him, settle his affairs. But it was different for Jesus, because His dear Father turned His back on Him. Jesus died in the anguish of complete and utter isolation, and yet fully trusting in His Father. “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost” (Luke 23:46).
Someone once said: “Everything that can be found in the way of misery, horror, crime and culpable failure in the past, present and future was then tried, settled and paid in full and without omission in this court of all courts. Not the slightest residue remained, not a single dark shadow in any corner of the universe.”—There is no guilt that is too great for him!
The Bible puts it this way: “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Col 1:20).
God is reconciled to every human being. On this basis, all man needs to do is to grasp the outstretched hand of God and allow himself to be reconciled: “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20).
• God became man, so that people could become children of God.
• God was born human, so that humans could be born of God.
• God became one of us, so that we might be like Him forever.
Midnight Call - 04/2025
