5. And because the whole of this passage is
the utterance of One in the form of a servant—of a servant
obedient unto the death of the Cross—which He took upon Him and
for which He supplicates the saving help of the Name that belongs to
God, and being sure of salvation by that Name, He immediately
adds: and judge Me by Thy power. For now as the
reward for His humility in emptying Himself and assuming the form of a
servant, in the same humility in which He had assumed it, He was asking
to resume the form which He shared with God, having saved to bear the
Name of God that humanity in which as God He had obediently
condescended to be born. And in order to teach us that the
dignity of this Name whereby He prayed to be saved is something more
than an empty title, He prays to be judged by the power of God.
For a right award is the essential result of judgment, as the Scripture
says: Becoming obedient unto death Phil. ii. 8 ff., yea, the death of the Cross.
Wherefore also God highly exalted Him and gave unto Him the name which
is above every name. Thus, first of all the name which is
above every name is given unto Him; then next, this is a judgment of
decisive force, because by the power of God, He, Who after being God
had died as man, rose again from death as man to be God, as the Apostle
says: He was crucified from weakness, yet He liveth by the
power of God 2 Cor. xiii. 4., and
again: For I am not ashamed of the Gospel: for it is the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth Rom. i. 16.. For by the power of the Judgment
human weakness is rescued to bear God’s name and nature; and thus
as the reward for His obedience He is exalted by the power of this
judgment unto the saving protection of God’s name; whence He
possesses both the Name and the Power of God. Again, if the
Prophet had begun this utterance in the way men generally speak, he
would have asked to be judged by mercy or kindness, not by power.
But judgment by power was a necessity in the case of One Who being the
Son of God was born of a virgin to be Son of Man, and Who now being Son
of Man was to have the Name and power of the Son of God restored to Him
by the power of judgment.