There once was a man whom God gifted by granting him a deep hunger for, and understanding of, His word. As the man began to devour God's word, he simultaneously became aware that he was able to expound and explain what he was being made aware of in God's word, with clarity and conviction. Those around him in the church encouraged him to exercise this gift, which they understood to be the gift of a teacher of God's word.

In the years that followed this man began to exercise this gift, and though he earnestly guarded himself against taking credit for God's gift, yet some secret part of him quietly nursed the notion that he was special on account of his gifting.

As the years went on, he showed himself to be approved, filling the pulpit and feeding the flock God's word. But his zeal for God's word, as pure as it was at the outset, began to decay ever so slowly that he wasn't even aware of the cancer of self slowly uprooting and displacing the word the Lord had done. And so there came a day when he set pen to paper to write the next sermon, and found himself dry as a funeral drum.

The next day he delivered the pathetic, still-born sermon he had labored all that week to write. It was received with such yawning disinterest that each word seemed heavier and more burdensome than the last. After the service finally ended he fled home, shut himself in a closet, and wept his heart out to the Lord. How had he become such an empty, prancing peacock? He finally himself as he had become, and he loathed himself and was all but consumed by the shame of his sin, and the damage it undoubtedly had caused to others. He was like that man in scripture, who understood himself to be a wretch, and could only cry that God be merciful to him: the sinner.

In the days that followed, God answered that prayer and he found again a genuine humility. This the Lord used to tear down all that the man had exalted over the years, and through this the Lord taught him again to hate his own pride and praise. When the man stood in the pulpit the following Sunday, the Lord was exalted in Him. He came to God's word, trembling to handle it, and with utter reliance on the Lord, that gift shone anew, to the praise of God's glory, and the feeding of the flock.

Do you see that the Lord exalted this man in the end, by first humiliating him? God didn't begin in the middle somewhere, but brought the man to <>nothing in that every aspect of his exaltation was owed entirely to the Lord. Had God failed to bring this man to nothing, God could not have exalted him: you see God will not share His glory. When you can see this, you will understand, in some small way, what something more about how Christ was exalted by God the Father.

Christ humbled Himself to the point of emptiness when He took on human flesh so that when God exalted Christ, He didn't just raise Him up to the highest honor, but raised Him up from the lowest humiliation to that highest honor. Had Christ not been humbled first, His exaltation would have been diminished. It is one glory to leap over the highest hurdle, and another to do the same having made that leap from the deepest pit. The exaltation of Christ was magnified by and through His humiliation.

There is no higher honor than to sit at God's right hand. Yet this honor, by itself, was not sufficient an honor to justly exalt Christ. In order to honor Christ with that honor that an honor worthy of Him, Christ had to be exalted from the lowest humiliation. Thinking about how the Lord honored Christ is a good and worthy meditation; but it is also a truth that has application. If God exalts Christ in this way, He will continue to do so in Christ's servants. Do not be alarmed therefore when the Lord tears down a thing. It may be that the Lord is exalting Christ in building it up.

Labels: Christ, Exalted, humility, ministry, pastors, servant

When Adam and Eve sinned against God, the first thing that they realized was that they were naked. Why hadn't they noticed this before? Was it because they, in their innocence, were completely naive? Or, is their realization connected to something else? Since I believe that the first couple were at least as smart, if not smarter, than the rest of their progeny, I highly doubt that it had previously escaped their notice that they were both in the buff. If that is the case, then their realization of nakedness means something else. But what?

The original sin of our ancestors brought death. The bodies of Adam and Eve began to decompose while they were still wearing them. It was slow, but it was steady. Like you and I, they became subject to disease, injury, and death. Old age crept up on them, just like us, and eventually they died, just like we will.

Being dead is kind of a bummer. I believe that to die is to depart and be with Christ. I also believe that being dead and with Christ is better than being alive in this rotting tent we call a body. However, 2 Corinthians 5 indicates that the time between being dead and being resurrected represents a time of longing. We are longing to be clothed with immortal bodies that are not subject to death. Part of being human is wearing flesh, its just that the flesh we wear now is a constant reminder of our original shame: we have sinned, and we are dying.

Did you know that Jesus the Lord experienced this shame? He had to wear a body that was subject to death, even though he never earned that sort of body by sinning. He wore that tent, he tabernacled with us, because he is gracious. And not only did Jesus wear a body ravaged by the effects of sin, he died in it. Not only did he die in that body, he remained separated from a body for three days. Is that a big deal? Yes, yes it is. Jesus is a man, and so for three days he felt the longing that I will feel when I die and am disembodied. He longed to put on his heavenly garment and be clothed in immortality, just like I do. I will do so even more keenly when this body finally wears out.

In every way, our Lord Jesus became one of us. He wore our filthy garments. He suffered in the same kind of flesh we suffer in as a reminder of our shame. He even suffered a death like ours, a disembodiment like we will suffer, and he groaned for the redemption of his body.

And on the third day, he clothed himself with immortality. Soon, he will rid us of all our shame, and he will cloth us as he has clothed himself.

Hallelujah.

Labels: Christ, humility, nakedness, salvation

The apostle had made all who are under the law subject to the curse; from which arose this great problem, that the Jews could not free themselves from the curse of the law. Having stated this problem, he meets it, by showing that Christ has made us free, which aids his purpose even more. If we are saved, because we have been freed from the curse of the law, then righteousness is not by the law.

He next points out the manner in which we are made free. It is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Now, Christ hung upon the cross, therefore he fell under that curse. But it is certain that he did not suffer that punishment on his own account. It follows, therefore, either that he was crucified in vain, or that our curse was laid upon him, in order that we might be delivered from it. Now, he does not say that Christ was cursed, but, which is still more, that he was a curse, — intimating, that the curse “of all men was laid upon him” (Isaiah 53:6.) If any man think this language harsh, let him be ashamed of the cross of Christ, in the confession of which we glory. It was not unknown to God what death his own Son would die, when he pronounced the law, “He that is hanged is accursed of God.” (Deuteronomy 21:23)

But how does it happen, it will be asked, that a beloved Son is cursed by his Father? We reply, there are two things which must be considered, not only in the person of Christ, but even in his human nature. The one is, that he was the unspotted Lamb of God, full of blessing and of grace; the other is, that he placed himself in our room, and thus became a sinner, and subject to the curse, not in himself indeed, but in us, yet in such a manner, that it became necessary for him to occupy our place. He could not cease to be the object of his Father’s love, and yet he endured his wrath. For how could he reconcile the Father to us, if he had incurred his hatred and displeasure? We conclude, that he “did always those things that pleased” (John 8:29) his Father.

Again, how would he have freed us from the wrath of God, if he had not transferred it from us to himself? Thus, “he was wounded for our transgressions,” (Isaiah 53:5,) and had to deal with God as an angry judge. This is the foolishness of the cross, (1 Corinthians 1:18,) and the admiration of angels, (1 Peter 1:12,) which not only exceeds, but swallows up, all the wisdom of the world.

Labels: Christ, humility

Labels: Calvin as Gadfly, decrees, humility, providence, Real God