Preached in Dingwall Free Presbyterian Church on Sabbath,
8th September, 1907.
(Taken down by a Hearer.)
IN this chapter the Apostle gives several exhortations to those to whom he writes. He exhorts them to have “the same love,” and to be of one accord and one mind; that they should do nothing “through strife or vainglory,” but that, in lowliness of mind, they should esteem others better than themselves. Then he exhorts them not to be selfish, but “to look not every man on his own things, but also on the things of others”; and he sets Christ before them as their example. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” He looked not to the things that belonged to Himself exclusively, but He looked on things belonging to others. And the Apostle shows how He did this. At the sixth verse he says, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” In verses seven and eight we have a view of Christ’s humiliation, and in our text we have a view of Him in His exaltation. God promised to open the windows of heaven, and to send down His blessing through these windows on those that waited upon Him. The windows of heaven are the Scriptures of truth. Were it not that God opened these windows, no blessing would come down to our sinful race. It is through the windows of His own Word that He at any time sends down His Spirit and His blessing upon sinful creatures, and not apart from His Word. In the verses preceding our text we look downwards through these windows to see the deep humiliation of His Son in our nature, and in the words of our text we are called upon to look upwards to behold the exaltation of Christ, who humbled Himself. In endeavouring to address you for a little from these words as the Lord may enable me, I shall direct your attention to three things:—
I.—The exaltation of Christ;
II.—The purpose for which He is exalted—“that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things
in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”; and
III.—The exaltation of Christ shall be “to the glory of God the Father.”
I.—The exaltation of Christ.
The question arises, “Who exalted Christ?” Students of Scripture often discuss the question as to by what power Christ was raised from the dead. Some say it was by His own power; others, by the power of the Father; and others, by the power of the Spirit. It is true that Christ rose by His own power. He had “power to lay down” His life, and He had “power to take it again.” This commandment He had received of His Father. It is also true that He was quickened by the Spirit, and it is also true that He was raised by His Father. But here it is not a question of power at all, as we shall try to show, but a question of right. If it were a question of power, there is no doubt but Christ raised Himself and that the Spirit quickened Him; but at present we have to deal with a question of right, not a question of power. We are to inquire whose right it was to raise Him from the dead and to exalt Him, and we are told here that God exalted Him, that is, God the Father, the First Person of the Trinity. “There are three Persons in the Godhead—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.” The three Persons are concerned in the work of salvation. The First Person in that scheme of salvation stands up representing the Godhead, to demand satisfaction to His justice before any sinner could be saved; the Second Person in that scheme stands up as the surety for His people, undertaking to satisfy justice in order that they might be saved; and the place assigned to the Holy Spirit is to apply the redemption of Christ to those for whom He died. Now, seeing that it was God the Father that undertook to demand satisfaction to His justice before any sinner could be saved, and seeing that He accepted of Christ as the surety, who satisfied the requirements of His law by humbling Himself and becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, it was the right of the Father to exalt Him after He had finished the work given Him to do. So we read that God hath highly exalted Him. It was Christ Himself that humbled Himself. He undertook to do so, and He did so, but it was God the Father that exalted Him, and that in His capacity as a Judge. By observing the part that each Person of the Godhead took in the salvation of sinful men, you will see how suitable, I may say, the arrangement is. God the Father appears as a Judge to demand satisfaction to His justice—to demand the punishment of the transgressor or of his surety in his place. Now, you will see that a sinner, when awakened to a sense of his sin, is more afraid of God, the First Person, than he is of the Second Person; and it ought to be so; because it is God, the First Person representing the Godhead, that demands the punishment of sin; but when the awakened
sinner reads or hears of the Son, the Second Person, he takes courage, for Christ’s place was not to demand the punishment of sin but to act as the surety of the sinner—to endure the penalty of the law; and therefore the sinner ought to be encouraged at the mention of the name of Christ. We may truly say that the sinner flees for refuge from an angry God to a God reconciled in Christ.
It was God the Father, then, who exalted Christ, and it was just that He should be exalted after He had humbled Himself. He was taken from prison and from judgment, we read; He was brought to the dust of death because He took upon Him the sins of His people; He was laid in the grave as in a prison, and after He had paid the debt, God the Father, as the righteous Judge, comes forward and raises His Son from the grave. And this is the first step in Christ’s exaltation, of which the Apostle speaks here, “God hath highly exalted him.” Now, when Christ was raised from the grave, He was raised not only as the Surety of His people, but also as their Head. He is the Head of the body, the Church, and when He was raised from the dead as the Head, His mystical body was also raised with Him; and so we read of their being “risen with Christ.” Although that passage also refers to a spiritual resurrection, still there is a sense in which it may be said that they died with Him, that His death was their death, and His resurrection was virtually their resurrection. So that when God the Father raised Christ from the dead, He had His eye also on those for whom He suffered—for whom He paid the debt, and He left none of them down in the grave. His mystical body was also raised. The Church was raised from the grave at Christ’s resurrection.
The second step in His exaltation was His ascension to heaven. Who exalted Him to heaven? Well, if you read of His ascension you will find that “He was taken up in a cloud,” and that implies the work of another, even of Him of Whom it is said, “God exalted him.” He is now exalted to heaven, and is no longer to be seen in this world in human nature. He promised to be with His Church to the end of the world, and He fulfils that promise in a spiritual sense, but until then “the heavens must contain him.” There are those who expect that in the millennium He shall come in human nature to reign on earth for a thousand years, but there is no scriptural warrant for such belief. There are others who maintain that Christ, in human nature, is present in the Sacrament; but for this idea there is no scriptural foundation either, for “the heavens must contain him until the restitution of all things,” till He shall come in flaming fire at the last day.
The third step in His exaltation is His sitting at the right hand of the Father. It was the Father Who exalted Him to His right hand. It was the Father Who said, “Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool.” This was the work of God the Father as Judge.
The last step in His exaltation is His coming again at the last day to judge the world. That will be the completion of Christ’s exaltation. Christ shall come again.
Christ’s exaltation was the reward of His humiliation: that is, He humbled Himself, and therefore God exalted Him. There are some who hold that Christ was not exalted as a reward of His obedience, but only for the benefit of His people. It is true He was exalted as the Surety of His people for their benefit, but I think it is true also that His exaltation was in reward of His humiliation. We have already mentioned that Christ was exalted as the Head of His mystical body, and herein lies their safety in going through the wilderness of this world, in every time of difficulty, of trial, of tribulation: for they are told, “In this world ye shall have tribulation,” or affliction; but in view of His exaltation, He adds, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” How is it that the Church of God survives so many fiery trials and waters of affliction? How is it that she lives at all, that she perseveres to the end? It is because the Head is exalted. Perhaps you may have seen a man fall into the sea, and you were afraid he would be drowned, but observing that he was able to keep his head above the water, you were relieved of that fear. It is true of a man able to swim—that he shall never be drowned so long as he can keep his head above the water. And, making use of this as an illustration of the point in hand, herein, as I said, lies the safety of the Church in all times of trouble and affliction, that, though they sink into deep waters, yet the Head is exalted above the waters. So long as you see the Head exalted—and especially so highly exalted—above the waters, you need not be afraid that the Church—His mystical body—shall perish. In the deepest waters in which they may be, they can hear the voice of the Head above, saying, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” Just as in the case of a man who might fall into the water, if his body could speak, it would cry, “I fear I shall perish,” but the head would answer, “There is no ground for such fear: because I am above the water you shall never be drowned.” This is the comfort of God’s people; for He says, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee: and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”
Christ, then, is highly exalted; and if you ask, How high is He exalted? we cannot tell. Even an apostle could only say, He is highly exalted. To take a little thing in illustration. There are many high mountains in this world, and if you saw one of them and did not know the height of it, you would enquire of your fellow creature, but he would answer, “I do not know how high it is, but it is exceedingly high.” And thus Paul, who spoke by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, spoke of the exaltation of Christ. He was a mere man—a creature—and was too short to reach to the high exaltation of Christ, so he could only say, “God hath
highly exalted him.” He is exalted above holy angels: holy angels are high, but they are creatures. He is exalted above “the spirits of just men made perfect.” There is no creature in heaven on the same platform with Christ. There are some that think that creatures are as high as Christ Himself; they ascribe the attributes of God to creatures, to angels and men, but that is a great mistake. There are some that pray to the saints in heaven. Are the saints omniscient? Can they see all things? Can they hear all things? Ah, no. It is for want of seeing the distinction between the Creator and the creature that this error arises. Although we should speak to the angels in heaven, they cannot hear us; should we speak to “the spirits of just men made perfect,” they cannot hear us: should we speak to the Apostles and the Virgin Mary in heaven, they cannot hear us; for if you think they can hear you, you are guilty of ascribing the attributes of Him who is omniscient to mere creatures, however exalted and however blessed they may be. There is an infinite distance between the creature and the Creator. Even when God created man, He created him in His own image, but still he remained a creature. At the same time you are to remember there was a nearness between the creature and God, for our first parents, before they sinned, were full of God, full of His image, full of the enjoyment of God, so that the distinction between Him as Creator and them as creatures did not interfere with their happiness.
Now, supposing that man had kept his first estate of innocence, this distance between God and man would remain; and now that God has found out a way of saving sinners and bringing them to Himself, let us remember that the distance between them as creatures and Him as Creator is infinite. Then, does anyone say, “How then are we to understand the Scripture that speaks of the nearness of His people to Christ?” Well, this is explained in the way to which I have already referred, viz., the enjoyment of God. And then let us remember also that Christ took upon Him our nature, and that there is a nearness in this respect. But the distance between them and Christ, as God, Who dwells in the light to which no creature can approach, does not interfere with the nearness which His people have with Him in some measure on earth and in perfection in heaven. It does not interfere with their happiness at all, because they are a people that are near Him, that enjoy Him, for we hear some of them say, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.” At the same time, it is for want of attending to these distinctions that so many errors have crept into the professing Church. Many are inclined to put the Virgin Mary, Christ’s mother, on the same level with Himself. She is among the redeemed, one of His people, but she is only a creature, and is far from being on the same platform with Him Whom God hath highly exalted. As we have it in the Epistle to the Ephesians, towards the end of the first chapter, “God hath given him a name which is above every
name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come.” And what is meant by this name? It means His dominion, His sovereignty. He hath given Him all power in heaven and in earth. He hath given Him power over all flesh, that He might give life eternal to those that He has given Him. For example, the personal name of the King of Great Britain is Edward, but he is always spoken of as “King Edward,” and this additional name marks out his office—his dominion. And so the name given to Christ by the Father we understand to be the symbol of the universal dominion that He gave Him, as He is highly exalted at His own right hand, having all power in heaven and on earth given Him, and power to judge because He is the Son of Man. Thus we read that every tongue shall confess that He is Lord. “He is Lord of all.” It is in view of this that the Apostle calls Him Lord. He is called Jesus because He is the Saviour, but it is in the sense of His office in heaven and of His universal dominion and authority that He is called Lord.
Now, I am not going to speak upon the other heads until the evening, as it would keep you too long, but this is a subject in which we ought to be interested if we love the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to rejoice that He is exalted, and that He is so highly exalted. The more exalted your friend is in the place of authority and influence, the better it is for you; and the Church ought to think not only of the humiliation of Christ, but also of His exaltation, as the Apostle says, “He was delivered for our offences, but was raised again for our justification.” Christ, then, being exalted as the Head and the Representative of His mystical body, the Church, they shall be exalted also; and as surely as God hath highly exalted Him, He shall also exalt them. Not only does the Gospel seek their exaltation, but the very justice of God—the law of God which Christ, their Surety, magnified and made honourable—demands it. Remember this, then, for your encouragement if you look to Jesus, that as sure as the law of God demanded the exaltation of Christ, so surely does that very law (which you have broken) demand that you be exalted with Him. May God bless His word!
The remainder of this Sermon will (D.V.) appear in next Issue.
A Note from Calvin.—”The Spirit of God shews to us hidden things, the knowledge of which cannot reach our senses. Promised to us is eternal life, but it is promised to the dead; we are assured of a happy resurrection, but we are as yet involved in corruption; we are pronounced just, as yet sin dwells in us; we hear that we are happy, but we are as yet in the midst of many miseries; an abundance of all good things is promised to us, but still we often hunger and thirst; God proclaims that He will come quickly, but He seems deaf when we cry to Him. What would become of us were we not supported by hope, and did not our minds emerge out of the midst of darkness above the world through the light of God’s Word and of His Spirit?”