Passage of the Day: Philippians 2: 9a [see highlight passage in bold/underlined] … 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
My Journal for Today: With the help of John MacArthur, I (we) have seen that Christ’s exaltation involved four elements; and yesterday we looked at two of them: RESURRECTION and ASCENSION. However, it was the latter two, CORONATION and INTERCESSION, which allowed believers to have freedom from the condemnation of our sin condition; and this was due to the establishment of Christ’s Heavenly Priesthood.
Both Mark 16: 19 and Ephesians 1: 20 – 22 document that upon Christ’s ascension into Heaven, He was seated at the Right Hand of God, The Father, on the Throne of Glory with all power, authority, and dominion restored to Him. And besides this re-coronation to His Throne, which He had set aside (i.e., remember our discussion about the kenosis) during His earthly incarnation and ministry, our Lord was given the role of our eternal High Priest to be our advocate, interceding on behalf of saved believers forever. Both Hebrews 4: 15 and 7: 25, as we read two days ago, clearly declare Christ’s Priesthood and intercession in sending His Spirit to minister to the lives of declared Christians; and that process has granted believers like me (and prayerfully, you) faith, repentance, forgiveness, and God’s grace to become completed in Christ from sanctification in our lives on this earth and glorification in the next life in Heaven. I would charge you to do a deep reading through Ephesians, Chapters 4 – 9, to get the full picture of the importance and outcome of Christ’s coronation and intercession. And having just done that, I would also charge my followers here to go back and read Christ’s wondrous prayer for His disciples in John 17: 6 – 26 - to which I’ll link you here - His intercession having begun even before He ascended into Heaven.
And how can a Christian meditate on that John 17 prayer, what is really THE LORD’S PRAYER, and not come away in wonder at the Savior, Who was about to go to the Cross on our behalf, praying this prayer for His Father’s children? In the prayer, in John 17: 5, we read Jesus imploring His Father, “…Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” And that is what our focus on this day has been, … Christ’s re-glorification and re-coronation into His eternal Priesthood.
OH GLORY UPON GLORY, our High Priest lives and ever moves to intercede for His subjects; and I pray that you, as I am, are one of those subjects. And tomorrow we leave Phil. 2 for a day to delve into another wondrous passage about Christ’s glory. Stay tuned!
My Prayer Today: O Lord, all I can say from my meditation today is HALLELUJAH [!] and Amen !!!
Showing posts with label Christ's intercession. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christ's intercession. Show all posts
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
December 13, 2011 … Elements of Christ’s Exaltation
Passage of the Day: Philippians 2: 9 [see highlight passage in bold/underlined] …
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! 9 Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
My Journal for Today: Yesterday we considered and saw the perfect evidence of God’s law of reciprocation, the wondrous balance of God’s justice for God, the Son, Who humbled Himself for mankind that we might be lifted up to Glory with Him. However, this law worked first and foremost – and perfectly - for Jesus; and what a wondrous sequence it is to contemplate the exaltation of Christ, following the kenosis [i.e., emptying] of His glory and majesty in the incarnation, … that He, having died for mankind, would be resurrected by God, the Holy Spirit, ascended to Heaven to the Right Hand of God, The Father (see Acts 2: 32 – 33; Acts 5: 30 – 31) and then to be honored above all by His Coronation so that He might serve eternally in intercession for you and me and His Church as our High Priest (see Hebrews 4: 14 and 7: 25). Contemplate these truths, fellow Christian!
As John MacArthur puts it in his Strength for Today entry today, “He (Jesus) rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven. Then He was seated on the throne of God to intercede as High Priest of His people.” Oh, … I hope you are as much in awe as I am to meditate and contemplate the truth that as believers who have received Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will one day be resurrected (should He not come again during our lifetime), and we will be exalted to sit with Him and to rule in eternity with Him. Is that not mind-blowing in its implications!!
Think about the spirit of this Advent season – our Christmas. Is it not a small, small gift to be able to serve our Lord on this earth for the gift of exaltation He has given us? But that’s all our Lord wants from us – the gift of our surrender and service to Him. And really it’s all I have to offer Him. He has everything! And, as one of our staple exhortations from Christ, Luke 9: 23, documents, what Jesus asks of me (and you) is for me to give up myself and follow Him. It’s really not too much to request for me to contemplate giving my all for Him during this Advent season (and beyond in my life).
What about you who might be reading this? Are you giving our Lord enough of yourself for Christmas [and for life, for that matter]? Well, there will be more time to mediate on this during the rest of December; … stay tuned!
My Prayer Today: May I always be diminished, Lord, that You may increase! Amen
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! 9 Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
My Journal for Today: Yesterday we considered and saw the perfect evidence of God’s law of reciprocation, the wondrous balance of God’s justice for God, the Son, Who humbled Himself for mankind that we might be lifted up to Glory with Him. However, this law worked first and foremost – and perfectly - for Jesus; and what a wondrous sequence it is to contemplate the exaltation of Christ, following the kenosis [i.e., emptying] of His glory and majesty in the incarnation, … that He, having died for mankind, would be resurrected by God, the Holy Spirit, ascended to Heaven to the Right Hand of God, The Father (see Acts 2: 32 – 33; Acts 5: 30 – 31) and then to be honored above all by His Coronation so that He might serve eternally in intercession for you and me and His Church as our High Priest (see Hebrews 4: 14 and 7: 25). Contemplate these truths, fellow Christian!
As John MacArthur puts it in his Strength for Today entry today, “He (Jesus) rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven. Then He was seated on the throne of God to intercede as High Priest of His people.” Oh, … I hope you are as much in awe as I am to meditate and contemplate the truth that as believers who have received Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will one day be resurrected (should He not come again during our lifetime), and we will be exalted to sit with Him and to rule in eternity with Him. Is that not mind-blowing in its implications!!
Think about the spirit of this Advent season – our Christmas. Is it not a small, small gift to be able to serve our Lord on this earth for the gift of exaltation He has given us? But that’s all our Lord wants from us – the gift of our surrender and service to Him. And really it’s all I have to offer Him. He has everything! And, as one of our staple exhortations from Christ, Luke 9: 23, documents, what Jesus asks of me (and you) is for me to give up myself and follow Him. It’s really not too much to request for me to contemplate giving my all for Him during this Advent season (and beyond in my life).
What about you who might be reading this? Are you giving our Lord enough of yourself for Christmas [and for life, for that matter]? Well, there will be more time to mediate on this during the rest of December; … stay tuned!
My Prayer Today: May I always be diminished, Lord, that You may increase! Amen
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