An aspect of the Incarnation, that can easily be overlooked in Jesus’ humbling of Himself, is its perpetuity.
“When the Son of God joined himself to a body at Bethlehem it was an eternal arrangement. He will continue to manifest himself in this body (in its resurrected state, of course) throughout the ages.” [1]
Think again with me just what that means.
The invisible, eternal God who formed man from the dust, became the dust of man—forever. The resurrection didn’t release Christ from the shackles of his mortal body and return Him to His pre-incarnate self; rather, He became the first fruits of the dead as His body put off its mortality and put on immortality.
His resurrection and glorified body paved the way for our resurrection and our glorified body.
Yet, for Christ, a glorified body was, even still in all its glory, is a step down from His pre-incarnate self. A pre-incarnate self-depiction seen in the Transfiguration,
“And His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.”
– Matthew 17:2 NASB
Even more of His deity, then what was previously displayed in the Transfiguration, was seen in His revelation to John while on the isle of Patmos; yet, it was still witnessed through human features,
“His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.”
– Revelation 1:14-16 NASB (emphasis mine)
Indeed, there is a perpetuity of the Incarnation.
But what does that mean?
For us, to see Him face to face is our desire based, in and through, a glorified body—a body so much greater than what we have now, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2 NASB); but for Christ to return our gaze on that day, His glorified body is still a humiliation.
It is not “greater” as ours are to each of us; rather, it is “less” as a result of the Incarnation’s perpetuity.
So, if a glorified body doesn’t exalt Jesus appropriately, what does?
His name.
“For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.”
– Philippians 2:9-11 NASB
And that is why,
“that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
– Philippians 2:10-11 NASB
