But because of this humiliating “descent,” God had raised him high and given him the supreme title kyrios (“Lord”), to the glory of God the Father. This vision was not dissimilar to the ideal of the bodhisattva, who voluntarily laid aside the bliss of nibbana for the sake of suffering humanity. Christians would come to see Jesus as an avatara of God, who had made a painful “descent” out of love in order to save the human race. But Paul did not quote the hymn to expound the doctrine of the incarnation. As a former Pharisee, he knew that religious truth had to be translated into action. He
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