Exalted Christ

Philippians 2:8-11, “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

I am sitting here in complete amazement that the Holy Spirit has orchestrated this spiritual lesson from me, and of all times on Easter Weekend.

On Good Friday I had a post about Spiritual Warfare. I in all honesty gave no consideration to the war that Christ won when He was crucified and descended to hell. To be truthful the post was born out of a impending crisis, and an attempt to decipher what just exactly the Holy Spirit is telling me concerning it. It was in the confusion and questions that someone finally articulated for me what it is that God is trying to do.

It was a phone conversation following a couple of e-mails that Russell said to me, you have it right. God is trying to show you the “exalted Christ.” Oh my… the truth hits me now as it did then like a ton of bricks. The person of Jesus Christ is always the answer. But the Jesus Christ that I know and have relationship with to date is not the “complete” Christ. The Jesus I worship and love is the humble, obedient Christ. But Christ is highly exalted. He is not going to be exalted. He is exalted and His name is today above every name. He today has every knee bow to Him. The victory is done.

This gives new meaning to If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:31) Spiritual warfare is to see and be aware of the Exalted Christ. Awareness of the presence of the Exalted Christ is the weapon of our warfare. It is the sword. Victory is being in that presence. He is the Key and if we are with Him, exalted, high and lifted up… we have no need of keys.

It is this Christ that lives inside of us. It is this exalted Christ that I need desperately to be aware of.

Charles Spurgeon in 1856 preached a sermon where he said, “Christ Jesus is; for he is a man, even as we are: and he is no less and no more man than we are, save only sin. Surely, when we feel we are related to Christ, his exaltation is the source of the greatest joy to our spirits; we take a delight in it, seeing it is one of our family that is exalted. It is the Elder Brother of the great one family of God in heaven and earth; it is the Brother to whom all of us are related. (This was me)

There is also in the Christian not only the feeling of relationship merely, but there is a feeling of unity in the cause. He feels that when Christ is exalted, it is himself exalted in some degree, seeing he has sympathy with his desire of promoting the great cause and honour of God in the world…Happy art thou if thou knowest this, not only in doctrine, but in sweet experience too…

There is yet another feeling, which I think is extremely necessary to any very great enjoyment of this truth, that Christ is exalted. It is a feeling of entire surrender of one's whole being to the great work of seeking to honour him…It seems to me to be the highest stage of man—to have no wish, no thought, no desire but Christ—to feel that to die were bliss, if it were for Christ—that to live in penury and woe, and scorn, and contempt, and misery, were sweet for Christ—to feel that it did not matter what became of one's self, so that one's Master was but exalted…Or rather to feel that though like the diamond you must be cut, that you care not how sharply you may be cut, so that you may be made fit to be a brilliant in his crown; that you care little what may be done to you, if you may but honour him. If any of you have attained to that sweet feeling of self-annihilation, you will look up to Christ as if he were the sun, and you will say of yourself, "O Lord, I see thy beams; I feel myself to be not a beam from thee—but darkness, swallowed up in thy light. The most I ask is, that thou wouldst live in me, that the life I live in the flesh may not be my life, but thy life in me…

"There, like a man, the Saviour sits;
The God, how bright he shines;
And scatters infinite delight
On all the happy minds."

Do you see him?

"The head that once was crowned with thorns,
Is crowned with glory now;
A royal diadem adorns
That mighty Victor's brow.

No more the bloody crown,
The cross and nails no more:
For hell itself shakes at his frown,
And all the heavens adore."

Look at him! Can your imagination picture him? Behold his transcendent glory! The majesty of kings is swallowed up; the pomp of empires dissolves like the white mist of the morning before the sun; the brightness of assembled armies is eclipsed. He in himself is brighter than the sun, more terrible than armies with banners. See him! See him!”

This is spiritual warfare… to see Him high and lifted up.