Christ Hymn Analysis

In the Christ hymn, Paul endeavors to get his message across through a chiastic structure. By using this structure, Paul helps his recipients to be able to “feel” the decent of Christ from God to the worst death possible. The death that only belonged to non-citizen slaves. Paul then helps to to “feel” the wonderful and mighty exaltation that was given to Christ in return for the sacrifice He made. In the first slope of the structure, Paul conveys to us the extant of Christ's humiliation. The second slope then gives us the extant of Christ exaltation. In the middle of these two slopes, we see the punch of the message. The extend of the first slope, ultimately led to the worst death anyone could experience. A death that was only reserved for
the lowest. The song “He Came All the Way for Me” seems so much more richer when you see how great an expanse lies from the beginning of the slope to the middle. The extant of the second slope goes from this extremely low point to the highest point possible:the name above all names. The name of God Himself! We can also look at this structure in another way.
Christ started out as exalted. He was God from the beginning, but in-spite of this fact Jesus choose to humble himself. In this way of looking at it, we see Christ as exalted, then He is humiliated. Finally we see that He is exalted again. It seems that He was even exalted higher then He ever was. In this exaltation, everyone will declare Him to be Jesus Christ the Lord. In this passage we can also see how Paul contrasts Jesus as slave and Jesus as Lord. At the beginning of the hymn, Christ is an obscure slave, but He did not stay obscure. Jesus became the universally recognized Lord. Everyone will someday recognized who He really is. It is really amazing when one stops to think about the positions of slave and Lord. A slave was the lowest one could get on the social ladder. They did not hold any significance except to be used. Jesus lived a life that was looked down on. As our passage says He had no reputation. If he had no reputation, that means you were viewed as the lost one could do. This is only the first slope. The second slope is complely opposite. He becomes Lord. No one will avoid bowing and confessing Him to be Lord. All will hold Him in esteem and honor His holy name. Christ has gone from the lowest ever to the highest
possible! There are also several other contrasts in this hymn. One of these contrasts is past verses future. When Paul wrote this hymn, it was after Christ's death, but verses 10 and 11 talk about a future happening. Someday, when time comes to an end, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Christ as Lord. Christ was an obscure slave, but he will be universally known. This passage also contrasts who is doing the action. In the first slope, Jesus is humbling himself. He choose to be humiliated. In the second slope, the action is performed towards Jesus. God exalted Him and everyone else is going to worship Him someday. We also can see a contrast between Jesus obeying and Jesus being disobeyed. In the beginning of the hymn, Christ was obedient towards the Father and came to earth to die for man. In the end, Jesus will be exalted and disobeyed by all mankind. In fact, He in sovereign over all people and things. Jesus obeyed His Father and His obedience was rewarded by His exaltation and Lordship. Next, we could also look at this passage as starting in heaven and ending in heaven. Jesus left his home in heaven to come to earth. While on earth, he died on the cross. Then in final victory, our thoughts are again pointed towards heaven where all will worship Jesus Christ our Lord!