THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST
W. Lamont
Acts 2: 32–37; 5: 30–33; Philippians 2: 9–11
These three scriptures all speak about Jesus exalted. It is right that that blessed Man should be exalted in the presence of God. But first I would remind you that He was humiliated and was crucified. He said Himself, “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?”, Luke 24: 26. We must remember that the Man who has been exalted was first humiliated and crucified. He humbled Himself, but He was also humiliated. Think of that word being read by the Ethiopian eunuch from Isaiah 53, “In his humiliation his judgment has been taken away, and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth”, Acts 8: 33. What humiliation Jesus suffered in the judgment hall of Pilate! It has been rightly said that He was physically in the dock but morally Pilate was in the dock. In fact there and at the cross the whole human race was in the dock, the whole human race as well as Pilate was on trial, and yet it involved the humiliation of Jesus.
His life was taken from the earth, who shall declare His generation? There will never, in that sense, be another like Him. In His manhood in flesh and blood He was absolutely unique, and that life has been taken from the earth, never to be repeated. He was a perfect, sinless, holy, spotless Man, under the eye of God for God’s pleasure. He was made the object of all the bitterness and hatred and humiliation that men could heap upon Him. Think of the perfection of the life of Jesus, yet it was taken from the earth, a remarkable expression, and “who shall declare his generation?” There will never be another like Him. In His present condition and as raised from among the dead, there are those who can have part in that order of manhood,
“For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”, Hebrews 2: 11. What a privilege that such as we can have part with Him in His risen manhood, in another order altogether, but there will never be another like Him as He was here.
He was humiliated, that is something to think about! It touches one’s soul to think of it, to picture that scene in Pilate’s judgment hall. The Creator of the universe, the Saviour of the world was there in the presence of men. They said, “Away with this man and release Barabbas to us” (Luke 23: 18), they preferred a murderer. “Crucify, crucify him”, that was the cry against the holy, perfect, spotless Son of God, the One who was about to die on the cross in order that salvation might be made available for all. He was the One who for these three hours on the cross knew the abandonment by a holy God; He was the One who shed His precious blood. He was rejected and betrayed, forsaken by His own, humiliated by men; He turned to God His only resource, and found Himself forsaken. No wonder He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Matthew 27: 46; Mark 15: 34. I want to emphasise that word Me—why hast Thou forsaken Me? The only One who lived perfectly in the favour of God, and yet that One was forsaken. Mr. Darby said, (and I trust it is so in this room tonight), the answer to that cry is in the heart of every repenting sinner. Dear friend, it was because of you and me, because we were sinners, that God’s mercy toward us necessitated that His beloved Son should be forsaken on the cross.
And it was not only for your sins and mine, but for the virus of sin that had invaded the universe. Even before man was on the earth, sin was in the universe; it came in when Lucifer, son of the morning, sought God’s place (Isaiah 14: 12–16). Men speak about the original sin, and they are referring of course to the fall of man in the garden of Eden; that is not the original sin, the original sin was when Satan, that ancient enemy, the ancient serpent, desired God’s place. Then the awful time came when by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and that is the situation today. But we are speaking of one glorious Man who has met the whole matter of sin in its totality, and met, also in totality, the whole power of death. Tonight we can speak triumphantly, and tell you about the One who has the keys of death and of hades, He is the living One (Revelation 1: 18).
We are reading here about His being exalted, “This Jesus has God raised up”. I would like to say something briefly as to the name of Jesus. There is far more in it, I think, than we usually refer to. It is an allusion to His deity. You may say, I thought it was an allusion to His manhood. It is, but it is more than that, it is an allusion to His deity because the name means Jah the Saviour. Another has said that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New. So that blessed name Jesus is so lovable, so loved by millions and I trust it is loved by you. He is loved by me. It refers not only to His manhood and the lowly place that He took in manhood, but to the glory of who He is—“thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins”, Matthew 1: 21. His name means Jah the Saviour. In Matthew’s gospel that is shortly followed by His name Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us’. O, the glory of His Person! But in manhood He lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and shed His precious blood, in order that salvation might be proclaimed towards all, and tonight God is able to announce His righteousness towards all. O, what a God! He is showing forth His righteousness towards all and upon all those who believe (Romans 3: 22). Have you experienced God’s righteousness upon you because of the work of Another? Not in anything you have done or could do, but God’s righteousness is towards all and upon all those who believe, and He has set that blessed One forth, a mercy-seat. We are shut up to God’s mercy; we never could have atoned for one of our sins, not even one little sin, but He set Him forth
a mercy-seat through faith in His blood. Have you faith in the blood of Jesus? I pin my faith on the blood of Jesus. Can you say that? Your only hope for salvation is in the precious spotless blood of the Saviour, a Lamb slain without spot, without blemish, the precious blood of Jesus.
The One who suffered and went into death was raised again the third day, “This Jesus has God raised up, whereof all we are witnesses. Having therefore been exalted by the right hand of God”. He is there as a Man in the presence of God. It is a wonderful thing to know that, He is there now. Whatever may happen in this world, whatever may take place in the affairs of men, whatever may happen in your life, does not affect one whit that there is a Man who has been exalted by the right hand of God. Only one Man, no other, has qualified morally to fill that place at the right hand of God, that one blessed Man, Jesus.
Then “having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye behold and hear”. Christianity was established on the principle of sight. You may say, I thought Christianity was a matter of faith, so it is. In our day it is a matter of faith, but it was firmly established on the principle of sight. Persons actually saw the Lord Jesus as raised from among the dead, and at the beginning they saw the evidence of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in a way that could not be denied, as Peter says, “he has poured out this which ye behold and hear”. And he says,” God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”. That is He has put Him, without question, in a position as Man of absolute authority as Lord, and as Christ He is exercising that authority in blessing.
Soon He will be seen in the world to come, in a quickly coming day, when the Sun of righteousness will arise with healing in His wings, (Malachi 4: 2). Can you deny that healing is needed? No sensible person can, it is needed throughout the whole
world. We were saying, recently that there are about seventy civil wars going on in this world at the present time! Some of them are temporarily inactive, but forty of them are raging.
There is need for the Sun of righteousness to arise with healing in His wings, and bring in peace. But make sure of this, dear friend, that peace is solidly based on a moral judgment and in righteousness. Men cannot arrive at that; any peace that they arrive at is but a temporary matter. I do not want to go into history or politics but some of us were reminded, for instance, that the first world war when millions died was described as the war to end all wars. What folly, what a fallacy! Peace awaits the coming in of the Prince of Peace.
I wanted to point out in these first two scriptures, and also in the last one, that there was a reaction. In the first one there is a reaction in persons who “were pricked in heart, and said ... What shall we do, brethren?”. That is their consciences were reached. The answer is in the glad tidings, “Repent, and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. The glad tidings are so simple. So their reaction here was positive.
When we come to Acts 5, it says, “But they, when they heard these things, were cut to the heart, and took counsel to kill them”. A totally different reaction, but you will notice that what was said was almost similar, “The God of our fathers has raised up Jesus, whom ye have slain, having hanged on a cross. Him has God exalted by his right hand as leader and saviour, to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins”. Peter was speaking to the Jews, persons who were guilty of the murder of Jesus. Now in this great day in which we live.
God’s righteousness is towards all. O, the largeness of God’s heart; His righteousness is towards all, and upon all them that believe.
I just bring in this solemn note, my friend, that you may beware. The glad tidings are preached to you in the goodness of God’s heart, in His mercy, and in the flow of His grace.
What is your reaction? Are you going to say, “What then shall we do, brethren?” Are you going to repent? or are you going to refuse the glad tidings? Stephen saw the Lord Jesus standing, He was not sitting. He was standing ready again to appeal to them, and they deliberately murdered Stephen. Stephen said to them, “ye do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers, ye also”, Acts 7: 51. They could not resist the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke; it would be beyond dispute, but what it raised was the hatred and incurable character of the human degenerate heart as away from God. Friend, do not be like that tonight, let the glad tidings into your heart. “Faithful is the word, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. Paul could say, “of whom I am the first”, 1 Timothy 1: 15. Accept the word, it is for your blessing. God has nothing in His mind but the best for you. Satan has in his heart the worst for you, he wants to destroy you, but God wants to bless you.
We turn now to Philippians, a passage well known, regarding the One who emptied Himself.
As subsisting in the form of God, He did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God (another reference to His deity). What the form of God means no human mind can understand, or ever will, it is beyond creature thought. But then the One who was God as to His Person, on an equality with God, “emptied himself”. What could be said about that? Mr. Darby says in a note in his translation of the Bible, ‘I have no doubt all this is in contrast with the first Adam’. Then the next thing it says is, “taking a bondman’s form”, which is most affecting. Someone referred to that as excess; He went far beyond what He needed to, that was the Lord Jesus. It laid hold on Paul’s soul and it is the truth. It reminds us of the Hebrew bondman, who said, “I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free”, Exodus 21: 5. That is the attitude of the Lord Jesus as a bondman. He would not go free until He had secured what was for the heart of God and what was for the blessing of you and me.
Well, “Wherefore also God highly exalted him”. We have been reading of His being exalted. Paul adds a further touch, highly exalted Him. Who could describe what is involved in that?— highly exalted Him. No philosophical mind, grammatical mind, could understand the full meaning of those words, “highly exalted him”. “God highly exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow”.
Now I want you to note the urgency of the glad tidings at the present time. We often quote it, will bow, of course every knee will bow, that is future, but every knee should bow makes it present. That is the object of the glad tidings being preached, that right here and now “every knee should bow” to Jesus. My friend, you are not being forced to do so, that is the grace of God, the illimitable grace of God. He could do so, He could even in this day in which we live force us to bow the knee to Jesus. Remember how Joseph, a figure of Christ (the name he was given meaning Saviour of the world, or Revealer of secrets, or Sustainer of life) was made to ride in the second chariot in Egypt and they cried, Bow the knee (Genesis 41: 43). They had to do so or die, be without food, because he kept the storehouses. My friend, your future for blessing lies in the hand of Jesus, and I appeal to you because if you do not bow the knee to Him now you will miss the blessing, you will miss the opportunity. So every knee should bow. There is no question about it that every knee will bow “of heavenly and earthly and infernal beings”, not a creature left out. No one will escape.
Then it says, “and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”. Paul says, there are gods many and lords many, I do not need to tell you that the world is full of them, persons who are idolised. There is only
One who is Lord, and the confession of Him is “to God the Father’s glory”. Your blessing and mine is somewhat incidental; the end God is working to is to secure what is for His own glory. So that if we bow the knee to Jesus and confess with our tongue that He is Lord, it is to God the Father’s glory. May it be so for His name’s sake.
Preaching at Bo’ness
2 October 1994