Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The Exaltation of Christ

“God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names.”
Philippians 2:9, NLT

“This Jesus God raised up...exalted to the right hand of God” and “God exalted him to his right hand as Leader and Savior.”
Acts 2:32-33; 5:31, NET Bible

God the Father resurrected Jesus, who was born from a woman, to spirit life and exalted him to a position he did not have before.

If Jesus is a person of the Almighty Godhead, then these Exaltation Scriptures are nonsensical. However, since these texts are Scripture, then Trinitarianism, the Jesus-is-a-person-of-the-Almighty-Godhead theology, is nonsensical.

Note: Trinitarians may read 'Father' in place of 'God,' and say it was Jesus' human nature that was exalted, as Jesus already had, in their view, a divine nature that needed no exaltation. However, please notice two points:
  1. These Exaltation Scriptures say it was 'God,' not 'the Father' or 'God the Father as a person of the Trinitarian Godhead,' who exalted Jesus. It was God, a superior person in his own right. This is confirmed in Acts 7:55, 56, Romans 8:34 and 1 Peter 3:22, which all mention Jesus being at, not just the Father's right hand, but at God's right hand. That is, Jesus as a person is at the right hand of the single person God, also called the Father. See also the prophetic "right hand" scripture Psalm 110:1.
  2. These Exaltation Scriptures say it was Jesus who was exalted, not just his human nature. If it was his human nature, they would have had to say so. But they did not.
Therefore, God exalted Jesus, period. Jesus was "lower than angels" and was exalted by God to be higher than angels, like he was before, only now with more authority.—Hebrews 2:7-9.


Further reading:

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posted by JimSpace at 12:18 PM