Deference
And
The Majestic Christ

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth:
he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,
so he openeth not his mouth”
Isaiah 53:7

The extraordinary life of the Son, in the hidden wisdom of God, is revealed within the context of human frailty. At no time in the Gospels do we see any attempt by Jesus to rely on His divinity to extricate Himself from the realities of life. He came into this world the same way we all do, He grew into adulthood as any of us do, He felt the same infirmities yet was without sin. He deferred His omnipotence in order to reveal the True Life within the physical boundaries of this world. In His human experience He became the Captain of our Salvation. The call of Christ to us is the same; through the experiences of life and the workings of grace to become like Him. It is in our experiences that we discover our need of Him and learn the secret of faith to draw from Him the resources to live in this world.

“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”
Romans 5:3-5

“He was oppressed…”

How many of us consider His human experience? How many comprehend the depths of His testings, His endurance of temptation and subjugation to the cruelty of this world? These are His very credentials to becoming our High Priest.

“For we do not have a high priest who is
unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are,
yet was without sin”
Hebrews 4:15 (BSB)

He became our High Priest through the overcoming of all of our temptations and as such He became our strength to “overcome as He overcame” (Revelation 3:21).

“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne”
Revelation 3:21

The experience of sitting with Him in His Throne will be via our own overcoming by the same power as Christ Himself. It is by His Life ruling in us that we become overcomers in this life. Think about His personal victory in this world. He came and walked through every temptation known to man in order that we may become victorious.

“He was afflicted…”

The Christ of God afflicted? That the very incarnation of God descended into the corruption and malice of this world without the bitterness and poison contaminating His inward life is in itself a marvel! His response to this toxic environment?

“…yet he opened not his mouth”
Isaiah 53:7

This was His reaction to the contradiction and utter injustice of all that was set against Him; from the betrayal of Judas to the constant antagonism of the religious hierarchy. The sheer ignorance of His own to the Word of God and the heart of God is staggering. The masses ruled and manipulated by the wickedness and arrogance of the pedantic priestly order of the day was in itself an unremitting affliction of His righteous soul. The dimness and slowness of His own disciples and the vast darkness of the known world of that time is incomprehensible to us. Yet He conquered all! His step did not falter. At the great crucible in the garden, where His “soul was greatly troubled” and His righteous heart vexed with the enormity of the path which lay before Him, He found strength as A MAN to finish His course and tasted death for every man. He felt the shame of the sin of each one of us and paid the penalty for the entire Sin of the World! Who cannot but bow at the pierced feet of Him and cry out for Grace to walk as He walked? Who cannot but touch the pierced hands of Him and not desire to do His works, to extend to the fallen human race this Eternal heart and life? Who cannot but touch this pierced heart and not be affected by a love so profound that even the very portals of Hell have been shaken?

How can we His people not be awakened by such Love? How can we remain unaffected by the demonstration of such selflessness? How can we continue to hold animosity, envy and unforgiveness and still claim to be a disciple of Christ?

It is a day for us to turn from the pretense of religion and draw near; within the secret chambers of our hearts to be transformed by experiencing the depth and wonder of the Love of God in Jesus.

“For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son…”
John 3:16

Brian Troxel