Expounding the More Perfect Way….Jesus Christ and Him Crucified Acts 18:24-28

WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?

Jesus Christ is the Eternal Logos, the Living Word, the Son of the Living God; Jesus Christ is God!

He was and is Very God, was and is Very Man. This means that He wasn’t part God and part Man, but totally God and totally Man.

THE EXPRESSION OF HIS DEITY

When God became Man, He, not for a moment, lost the possession of His Deity, rather retaining it completely; however, He did lose the expression of that Deity, which evidence is, that such expression will be lost forever. But on another side of the Incarnation, God becoming man, He is greater today than ever before.

Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things (Jn. 1:1–3); however, He is also now the Saviour. So, coupled with Creator, He is now the Saviour, which is greater than ever. One cannot improve upon Perfection, but one can add to Perfection, which has been done in the case of Christ.

THE SELF-EMPTYING OF CHRIST

Paul wrote, and I quote from THE EXPOSITOR’S STUDY BIBLE: “Let this mind be in you (refers to the self-emptying of Christ), which was also in Christ Jesus (portrays Christ as the supreme example):

“Who, being in the form of God (refers to Deity, which Christ always was), thought it not robbery to be equal with God (equality with God refers here to our Lord’s co-participation with the other members of the Trinity in the expression of the Divine Essence):

“But made Himself of no reputation (instead of asserting His rights to the expression of the Essence of Deity, our Lord waived His rights to that expression), and took upon Him the form of a servant (a bondslave), and was made in the likeness of men (presents the Lord entering into a new state of Being when He became Man; but His becoming Man did not exclude His position of Deity; while in becoming Man, He laid aside the ‘expression’ of Deity, He never lost ‘possession of Deity’):

“And being found in fashion as a man (denotes Christ in men’s eyes), He humbled Himself (He was brought low, but willingly), and became obedient unto death (does not mean He became obedient to death; He was always the Master of Death; rather, He subjected Himself to death), even the death of the Cross. (This presents the character of His Death as one of disgrace and degradation, which was necessary for men to be redeemed. This type of death alone would pay the terrible sin debt, and do so in totality.) “Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him (to a place of supreme Majesty; Jesus has always been Creator, but now He is Saviour as well), and given Him a Name which is above every name (actually says, ‘The Name,’ referring to a specific Name and Title; that Name, as Verse 11 proclaims, is ‘Lord’):

“That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow (in the sphere of the Name, which refers to all it entails; all of this is a result of the Cross, the price paid there, and the Redemption consequently afforded), of things in Heaven, and things in Earth, and things under the Earth (all Creation will render homage, whether animate or inanimate);

“And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (proclaims ‘Lord’ as the ‘Name’ of Verse 9; it means ‘Master’ of all, which again has been made possible by the Cross), to the Glory of God the Father. (The acknowledgment of the Glory of Christ is the acknowledgment of the Glory of the Father.)” (Phil. 2:5–11).

~JSM

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