Christ's Humiliation

My studies through the Westminster Shorter Catechism continue, and I thought one of the recent questions I looked at was quite relevant to the advent season that begins this weekend. Advent is a time of anticipation as we prepare to celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ's birth.  It is important that as we enter into this Christmas season we stay focused on the incarnation.  In considering the incarnation let us not miss the consideration of Christ's humiliation.

The answer to the Catechism's question regarding that humiliation contains many steps that seem to step down lower and lower, and go from bad to worse.  Remember to look at these steps of humiliation from the perspective of being God and willingly condescending to it all.  

Being born as a man

Belonging to a poor family, having a low social status

Submitting to His own law which was given to men

Experiencing and suffering through the various miseries of this life

Suffering God's wrath

Death 

Of course our Christmas season seems to relate particularly to this first step of birth as a man. I think that some nativity scenes, plays and songs that we see and hear during Christmas time can give us the wrong impression or take our focus off the more significant considerations of Christ's birth.  Its not really about cute little baby Jesus.  G.I. Williamson references C.S. Lewis who compares Jesus' becoming man to a shepherd who becomes a lamb in order to sacrifice himself for the rescue of his flock.  But that's not even a very good comparison, because the difference between God and man is far greater than the difference between man and beast. 

Christ's birth leads directly to that next step of humiliation, being poor and of little reputation. The King of kings found himself welcomed into the world not in the world's grandest palace, not a mansion, not even an average room, but a stall for animals!  As if God condescending to become man wasn't bad enough, this newborn God-man is treated as almost less than human from the moment He enters the world.  If only that inn keeper knew that it was God's son that Mary was giving birth to.  Of course we know that all of Jesus life  on earth continued in this manner, never having material wealth and very rarely being given even an ounce of the respect and honor and worship that He deserved.  Ironic how pagan Magi from the east honored Him more than most of the "God-fearing" people of Israel at the time.  That always challenges me to check my heart on how I as a Christian value and treat people.

Can you imagine being God and having to submit to the law of Moses which was given to the people of Israel, sinful men and women just like every other human on the earth?  I can see myself in that place, I'd be saying, wait a minute I gave these laws to Moses, I am beyond them.  I created these laws for you people, and even better, I created mankind.  How humiliating.  Then think about the fact that Jesus followed the teachings and laws perfectly (of course He, did He understood them better than any human could) and yet He was still accused of breaking it many times during His earthly ministry!

Jesus experienced and felt the pain of the many different miseries a fallen world, under God's curse, has to offer.  Hunger, rejection, loss of loved ones, betrayal, physical pain and many more.  Furthermore, as the next step highlights, He bore the weight of the world's sin and was crucified.  He took the place of those who did and would believe in Him, suffering the wrath of God deserved by all of sinful mankind.  I think one thing that I learned in this book was the depth of that statement, the wrath of God.  When Jesus came under that wrath on the cross, He experienced what it was like to have separation from God ("My God, My GOd, why have you forsaken me?").  God, more than anyone else knows how great He is and how much He and everything else depends on Himself and how wonderful it is to be in relationship with Himself.  So the Son of God felt what it would be like to have separation from God so that those who place their faith in Him could instead have communion with God again.  Sadly, but justly, those who will not place their faith in Jesus Christ will still face this wrath and judgment because they are not washed in the blood of the lamb of God.  Instead of benefiting from the completed work of the Redeemer, they will face that unimaginable separation from the Author of Life.

In order to conquer death, Jesus had to go under its power first, which is what the whole three days in the grave accomplished.  Thinking again from God's perspective (because contrary to other theories out there Jesus never emptied Himself of His divinity), can you imagine submitting yourself to death?  That would be like being the best athlete in the world and intentionally losing a match to your greatest opponent even though they were no match for you.  But you knew that you were still going to come out of it world champion in the end of the tournament so you let them beat you (I wonder if for a moment Satan thought he had won?).  But as we know death did not have the victory because Jesus conquered the grave!

So, just remember as you think through this advent season, Jesus' birth was really the commencing of these steps of humiliation that He chose to submit to and endure.  Why did He do this? Because He loved His creation, He loved us, and He wanted to restore the glorious world He had made made to once again be a theater of praise for Himself.  The best gift God can give to us is Himself, and He has given that gift more than once in the history of creation despite our wickedness. 

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him...

...The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.  No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth...  

...Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.  And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

  (various passages from 1 John 2 & 3)

   

Communion and the Estate Whereinto Men Fell

The 19th question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, "What is the misery of that estate whereinto men fell?"  In other words, What is the situation that man finds himself in after Adam sinned?  What are the consequences?  What is man's status and future outside of Eden?

Answer:  "All mankind, by their fall, lost communion  with God, are under His wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell."

That is some pretty heavy stuff to think about, though I don't think its hard for us to believe since that is the world we find ourselves in.  we don't have to look very hard to recognize death's presence in our world, or to see misery in people's lives (or perhaps our own).  Mankind as a whole is not communing with God, and many people that claim they are in relationship with a god, are in fact worshiping idols, man-made non-gods, demons and the like.  Thus they are not in any communion with God.

In revisiting this part of the Catechism today I am struck by the part that says we "lost communion with God."  Jesus has saved us from this estate of misery indeed, some of the redemption won't be fully realized till after the death of the body, but that particular element of restoring communion with God really touched my heart today.  I think it gives us cause to really consider the Lord's Supper and our participation in it.

The reality of what communion is, not just what it reminds us of or represents, is huge!  Jesus, God the Son, invites His followers to His table, to be nourished by His provision and more importantly by His presence.  He instituted in that moment that His followers should continue to do this throughout the ages till He returned.  At the time, I'm sure the disciples didn't fully understand how significant this was.  This was God himself establishing a means of intimate communion between Him and man again.  That's why I love the term communion now, because it reminds me that the lost communion with God is being/has been restored through Christ.  Communion isn't about us doing a good job of thinking and remembering Christ's sacrifice, though it does serve to remind us of the His blood shed and body broken to redeem His creation.  If we have the perspective of needing to focus on remembering, then we're trying to do the work in communion.  But in fact Jesus did all the work at the Last Supper, and the continuation of worship at the His table is no different.  If we approach it from the perspective that He will meet us there by the Holy Spirit, then we can participate in the fullness of what communion is, communing with Jesus, with God.  How deep and vast and mysterious is the love of God who restores us to Himself and invites us to His table.  It makes me want to come to the table more regularly.

Here's one of my favorite communion songs by a band called Leeland, not sure who made the video, but the lyrics paint a beautiful picture of our dependence upon the saviour and the amazing opportunity it is to come to His table.

Today is the Day

Many of you are probably familiar with the verse from Psalm 118:24 that says, "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it."  I know there's a song from back in the day that uses this passage, but I'm not too keen on playing it to be honest.  However, Lincoln Brewster just released an album called "Today is the Day," and the title track also uses this scripture, and I like this one.  I'll even share a video of it with you if you read the rest of this post.

So I've been studying the Wesminster Shorter Chatechism recently and I just read a chapter on the question, "What are the decrees of God?"  And the answer given is, "The decrees of God are His eternal purpose according to the counsel of His will, whereby for His own glory, He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass."  In summary, everything that happens is part of God's plan that existed before "the beginning," because He isn't constrained to time.  There is no "chance," there are no "accidents," there is nothing that happens that surprises God or causes Him to have to adapt His plan.  Yes this subject gets into predestination, but I don't think that should be a stumbling block for anyone.  As the author of this book says, "we cannot say that human persons are treated as pawns on a chessboard."  So there is always choice, it just that God already knew the choices we would make and thus its part of the plan.

It has been neat for me to couple this answer in the chatechism with the passage in Psalm 118 and know that we can get up each day and rejoice in the fact that God has made this day. Rejoice that everything is going according to His infinitely wise plan, even when it seems like the the world is falling apart.  Rejoice that it is all foreordained for His glory, which is what we should be all about.  Rejoice because He is good, and if you're in Christ, His plan means that you get to enjoy His glory forever.  So take Him at His word, and thank Him for today and ask Him to help you live for His glory and to enjoy Him.  Maybe this song can help you get into that mindset.