Message Of The Cross (3)

THE SEVEN STEPS

The seven downward steps of His Great Renunciation are followed here by the seven upward steps of His Glorious Ascension (Vss. 9-11).

They are as follows:

His Renunciation (Vs. 6).

Emptied Himself.

Servant’s Form.

Became in man’s likeness.

Humbled Himself.

Bowed to death.

And what a death! The death of the Cross!

The seven upward steps of His Exaltation are:

God highly exalted Him.

Granted Him the Name which is above every Name.

Universal dominion.

Over beings in Heaven.

Over beings on Earth.

Over beings under the Earth.

Divine Glory: all tongues will confess by and by that Jesus of Nazareth is Jehovah, and such confession will honor and not dishonor God.

THE FORM OF A SERVANT

He took the form of a servant at the time when He assumed humanity, as it is said, “Being made in the likeness of men.” It is as follows: His Subjection to the Law.

Luke 2:21 ESV

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Galatians 5:4 ESV

You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

His Subjection to His Parents

Luke 2:5 ESV

to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

His Position as a Carpenter

Mark 6:3 ESV

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

His Sale for the price of a slave.

Exodus 21:32 ESV

If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

His Death, the death of a slave, and His Dependence as a Servant on God, all illustrate His Form as a servant.

Isaiah 49:3 ESV

And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”

Isaiah 49:7 ESV

Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

This proves: He was in the form of a servant directly when He became man. He was in the Form of God before He was in the form of a servant. He truly subsisted in the Divine Nature as in human nature, for He was as much in the Form of God as in the form of a servant, and was so truly in the Form of God as to be on an equality with God. He therefore could have been none other than God.

Isaiah 46:5 ESV

“To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike?

Zechariah 13:7 ESV

“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the Lord of hosts. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.

HIMSELF

So, we continue to come to the question, “Of what did Christ empty Himself?” Was it His Deity, His Nature, His Divine Prerogative, or His Equality? Paul simply says that Christ emptied Himself. The verb used here simply means, “To pour out,” with Christ Himself as the Object. Thus, Christ emptied Himself of Himself.

At no time did He allow selfish considerations to dominate His Spotless Life. The words, “Made Himself,” mean, “To make empty, to make vain or void.” The word does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament except in the Passage before us. The essential idea is that of bringing to emptiness or nothingness; hence, it is applied to a case where one lays aside his rank and dignity and becomes in respect to that, “As nothing.”

That is, he assumes a far less rank and station. As someone has said, “When the sun is obscured by a cloud or in an eclipse, there is no real change of its glory, nor its beams extinguished, nor is the sun itself in any measure changed. Its luster is only for a time obscured.” So it might have been in regard to the manifestation of the Glory of the Son of God.

A FAR GREATER WEIGHT

This one thing is certain, whatever the phrase means, “But made Himself of no reputation,” it is far more than the mind of man can even begin to grasp. The reason should be obvious. Where it is possible for us to see what He became, it is, in fact, impossible for us to know in totality what He was before His Self-emptying. As a creature, we cannot really even begin to grasp the Glory and the Grandeur of the Creator, and He was definitely the Creator.

John 1:1–3 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

To be frank, even if shown such, we do not presently have the capabilities of grasping that which we would be shown, even if that were possible.

Actually, when we’re given a glimpse into the spirit world of the Glory of God, we are as much at a loss to comprehend it even as the Prophets were in trying to explain it. If the reader doubts my words, let him look again at the First Chapter of Ezekiel, or Chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation concerning what John saw. Paul didn’t even bother to attempt to explain his “Visions and Revelations.” He just said that he saw things “. . . and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter”

2 Corinthians 12:1–4 ESV

I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

Even as I dictate these words, I sense the Presence of God.

WHAT DO WE GET OUT OF THIS SELF-EMPTYING OF CHRIST?

If we see only greatness and glory, I think we miss the point. It is “Love” we must see! It was Love that did all of this, a Love that is beyond the comprehension of man.

A fallen race was doomed — doomed to die eternally lost. Having forfeited that which was given to them by God, man found himself in a position from which he could not be extricated, at least by his own machinations. So, if he was to be Saved, God would have to do the deed Himself.

In His Greatness and Glory, God could easily have regenerated man without the sin question being addressed; however, His Nature and Holiness could not allow such. The sin question had to be addressed and answered, and addressed in full, in other words, no shortcuts. There was no other way.

God could simply have allowed man to die in his lostness, which, of necessity, would demand his spending eternity in the Lake of Fire. That would have satisfied the sin debt on an individual basis regarding each human being. The wages of sin is death, which means separation from God, and eternal separation from God would have paid the penalty.

However, Love could not allow such to happen. It must be understood that man was not created by God as a result of need. God does not need anything. He created man from a position totally and completely of Love.

LOVE

Some have claimed that God created man because He wanted or needed fellowship. Once again, God has never needed anything, much less fellowship. No! He created man simply and totally from a position of Love, and as such, He would “crown him with glory and honor”. So, if Love created Him, then Love must rescue Him.

Psalm 8:5 ESV

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

However, to rescue man, even though God had spoken all of Creation into existence.

Hebrews 11:3 ESV

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

He could not speak Redemption into existence, that is, and be true to His Nature. A debt had been incurred, a terrible debt of sin, and that debt must be paid. The only way it could be paid was by death, for that was the penalty.

Genesis 2:15–17 ESV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Ezekiel 18:4 ESV

Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As stated, man could not redeem himself because he had no sacrifice which would serve the purpose. He could not give himself because, due to the Fall. he was sullied, corrupt, and totally depraved, therefore, unsuitable as a sacrifice, at least that which God would accept.

There was only one way: God would become man and accomplish what the first man (Adam) failed to do.

As a man, He would face the onslaughts of Satan, never one time using His Deity, but definitely using the Power of The Holy Spirit.

John 1:32–34 ESV

And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

However, that is not as clear cut as it at first seems.

For the Holy Spirit to function in the manner He must function, that is, if the Ministry of Christ was to be what it should be, our Lord would have to perfectly yield in every manner and way to the Spirit and to the Father.

Christian man, even the most consecrated, yields imperfectly even at our best, whereas Jesus yielded perfectly at all times.

Was Jesus different from us?

I think one would have to say essentially, “No”! While He was not born with a sin nature as are all other human beings, still, that should not have made a difference. He had to be a man like all other men, or else, His work and function would be to no avail. That’s why the Holy Spirit through Paul referred to Him as the last Adam.

1 Corinthians 15:45 ESV

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Some scholars argue that Jesus could not have sinned.

That is basely incorrect! Had it been impossible for Him to have sinned, the whole thing would have been a farce. While God certainly cannot sin, it definitely is possible for man to sin. Therefore, the possibility had to be there with Christ as well.

Emptying Himself of the expression of His Deity, thereby, becoming a man, subjected Him to all that which is possible with man. Hence, He would say, “I thirst,” when, of course, God cannot thirst.

John 19:28 ESV

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”

As well, He grew hungry, and God cannot hunger.

Matthew 4:2 ESV

And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

Also, Jesus grew tired as a human being will, but God cannot tire, at least not as we do.

John 4:6 ESV

Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Yes, it would have been possible for Jesus to have sinned, but He did not sin despite every effort of Satan to make Him fail.

Satan Has No Part In Me

Had Jesus failed even one time in thought, word , or deed, we could not have been saved. He kept the Law perfectly in every respect, the only man who ever did such a thing. Consequently, when He came to the conclusion of His earthly lie and ministry, He could say as He did in the Gospel of John:

John 14:30 ESV

I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me,

He had no relationship with Satan or sin whatsoever and had nothing of Satan in Him. He was not subject to death because He had not sinned.

In the Fall, Satan gained a pseudo-sovereignty over man on the principle of possession and consent of a responsible agent or government by consent to the governed. This means that, in a sense, fallen man gives Satan the right to hold him in bondage. By refusing to accept Christ, man, in essence, gives his consent to Satan to make him a slave.

There are some who claim God permitted Satan to defeat himself by causing him to kill an innocent victim (Jesus) over whom he had no legitimate claim.

That could only be correct in the sense that Christ allowed such to happen. No man could have killed Christ, and neither could Satan kill Christ without His consent. In fact, Jesus did not die on the Cross until the Holy Spirit told Him to die.

Hebrews 9:14 ESV

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Now, we know that death is of Satan caused by sin. We also know that Satan had no control over Christ whatsoever, and, as well, Jesus had never sinned, so there were no wages of sin, which was death, in His life.

As stated, the only way that Satan could be said to have killed to Christ is for the Lord to have allowed such.

So, what Jesus did regarding His Incarnation, His life, His ministry, and more particularly, His death on the Cross and Resurrection, all as a man, are beyond comprehension.