Pause for a moment and consider this: What would it be like for God to be humiliated?

• Become a creature
• Start life as an infant
• Experience growth
• Undertake a ministry where you receive no recognition for your proper place
• Continue in this ministry even though the wild animals have it better than you do
• Be ridiculed and rejected by your own family
• Pour your life into men whom society dismisses
• Entrust your legacy to these men, although you know all of them will turn away, and one of them will betray you unto death
• Experience death, and the wrath of the Father whom you have been one with since forever

What was the extent of Christ's humiliation? It was to every extent possible.


No mere human could ever endure with humility the type of debasement Jesus chose for Himself. He volunteered, in order to glorify His Father and save a people for himself.

Labels: Christ, Humble, Humiliation

Let this mind be among us now
Which was found in Christ Jesus
Who although in very nature God
Did not count equality with God
As a thing to be held, but denied Himself
As a servant He became a man

Being found in the form of man
Jesus bowed in obedience
He lay down His very life for us
Even died on the cross for us
Therefore God raised Him up
And exalted Him
As the name far above all names

That ev’ry knee should bow at His holy name
In the heavens, the earth and the grave
And ev’ry tongue confess that Jesus is Lord
To the glory of our Father’s name
To the glory of our God

So now, as beloved sons
Let us walk in obedience
As we labor forth in reverent fear
Toward salvation, which is drawing near
For our God is at work
Both to will and act
In our lives to His glorious praise

That ev’ry knee should bow at His holy name
In the heavens, the earth and the grave
And ev’ry tongue confess that Jesus is Lord
To the glory of our Father’s name
To the glory of our God

© 2010 by David P. Regier

Labels: Christ, hymns, obedience, Philippians

In Christ’s human nature there are two things to be considered, the real flesh and the affections or feelings. The Apostle then teaches us, that he had not only put on the real flesh of man, but also all those feelings which belong to man, and he also shows the benefit that hence proceeds; and it is the true teaching of faith when we in our case find the reason why the Son of God undertook our infirmities; for all knowledge without feeling the need of this benefit is cold and lifeless. But he teaches us that Christ was made subject to human affections, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest; which words I thus explain, “that he might be a merciful, and therefore a faithful high priest.” 

For in a priest, whose office it is to appease God’s wrath, to help the miserable, to raise up the fallen, to relieve the oppressed, mercy is especially required, and it is what experience produces in us; for it is a rare thing, for those who are always happy to sympathize with the sorrows of others. The following saying of Virgil was no doubt derived from daily examples found among men:

The Son of God had no need of experience that he might know the emotions of mercy; but we could not be persuaded that he is merciful and ready to help us, had he not become acquainted by experience with our miseries; but this, as other things, has been as a favor given to us. Therefore whenever any evils pass over us, let it ever occur to us, that nothing happens to us but what the Son of God has himself experienced in order that he might sympathize with us; nor let us doubt but that he is at present with us as though he suffered with us.

Labels: Calvin as Gadfly

In his commentary on John 16:28 Leon Morris spoke of “the great movement of salvation.” He did not mean the movement of sinners toward God, nor even the inexorable movement of God’s plan throughout history. Rather, he meant the movement of Christ through his humiliation and exaltation - His grand journey from heaven to earth to hell and back again.

We often think of Christ’s humiliation in his incarnation as having been a condescension for us, and this is true. He became one of us that He might represent us before the Father. We would do well to remember that in the rest of His humiliation He also came down to our level. In His death and burial Jesus was made like us - like me, like you, and like a multitude of other sinners. For make no mistake, the sufferings, death, and defeat which Jesus experienced were inevitable for us.


The greatness of His movement is in this: having arrived in our neighborhood, Jesus picked us up and took us along for the rest of the trip. If we are united together with Him, we are united together with His death. We underwent His remaining humiliation along with Him - the terror of death, the power of darkness, the wrath of God, and also the reality of being under the power of death - all this we have already experienced in Him!

We call this a wonderful salvation because we were going there anyway - our sins had assured us of death and hell. But of course there is more: having been united together with Him in His death, we are also united in His resurrection. Jesus picked us up on the way down, but because we died in Him rather than ourselves, we are taken back up as well. We follow Jesus in His resurrection, in His ascension, and even in His exaltation to the throne.

Because Jesus eternally possessed all the glory of the Godhead, we might well ask what He gained from this round-trip to perdition. The truth is that the benefit is all for the vagabonds he picked up along the way, sinners who would have undergone death and hell, but who never could have known resurrection and heaven.

Labels: hymns, King, Priest, Prophet, video

By these words the prophet affirms that Christ would subdue all the opposition which his enemies in their tumultuous rage might employ for the subversion of his kingdom. At the same time, he intimates that the kingdom of Christ would never enjoy tranquillity until he had conquered his numerous and formidable enemies. And even should the whole world direct their machinations to the overthrow of Christ’s royal throne, David here declares that it would remain unmoved and unmoveable, while all they who rise up against it shall be ruined.

From this let us learn that, however numerous those enemies may be who conspire against the Son of God, and attempt the subversion of his kingdom, all will be unavailing, for they shall never prevail against God’s immutable purpose, but, on the contrary, they shall, by the greatness of his power, be laid prostrate at Christ’s feet. And as this prediction will not be accomplished before the last day, it must be that the kingdom of Christ will be assailed by many enemies from time to time until the end of the world; and thus by-and-bye it is said, rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

Labels: Calvin as Gadfly

We know from Hebrews that "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son" (Heb. 1:1-2). The simplest definition of a prophet is found in that very verse: a prophet is someone through whom God speaks. Jesus, then, is not only a prophet but the greatest prophet who ever lived. When Jesus speaks and acts, he is telling us about God.

It is very easy to come to the table with the understanding that a prophet is someone who predicts the future. After all, the prophets did this very thing, and so did Jesus himself. However, they did not do this to be mere fortune tellers, but they did this to tell us something about God. If God told them of impending judgment, it was to teach the people about God's holiness and power. If He told them of good tidings to come, it was to teach the people about His mercy and grace. Prophecy reveals who God is.

If this is true, then who did Jesus say that God is? I have dedicated my life to attempt to teach people all that Jesus teaches us about God, so it is regrettably impossible for me to do that here. I will, instead, pick from one little incident in the life of Jesus that has blown my mind from the first day I read it. In Luke 17:11-19, we learn about ten lepers who were made clean by Jesus. We also learn that only one of them came back to thank Jesus.

What does this teach us about God? It teaches us about His kindness. He healed ten men, knowing that nine of them would never thank Him for it. These nine simply asked to be well, and Jesus said, "Sure, go show yourself to the priest and be well." God does this sort of thing all the time for people who show no gratitude. He feeds the ingrates; He gives them families; He gives them breath. They never say thanks to Him; they only complain. In His mercy, God simply continues to care for them.

Hopefully, that doesn't describe you and me. Instead, we ought to identify with the Samaritan ex-leper who got a clean bill of health from God through the prophet Jesus. It's Jesus' last prophetic words to the thankful man are, "Rise and go your way, your faith has made you well." I hope we both understand that the Samaritan's faith in Christ healed him of more than leprosy. We will spend an eternity giving gratitude for that, as well we should. But look at that first command, "Rise and go your way."

Wouldn't you have expected Jesus to say, "Come and follow me." Or, "Now that you believe, come join my crew." He does not say that. He says, "Go your way." This guy who Jesus saved from leprosy and sin; he didn't have to become an apostle. He didn't have to sell his house if he had one. He didn't have to join Jesus' roving band of friends. He got to "go his way." To be sure, the Samaritan took his testimony with him, and God only knows the good things this healed man did because of his faith in the Christ. But he got to go his own way, back to his little village, and back to the quiet life of normalcy. I love that so much.

My beloved, cleaned-up, child of God and fellow companion, isn't it marvelous that Jesus has made us well simply for us to be thankful? And that a life of gratitude, lived in the way God has made us to go, is sufficient to please His prophetic majesty? What does that teach you about God, I wonder?

Labels: Christ, Jesus, Priest, Prophet, sin

In his book Vintage Jesus, Mark Driscoll ¹ lays out the roles prophet, priest, and king against the backdrop of our modern society in a way that helps me get my arms around what is being said.

Driscoll makes an effective argument that to magnify some of these roles to the neglect of others throws the mission of Jesus out of balance. He uses three examples:

• Prophet + King - Priest = Jesus of Shallow Fundamentalism

The strength of fundamentalism is its keen awareness of Jesus’ prophetic role as bold truth-teller and commander of repentance, along with his role as king who rules and reigns in all authority. However, they are also prone not to appreciate fully the priestly role of Jesus. As a result, God seems primarily cold, distant, stern, harsh, and even cruel.

• Prophet + Priest - King = Jesus of Fluffy Evangelicalism

In this form of religion, people know that Jesus speaks the truth as their prophet and loves them as their priest. So when they sin, they know that Jesus will forgive them and still love them. But they still rule over their own life. When they need help, they read the Bible or ask Jesus to serve them. Practically, they don’t see Jesus ruling over them, but rather coming alongside them to help them to achieve their objectives.

• Priest + King - Prophet = Jesus of Social Liberalism

Prone to understand Jesus as our priest, who is filled with grace, love, mercy, and tolerant patience, as well as our king, who rules over all peoples and seeks to extend to them grace, love, and mercy. However, the weakness of typical liberal Christianity is that it fails to fully appreciate the hard-edged role of Jesus as prophet. The sad result is that Jesus is seen as someone who would never offend us, raise his voice, hurt our feelings, speak harshly, or command individuals to repent with a sense of urgency because he is only infinitely patient, tolerant, and understanding.

I think Driscoll’s modern examples hammer home the point that the Catechism wants us to see: it isn’t just about believing in a Jesus, it is about believing in the Jesus—the one from the Bible; the one who takes care of all the things that are needed by us for life and godliness; the one who can save to the uttermost.

Labels: Christ, Jesus, King, Messiah, Priest, Prophet

When Samuel came to anoint David king over Israel, he looked at Eliab, David's older brother and thought that surely the LORD’S anointed was standing before Him (c.f. 1 Samuel 16:6). I want you to notice how, in that passage we see Samuel coming to physically anoint with oil the person whom God had already "anointed" as king. That is, David did not become God's anointed when Samuel poured the oil on him, he was already God's anointed, the pouring of the oil was symbolic of what was already a reality.

We understand the descending of the Holy Spirit upon our Lord in the Jordan in the same way. Jesus did not become God's anointed (The Christ) when the Holy Spirit anointed Him (i.e. descended upon Him and remained), rather when the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus, it testified to John the Baptist - the prophet the Lord had chosen to announce the Christ - that this man, Jesus, was the promised Messiah (the Christ).

Didn't God command Moses to anoint Aaron and his sons as priests, and again did He not command Samuel to anoint first Saul, and then David as king over Israel? We should see in this a common thread - God anoints those whom He intends to lead Israel - these two offices come together in the Christ, our High Priest and King.

Jesus is called the Christ because God has anointed Him, and no one else, to be the High Priest of His people - reconciling them to God through His finished, sacrificial work on Calvary. He now rules over God's people as their King. He was anointed by God to fulfill these offices, and came into the world to do (and has done!) just that.

Labels: Christ, King, mediator, Priest, Prophet

Labels: Christ, Jesus, mediator, Potent prooftexts

We should keep in mind that the name “Christ” refers to 3 offices – because under the law the prophets, priests and kings were all anointed with holy oil.  To be a “Messiah” is to be an “Anointed One”, so this title was give to the promised Mediator.  And I admit (and talk about in other places) that being a “Messiah” was primarily a kingly calling for Jesus, there is a proper place for seeing these other anointed offices as rightly-anointed offices which are pointed to by this title.

We should not overlook them.

The title “Prophet” is explicitly mentioned by Isaiah when he says this: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me: because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord," (Is 6:1-2)  We see that the Spirit anoints him to be the one who comes and calls out to people and give them a personal, genuine account of his Father’s grace – and not in the usual way.  He is different than others who have been made prophets.  He was anointed not just for the sake of his own teaching, but for the sake of his whole Body, the Church, so that the Spirit might work through all of it at all times in order that the Gospel might be preached with divine effectiveness.

But this is also certain: Jesus did this so completely, so perfectly, that an end was put to all prophecies – and those who are not contented with the Gospel are therefore tacking on something unnecessary for it, and run down the real Gospel’s authority, when they do so.

Remember that the Voice which shook Heaven when it said, "This is my beloved Son, hear him" gave him a special privilege above all other teachers.  But then this special privilege is passed down fom the head to all its members, as Joel foretold: "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions" (Joel 2:28).  Paul said, he was "made unto us wisdom," (1 Cor. 1:30) and again, that in him "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," (Col. 2:3) meaning that there is nothing not worth knowing about him or from him, and that when you have faith in him, you may know his true character and all the blessing which that brings to us.  That’s why Paul says, "I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified," (1 Cor. 2:2).

And most importantly: it is a violation of God’s order to go beyond the simplicity of the Gospel. The purpose of dignity in the title “prophet” in Christ is to teach us that in the doctrine which he delivered is a wisdom which, in substance, is perfect in all its parts.

Labels: Christ, Jesus, King, mediator, Priest, Prophet

I love how the Catechism gives this question a simple, exact answer with a single, exact Scripture reference. It is written so economically, it's easy to miss how much is packed into it.

Of course, there's a who: Jesus (He). He what? Saves. Saves whom? His people. From what?

And here, I want to stop for just a moment. Just so you (and I) grasp onto the truth. Jesus saves His people from their sins. If you are one of His people, He saves you from your sins. Your sins. Not somebody else's sins, but your sins. Not your wife's, not your husband's, not your boss's, not your dad's, not your mom's, not your kid's, and not your dog's.

Feel free to deal with Him on that level for a day or two until you look at why our Mediator is called Christ.

Labels: Jesus, mediator, salvation, save, savior, sin