THE HUMILIATION, EXALTATION AND SUPREMACY OF CHRIST
[p. 111] THE HUMILIATION, EXALTATION AND SUPREMACY OF CHRIST
We have already seen that in the first chapter of this epistle the Son of God is set before us in the greatness of His Person, and in all the excellence of His inherited name as come into manhood. He is set before us in a personal glory which excels that of the most exalted creatures. And His greatness is that which gives character to the revelation which God has made of Himself in the Person of the Son, and it also gives character to the whole system of blessing which He has inaugurated; that is, to christianity in the fulness of its blessings according to God.
In the second chapter, which is now before us, we find the same blessed Person presented in three positions: in humiliation, in supremacy, and in exaltation. We get now the history, if we may so say, of how the counsels of God can be brought into effect in the accomplishment of all His thoughts of blessing, so that in result Christ may be supreme in a universe of bliss when all things — the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth — shall be headed up in Him. We see, too, the ground on which that blessed One can be found in the position of “leader of their salvation” in reference to a company of “many sons” given to Him by God that He may bring them to glory. And we also learn the full privilege of the assembly as introduced by the Son to the knowledge of the Father’s name, and we see the place which Christ takes with His brethren as the Singer of praises in their midst. And, finally, He is presented to us as the Deliverer of His saints; delivering them first by power — power which annuls “him who has the might of death, that is, the devil”, and which sets free “all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage” — and then delivering them by His priestly grace and succour from what would otherwise be the crushing [p. 112] effect of the innumerable trials and pressures which are incidental to the path of faith and to our present condition of creature weakness.
The very greatness and blessedness of all this would discourage us from making any attempt to set it forth, if we did not know that it is the will of God to have His saints in the light and conscious blessing of His own great and holy thoughts. This gives us strong confidence that His gracious help will not be withheld, as we seek to look a little more in detail at these precious things.
In the first place we learn that it is the pleasure of God that the Son of man should be supreme over all His works (verse 7). Adam was a figure of this, for he was placed at the head of creation to exercise dominion, God thus setting forth at the very beginning the great thought of His own mind. But Adam was quickly cast down from his excellency, for he proved him self to be unable to stand against the power of evil. Evil could and did touch him, and he fell, we might say, at the first touch. But if the figure has thus broken down, it is that it may give place to the substance — to that which cannot break down, to that which was in the mind of God when He created the figure. For I apprehend it would not be going too far to say that man in innocence was not morally suited to be set over the works of God’s hands, and to have all things put under his feet. It was not suited to God that the universe should be set in order without every moral question having its perfect solution. With an innocent man at the head of creation the whole question of good and evil was necessarily in abeyance. Under such circumstances neither righteousness nor holiness could be displayed; the moral ordering of the universe would have been wanting in most essential particulars.
But it was in the wisdom of God to bring all these moral questions into connection with man, and eventually to solve them in the most perfect way, so that man might be set over the works of His hands. That is, God will set the Son of man in supremacy, that there may be in the universe the most perfect [p. 113] and blessed ordering of everything according to all that God is in His nature and moral character. Everything will be subjugated to the One in whom God has been glorified. If God undertakes to set the universe in order, we may be sure that there will not only be the ascendency of power, but the perfect setting forth of everything that is morally suited to God. It is evident that man in innocence (however blessed might be his state in itself) was not competent to take such a place as this, for as yet he knew not good and evil. And certainly it was impossible for man as fallen under the power of evil to be set in such a position. In short, for man to be set in supremacy over the works of God’s hands involved the solution of the whole question of good and evil, and for this it was necessary that the One who was above all creatures should be “made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death”.
There is infinite moral glory in the humiliation of Christ. The more we ponder it, the more will the greatness, the grace and the moral glory of it astonish our hearts. The One who is above all creatures has been “made some little inferior to angels” to give expression to the wondrous grace of God, and to prove that that grace is greater than sin. Adam aspired to that which was above the measure of a creature, and went down in apostasy from the beauty of innocence to the dust of death. Now the Son in all the competency of His blessed Person has undertaken to bring divine grace and love into the very place of the creature’s ruin; He has come into the place of sin and death to glorify God there. And in taking that place, and sustaining all that was involved in His so doing, the Son of man has been glorified. All the perfection of His blessed Person has disclosed itself, it has come out upon a platform where it can be viewed by all God’s intelligent creatures. He has descended that He might maintain everything for God, and all His perfection has been manifested in the way that this has been accomplished. “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him” (John 13: 31).
[p. 114] Every moral question has been fully raised and finally settled. Evil has been exhibited in its full measure, and judgment executed upon it according to the holiness and righteousness of God. But in connection with this the infinite perfection of Christ has been brought into display, and all the goodness, grace, and love of God revealed. So that we know divine perfections, and the blessed nature of God, not as abstractions, but as things which subsist through Jesus Christ, and which have come into contact with evil, and have triumphed over it in such a way that God is free to give effect to all His own purposes of grace and glory. It is evident that the One in and by whom all this has been brought about must be the Centre of God’s moral universe. He must fill all things. Nothing else would be suitable to God but that He should be supreme over all the works of God’s hands, and have all things put under His feet.
“But now we see not yet all things subjected to him, but we see Jesus, who was made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour”. The Lord Jesus has not yet exercised the power with which He is invested to subdue all things to Himself, He is not yet in manifested supremacy. But He is in the highest heavenly exaltation — accepted, honoured, and glorified by God. This is the great secret of christianity, if one may so express it. The Son of man is not glorified as yet in any public way; He is glorified in God (John 13: 32). Hence everything connected with Him is of the nature of mystery; that is, it is hidden from public view and known only by the initiated. We — believers having the Spirit — see Jesus “crowned with glory and honour”, but He is hidden from the eyes of men.
It is in the apprehension of Christ as crowned with glory and honour at the right hand of God that we arrive at the true starting-point of christianity. It carries us entirely outside the range of seen things — outside man’s world and thoughts altogether — and it introduces us to an entirely new and heavenly order of things. For it is not only that Christ is there personally,
[p. 115] but that He is there as the ‘Leader of a chosen race’. “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”. It is the great thought of God to bring a company of “many sons” to glory, and Christ is the Leader of that company. Any company takes character from its leader, and the christian company of “holy brethren” takes character from Christ, the Leader of their salvation. This makes very evident that ours is a “heavenly calling”, for a heavenly Christ is the Leader of our salvation. We apprehend the true nature of our calling as we consider Him, and in spirit follow Him in that new place on high. He is to be, according to God’s wondrous purpose, the “firstborn among many brethren”. The whole company of “many sons” will take character from Him, and be conformed to His image.
When it was a question of the type set forth in an earthly people, Joshua was the leader of their salvation. He led them into the pleasant land of God’s promise and purpose, but they had to follow him, and it is not less so with ourselves. The very thought of a leader implies followers, and we shall not take possession of our inheritance unless in spirit we follow our Leader to the glory which He has entered. And I may say here that we should have had no title nor capacity to follow Him there, neither would God have been able to bring us there in righteousness, if the Leader of our salvation had not been made “perfect through sufferings”. How could the Son take the place of Leader of a company of sinners? He could not lead a company of sinners into glory. And, inasmuch as we were under sin and death, there was necessity that He should remove according to divine righteousness everything that attached to us as in the flesh, so that we might be brought to glory in an entirely new state and character — even as “many sons”. He could not be the Leader of our salvation — He would not be perfect in this character — apart from those “sufferings” in which He has brought to an end our old state by bearing the condemnation that justly attached to it. It was suitable to God [p. 116] that He should accomplish this blessed work, which involved “sufferings” entirely beyond our comprehension, before He took the place of Leader of salvation to a company of “many sons”. He has been made perfect in this character.
And this brings us to a further point. “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. To sanctify is to set apart for God. The more profound our sense of the holiness of God, and the more we realise the true nature of the flesh, the more conscious we shall be of the immensity and blessedness of the fact that Christ is the Sanctifier of His saints. He has under taken in love to set them apart according to the holiness of God from everything which would not suit that holiness, and to accomplish this He has gone into death. The death of Christ gives one an infinite thought of sanctification. It is impossible to measure it, or to express the completeness of it by going into any detail. The death of Christ is the absolute removal in judgment of all that we are as in the flesh. Having said this, we have said everything that needs to be said on that side, and there can be no doubt that this is the truth set forth in the cross.
But there is much more to be said on the other side. Christianity is not in any wise a system of mere negations; it is a holy system of divine affections and blessings. If the flesh is judged and ended, it is that there may be a company “all of one” with the Sanctifier; that is, a company in association with Christ as the risen One. “Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit” (John 12: 24). And it is important that we should apprehend this as something which is effected by Christ according to the Father’s purpose and pleasure. Christ sanctifies His company of “brethren”; Christ bears much fruit; all is of Himself, and is the outcome of His death; all is entirely outside the history and failure of the responsible man. Indeed, it must be so if the death of Christ is the source from whence everything springs.
Hence “he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. He can view them now according to the sanctification which He has [p. 117] Himself effected. He now appropriates His own wondrous character; He could say to Mary, “Go to my brethren”. His death was only just accomplished. None of the disciples had, as yet, we may safely say, entered into its meaning and value. But He knew what had been effected; all was now for Him on an entirely new footing; and by His word to Mary He placed His disciples in this new and blessed association with Himself. His own thoughts concerning them were thus declared. And the one who loved Him was the one who received the communication of His thoughts. Yes, a woman who loved Him got light in advance of all the apostles. There is great encouragement in this. Many of us are very sensible that we are insignificant in gift and energy, but there is no reason why we should not excel in affection. Love will bring us near to the Lord, and then in intimacy with Him we shall learn what His saints are to Him.
“I will declare thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. Christ has declared the Father’s name. He could say, “I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known; that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them” (John 17: 26). The great and blessed characteristic of christianity is that the Father’s name is declared by the Son. All that God is in His nature — in the activities of His holy love — has been fully made known by the only-begotten Son to a company made competent through divine grace to appreciate that blessed revelation. And then, on the other hand, Christ takes His place in the midst of the assembly to sing God’s praises. God dwells, and is known, in the praises of His saints. All the moral perfections and infinite blessedness of God take form in the praises of His saints, so that the universe may learn what God is through the praises of saints. This makes it essential that God’s praise should be in divine perfection, and this is secured by Christ becoming the great Singer of praise in the midst of the assembly. I do not understand this to mean that He sings apart from the saints, but rather that His song finds its expression in the saints. The music of God’s praise is found in the assembly, so that in the midst of a groaning creation and of a world where all is discord, and where everything seems to compromise the righteousness, goodness and love of God, there is found a circle whence melodious praise ascends to Him — the praise of all that He has wrought and the praise of all that He is in His attributes and nature. And it is Christ who sings in the hearts of His brethren. The song is such as only He could sing, but He sings in the midst of the assembly, and the saints become the mouthpiece of His wondrous song.
The consideration of this may well give our hearts an apprehension of the great privileges and dignity of the assembly. We are of the sanctified company, and as such are entirely divested of everything unsuited to divine love. We are privileged to know our place thus in the sanctuary, and by the Spirit and by the priestly grace of Christ to be abstracted from the world and the flesh, and all things which are connected with our responsible life on earth, so that we may be with Christ as His brethren before the Father’s face, holy and without blame in love. Thus entering the holiest we reach a circle where divine love is in perfect rest, and where nothing is seen or heard but Christ — Christ in His brethren, and His song issuing from their hearts. How blessed to realise that we are of such a circle as this! To find our hearts thrilling with Christ’s song of praise to God! Thus to be in God’s holy shrine, and before His face for the pleasure of His love!
Many believers miss this peculiar and wondrous privilege. They do not go beyond the thought of God’s grace to them as sinners, and His goodness and mercy in their responsible life on earth. I trust we may all be more exercised as to how far we have entered upon the true privilege of the assembly. May God give us to pray about it! May every one of us be deeply and continually exercised as to entering in to the privilege which it has been God’s pleasure to set before us!
Then, at the end of the chapter, Christ is presented as the Deliverer of His saints, first by His power and then by His [p. 119] priestly grace. Through death He has annulled him that had the might of death, that is, the devil; and the consequence is that His saints are set free from the fear of death and all the terrible bondage which it entailed. Saints in the Old Testament times had not deliverance from the fear of death. Death was not known to them as the place of Christ’s victory, and it was right and pious in them to have the fear of death. Life and incorruptibility were not yet brought to light through the gospel. But now all are in the light of that blessed victory, and are free. No fear of death and no bondage remain for the saint now.
‘The Lord is risen; our triumph-shout shall be,
“Thou hast prevailed! Thy people, Lord, are free!”’
Then Christ delivers His saints by His priestly grace and succour from what might be the crushing effect of the innumerable trials and pressures of the pathway here. He is “a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God”, and “in that himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to help those that are being tempted”. The worldly Christian does not understand the necessity for this succour; he finds himself able to get on without it. But not so the true saint. He finds himself going right against the stream; every influence here is against him; but, through grace, he is set to go on in the path of faith. He is very conscious that the help of Christ is indispensable to him, and he finds that it does not fail him. Christ Himself has suffered from every kind of opposition and trial: He knows exactly the help that is needed; and He does not fail to vouchsafe that help to His tried and feeble saints. In the path of faith you may be misunderstood and discouraged even by your brethren; but Christ will not fail you. He will stand by you, and succour, and strengthen, and encourage you to the end. How blessed to have such a present and gracious Deliverer!
May each one of us prove Him continually as our unfailing resource for each hour of need!