Elevation of the human spirit in Christ 19/1/25 Zion Fellowship

Bible Reading Luke 23:44-49 [] omitted from sermon  note on footnotes

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BQ5wdc1KeOk&si=mMRRwCJCgYlqPUI-

Introduction

One of the outstanding problems of contemporary Western Christians is the widespread tendency to stop growing in measurable ways[1]. This deviates from the life of the one perfect disciple, Christ himself. Hebrews boldly pronounces,   “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him”.[2] Although Christ was always sinless ( Heb 5:8-9; 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15), this did not make him always “perfect”, [as I will soon explain[3]]. Hebrews  2:10 is definite, “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”  “What experience of suffering did the Holy Father (John 17:11) ordain for the perfecting of his beloved Son and what does he likewise ordain for us (Matt 3:17; 17:5; Col 1:13; 2 Pet 1:17)?”

The growth of Jesus images the progressive growth of the Christian (cf. 1 Cor 11:1). The teenage Lord, “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man.” (Luke 2:51 cf. 1 Sam 2:26 )[4]. Later, he opens the Beatitudes[5] with,  ““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:3). From the beginning he knows himself (Matt 10:27; John 10:15) as the complete embodiment of what he will command[6]. In this case, Jesus was so poor in his human spirit that the Father was constrained in love to open the kingdom of heaven to him. This opening started at his baptism, when “he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”” (Mark 1:10 cf. Isa 64:1; Matt 27:51; Mark 15:38) .

What we must grasp today is that the kingdom of our heavenly Father (Matt 6:9) will be ruled over by Jesus in company with us his Church (Matt 19:28; 1 Cor 3:21-23; 6:1-2; Rev 5:9-10)[7]. The coming new heaven and earth  (Isa 65:17; 66:2) are part of a cosmic unity[8] that broke into the current world through the inbreaking of miracles performed when Jesus “looked up to heaven” to multiply loaves and raise the dead (Matt 14:19; Mark 6:41; 7:34; Luke 9:1; John 11:41). Jesus is the living bridge between heaven above and earth below[9], was bridged by the descent of Jesus, as he remarked to Pharisees, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.” (John 8:23 cf. 3:1-14; 7:17; 8:43)[10]. Christ’s bodily ascent into heaven ended the age-old split between heaven above and earth below (cf. Ps 115:16). Therefore at the climax of Revelation we read, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Rev 21:1-2). Exactly how this healing of the cosmos will take place and how this include us[11] is unfolded in the life story of Jesus of Nazareth[12]. Especially in my focus today, the elevation of the “spirit” of the humanity of Christ (1 Cor 15:45).

The Perfection of the human spirit of the Son of God  

An appropriate place to start in examining Jesus’ heavenly focus is his prayer in John 17, which starts with the Lord deep in communion with the Father. “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, ² since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴ I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” (John 17:1-5).

The glorification of the spirit of the human Jesus embraces not only his suffering, death and resurrection (John 12:20-36; 13:21-35).  Once again in prayer, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit….Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” (John 12:24 ff.) This glorifying by the Father is merited by Jesus for himself and for all of us who will be raised in him through faith.[13] By his costly limitless obedience Jesus has obtained all that was in the Father for humanity from eternity*[14]. Exactly how Christ has merited God’s favour climaxes in how he dies without human effort or striving (Rom 9:16)[15]. We can be commanded to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”  (2 Cor 7:1), because such cleansing has already been fully achieved in Christ.

Each of the Gospels records the releasing of Christ’s spirit to the Father[16]. There are two “loud cries” from the cross, the first [the Ichabod cry], is of unmitigated anguish,

“And when the sixth hourhad come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. ³⁴ And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice…“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:33-34)[17]. The other cry is found most extensively  in our earlier Bible reading from Luke, [“It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, ⁴⁵ while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ⁴⁶ Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. ⁴⁷ Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” ⁴⁸ And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. ⁴⁹ And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.” (Luke 23:44-49)] Also, and  perhaps most potently, in John. “After this Jesus, knowing that all was now accomplished, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty.” …When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is accomplished”, and he bowed his head and gave up[18] his spirit.” (John 19:30)[19]

With a loud cry of upwelling joy This second loud cry is one of upwelling joy (Isa 12:1-6) as Jesus’ liberates his spirit so that its ascends to the all-nurturing bosom of the Father (John 1:18). [As] the Father had eternally received the love of the Son in the fulness of the Holy Spirit, he now receives the totally sanctified human spirit of the human Jesus. Whatever doubts about God’s love may be discerned in the earlier cry of dereliction, they are overcome for us by the assurance of the second cry. The rending of the Temple curtain (Matt 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45)] is a sign that by Jesus handing his spirit over to the heart of the Father  (John 1:18 cf. John 7:37-39) he has taken our humanity into God [20].

The elevation of the human spirit into the depths of the Godhead has caused the coming of the kingdom of God with manifest resurrection power. As Jesus breathed his spirit into the hands of the Father so the Father three days later poured out the Holy Spirit reinflating his breathless humanity and elevating the re-embodied humanity into heaven (Col 3:1-3). Jesus then passes on his perfect unity to the Church: “Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” ²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”” (John 20:21-23) Everything the Father had ever planned for humanity has been fully realised through Christ’s obedience[21].

The Perfection of the Church

We must not think of this triumph of Christ in ideas drawn from our culture today. Jesus was victimised by the powers of his day (1 Cor 2:8),  but in active obedience to his Father’s Spirit he was never a victim[22] (2 Cor 2:14; Col 2:15)[23]. As nothing in the dying of Jesus was an act of passivity, resignation or hopelessness so it must be with us. Paul adamantly  testifies of the victory of Jesus in all the circumstances in his own life, “[But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. ⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;] ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. ¹¹ For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹² So death is at work in us, but life in you.” (2 Cor 4:7-12 cf. 1 Cor 15:45). In similar triumphant fashion we read of the death of first Christian martyr Stephen.

As he is being stoned to death, Stephen,  “full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”” (Acts 7:56 ), and immediately before he dies he triumphantly utters, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Acts 7:59 cf. Acts 6:5; 7:55; 1 Cor 6:17). In his physically anguished sacrificial death Stephen became instantly one with, to quote Hebrews 12:23, “the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Heb 12:23). One, by a dynamic communion of sacrificial love through the death and resurrection of Christ[24]. This suffering for glory is the ever repeated by which God’s people are progressively perfected in Christ. The heavenward elevation of the Christian spirit involves a sharing in the completion of the human spirit of Jesus. Whilst the human spirit of Jesus was instantaneously received by the Father a the point of his death, the revelation of its glorification comes progressively. We first read of the immediate surrender of Jesus’ spirit to the Father, then three days later of his appearance with supernaturally “glorified scars”, then 40 days later of his being taken up to heaven  (Luke 24; Acts 1:1-9).

Whilst exposed to false teaching on Christian perfectionism as a young believer[25], today I can confidently speak on “the progressive perfection of the Church in Christ”. Paul speaks of the Church being presented to Christ “himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Eph 5:27), and goes on to give us a model from ordinary Christian marriage, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ³² This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”[26]  Out praying recently (Eph 6:18; Phil 2:1;  Rev 1:10; 4:2)]  sensed that as my wife of 50 years, is the perfect woman for me, and as the local church is perfect for Jesus (Matt 18:20; Luke 17:21) so the whole global Church is perfect for her Lord. The Lord always sees us in himself, [not as we see ourselves with all our spots and wrinkles, but as] holy and blameless before him in love (Eph 1:4; Col 1:22 cf. Heb 12:1-2).

We enter into this state of perfection when, [but only when,] we look “to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:2). In this great movement from supreme lowliness to the exaltation of glory our consciences are daily, as Hebrews 9:9 says,  “made perfect” (cf. 11:40). A little later, Heb 10:14, we read one of the most radical statements in the New Testament, “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” (Heb 10:14), this is the perfection of faith which “reckons” with the fact (cf. Rom 6:6-14) that all our sins are forgiven through the blood of the cross (Heb 10:17-18). To put the same thing another way, we are, by faith, with Christ in the heavenly world (Eph 1:20; 2:6; Col 3:1; Heb 8:1; 12:2, 23). [Whilst fallen humans seem stuck on the (Greek) notion of moral perfection, or sinlessness,] the focal point of much of the New Testament[27] is on perfection in terms of unimpeded access to God in heaven by faith [28].

Recapitulating the Life of Jesus

There are two great phases in the life of Jesus, humiliation and exaltation (Luke 23:46; Phil 2:5-11), [in terms of today’s teaching, the depression and elevation of the human spirit]. These two phases are NOT symmetrical. Paul teaches, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Rom 8:18 cf. Rom 5:17)[29] Both states of Christ  were necessary for him to reach his perfection, and to fully identify with them is necessary for our growth in Christ-likeness too[30]. Our humiliation leads to a richer vision of our glorification. Paul needs to teach the arrogant Corinthians, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.” (2 Cor 1:8)[31] Paul is not exceptional in this regard, [remember how Moses says to the LORD,  “If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favour in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”” (Num 11:15) and how Elijah complains, “"It is enough. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers".” (1 Ki 19:4)*[32].] Many times as a young prophet, when I thought no one was listening to what I believed right before God,  I felt like finishing myself off[33]. But like the wounded soldier[34] who heard God say: ‘Thou shalt not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord’, escaping suffering by suicide was never an option. [Christian suicide is a warning about the spiritual impoverishment of the Church (cf. Rev 3:14-21).]

The wise spiritual watchmen of old (cf. Ps 127:1) spoke often of the “dark night of the soul” [when God withdraws every taste or touch of his favour[35]] as the means by which God mystically matures our spirit in Christ. As the unveiling of the perfection of Jesus’ occurred in progressive stages, so the revelation of the perfection of our human spirit in Christ happens progressively as we submit to the tribulations ordained by our heavenly Father (Eph 1:11 cf. Heb 12:7-11). This powerful dynamic dominates the New Testament. Immediately after recovering from a stoning when he was left by the violent crowds for dead, Paul teaches [to the disciples in the Roman province of Galatia], “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22 cf. 2 Cor 1:4, 8; 2:4; 4:8, 17; 6:4, 7; 7:4; 8:2)[36].).

Undivided Glory

There are many practical implications of today’s teaching. [Beyond the influence of the “ideological gender-benders” of today, the human spirit is not subject to physical powers.] The LORD said to Malachi, 16 “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence…So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”” (Mal 2:15-16). The Lord is spiritually renewing his Church today, beyond our useless divisions,  the human spirit is not subject to the powers of denominational doctrine, tradition or experience[37] [all of which can block his Spirit of unity (Eph 4:6).] There is only one Christ-centred spirituality in the gospel: [“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed….The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one” (John 17:4-5,22 )]

As Jesus has yielded his spirit to the Father, his Father has become “our Father”. we now share in the elevated all-holy  cry, “Abba! Father!”[38] [39](John 10:29; 20:17).  In Christ we reside in the protection of our all-loving heavenly Father.

Conclusion

The progressive elevation of Jesus’ human spirit into the heavenly realms has many applications to a weak, weary, and divided Church.  The united Body of Christ shares in Jesus’ grace and authority to mediate the healing and elevating life of the Holy Spirit to “all (created) things’ (Acts 3:16-21). [An ancient saying applies today, “Grace does not destroy nature, but elevates it into the life of God” (Aquinas).]  The mediation of Jesus Christ over creation (1 Tim 2;5) means that we share in the very life of God to heal “all things” . The temple curtain, [standing for the distance between sinful humanity on earth and a holy God in heaven], had to be rendered apart for the old covenant truth, “The heavens are the LORD’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.” (Ps 115:16), now no longer applies in Christ[40]. In Jesus, heaven-and-earth are part of our shared inheritance! The progressive discipleship of the Church assures us of the transformation of the entire created universe (Heb 11:1-3), [this is the extent of the vision the Spirit offers us in Christ today (e.g. Matt 19:28; 1 Cor 3:21-23; 6:1-2; Heb 11; Rev 5:9-10).] you do not have to understand all this, simply believe it:  Let me quote one of my favourite scholars,

“our human nature has been taken up [elevated] and in Jesus to the top and summit of being/ the very being of God, and that with him and in him our humanity is located in the very centre of all things!” (T.F. Torrance)[41]. These great things are only real in our experience as we submit to how the spirit of Jesus was always submitted to the Spirit of the Father. This is true sonship.