Here comes a connector. The "therefore" refers back to the things we have just been expounding about. That is, to His voluntary act of humility. It is connecting it to what followed. And what followed—as a result of what Christ did—was exaltation.
The "rank" that Jesus has been given is one of complete Supreme Lordship. The exaltation includes rulership. The exaltation has its basis in the experience to being faithful in living GOD's government. Please understand that, and tie it into the things that I gave you in the last sermon.
So this U-shaped pattern is ironically illustrated in the story of Christ, the Deliverer, because Jesus the Deliverer must dive into the depths of human difficulty to bring human victims to new life in God's Kingdom. He has experienced what we experienced and He knows how to get us through. In Philippians 2:5-11, Paul emphasizes that Christ Jesus descended, from being in the form of God and equal with God, to taking on human likeness and servitude, even to the point of suffering the terrible death on the cross, and then He was highly exalted to universal Lordship.
