this sentence jumped off the page, "O My Lord and Saviour, Thou hast also appointed a cross for me to take up and carry, a cross before thou givest me a crown."The introductory prayer, with the same title as the book, speaks of learning by paradoxes. One paradox says, "that to bear the cross is to wear the crown."
As I pondered this and searched the Scriptures, I was reminded how the King of Heaven traded His crown for a short time to come and bear His cross.
Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:6-11
Jesus left His throne in Heaven, removed His crown, took on flesh, obeyed His Father, went to the cross, bore the penalty for our sin and became sin for us...yes, the King of Heaven became a curse for us while we were dead in our transgressions and sins.
And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in.
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.
The "Therefore" that begins verse 9 of Philippians 2 is absolutely incredible...quite breathtaking actually! We are taught to always ask, "What is the therefore 'there for'?" All that Christ did in v.6-8 results in everything after the "therefore".
Do you see this? This exaltation of Christ came only because He made Himself nothing. Wasn't He already exalted? Was He not in the form of God prior to His coming? Yes of course! So Jesus is really re-exalted. He gets the crown back that He willingly gave up. (for more on this check out this message by John MacArthur under I. C.)
How did he do this? Through suffering and obedience to the point of death on a cross.
Scripture also speaks of the crown we will receive one day. I will address that in part 2.
6 comments:
Josh,
I don't know you but thought I would leave a comment anyway. Good post! I love the thought of the divine trade-off between the Father and the Son. The Son came and accomplished the will of the Father, the Father's will was to crush him (Isaiah 53) and upon the completion of this agreement Christ was given the name that is above every name, he was given the most exalted position in the entire universe. What a great thought.
Grace to you.
Kyle,
Right on brother! I was going to mention Isaiah 53:10, but wanted to keep in a readable length. I have thought about an entire entry on that verse alone...it is truly remarkable!
I hope to update this thing more so stop back again!
Josh,
That is a great post. Christ has been given the firstfruits of all the benefits of God because of his accomplishments. We can trust the merit of Christ, that is for sure! What a great thought! I rejoice and leap for joy at Christ's accomplishments because i could never have done it. And yet the redemption He accomplished he also applied to us! (sounds like a good name for a book- Redemption Accomplished and Applied). Thanks for using your words to encourage us to turn our hearts toward Him!
Josh,
I LOVE Valley of Vision! Its an amazing book of prayers by some incredible puritans isn't it? I'm glad you are reading it!
Josh,
I am glad you are reading Valley of Vision..those prayers blow me away every time... so real, so set on Truth and our desperate need of our Holy God!
Just wanted to say hi!
Kate
The Valley of Vision is an awesome book. I don't have a copy of the book itself, but a few years ago, I printed a bunch of the prayers off the internet. They really ministered to me. I still have them. In fact, I think it's time to dig them out and re-read some of them. The prayers are so deep and so personal. I've really enjoyed reading the things you've posted so far on this blog. They really challenge me and make me think in a new way. Which is always a good thing. God Bless!
Lisa Sutter
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