The Exaltation of Christ
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1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Setting the Stage
Setting the Stage
We’re gleaning from the prayer of the Son to the Father.
We have seen the purpose of the Mission of the Messiah:
—> the Glory of God
We have seen the request of the Son to the Father:
glorify Me so that I may glorify you
with the glory that I had with you before the world existed
before creation, when only God existed.
Which is what John has said from the beginning…
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So, we see, also, in this prayer the eternality of the Son as the eternal Son of God.
We have seen what is the essence of eternal life.
The essence is not the limitless time but the quality of that time…
And, what makes the quality infinitely blissful is nothing other than knowing God.
And Jesus Christ, whom the Father has sent.
Which is what Jesus has been teaching the disciples all along…
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
The mission that has at it’s central theme being the glory of God…
The Son glorifies God by making Him known.
The Son reveals the Father…
So, God is revealed in a perfect exegetical expression through His incarnation via…
His incarnation
His life
His death
His resurrection
His ascension
And His sitting down at the right hand of the Father
Now, this morning, I want us to look deeply into these beautiful truths that are being taught here…
And, my prayer is that it is helpful in your understanding of the personhood of Christ…
And, helpful as you read certain passages in the Bible, to understand what is being said.
We’ve discussed this before, but I think it is always helpful to explore these truths when the Bible presents them.
I want us to look at…
I want us to look at…
The Person of the God-Man
The Person of the God-Man
So, when we read in Jesus’ prayer…
1 …“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
There is an aspect here, when speaking of glory, that is about the veiled deity of Christ being removed at the resurrection, and ascension.
the Eternal Son of God taking upon Himself a human nature cloaked His deity
But, there is also an aspect of this glory that is related to the exaltation of the humanity of Christ.
I mentioned this briefly in the first sermon
And, I want to revisit this truth more deeply
And this takes us deep within the personhood of Christ.
Listen to what John says in…
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The eternal person is the Son of God.
The assumed nature is human and it is taken upon by the eternal Son of God.
The Logos, the eternal Son of God, is the “root” of Christ’s person and the human nature exists in and through the divine person.
So, the eternal Son of God did not possess a human person.
The hypostatic union of Christ is not possession of an already existing person.
Christ’s human nature has no independent existence apart from its assumption by the second trinitarian person, who personalizes it.
The life of the human nature depends upon the person of the eternal Son of God.
Paul states it this way…
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
So, the deity of the Son of God is cloaked by the human nature He assumes.
He dies on the cross as a human.
However, Paul does not end on the humiliation of Christ.
He continues…
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Here Paul turns the conversation from the humiliation of the Son through His incarnation, life, and death…
And moves us to the exaltation of the God-Man, JC.
So, I also want us to think about…
The Exaltation of Christ
The Exaltation of Christ
So, how does God highly exalt Him?
How does God give Him a name that is above every name?
And, here is where a misunderstanding of the doctrine of the person of Christ leads one to heresy.
What I’ve already stated guards us from such heresy.
What we will continue in will further guard us from such heresy.
So, back to the questions…
How does God highly exalt Him?
How does God give Him a name that is above every name?
The Son already had a name that is above every name.
—> He was eternally God, the Son.
Here we see language that is speaking of the exaltation of the humanity of Christ.
The humanity of Christ is exalted to a position that humanity has never known.
As Charles Hodge stated…
Christ’s humanity is elevated to extraordinary dignity and authority through its union with his divine nature, surpassing all intelligent creatures in worth and power.
Yet this exaltation preserves and does not obliterate Christ’s humanity.
Just as the human body remains material even when glorified, Christ’s humanity does not cease being human through its union with divinity.
Christ’s humanity is not exalted to divinity…
But, rather, is exalted to it’s intimate union with divinity.
Christ’s humanity cannot be exalted in isolation from the divine person.
Rather, the humanity is elevated through its union with the Logos.
The human nature is exalted by it being assumed, personalized, and sustained by the eternal Son.
This exaltation reaches its climax in the Resurrection and Ascension, where Christ’s humanity, now glorified and immortal, sits at the Father’s right hand.
So, we read from Peter’s first sermon…
32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,
“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 35 until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
How has God made Him both Lord and Christ?
Because of the deity of the person, and the human nature that is exalted.
The human nature’s exaltation, at the same time, manifests the glory of the divine person who assumed it.
Because the human nature remains dependent upon the Logos for it’s existence…
The elevation of humanity in Christ becomes inseparable from the revelation of Christ’s divine majesty.
IOW, the exaltation of the human nature of the God-Man owes its exaltation to the deity of the person…
And, the person of the God-Man is the eternal Son of God.
So, we see this preservation of genuine humanity that maintains the bond of sympathy between Christ and us.
The human nature of Christ wasn’t absorbed into the divine nature of the Son as His mission went on.
The Bible teaches us that He is the God-Man forevermore.
The taking of a human nature by the eternal divine Son…
And, the human nature being dependent upon the divine person for its existence…
The non-blending of the two natures prevents either a collapse of divinity into humanity or an absorption of humanity into divinity.
And, so we can proclaim forevermore that…
He is our great high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses.
He will forevermore be the God-Man.
Stephen confesses this upon his death by stoning, as we are told in…
55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
What is amazing about the eternal Son of God standing at the right hand of God?
—> Nothing. That is His rightful place.
Ah, but add a human nature to the Son of God…
And we see humanity lifted to a level that it has never known.
All because of the eternal Son of God’s willingness to cloak His glory with a human nature.
And, that veil of humanity being lifted at the resurrection, ascension, and sitting at the right hand of the Father.
A.W. Pink stated…
Christ’s transition from earth to heaven involved both a change of location and a transformation of state, with his human nature glorified and its capacity enlarged.
The resurrection and ascension is the unveiling of the glory of the eternal Son of God that the incarnation cloaked.
But, it is also at the same time the exaltation of the humanity of Christ to the right hand of the Father.
This is not the human nature of Christ inheriting divine attributes…
But, the position and enjoyment of the glory of God and being exalted to the right hand of God.
A position that humanity had never experienced.
This inauguration of the Kingdom of God’s beloved Son…
This is a breaking in of a whole new world.
—> A new heavens and a new earth.
It is the already of the inauguration of the Kingdom of Christ.
the building of Christ’s church
His kingdom
And, the not yet of it’s fullness, experientially, for the children of the most high God.
What a blissful, glory-filled future awaits us because the eternal Son of God was willing to take upon a human nature…
—> And lead captives free.
To restore us to a supernatural state and condition with God…
To bask in the glory of friendship with God.
Let’s think about this...
Let’s think about this...
The Son of God left heaven a divine being and returned a human being too.
In His ascension the Son brings human nature with him into the eternal communion of the Trinity.
Now in heaven, “the humanity of Adam is carried forward to its ‘supernatural’ destiny…
As it is rescued from its unnatural condition of being in bondage to sin and death.
In Christ, “humanity is elevated to that which it has never enjoyed before, the seat at God’s right hand which belongs to His Son.”
In Christ “man himself is exalted, not as God or like God, but to God, being placed at His side, not in identity, but in true fellowship with Him”
What a God!
What a Savior!
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
