Epistle for March 24, 2024 (Liturgy of the Passion)

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Philippians 2:5-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage is one of the clearest and most concise statements in the New Testament about the nature and work of Christ. This passage is believed by some to be part of an early Christian hymn.

The Apostle Paul anticipates the Nicene Creed which was written 300 years later.  The Nicene Creed says that Jesus is:

the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God….
…. for us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.

Paul rehearses what is called the kerygma (i.e., the proclamation of the saving work of Jesus Christ) about what Christ has done:

• He has come to earth for us, though he was preexistent and equal with God.
• He has been perfectly obedient by accepting death on the cross.
• He has been exalted to the highest place with God the Father.

Paul begins with an exhortation to the Philippians that they are to imitate Christ:

Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus

The theme of the “imitation of Christ” appears repeatedly throughout the New Testament, not least when Jesus tells his disciples:

Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Mark 8:34).

Paul unpacks his exhortation to have the mind of Christ by exploring the character and ministry of Jesus.

First, Paul’s doctrine supports the doctrine established in the Gospel of John, that Jesus is the preexistent Son of God, and that he is divine.  However, Paul tells us that Jesus voluntarily humbled himself. Jesus:

existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped…

There is a paradox here — Jesus is God, and is equal with God; and yet, Jesus does not presume to exploit his divine nature, but fulfills his unique role as Son of God.  He becomes a human being.

Instead of arrogating power and position to himself, Jesus:

emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.   And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

Not only does Jesus, the divine Son of God, take upon himself human form, he takes upon himself the form of a slave!  We see this clearly in the Gospel of John in the Upper Room, when Jesus washes the feet of the disciples as an example to them of the servanthood they need to emulate (John 13:1-20).  We see it when Jesus says of himself in the Gospel of Mark:

whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant.  Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be bondservant of all.  For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:43-45).

And then there is the twist, the reversal that should astonish us, except that we’ve become too accustomed to the story — as low as Jesus humbles himself, even unto death, he is raised even higher!

Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

While Paul doesn’t mention the resurrection here, it is assumed.  Jesus is exalted, and given the name above every name — Lord. 

Here we are reminded of Paul’s roots in Judaism.  The name of God in the Hebrew Bible is holy and transcendent.  This is the name I AM revealed in Exodus 3.  In the Septuagint (which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), the name Lord is the equivalent of I AM.  Paul is clearly identifying Jesus as God.

So we have here the true nature of Christ. He is of the nature of God — which becomes very important in understanding the deity of Christ and the Trinity; but he humbles himself and takes on the form of a servant, which means he is also fully human.

The only Savior who can save us is one who is both fully God and fully human.

There is a cycle that is completed — Jesus is equal with the Father, but descends to the lowest place, even death; and then because he is obedient even unto death, he is exalted again to the highest place.

Therefore, those who follow Jesus and seek to emulate his servanthood will worship him as Lord.  Not only that, every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord!

This is an eschatological statement.  In the end all will acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus — whether they are willing to do so or not.  For some, this will be the essence of heaven — for others, who rebel against surrender to God’s authority, it will be hell.

APPLY:  

There is so much doctrine packed into these few verses!

We have here a kind of synopsis of Trinitarian theology.  Jesus Christ is the preexistent Son of God, who was present with the Father at the beginning, who shares in the nature of God.  He is fully God, and yet distinct from the Father.

We are reminded of the doctrine of the Trinity as historically taught since the church Fathers— God is one God in three persons.

And Jesus is also the Word made flesh, who empties himself and takes upon himself the form of a servant, identifying with our sin on the cross so that we may receive his righteousness in exchange.

And he is the exalted High Priest who returns to his rightful place at the right hand of the Father.

Therefore he deserves our unrestrained worship and praise.

But we mustn’t neglect Paul’s injunction, that we are to have the mind that was in Christ.  For us to have his mind requires that we worship him, study his life in the Scriptures, and imitate him.  And we become most like him when we humble ourselves and serve others.

Above all, we must remember that all this is Christ’s doing.  I love the verse from Charles Wesley’s great hymn, “And Can It Be,” that emphasizes Christ’s self-emptying love.

He left his Father’s throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!),
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam’s helpless race.
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!

RESPOND: 

St. Irenaeus, one of the early church Fathers, said something quite radical to our ears:

The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.

Isn’t this what Paul is telling us to do when he tells us that we are to have the mind that was in Christ Jesus?

However, we must remember that if this is to happen, it is Christ’s doing.  That’s what we mean by grace, that God is at work in us.

I really love C.S. Lewis’ analogy in his essay The Grand Miracle. He says that what Jesus has done follows a:

huge pattern of descent, down, down, down, and then up again. . . one has the picture of a diver, stripping off garment after garment, making himself naked, then flashing for a moment in the air, and then down through the green, and warm and sunlit water into the pitch black, cold, freezing water, down into the mud and slime, then up again, his lungs almost bursting, back again to the green and warm and sunlit water, and then at last out into the sunshine, holding in his hand the dripping thing he went down to get. This thing is human nature.

Jesus, of course, is the diver who begins his descent after diving from the very throne of God itself, and then descending into human flesh at Bethlehem, living as a Jewish man in Galilee and Judea, descending to the cross and the grave, and, according to many Christians, descending even into hell.  And this same Jesus rises from the deepest, darkest place, from death itself, and returns to heaven in the ascension.

Jesus comes into this world in order to identify with us and take our sin upon himself, and then takes us back with himself into heaven!  That is great news!

Lord, with angels and archangels, and all Christians throughout time, I join in praise of your saving work!  I am in awe of your amazing descent from the right hand of the father to the lowest point with us, and your dizzying reascent into heaven.  Help me to have your attitude of servanthood and sacrifice, knowing that without your Spirit in me that is impossible.  Amen.

PHOTOS:

“Philippians 2 Typography Gradient” by Tyler Neyens is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for October 8, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Philippians 3:4b-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul focuses on his own autobiography as a witness to the Gospel of grace that he proclaims.  In this passage we see through Paul’s eyes his own transition from a self-righteous overachiever to a man completely dependent upon Christ.

He begins by demonstrating to the Philippians that he has a great personal resume, in purely human terms.  He has every reason to be:

confident in the flesh,

if the goal is to be reached through human achievement.

The list he offers highlights his accomplishments as a highly committed, deeply religious person:

circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

His place in the Judaism of his day, regarded as the true faith of the Chosen People, was absolutely secure.  Not only had he received all the normal marks of an observant Jew (circumcision, a place in the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews), he was a member of the most exclusive religious “fraternity” of his day — the Pharisees.

To be a Pharisee was to be a part of a highly scrupulous group.  The word Pharisee means those who are set apart. They were renowned for their strict observance not only of the Law of Moses, but also of the Oral Law — that body of interpretations and applications that had been passed down by generations of rabbis.

Moreover, Paul’s zeal for his faith was so intense that he sought to root out those whom he regarded as heretics, this new Jewish sect that were called Christians.  His quest to rid the world of this threat led him to Damascus — and conversion!

Yet, Paul could honestly say that his devotion to the law of Moses was so impeccable that he was blameless.

However, compared to the glory and grace that Paul had come to know in Christ, his own accomplishments are meaningless to him:

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ…

Note the three-fold reference to loss, which illustrates that Paul has given up all of the achievements and credentials of his former life.  In comparison to knowing Christ, his long list of merits are mere trash.

Paul reiterates the core of his message of grace when he outlines his new aim — to be found in Christ:

not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.

Throughout his epistles, Paul has made it clear that it is impossible to establish one’s own righteousness by obedience to the law.  While the law is holy and just and good, the human capacity to fulfill the law invariably falls short.  Only by complete surrender through faith in Christ does the believer receive the:

righteousness from God based on faith.

Paul states clearly his own personal mission statement:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

This highlights an important aspect of Paul’s spirituality — that faith in Christ means identification with Christ’s cross and his resurrection.  We can see that very clearly in Galatians 2:19-20.

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Nevertheless, Paul confesses his own deep humility, acknowledging that he is still in the process of growing when it comes to following Christ:

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

There are two key points that seem striking here.

First, there is the paradox that Christ has already made Paul his own, yet there is a response still required in order for Paul to continue to make Christ his own.  Christ’s grace has already accepted Paul as he is.  But Paul is aware that identifying with Christ’s crucified and resurrected life requires that he press on to make it his own.

There are several analogies that spring to mind — we are embraced by someone who loves us, but we also must embrace them in return if we are to experience the completion of affection.

But Paul’s own analogy brings us to the second point — Paul uses an athletic analogy to describe himself:

forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

One can almost see the stadium and the runners as they are being cheered on by the crowds.  Paul runs his race so that he may cross the finish line and receive the ultimate prize.

So, the analogy prevails.  He has been selected for the “team” by the grace of Christ. It is time to forget those previous efforts of achievement that fell short of victory, without looking back.  And now he strives to perform in the spiritual contest with his utmost effort so that he may fulfill the high calling of Christ.

APPLY:  

Ours is an achievement-oriented society.  From our first report cards that our moms put on the refrigerator to the lists of awards and honors and degrees that follow our names in our resumes, we are hungry for recognition.

While this may be admirable and desirable from a human point of view for our resume building, this is not how we experience the glory of Christ.

Christ’s grace is available to all, from the president of the United States to the homeless woman pushing a shopping cart filled with her only possessions.

As Paul tells us, Christ has taken hold of us by grace.  He has already offered himself to us completely and without reserve.  He emptied himself of all but love, and offered his life on the cross so that he might raise us up with him.

What response should this elicit from us?  If we fully grasp what Christ has done for us, it inspires us to give all that we have and all that we are to follow him.  This is the path to sanctification.

We remember, however, that even this striving:

toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus

is still not our accomplishment.  It is not something that we achieve, but rather something that we receive by grace.

As Paul reminds us in his paradoxical statement earlier in this letter to the Philippians:

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).

No matter how intense our effort, how earnestly we press toward the goal, we are enabled to do so only by God who is at work in us.  That is why we are truly humble before God, who is the author and finisher of our salvation.

RESPOND: 

Years ago, I was seeing a Christian counselor about my depression.  He recommended a book that helped me to apply all of my theological training to my personal problems.

The book was The Search for Significance by Robert McGee.  I can sum up the message very simply — we are taught in our culture to base our self-worth on our performance and the opinions of others.  Our accomplishments and the opinion of others become the mirror in which we measure ourselves.

Unfortunately, even the most accomplished and most popular persons in the world, in their most honest moments, must accept that they fall short of perfection. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has nothing to say to those who do not accept that they are sinners.

The Gospel of grace tells us that we are already accepted for Christ’s sake.  We are loved.  There is nothing more that we need do in order to be more acceptable to God. Our acceptance by God is not based on our performance or the opinion of others. Christ has performed all that needs to be done for us to be reconciled to God. And Christ’s opinion of each of us is that we are worth dying for!

When I read McGee’s book, and began to apply its message in my own life, it liberated me from the effort to establish my own righteousness or to “prove” myself.

And, when I could accept that I was already accepted by Christ, I was free to give my very best effort to press on toward the life that he envisioned for me.

I had “made the team” already.  But now I didn’t want to simply sit on the bench.  I wanted to excel and perform at the highest level possible — not for my own sake but for Christ’s sake.  My motivation for obedience and excellence was no longer to bolster my ego or my resume, but gratitude for what Christ has done for me.

Our Lord, whatever I have accomplished is rubbish in comparison to the glory of knowing you through your death and resurrection.  I receive your grace with humble gratitude, and press on toward the goal of your high calling.  Amen. 

PHOTO:
“Philippians 3:13-14” by Brett Jordan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. This image is designed to be wallpaper for an iphone.

Epistle for April 2, 2023 (Liturgy of the Passion)

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Philippians 2:5-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage is one of the clearest and most concise statements in the New Testament about the nature and work of Christ. This passage is believed by some to be part of an early Christian hymn.

The Apostle Paul anticipates the Nicene Creed which was written 300 years later.  The Nicene Creed says that Jesus is:

the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God….
…. for us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.

Paul rehearses what is called the kerygma (i.e., the proclamation of the saving work of Jesus Christ) about what Christ has done:

• He has come to earth for us, though he was preexistent and equal with God.
• He has been perfectly obedient by accepting death on the cross.
• He has been exalted to the highest place with God the Father.

Paul begins with an exhortation to the Philippians that they are to imitate Christ:

Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus

The theme of the “imitation of Christ” appears repeatedly throughout the New Testament, not least when Jesus tells his disciples:

Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Mark 8:34).

Paul unpacks his exhortation to have the mind of Christ by exploring the character and ministry of Jesus.

First, Paul’s doctrine supports the doctrine established in the Gospel of John, that Jesus is the preexistent Son of God, and that he is divine.  However, Paul tells us that Jesus voluntarily  humbled himself. Jesus:

existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped…

There is a paradox here — Jesus is God, and is equal with God; and yet, Jesus does not presume to exploit his divine nature, but fulfills his unique role as Son of God.  He becomes a human being.

Instead of arrogating power and position to himself, Jesus:

emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.   And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

Not only does Jesus, the divine Son of God, take upon himself human form, he takes upon himself the form of a slave!  We see this clearly in the Gospel of John in the Upper Room, when Jesus washes the feet of the disciples as an example to them of the servanthood they need to emulate (John 13:1-20).  We see it when Jesus says of himself in the Gospel of Mark:

whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant.  Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be bondservant of all.  For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:43-45).

And then there is the twist, the reversal that should astonish us, except that we’ve become too accustomed to the story — as low as Jesus humbles himself, even unto death, he is raised even higher!

Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,  and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

While Paul doesn’t mention the resurrection here, it is assumed.  Jesus is exalted, and given the name above every name — Lord. 

Here we are reminded of Paul’s roots in Judaism.  The name of God in the Hebrew Bible is holy and transcendent.  This is the name I AM revealed in Exodus 3.  In the Septuagint (which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), the name Lord is the equivalent of I AM.  Paul is clearly identifying Jesus as God.

So we have here the true nature of Christ. He is of the nature of God — which becomes very important in understanding the deity of Christ and the Trinity; but he humbles himself and takes on the form of a servant, which means he is also fully human.

The only Savior who can save us is one who is both fully God and fully human.

There is a cycle that is completed — Jesus is equal with the Father, but descends to the lowest place, even death; and then because he is obedient even unto death, he is exalted again to the highest place.

Therefore, those who follow Jesus and seek to emulate his servanthood will worship him as Lord.  Not only that, every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord!

This is an eschatological statement.  In the end all will acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus — whether they are willing to do so or not.  For some, this will be the essence of heaven — for others, who rebel against surrender to God’s authority, it will be hell.

APPLY:  

There is so much doctrine packed into these few verses!

We have here a kind of synopsis of Trinitarian theology.  Jesus Christ is the preexistent Son of God, who was present with the Father at the beginning, who shares in the nature of God.  He is fully God, and yet distinct from the Father.

We are reminded of the doctrine of the Trinity as historically taught since the church Fathers— God is one God in three persons.

And Jesus is also the Word made flesh, who empties himself and takes upon himself the form of a servant, identifying with our sin on the cross so that we may receive his righteousness in exchange.

And he is the exalted High Priest who returns to his rightful place at the right hand of the Father.

Therefore he deserves our unrestrained worship and praise.

But we mustn’t neglect Paul’s injunction, that we are to have the mind that was in Christ.  For us to have his mind requires that we worship him, study his life in the Scriptures, and imitate him.  And we become most like him when we humble ourselves and serve others.

Above all, we must remember that all this is Christ’s doing.  I love the verse from Charles Wesley’s great hymn, “And Can It Be,” that emphasizes Christ’s self-emptying love.

He left his Father’s throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!),
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam’s helpless race.
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!

RESPOND: 

St. Irenaeus, one of the early church Fathers, said something quite radical to our ears:

The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.

Isn’t this what Paul is telling us to do when he tells us that we are to have the mind that was in Christ Jesus?

However, we must remember that if this is to happen, it is Christ’s doing.  That’s what we mean by grace, that God is at work in us.

I really love C.S. Lewis’ analogy in his essay The Grand Miracle. He says that what Jesus has done follows a:

huge pattern of descent, down, down, down, and then up again. . . one has the picture of a diver, stripping off garment after garment, making himself naked, then flashing for a moment in the air, and then down through the green, and warm and sunlit water into the pitch black, cold, freezing water, down into the mud and slime, then up again, his lungs almost bursting, back again to the green and warm and sunlit water, and then at last out into the sunshine, holding in his hand the dripping thing he went down to get. This thing is human nature.

Jesus, of course, is the diver who begins his descent after diving from the very throne of God itself, and then descending into human flesh at Bethlehem, living as a Jewish man in Galilee and Judea, descending to the cross and the grave, and, according to many Christians, descending even into hell.  And this same Jesus rises from the deepest, darkest place, from death itself, and returns to heaven in the ascension.

Jesus comes into this world in order to identify with us and take our sin upon himself, and then takes us back with himself into heaven!  That is great news!

Lord, with angels and archangels, and all Christians throughout time, I join in praise of your saving work!  I am in awe of your amazing descent from the right hand of the father to the lowest point with us, and your dizzying reascent into heaven.  Help me to have your attitude of servanthood and sacrifice, knowing that without your Spirit in me that is impossible.  Amen.

PHOTOS:

“Philippians 2 Typography Gradient” by Tyler Neyens is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for April 10, 2022 (Liturgy of the Passion)

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Philippians 2:5-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage is one of the clearest and most concise statements in the New Testament about the nature and work of Christ. This passage is believed by some to be part of an early Christian hymn.

The Apostle Paul anticipates the Nicene Creed which was written 300 years later.  The Nicene Creed says that Jesus is:

the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God….
…. for us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.

Paul rehearses what is called the kerygma (i.e., the proclamation of the saving work of Jesus Christ) about what Christ has done:

• He has come to earth for us, though he was preexistent and equal with God.
• He has been perfectly obedient by accepting death on the cross.
• He has been exalted to the highest place with God the Father.

Paul begins with an exhortation to the Philippians that they are to imitate Christ:

Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus

The theme of the “imitation of Christ” appears repeatedly throughout the New Testament, not least when Jesus tells his disciples:

Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Mark 8:34).

Paul unpacks his exhortation to have the mind of Christ by exploring the character and ministry of Jesus.

First, Paul’s doctrine supports the doctrine established in the Gospel of John, that Jesus is the preexistent Son of God, and that he is divine.  However, Paul tells us that Jesus voluntarily  humbled himself. Jesus:

existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped…

There is a paradox here — Jesus is God, and is equal with God; and yet, Jesus does not presume to exploit his divine nature, but fulfills his unique role as Son of God.  He becomes a human being.

Instead of arrogating power and position to himself, Jesus:

emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.   And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

Not only does Jesus, the divine Son of God, take upon himself human form, he takes upon himself the form of a slave!  We see this clearly in the Gospel of John in the Upper Room, when Jesus washes the feet of the disciples as an example to them of the servanthood they need to emulate (John 13:1-20).  We see it when Jesus says of himself in the Gospel of Mark:

whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant.  Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be bondservant of all.  For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:43-45).

And then there is the twist, the reversal that should astonish us, except that we’ve become too accustomed to the story — as low as Jesus humbles himself, even unto death, he is raised even higher!

Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,  and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

While Paul doesn’t mention the resurrection here, it is assumed.  Jesus is exalted, and given the name above every name — Lord. 

Here we are reminded of Paul’s roots in Judaism.  The name of God in the Hebrew Bible is holy and transcendent.  This is the name I AM revealed in Exodus 3.  In the Septuagint (which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), the name Lord is the equivalent of I AM.  Paul is clearly identifying Jesus as God.

So we have here the true nature of Christ. He is of the nature of God — which becomes very important in understanding the deity of Christ and the Trinity; but he humbles himself and takes on the form of a servant, which means he is also fully human.

The only Savior who can save us is one who is both fully God and fully human.

There is a cycle that is completed — Jesus is equal with the Father, but descends to the lowest place, even death; and then because he is obedient even unto death, he is exalted again to the highest place.

Therefore, those who follow Jesus and seek to emulate his servanthood will worship him as Lord.  Not only that, every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord!

This is an eschatological statement.  In the end all will acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus — whether they are willing to do so or not.  For some, this will be the essence of heaven — for others, who rebel against surrender to God’s authority, it will be hell.

APPLY:  

There is so much doctrine packed into these few verses!

We have here a kind of synopsis of Trinitarian theology.  Jesus Christ is the preexistent Son of God, who was present with the Father at the beginning, who shares in the nature of God.  He is fully God, and yet distinct from the Father.

We are reminded of the doctrine of the Trinity as historically taught since the church Fathers— God is one God in three persons.

And Jesus is also the Word made flesh, who empties himself and takes upon himself the form of a servant, identifying with our sin on the cross so that we may receive his righteousness in exchange.

And he is the exalted High Priest who returns to his rightful place at the right hand of the Father.

Therefore he deserves our unrestrained worship and praise.

But we mustn’t neglect Paul’s injunction, that we are to have the mind that was in Christ.  For us to have his mind requires that we worship him, study his life in the Scriptures, and imitate him.  And we become most like him when we humble ourselves and serve others.

Above all, we must remember that all this is Christ’s doing.  I love the verse from Charles Wesley’s great hymn, “And Can It Be,” that emphasizes Christ’s self-emptying love.

He left his Father’s throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!),
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam’s helpless race.
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!

RESPOND: 

St. Irenaeus, one of the early church Fathers, said something quite radical to our ears:

The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.

Isn’t this what Paul is telling us to do when he tells us that we are to have the mind that was in Christ Jesus?

However, we must remember that if this is to happen, it is Christ’s doing.  That’s what we mean by grace, that God is at work in us.

I really love C.S. Lewis’ analogy in his essay The Grand Miracle. He says that what Jesus has done follows a:

huge pattern of descent, down, down, down, and then up again. . . one has the picture of a diver, stripping off garment after garment, making himself naked, then flashing for a moment in the air, and then down through the green, and warm and sunlit water into the pitch black, cold, freezing water, down into the mud and slime, then up again, his lungs almost bursting, back again to the green and warm and sunlit water, and then at last out into the sunshine, holding in his hand the dripping thing he went down to get. This thing is human nature.

Jesus, of course, is the diver who begins his descent after diving from the very throne of God itself, and then descending into human flesh at Bethlehem, living as a Jewish man in Galilee and Judea, descending to the cross and the grave, and, according to many Christians, descending even into hell.  And this same Jesus rises from the deepest, darkest place, from death itself, and returns to heaven in the ascension.

Jesus comes into this world in order to identify with us and take our sin upon himself, and then takes us back with himself into heaven!  That is great news!

Lord, with angels and archangels, and all Christians throughout time, I join in praise of your saving work!  I am in awe of your amazing descent from the right hand of the father to the lowest point with us, and your dizzying reascent into heaven.  Help me to have your attitude of servanthood and sacrifice, knowing that without your Spirit in me that is impossible.  Amen.

PHOTOS:

“Philippians 2 Typography Gradient” by Tyler Neyens is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for April 3, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Philippians 3:4b-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul focuses on his own autobiography as a witness to the Gospel of grace that he proclaims.  In this passage we see through Paul’s eyes his own transition from a self-righteous overachiever to a man completely dependent upon Christ.

He begins by demonstrating to the Philippians that he has a great personal resume, in purely human terms.  He has every reason to be:

confident in the flesh,

if the goal is to be reached through human achievement.

The list he offers highlights his accomplishments as a highly committed, deeply religious person:

circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;  as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

His place in the Judaism of his day, regarded as the true faith of the Chosen People, was absolutely secure.  Not only had he received all the normal marks of an observant Jew (circumcision, a place in the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews), he was a member of the most exclusive religious “fraternity” of his day — the Pharisees.

To be a Pharisee was to be a part of a highly scrupulous group.  The word Pharisee means those who are set apart. They were renowned for their strict observance not only of the Law of Moses, but also of the Oral Law — that body of interpretations and applications that had been passed down by generations of rabbis.

Moreover, Paul’s zeal for his faith was so intense that he sought to root out those whom he regarded as heretics, this new Jewish sect that were called Christians.  His quest to rid the world of this threat led him to Damascus — and conversion!

Yet, Paul could honestly say that his devotion to the law of Moses was so impeccable that he was blameless.

However, compared to the glory and grace that Paul had come to know in Christ, his own accomplishments are meaningless to him:

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ…

Note the three-fold reference to loss, which illustrates that Paul has given up all of the achievements and credentials of his former life.  In comparison to knowing Christ, his long list of merits are mere trash.

Paul reiterates the core of his message of grace when he outlines his new aim —  to be found in Christ:

not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.

Throughout his epistles, Paul has made it clear that it is impossible to establish one’s own righteousness by obedience to the law.  While the law is holy and just and good, the human capacity to fulfill the law invariably falls short.  Only by complete surrender through faith in Christ does the believer receive the:

righteousness from God based on faith.

Paul states clearly his own personal mission statement:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,  if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

This highlights an important aspect of Paul’s spirituality — that faith in Christ means identification with Christ’s cross and his resurrection.  We can see that very clearly in Galatians 2:19-20.

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Nevertheless, Paul confesses his own deep humility, acknowledging that he is still in the process of growing when it comes to following Christ:

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

There are two key points that seem striking here.

First, there is the paradox that Christ has already made Paul his own, yet there is a response still required in order for Paul to continue to make Christ his own.  Christ’s grace has already accepted Paul as he is.  But Paul is aware that identifying with Christ’s crucified and resurrected life requires that he press on to make it his own.

There are several analogies that spring to mind — we are embraced by someone who loves us, but we also must embrace them in return if we are to experience the completion of affection.

But Paul’s own analogy brings us to the second point —  Paul uses an athletic analogy to describe himself:

forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

One can almost see the stadium and the runners as they are being cheered on by the crowds.  Paul runs his race so that he may cross the finish line and receive the ultimate prize.

So, the analogy prevails.  He has been selected for the “team” by the grace of Christ. It is time to forget those previous efforts of achievement that fell short of victory, without looking back.  And now he strives to perform in the spiritual contest with his utmost effort so that he may fulfill the high calling of Christ.

APPLY:  

Ours is an achievement-oriented society.  From our first report cards that our moms put on the refrigerator to the lists of awards and honors and degrees that follow our names in our resumes, we are hungry for recognition.

While this may be admirable and desirable from a human point of view for our resume building, this is not how we experience the glory of Christ.

Christ’s grace is available to all, from the president of the United States to the homeless woman pushing a shopping cart filled with her only possessions.

As Paul tells us, Christ has taken hold of us by grace.  He has already offered himself to us completely and without reserve.  He emptied himself of all but love, and offered his life on the cross so that he might raise us up with him.

What response should this elicit from us?  If we fully grasp what Christ has done for us, it inspires us to give all that we have and all that we are to follow him.  This is the path to sanctification.

We remember, however,  that even this striving:

toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus

is still not our accomplishment.  It is not something that we achieve, but rather something that we receive by grace.

As Paul reminds us in his paradoxical statement earlier in this letter to the Philippians:

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;  for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).

No matter how intense our effort, how earnestly we press toward the goal, we are enabled to do so only by God who is at work in us.  That is why we are truly humble before God, who is the author and finisher of our salvation.

RESPOND: 

Years ago, I was seeing a Christian counselor about my depression.  He recommended a book that helped me to apply all of my theological training to my personal problems.

The book was The Search for Significance by Robert McGee.  I can sum up the message very simply —  we are taught in our culture to base our self-worth on our performance and the opinions of others.  Our accomplishments and the opinion of others become the mirror in which we measure ourselves.

Unfortunately, even the most accomplished and most popular persons in the world, in their most honest moments, must accept that they fall short of perfection. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has nothing to say to those who do not accept that they are sinners.

The Gospel of grace tells us that we are already accepted for Christ’s sake.  We are loved.  There is nothing more that we need do in order to be more acceptable to God. Our acceptance by God is not based on our performance or the opinion of others. Christ has performed all that needs to be done for us to be reconciled to God. And Christ’s opinion of each of us is that we are worth dying for!

When I read McGee’s book, and began to apply its message in my own life, it liberated me from the effort to establish my own righteousness or to “prove” myself.

And, when I could accept that I was already accepted by Christ, I was free to give my very best effort to press on toward the life that he envisioned for me.

I had “made the team” already.  But now I didn’t want to simply sit on the bench.  I wanted to excel and perform at the highest level possible —  not for my own sake but for Christ’s sake.  My motivation for obedience and excellence was no longer to bolster my ego or my resume, but gratitude for what Christ has done for me.

Our Lord, whatever I have accomplished is rubbish in comparison to the glory of knowing you through your death and resurrection.  I receive your grace with humble gratitude, and press on toward the goal of your high calling.  Amen. 

PHOTO:
“Philippians 3:13-14” by Brett Jordan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. This image is designed to be wallpaper for an iphone.

Epistle for March 27, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

All letters are written as a kind of dialogue in which the reader only has one half of the conversation.  That is especially true in the case of 1 & 2 Corinthians.

In this key passage, we have a snippet of the Apostle Paul’s explanation of his ministry and message to the Corinthians.

He declares to the Corinthians that:

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.

He is describing a change of perspective that can only be explained spiritually.  As we recall Paul’s own biography, we can certainly see the source of his dramatic change of perspective.  Prior to his conversion, he was legalistic, arrogantly convinced of his own righteousness, and determined to destroy any who disagreed with him.  Following his conversion, his basis for hope was grounded in grace, he knew he depended on the righteousness that comes by faith in Christ, and his one goal was to reconcile others to God.

All of this is because he himself had become what he describes so eloquently in this passage — a new creation. 

The spiritual change that occurs when someone comes to true faith in Christ is so radical that it can only be described in this way:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

The renewal of one who is in Christ is so complete, it is like a new world. Not only has their perspective on life changed, everything has become new!

So radical is this change that Paul says elsewhere it is like a death and a resurrection:

Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

The source of this radical change is from God.  This is in stark contrast to Paul’s previous life, when his life and character all depended on his own legalistic accomplishments and achievements.

Paul  expands on the source of this newness of life:

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;  that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

There is a lot of meaning packed into this long sentence.  First, that the new creation derives from God, through the reconciling work of Christ. This has to be unpacked.

Reconciliation means to bring two different sides together, as when we might say we must “reconcile” the numbers in our bank statements — to make the numbers of two columns square with one another.

In this case, the metaphor of reconciliation goes even deeper.  The root of the Greek word for reconciliation means to literally “exchange one thing for another.”

This has poignant meaning in this passage.  As we will see in verse 21, Jesus himself is the agent of exchange between ourselves and God.  Because Jesus offers himself as the agent of reconciliation, he takes our sin upon himself and gives us his own righteousness.  Therefore the believer is counted as righteous, and united with God.

A second powerful message embedded in this passage relates to the nature of Jesus.  When Paul says that:

in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,

he is saying that Jesus is not merely an agent of God, he is God.

Paul makes this clear also in Colossians:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation . . . For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:15,19-20).

Paul tells the Corinthians that a crucial effect of Christ’s ministry of reconciliation is to make Paul and his cohorts ministers of reconciliation as well.  Paul uses a term borrowed from statecraft:

So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Paul depicts himself as a representative from the heavenly kingdom, speaking on behalf of God to the “enemies of the state” whom he entreats to become citizens of that same heavenly kingdom.

Finally, he returns to the character of Christ and frames this profoundly paradoxical statement:

 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

It has been established that Christ is one with God.  And here we are reminded of his sinless nature.  But the astonishing claim is that the one who is without sin has become sin, so that believers might become righteous.

This returns to the imagery of reconciliation as a trade, an exchange.  Christ trades his righteousness to the believer, and the believer trades his/her sin to Christ!

Without saying so, Paul has touched on the deep mystery of the cross.  On the cross, Christ becomes sin as the perfect sacrifice.  This is a fulfillment of the foreshadowing of the sacrifices that were required in the Old Covenant:

When anyone offers a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord, in fulfillment of a vow or as a freewill offering, from the herd or from the flock, to be acceptable it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it (Leviticus 22:21).

The background of Paul’s thought-world is Jewish.  The sacrifice that is acceptable to God must be perfect; only God is perfect; therefore, Jesus must be God.  And only Jesus is capable of becoming the perfect sacrifice that takes sin on himself and conveys perfect righteousness to those who identify with him by faith.

APPLY:  

What a message with which we have been entrusted!  That God has entered into this world through Christ and recreates us.  This re-creation is grounded in Christ’s work of reconciliation, through this profound mystery — that the sinless one has become sin and given us the greatest exchange possible.

And what a trade!  He takes our sins, and gives us his perfect righteousness! This is the real miracle of reconciliation — that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us not because we deserve it, but because of the unbelievable love that he has for us!

It would be as though we gave him filthy toilet paper, and he gave us precious jewels in exchange!  There is no greater “bargain” in all the universe!

And more than that, as Paul points out, we as Christians have the opportunity to participate in this ministry as we, like Paul, become ambassadors for Christ and ministers of reconciliation.

What a miraculous bargain! What a momentous message to share!

RESPOND: 

One of my earliest sermons more than 30 years ago was based on this passage.  I remember finding an excerpt from a story that seemed to my mind to illustrate the new life that comes through faith in Christ.

It was a children’s book by Margery Williams called The Velveteen Rabbit.  The scene is set in a children’s nursery, where stuffed animals have consciousness and can talk.

The Velveteen Rabbit is worrying about what for him is an existential question — “What does it mean to be real?”  So he asks one of the older creatures in the nursery, the Skin Horse:

“What is REAL?”

The Velveteen Rabbit mistakenly thinks that being REAL means having mechanical parts and things that make a stuffed animal move.  The Skin Horse corrects his misunderstanding:

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse.  “It’s a thing that happens to you.  When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

When we come to Christ in faith, we are reconciled to God and are made new creatures in Christ.  We have become REAL.

Lord, I am flabbergasted by the mysteries of your grace!  That you would empty yourself and become one of us, even taking upon yourself my sin, and giving me your righteousness in exchange, so that I might become a new creation!  No words can express my gratitude.  My prayer is that you might use me as your ambassador so I can share with others what you have done for me.  Amen. 

PHOTO:
“My Life for Yours” by John is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for March 28, 2021 (Liturgy of the Passion)

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Philippians 2:5-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage is one of the clearest and most concise statements in the New Testament about the nature and work of Christ. This passage is believed by some to be part of an early Christian hymn.

The Apostle Paul anticipates the Nicene Creed which was written 300 years later.  The Nicene Creed says that Jesus is:

the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God….
…. for us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.

Paul rehearses what is called the kerygma (i.e., the proclamation of the saving work of Jesus Christ) about what Christ has done:

• He has come to earth for us, though he was preexistent and equal with God.
• He has been perfectly obedient by accepting death on the cross.
• He has been exalted to the highest place with God the Father.

Paul begins with an exhortation to the Philippians that they are to imitate Christ:

Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus

The theme of the “imitation of Christ” appears repeatedly throughout the New Testament, not least when Jesus tells his disciples:

Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Mark 8:34).

Paul unpacks his exhortation to have the mind of Christ by exploring the character and ministry of Jesus.

First, Paul’s doctrine supports the doctrine established in the Gospel of John, that Jesus is the preexistent Son of God, and that he is divine.  However, Paul tells us that Jesus voluntarily  humbled himself. Jesus:

existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped…

There is a paradox here — Jesus is God, and is equal with God; and yet, Jesus does not presume to exploit his divine nature, but fulfills his unique role as Son of God.  He becomes a human being.

Instead of arrogating power and position to himself, Jesus:

emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.   And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

Not only does Jesus, the divine Son of God, take upon himself human form, he takes upon himself the form of a slave!  We see this clearly in the Gospel of John in the Upper Room, when Jesus washes the feet of the disciples as an example to them of the servanthood they need to emulate (John 13:1-20).  We see it when Jesus says of himself in the Gospel of Mark:

whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant.  Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be bondservant of all.  For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:43-45).

And then there is the twist, the reversal that should astonish us, except that we’ve become too accustomed to the story — as low as Jesus humbles himself, even unto death, he is raised even higher!

Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,  and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

While Paul doesn’t mention the resurrection here, it is assumed.  Jesus is exalted, and given the name above every name — Lord. 

Here we are reminded of Paul’s roots in Judaism.  The name of God in the Hebrew Bible is holy and transcendent.  This is the name I AM revealed in Exodus 3.  In the Septuagint (which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), the name Lord is the equivalent of I AM.  Paul is clearly identifying Jesus as God.

So we have here the true nature of Christ. He is of the nature of God — which becomes very important in understanding the deity of Christ and the Trinity; but he humbles himself and takes on the form of a servant, which means he is also fully human.

The only Savior who can save us is one who is both fully God and fully human.

There is a cycle that is completed — Jesus is equal with the Father, but descends to the lowest place, even death; and then because he is obedient even unto death, he is exalted again to the highest place.

Therefore, those who follow Jesus and seek to emulate his servanthood will worship him as Lord.  Not only that, every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord!

This is an eschatological statement.  In the end all will acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus — whether they are willing to do so or not.  For some, this will be the essence of heaven — for others, who rebel against surrender to God’s authority, it will be hell.

APPLY:  

There is so much doctrine packed into these few verses!

We have here a kind of synopsis of Trinitarian theology.  Jesus Christ is the preexistent Son of God, who was present with the Father at the beginning, who shares in the nature of God.  He is fully God, and yet distinct from the Father.

We are reminded of the doctrine of the Trinity as historically taught since the church Fathers— God is one God in three persons.

And Jesus is also the Word made flesh, who empties himself and takes upon himself the form of a servant, identifying with our sin on the cross so that we may receive his righteousness in exchange.

And he is the exalted High Priest who returns to his rightful place at the right hand of the Father.

Therefore he deserves our unrestrained worship and praise.

But we mustn’t neglect Paul’s injunction, that we are to have the mind that was in Christ.  For us to have his mind requires that we worship him, study his life in the Scriptures, and imitate him.  And we become most like him when we humble ourselves and serve others.

Above all, we must remember that all this is Christ’s doing.  I love the verse from Charles Wesley’s great hymn, “And Can It Be,” that emphasizes Christ’s self-emptying love.

He left his Father’s throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!),
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam’s helpless race.
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!

RESPOND: 

St. Irenaeus, one of the early church Fathers, said something quite radical to our ears:

The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.

Isn’t this what Paul is telling us to do when he tells us that we are to have the mind that was in Christ Jesus?

However, we must remember that if this is to happen, it is Christ’s doing.  That’s what we mean by grace, that God is at work in us.

I really love C.S. Lewis’ analogy in his essay The Grand Miracle. He says that what Jesus has done follows a:

huge pattern of descent, down, down, down, and then up again. . . one has the picture of a diver, stripping off garment after garment, making himself naked, then flashing for a moment in the air, and then down through the green, and warm and sunlit water into the pitch black, cold, freezing water, down into the mud and slime, then up again, his lungs almost bursting, back again to the green and warm and sunlit water, and then at last out into the sunshine, holding in his hand the dripping thing he went down to get. This thing is human nature.

Jesus, of course, is the diver who begins his descent after diving from the very throne of God itself, and then descending into human flesh at Bethlehem, living as a Jewish man in Galilee and Judea, descending to the cross and the grave, and, according to many Christians, descending even into hell.  And this same Jesus rises from the deepest, darkest place, from death itself, and returns to heaven in the ascension.

Jesus comes into this world in order to identify with us and take our sin upon himself, and then takes us back with himself into heaven!  That is great news!

Lord, with angels and archangels, and all Christians throughout time, I join in praise of your saving work!  I am in awe of your amazing descent from the right hand of the father to the lowest point with us, and your dizzying reascent into heaven.  Help me to have your attitude of servanthood and sacrifice, knowing that without your Spirit in me that is impossible.  Amen.

PHOTOS:

“Philippians 2 Typography Gradient” by Tyler Neyens is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for October 4, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Philippians 3:4b-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul focuses on his own autobiography as a witness to the Gospel of grace that he proclaims.  In this passage we see through Paul’s eyes his own transition from a self-righteous overachiever to a man completely dependent upon Christ.

He begins by demonstrating to the Philippians that he has a great personal resume, in purely human terms.  He has every reason to be:

confident in the flesh,

if the goal is to be reached through human achievement.

The list he offers highlights his accomplishments as a highly committed, deeply religious person:

circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;  as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

His place in the Judaism of his day, regarded as the true faith of the Chosen People, was absolutely secure.  Not only had he received all the normal marks of an observant Jew (circumcision, a place in the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews), he was a member of the most exclusive religious “fraternity” of his day — the Pharisees.

To be a Pharisee was to be a part of a highly scrupulous group.  The word Pharisee means those who are set apart. They were renowned for their strict observance not only of the Law of Moses, but also of the Oral Law — that body of interpretations and applications that had been passed down by generations of rabbis.

Moreover, Paul’s zeal for his faith was so intense that he sought to root out those whom he regarded as heretics, this new Jewish sect that were called Christians.  His quest to rid the world of this threat led him to Damascus — and conversion!

Yet, Paul could honestly say that his devotion to the law of Moses was so impeccable that he was blameless.

However, compared to the glory and grace that Paul had come to know in Christ, his own accomplishments are meaningless to him:

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ . . .

Note the three-fold reference to loss, which illustrates that Paul has given up all of the achievements and credentials of his former life.  In comparison to knowing Christ, his long list of merits are mere trash.

Paul reiterates the core of his message of grace when he outlines his new aim —  to be found in Christ:

not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.

Throughout his epistles, Paul has made it clear that it is impossible to establish one’s own righteousness by obedience to the law.  While the law is holy and just and good, the human capacity to fulfill the law invariably falls short.  Only by complete surrender through faith in Christ does the believer receive the:

righteousness from God based on faith.

Paul states clearly his own personal mission statement:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,  if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

This highlights an important aspect of Paul’s spirituality — that faith in Christ means identification with Christ’s cross and his resurrection.  We can see that very clearly in Galatians 2:19-20.

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Nevertheless, Paul confesses his own deep humility, acknowledging that he is still in the process of growing when it comes to following Christ:

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

There are two key points that seem striking here.

First, there is the paradox that Christ has already made Paul his own, yet there is a response still required in order for Paul to continue to make Christ his own.  Christ’s grace has already accepted Paul as he is.  But Paul is aware that identifying with Christ’s crucified and resurrected life requires that he press on to make it his own.

There are several analogies that spring to mind — we are embraced by someone who loves us, but we also must embrace them in return if we are to experience the completion of affection.

But Paul’s own analogy brings us to the second point —  Paul uses an athletic analogy to describe himself:

forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

One can almost see the stadium and the runners as they are being cheered on by the crowds.  Paul runs his race so that he may cross the finish line and receive the ultimate prize.

So, the analogy prevails.  He has been selected for the “team” by the grace of Christ. It is time to forget those previous efforts of achievement that fell short of victory, without looking back.  And now he strives to perform in the spiritual contest with his utmost effort so that he may fulfill the high calling of Christ.

APPLY:  

Ours is an achievement-oriented society.  From our first report cards that our moms put on the refrigerator to the lists of awards and honors and degrees that follow our names in our resumes, we are hungry for recognition.

While this may be admirable and desirable from a human point of view for our resume building, this is not how we experience the glory of Christ.

Christ’s grace is available to all, from the president of the United States to the homeless woman pushing a shopping cart filled with her only possessions.

As Paul tells us, Christ has taken hold of us by grace.  He has already offered himself to us completely and without reserve.  He emptied himself of all but love, and offered his life on the cross so that he might raise us up with him.

What response should this elicit from us?  If we fully grasp what Christ has done for us, it inspires us to give all that we have and all that we are to follow him.  This is the path to sanctification.

We remember, however,  that even this striving:

toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus

is still not our accomplishment.  It is not something that we achieve, but rather something that we receive by grace.

As Paul reminds us in his paradoxical statement earlier in this letter to the Philippians:

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;  for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).

No matter how intense our effort, how earnestly we press toward the goal, we are enabled to do so only by God who is at work in us.  That is why we are truly humble before God, who is the author and finisher of our salvation.

RESPOND: 

Years ago, I was seeing a Christian counselor about my depression.  He recommended a book that helped me to apply all of my theological training to my personal problems.

The book was The Search for Significance by Robert McGee.  I can sum up the message very simply —  we are taught in our culture to base our self-worth on our performance and the opinions of others.  Our accomplishments and the opinion of others become the mirror in which we measure ourselves.

Unfortunately, even the most accomplished and most popular persons in the world, in their most honest moments, must accept that they fall short of perfection. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has nothing to say to those who do not accept that they are sinners.

The Gospel of grace tells us that we are already accepted for Christ’s sake.  We are loved.  There is nothing more that we need do in order to be more acceptable to God. Our acceptance by God is not based on our performance or the opinion of others. Christ has performed all that needs to be done for us to be reconciled to God. And Christ’s opinion of each of us is that we are worth dying for!

When I read McGee’s book, and began to apply its message in my own life, it liberated me from the effort to establish my own righteousness or to “prove” myself.

And, when I could accept that I was already accepted by Christ, I was free to give my very best effort to press on toward the life that he envisioned for me.

I had “made the team” already.  But now I didn’t want to simply sit on the bench.  I wanted to excel and perform at the highest level possible —  not for my own sake but for Christ’s sake.  My motivation for obedience and excellence was no longer to bolster my ego or my resume, but gratitude for what Christ has done for me.

Our Lord, whatever I have accomplished is rubbish in comparison to the glory of knowing you through your death and resurrection.  I receive your grace with humble gratitude, and press on toward the goal of your high calling.  Amen. 

PHOTO:
“Philippians 3 12” by New Life Church Collingwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. This image is designed to be wallpaper for an iphone.

Epistle for April 5, 2020 (Liturgy of the Passion)

Note from Celeste:

Before we look at today’s lectionary reading, I’d like to draw your attention to my Holy Week Bible Study book.

Go and Find a Donkey is the latest installment of the Choose This Day Multiple Choice Bible Studies series.

The daily devotionals take 10-15 minutes and include:

• Scripture passage (World English Bible)
• Fun, entertaining multiple choice questions focused directly on the Scripture passage
• Short meditation that can be used as a discussion starter.

Use them on the suggested dates, or skip around.  Designed to be used during Holy Week, this nine-day Bible study takes you from Palm Sunday through Easter Monday.

Use this book personally during a coffee break or with the family in the car or at the breakfast table.

Order Go and Find a Donkey  today to prepare your family for this year’s Easter season!
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Kindle book of Go and Find a Donkey.
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Paperback of Go and Find a Donkey.

AND NOW, BACK TO TODAY’S LECTIONARY READING:

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Philippians 2:5-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage is one of the clearest and most concise statements in the New Testament about the nature and work of Christ. This passage is believed by some to be part of an early Christian hymn.

The Apostle Paul anticipates the Nicene Creed which was written 300 years later.  The Nicene Creed says that Jesus is:

the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God….
…. for us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.

Paul rehearses what is called the kerygma (i.e., the proclamation of the saving work of Jesus Christ)  about what Christ has done:

• He has come to earth for us, though he was preexistent and equal with God.
• He has been perfectly obedient by accepting death on the cross.
• He has been exalted to the highest place with God the Father.

Paul begins with an exhortation to the Philippians that they are to imitate Christ:

Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus

The theme of the “imitation of Christ” appears repeatedly throughout the New Testament, not least when Jesus tells his disciples:

Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Mark 8:34).

Paul unpacks his exhortation to have the mind of Christ by exploring the character and ministry of Jesus.

First, Paul’s doctrine supports the doctrine established in the Gospel of John, that Jesus is the preexistent Son of God, and that he is divine.  However, Paul tells us that Jesus voluntarily  humbled himself. Jesus:

existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped…

There is a paradox here — Jesus is God, and is equal with God; and yet, Jesus does not presume to exploit his divine nature, but fulfills his unique role as Son of God.  He becomes a human being.

Instead of arrogating power and position to himself, Jesus:

emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.   And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

Not only does Jesus, the divine Son of God, take upon himself human form, he takes upon himself the form of a slave!  We see this clearly in the Gospel of John in the Upper Room, when Jesus washes the feet of the disciples as an example to them of the servanthood they need to emulate (John 13:1-20).  We see it when Jesus says of himself in the Gospel of Mark:

whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant.  Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be bondservant of all.  For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:43-45).

And then there is the twist, the reversal that should astonish us, except that we’ve become too accustomed to the story — as low as Jesus humbles himself, even unto death, he is raised even higher!

Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,  and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

While Paul doesn’t mention the resurrection here, it is assumed.  Jesus is exalted, and given the name above every name — Lord. 

Here we are reminded of Paul’s roots in Judaism.  The name of God in the Hebrew Bible is holy and transcendent.  This is the name I AM revealed in Exodus 3.  And in the Septuagint (which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), the name Lord is the equivalent of I AM.  Paul is clearly identifying Jesus as God.

So we have here the true nature of Christ. He is of the nature of God — which becomes very important in understanding the deity of Christ and the Trinity; but he humbles himself and takes on the form of a servant, which means he is also fully human.  The only Savior who can save us is one who is both fully God and fully human.

There is a cycle that is completed — Jesus is equal with the Father, but descends to the lowest place, even death; and then because he is obedient even unto death, he is exalted again to the highest place.

Therefore, those who follow Jesus and seek to emulate his servanthood will worship him as Lord.  Not only that, every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord!

This is an eschatological statement.  In the end all will acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus — whether they are willing to do so or not.  For some, this will be the essence of heaven — for others, who rebel against surrender to God’s authority, it will be hell.

APPLY:  

There is so much doctrine packed into these few verses!

We have here a kind of synopsis of Trinitarian theology.  Jesus Christ is the preexistent Son of God, who was present with the Father at the beginning, who shares in the nature of God.  He is fully God, and yet distinct from the Father.

We are reminded of the doctrine of the Trinity as historically taught since the church Fathers— God is one God in three persons.

And Jesus is also the Word made flesh, who empties himself and takes upon himself the form of a servant, identifying with our sin on the cross so that we may receive his righteousness in exchange.

And he is the exalted High Priest who returns to his rightful place at the right hand of the Father.

Therefore he deserves our unrestrained worship and praise.

But we mustn’t neglect Paul’s injunction, that we are to have the mind that was in Christ.  For us to have his mind requires that we worship him, study his life in the Scriptures, and imitate him.  And we become most like him when we humble ourselves and serve others.

Above all, we must remember that all this is Christ’s doing.  I love the verse from Charles Wesley’s great hymn, “And Can It Be,” that emphasizes Christ’s self-emptying love.

He left his Father’s throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!),
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam’s helpless race.
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!

RESPOND: 

St. Irenaeus, one of the early church Fathers, said something quite radical to our ears:

The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.

Isn’t this what Paul is telling us to do when he tells us that we are to have the mind that was in Christ Jesus?

However, we must remember that if this is to happen, it is Christ’s doing.  That’s what we mean by grace, that God is at work in us.

I really love C.S. Lewis’ analogy in his essay The Grand Miracle. He says that what Jesus has done follows a:

huge pattern of descent, down, down, down, and then up again. . . one has the picture of a diver, stripping off garment after garment, making himself naked, then flashing for a moment in the air, and then down through the green, and warm and sunlit water into the pitch black, cold, freezing water, down into the mud and slime, then up again, his lungs almost bursting, back again to the green and warm and sunlit water, and then at last out into the sunshine, holding in his hand the dripping thing he went down to get. This thing is human nature.

Jesus, of course, is the diver who begins his descent after diving from the very throne of God itself, and then descending into human flesh at Bethlehem, living as a Jewish man in Galilee and Judea, descending to the cross and the grave, and, according to many Christians, descending even into hell.  And this same Jesus rises from the deepest, darkest place, from death itself, and returns to heaven in the ascension.

Jesus comes into this world in order to identify with us and take our sin upon himself, and then takes us back with himself into heaven!  That is great news!

Lord, with angels and archangels, and all Christians throughout time, I join in praise of your saving work!  I am in awe of your amazing descent from the right hand of the father to the lowest point with us, and your dizzying re-ascent into heaven.  Help me to have your attitude of servanthood and sacrifice, knowing that without your Spirit in me that is impossible.  Amen.

PHOTOS:

“Philippians 2 Typography Gradient” by Tyler Neyens is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for April 14, 2019 (Liturgy of the Passion)

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Philippians 2:5-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage is one of the clearest and most concise statements in the New Testament about the nature and work of Christ. This passage is believed by some to be part of an early Christian hymn.

The Apostle Paul anticipates the Nicene Creed which was written 300 years later.  The Nicene Creed says that Jesus is:

the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God….
…. for us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.

Paul rehearses what is called the kerygma (i.e., the proclamation of the saving work of Jesus Christ)  about what Christ has done:

• He has come to earth for us, though he was preexistent and equal with God.
• He has been perfectly obedient by accepting death on the cross.
• He has been exalted to the highest place with God the Father.

Paul begins with an exhortation to the Philippians that they are to imitate Christ:

Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus

The theme of the “imitation of Christ” appears repeatedly throughout the New Testament, not least when Jesus tells his disciples:

Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Mark 8:34).

Paul unpacks his exhortation to have the mind of Christ by exploring the character and ministry of Jesus.

First, Paul’s doctrine supports the doctrine established in the Gospel of John, that Jesus is the preexistent Son of God, and that he is divine.  However, Paul tells us that Jesus voluntarily  humbled himself. Jesus:

existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped…

There is a paradox here — Jesus is God, and is equal with God; and yet, Jesus does not presume to exploit his divine nature, but fulfills his unique role as Son of God.  He becomes a human being.

Instead of arrogating power and position to himself, Jesus:

emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.   And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

Not only does Jesus, the divine Son of God, take upon himself human form, he takes upon himself the form of a slave!  We see this clearly in the Gospel of John in the Upper Room, when Jesus washes the feet of the disciples as an example to them of the servanthood they need to emulate (John 13:1-20).  We see it when Jesus says of himself in the Gospel of Mark:

whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant.  Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be bondservant of all.  For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:43-45).

And then there is the twist, the reversal that should astonish us, except that we’ve become too accustomed to the story — as low as Jesus humbles himself, even unto death, he is raised even higher!

Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,  and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

While Paul doesn’t mention the resurrection here, it is assumed.  Jesus is exalted, and given the name above every name — Lord. 

Here we are reminded of Paul’s roots in Judaism.  The name of God in the Hebrew Bible is holy and transcendent.  This is the name I AM revealed in Exodus 3.  And in the Septuagint (which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), the name Lord is the equivalent of I AM.  Paul is clearly identifying Jesus as God.

So we have here the true nature of Christ. He is of the nature of God — which becomes very important in understanding the deity of Christ and the Trinity; but he humbles himself and takes on the form of a servant, which means he is also fully human.  The only Savior who can save us is one who is both fully God and fully human.

There is a cycle that is completed — Jesus is equal with the Father, but descends to the lowest place, even death; and then because he is obedient even unto death, he is exalted again to the highest place.

Therefore, those who follow Jesus and seek to emulate his servanthood will worship him as Lord.  Not only that, every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord!

This is an eschatological statement.  In the end all will acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus — whether they are willing to do so or not.  For some, this will be the essence of heaven — for others, who rebel against surrender to God’s authority, it will be hell.

APPLY:  

There is so much doctrine packed into these few verses!

We have here a kind of synopsis of Trinitarian theology.  Jesus Christ is the preexistent Son of God, who was present with the Father at the beginning, who shares in the nature of God.  He is fully God, and yet distinct from the Father.

We are reminded of the doctrine of the Trinity as historically taught since the church Fathers— God is one God in three persons.

And Jesus is also the Word made flesh, who empties himself and takes upon himself the form of a servant, identifying with our sin on the cross so that we may receive his righteousness in exchange.

And he is the exalted High Priest who returns to his rightful place at the right hand of the Father.

Therefore he deserves our unrestrained worship and praise.

But we mustn’t neglect Paul’s injunction, that we are to have the mind that was in Christ.  For us to have his mind requires that we worship him, study his life in the Scriptures, and imitate him.  And we become most like him when we humble ourselves and serve others.

Above all, we must remember that all this is Christ’s doing.  I love the verse from Charles Wesley’s great hymn, “And Can It Be,” that emphasizes Christ’s self-emptying love.

He left his Father’s throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!),
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam’s helpless race.
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!

RESPOND: 

St. Irenaeus, one of the early church Fathers, said something quite radical to our ears:

The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.

Isn’t this what Paul is telling us to do when he tells us that we are to have the mind that was in Christ Jesus?

However, we must remember that if this is to happen, it is Christ’s doing.  That’s what we mean by grace, that God is at work in us.

I really love C.S. Lewis’ analogy in his essay The Grand Miracle. He says that what Jesus has done follows a:

huge pattern of descent, down, down, down, and then up again. . . one has the picture of a diver, stripping off garment after garment, making himself naked, then flashing for a moment in the air, and then down through the green, and warm and sunlit water into the pitch black, cold, freezing water, down into the mud and slime, then up again, his lungs almost bursting, back again to the green and warm and sunlit water, and then at last out into the sunshine, holding in his hand the dripping thing he went down to get. This thing is human nature.

Jesus, of course, is the diver who begins his descent after diving from the very throne of God itself, and then descending into human flesh at Bethlehem, living as a Jewish man in Galilee and Judea, descending to the cross and the grave, and, according to many Christians, descending even into hell.  And this same Jesus rises from the deepest, darkest place, from death itself, and returns to heaven in the ascension.

Jesus comes into this world in order to identify with us and take our sin upon himself, and then takes us back with himself into heaven!  That is great news!

Lord, with angels and archangels, and all Christians throughout time, I join in praise of your saving work!  I am in awe of your amazing descent from the right hand of the father to the lowest point with us, and your dizzying re-ascent into heaven.  Help me to have your attitude of servanthood and sacrifice, knowing that without your Spirit in me that is impossible.  Amen.

PHOTOS:

“Philippians 2 Typography Gradient” by Tyler Neyens is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.