The downstooping, exhaltation, and coming of Christ

Let's turn to Philippians chapter two to begin this last session. And in some ways, this is a bit of a review, although I won't linger on some of the kind of material that we were covering this morning. But we have the entire picture in this wonderful famous section here of the down stooping and the exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And for every step he takes down, the Father reverses it by taking him up and finally putting him at the pinnacle of the universe. This is a wonderful section, well-known, and yet it's exhaustless. And the more you think about it, the more you pull out of it.

Every time it can be fresh as all the scripture can be, because it is from the mind of an infinite God and is a perfect work. Now, just the background. Paul's telling the Philippians that they need to be united.

They need to be united in the gospel in chapter one, but in chapter two, they need to be united with each other. And there is the need for unity among God's people. And there's, you know, what Satan loves to do is sow discord among brethren, right? And that is, he is always interested in splits and divisions and disunity and disorganization and the lack of fellowship.

He would like to foster those things. So in this assembly, we had the Odia and Syntyche. They weren't getting along and it was creating a kind of a rift in the assembly.

And so what Paul is saying is that in order for there to be prospering in the assembly, there needs to be unity. And in order for there to be unity, there needs to be humility. And in order for there to be humility, we must be selfless people.

The mark of the Christian is a selfless person, one who is interested in others, not in oneself. C.S. Lewis defined humility as a dragon who doesn't believe in dragons. It's kind of a funny way of thinking about it.

He's so entirely self-unaware that he's not, he doesn't believe in what he is himself because he's not ever looking at himself. And so it's an interesting way to put it. But humility, the minute you think you have it, you lost it, right? It's not your attitude toward yourself, it's a selfless attitude directed toward others.

So that's the context of this wonderful section. The humility of Christ in taking the very lowest place would be the model for us as we interact with each other. We need to always be willing to put others' interests before our own.

So he says in verse number five, let this mind be in you. This means the mindset, the attitude, right? Which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

And we've already alluded to much, or discussed many of the features that this is talking about, but let's just follow the descending steps. First of all, we begin with his pre-existent eternal glory, who subsisting in the form of God. And that word subsisting isn't a word we use a lot, but it's a good choice here because this isn't just the word who was in the form of God, but it implies that he cannot be other than in the form of God.

It is a permanency. It is an eternal truth, a timeless truth. He is in the form of God, so he, some people have said, subsists in that.

What's the form of God? Well, this has been somewhat debated, and I think all of us understand that it refers to a reality. Some would say a reality and manifestation. And without going into, my purpose isn't to argue one way or the other, but actually to enjoy two different thoughts here.

One is to understand grammatically that being in the form of God is grammatically equal to the next phrase, to be equal with God. So whatever the form of God means, it means equality with God in the next sentence. Now, some people would say this.

He subsisted in the form of God. He is the very morphe, the very, well, the word form is what we use, but the essence of who God is. And he displays it.

Some people would very much like to have morphe, have some outward display or manifestation. So what is really true on the inside comes out in the outside. And when we think about the form of a servant, we must understand that it must mean the same thing.

So he always has the form of God, but he adds to that the form of a servant. And if the form of God is the true reality of who God is being expressed, it's the real thing, then as a servant, we have the same idea. It's the real heart of a servant being expressed.

It's real service, because he's really a servant on the inside. And so it would come out on the outside. And so the traditional view of this is that the form of God is something he has, but this being equal with God is the recognition of it.

It is the expression of it in terms of glory, excluding from him. It is his pre-incarnate glory as it's sometimes called. And while he does not relinquish anything he is as God, by taking manhood, he voluntarily veils that glory.

Glimpses of it will come out on the Mount of Transfiguration. We see it come out again in Revelation chapter one, which I alluded to in the last meeting. But on the whole, he has taken the form of a man and he has been willing not to be given the accolades.

And even when he was under the recognition of who he is, that may very well be true. It is true. I'm not questioning what is true.

There's another way to look at this. And it's to see form still as reality, but instead of saying, oh, despite being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. You make it rather say this, because he is in the form of God.

And what this says is that the form of God is the selfless, giving, loving heart of God that because that is who God is, led Christ to take this humble place and to take the form of a servant, to be a servant. So he's acting true to form, in other words. That's one way to kind of cliche it, but it works.

When he humbles himself, he's acting true to form, true to form for God. That's what God would do. He's God, he does it.

Now, both of those may simultaneously be true, I suppose. I don't know that they're really that radically different, but this is the value of just thinking about these words, which are so familiar to us. So he starts with this self humbling by being not grasping.

It's not that he's grasping for something he doesn't have. He has everything there is in deity, but he does not tenaciously hold to being recognized and being accorded the value of who he is by all, but rather is willing to take the veil of human flesh, as it's sometimes called. So he makes himself of no reputation.

He empties himself. You say, what did he empty himself of? Well, the liberals say he emptied himself of deity. Well, if he's deity and he empties himself of deity, he's a non-entity.

There's nothing left. You can't empty yourself of yourself. That's nonsense.

The passage tells us what emptying means in two phrases that follow. This is what emptying means. He became obedient to the, I'm sorry, I'm too far ahead.

He took the form of a bondservant and he was made in the likeness of men, of a man, actually, singular. Sorry, of men. I'm in the wrong place again.

Here they are. This is the correct one. Okay, these are the two correct ones here.

Made of soul, of no reputation, what follows are two phrases that define that. Taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men, plural. So what does that mean? Well, Christ is the bondservant of only one person, God himself.

Christ is the minister. He's the helper. He serves, he girds himself with a towel and serves his own even in the future state.

But he's never said to be a bondservant of anyone but Jehovah himself, God himself. And so that is part of it. He enters into the manhood that allows him to express his service to God, first of all, and then we have the reality and yet the distinction of his manhood, likeness of men.

This is very similar to Romans 8.3, perhaps. There's a distinction being made, a likeness but a distinction. As we think of him, he's like other men but then he's not quite like them.

In what way is he different? Well, contextually, because he's in the form of God, another obvious point would be the Romans 8.3 point that it's the likeness of sinful flesh, that there's no sin in him. And so he's different in that way. But then the next phrase, which man in the singular, and being found in fashion as a man, a real man, the outward appearance proved the inward reality.

He's already humbled himself in three ways. Now he's going to do it again. He humbled himself and became obedient all the way to the point of death, even cross death, even crucifixion.

That is the extent to which Christ was willing to love us and go to the ultimate extreme in order to reconcile us to God. Therefore, now we pick up. We've just hit the bottom and we're going to now rocket up and we're going to go all the way up to where he was before.

But we're going to find out he has some acquired glories that are wonderful to behold as well. Not only the glory that he had with God before the world began, which he will fully be accorded, glorify thou me with the glory that I had with thee before the world was. That certainly is accorded in this.

But he's also exalted as a savior and he's exalted as the son of man. So it says, God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and those under the earth. And every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father.

This is the place of universal dominion. The one who has paid the price to bring many sons to glory will be for them a leader and a captain. He will be a savior and a friend, but he will by his own power, subdue and crush everyone who opposes him in the final analysis.

This bowing of the knee is not only to those in heaven who gladly do it and those on earth who learn to do it, but it is enforced on those under the earth so that every knee bows willingly or not. Ultimately, he will have the glory. He will have the recognition that in his humility, he was willing to relinquish.

What a wonderful thought, that God has given him this place above every place, this name above every name. You say, what name is that? Well, some people say it's Jesus, properly understood. That is a Jehovah savior, because it says that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.

Well, there's something attractive about that because it is the next phrase, but then the name Jesus was given to him already. This seems to be a name that is given to him at this point of his exaltation. And so I suggest it's not a name like, you know, when you think of names like George and Paul, and it's not that kind of name.

It's the Hebrew idea of reputation or honor. He is given a title, he's given a position, he's given recognition for who he is, and God has made sure that it is the highest of all conceivable names. Now let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 for a minute.

Verse number 20, but now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

But each one in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterwards those who were Christ's at his coming. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

For he has put all things under his feet, but that's a quotation, but when he says all things are put under him, it is evident that he who put all things under him is accepted. God is the one who did this for him, God is obviously under his feet. On the contrary to the true nature of the Trinity, the son will continue to defer to the father.

When all these things are made subject to him, the son himself will also be subject to him who put all things under him. It's not saying that he's not subject now, it's saying that that will be an eternal subjection consistent with who he is as the one who has deferred to the father. The idea of hierarchy in the Trinity should not make us upset.

We are, I'm actually taking the last point first, but just because I want to talk about this for a minute. We are used to the idea that everyone should be equal in this country. And there's a sense in which that's obviously true.

We should receive fair treatment. We shouldn't be given partiality. There's a certain justice to everyone having an equal shake or fair shake or whatever they call it.

So we're all right with that. But we're very radically egalitarian in this country. We think, it comes down to this, who do you think you are? You know better than me.

If you get it, I get it. You shouldn't be allowed things that I can't have. This is a sort of selfish pettiness.

And the idea is that there should be no one in authority over me. Americans are anti-authoritarian in principle, right? That's why we left, I guess, the old world. So that's not a Bible attitude.

God always has hierarchy. God always has government. God always has order.

And when he does that, and each one is occupying his proper place, everything works harmoniously. If you had a soccer, I don't know soccer enough even to use the illustration. If you had, you play hockey in Wisconsin, right? I see some of you do.

Or at least you know what it is. If you're all being centers, and there's no goalie and there's no defenseman, it's not gonna work. Not only that, if you've got eight centers, seven of them are expendable.

But if you have a team that's properly designed with a center right wing, left wing, and right and left defenseman and a goalie, everybody knows his position. And the whole thing works. If you like music, we'll take a brass quartet.

You can't all be trumpets. You can't all be tubas. Everybody has to have his proper place.

This is right. This is how God designs everything, whether it's headship in marriage, whether it's government, civil government, whether it's overseership in the assembly. And I'm now bringing it back to the Godhead itself.

Although each of the members of the Godhead is fully equal and fully God, it is true that the son defers to the father and the spirit defers to the son and the father. You say, does that make him inferior? Not in one wit. This is the economy of the Godhead.

It is perfect. It's only Americans who think that because there is a deference or a hierarchy, that it must mean that there's a difference in value. It's not true.

It's not true. Now, having said that, to be fair, there are some theologians, maybe even among you, who think the deference of Christ has to do only with his humiliation, as we read in Philippians 2. But I'd rather think not. I think the father is the originator, the son is the executor, the spirit is the sustainer.

You see this in the act of creation. You see it in the new creation. You see it in the Christian life.

And so these are roles that are appropriate to each one. The father sent the son. The son would not have sent the father to speak ridiculously to you.

That would be a total confusion of roles in the Godhead. So what I'm arguing here is that Christ is going to continue in that role as the one who has taken on the entire task that God has given him, perfectly performed it, perfectly finished it, and as a beautiful package, he is now offering it to God at the end of the age with all things subdued and all things reconciled and all people who would have him saved forever. This beautiful picture is the eternal state.

Now before that happens, of course, Christ next is going to come for his church. I'm gonna conclude with that. We're gonna return to 1 Thessalonians 4. But after he has established his rule on earth after the tribulation, and he has subdued all the nations that gathered against his people, Israel, and he has completed his promises to Israel and saved the nation in a day and brought them limping into the millennium and then gloriously healing them and giving them a perfect earth to live on and reigning in absolute righteousness for a thousand years, at the end of that, when the conditions are the most ideal they have ever been on the earth, when you have a perfect government, man being tested under that circumstance will still fail, showing the absolute depravity of men apart from God's grace.

You could see why they might fail in a situation where they have less privilege. But to be in the privileged position of living in the millennium and still to rebel against God shows us what's in our hearts. That final rebellion will be crushed.

And then we will have the dissolution of the present universe as we know it, and we'll have the great white throne judgment, and we'll have finally the entrance into this glorious eternal state, where God is all in all, and the son, it says, himself would be subject to him who put all things under him. So we see God the father and God the son and all things under him. That's where history is heading and it's wonderful to know that he is our savior and that we will be reigning with him.

He sat down on his throne, but in Revelation, he says, he who overcomes to the last church, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, just as I have sat down with my father on his throne. What grace Christ has toward us that he would ever even love us and save us, but not only that, to elevate us to such a position of co-heirs with him. It was all his.

He's the heir of all things, but he's wanting to share it with his people. And so what a glorious future we have. Now, when Christ went up from the dead, I'm a little out of order here because I've gone all the way to the end.

I just wanna touch briefly on what he's doing right now. So our next section will be to go back to Hebrews chapter nine, forward rather if you're in 1 Corinthians, and we're gonna read a familiar section, but I'm gonna talk about the three appearings of Christ in this well-known section. Therefore, it was necessary, verse 23, that the copies of the things in the heaven should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself. And here's the first phrase I want you to look at. Now to appear in the presence of God for us.

This is his place after his resurrection and ascension at the right hand of God, for us right now. Then it says, not that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another, he then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now once, once for all, hapax, right? Once for all, at the end of the ages, he has appeared, the second appearing now, and this is in the past.

He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. But there's a third appearing in its future. And it is as it is appointed for men once to die, but after this, the judgment.

So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for him, he shall appear a second time apart from sin for salvation. We see the priest at the brazen altar making propitiation.

Although propitiation, making restitution for sins. Let me put it that way. Dealing with our sins once and for all.

He's appearing in a place where you can see him. He's right at the entrance of the tabernacle to use the Old Testament image. But then he disappears.

He goes through the first veil and through the second veil into the holiest. Now the human high priest had a great number of restrictions but our great high priest, of course, that's his own dwelling place. So he returns to where he was before.

That perfect cube, that perfect place representing, of course, on earth, the reality of the heavenly sanctuary. And he's there for us. He's not visible to the eye.

But he's really there and he's really doing his mediatorial work. But we're waiting. We've gone all the way to the end already.

We're waiting for the time when he will appear again. Just as the high priest on the day of atonement now would come out having made atonement, the people are waiting to see him again and they finally see him appearing again. I think that's the illusion here.

So he goes in and then people wait for him and they see him come out. What's he doing in the presence of God for us? Well, I'll be brief on this because we've already touched on the sympathy of the high priesthood of Christ. Personally, I'll just give you some of my own biases and my own views.

I don't think I have any problem with Christ being a priest on earth because he just told us that he offered himself as a sacrifice. He did that on earth. Just to understand the controversy, there are some people who are very, very strict and think that the high priesthood of Christ only began at his resurrection.

And they would argue he can't be a priest on earth because he wasn't in the order of Aaron. But he's not in the order of Aaron now. He never was in the order of Aaron.

He never was a Levite. His priesthood is patterned after Aaron's. The things that Aaron accomplished on earth in a limited and finite way, he has accomplished in a perfect and infinite way.

But he never was an Aaronic priest on earth or anywhere else. Then there's another group that wants to make him an eternal priest, even before his incarnation. And while I think they're very good men and they have good arguments, perhaps, I'm a little perplexed by that because I think to sympathize with his people, we've already discussed he had to come into manhood.

So my own view is that he's a Melchizedek priest. Now we're at a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. I see that as going forward, not necessarily, without being controversial, going backward.

So I'm not sure that relates to an eternity past. I know it relates to the days of his flesh and beyond. Now his role as a priest on earth was to make one sacrifice for sin.

He's the priest, he's the altar, and he's the offering, by the way. He's everything. Once for all.

His work as a priest at the presence in the right hand of God is different. It is a work that is described as sympathy, succor, and intercession. So he's doing that work right now.

We've already discussed the sympathy that he has because of what he suffered in the days of his flesh. He also intercedes for us. He makes just a variety of things that the Bible teaches us he does.

He takes our prayers in their imperfections and he presents them perfect to God. He takes our worship, which is always flawed and shot through with self, with bad motives and problems, right, because we're who we are, and he presents that perfectly to God. He intercedes for us in the sense that in Hebrews chapter seven, he is able to say those to the uttermost who come unto God by him because he's always living to make intercession for us.

Now that's very, very close. My voice is losing it. Very close without crossing the line into what John calls the advocate, okay? I'll leave that for a moment.

So he intercedes for us at the right hand of God. There's another thing he does. He defends us at the right hand of God.

You say, how so? You remember when Stephen was looking up into heaven as they were stoning him? He says, I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. What was he doing there? He was defending Stephen even as the people were attacking him. There's a sense in which he is our defense attorney, you might even say, that's not a Bible word, but it's this general concept of one who stands to protect his people.

So there are varieties of things that Christ does at the right hand of God. He, in 1 John, is said to be the advocate for our sins. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.

Now, again, I want you to understand this properly. It's not saying this. We sin, God's upset.

Christ comes to his side and says, it's okay. You don't have to be upset. I'm sorry if this is facetious, but I'm trying to make the, because remember, I paid for their sins.

That is a complete misunderstanding, a gross caricature of what is actually being taught in 1 John. The advocate doesn't begin to work after we sin. When we sin, and all Christians will, we already have an advocate.

He already is the propitiation. God is already satisfied. Now, to restore our family fellowship and communion, we need to be confessing sins.

But at the same time, the absolute forgiveness that he provided by being the one who was the propitiation for our sins cannot be questioned. That is a work that God views at all times at his right hand. So Christ is doing those wonderful things for us.

Basically, his mediatorial work, there was one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, a testimony given at his proper time, describes all of the anointed workings of Christ. Mediators can be kings, they can be prophets, and they can be priests, the three anointed offices. Here's how I want you just to think about these for a minute.

I'm just speaking in very general, conceptual terms. I want you to think of vectors, okay? So the vector with a king is that he stands leading the people for God. He is their representative, he is their leader, he is their ruler, and he is doing this under the auspices and under the approving eye of God, upward.

Christ is a king. He's the king of the Jews, he's king of kings and lord of lords, he is the kingdom of the son of the king, his love is the kingdom that we are in. So these are beautiful expressions that think of the mediatorial work of Christ as the leader of his people.

Leading them for God, in that sense, mediating for them. Now I want you to turn to the prophet. Christ is a prophet.

A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up like unto me, Moses says, and we read that in Deuteronomy 18, and we know that that is a prophetic prediction of the one who would come with the words of God. Great prophet of our God, our tongues would bless thy name, through thee the joyful news of our salvation came, according to Isaac Watts, right? So the vector now is down. We have God's word coming through his prophet, and we saw that that prophet himself is God, he's the son.

He's the one who announces, he's the logos, he's the one who gives the will and mind of God to men. The vector's down. But the mediatorial work of priesthood is a bi-directional one, because we read in the first mention of priesthood in the Bible, and it is the Melchizedek royal priesthood, he blesses God and he blesses men.

The priest stands between God and men, and is everything they need to be at one with each other. He blesses God for the peoples, putting their words into perfection, bringing their worship to a state of completeness and perfection. And he dispenses God's blessings from heaven to his people.

Christ is all those things at the right hand of God. He was a mediator at the cross, clearly, as the sacrifice. He's a mediator in heaven.

And now we wait for that appearing, that third appearing that we read about. So let's just come together to 1 Thessalonians chapter four, and that will be our final place of discussion today. Excuse me, okay.

Verse number 13. "'But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, "'concerning those who have fallen asleep, "'lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.'" Some of the Thessalonians, recent converts, but it had been a number of probably three years at this point, perhaps, and a number of them had died, and they were very worried that they were going to miss out. But here, Paul teaches what happens to those who die before the Lord does come, and are said to be asleep.

Now, this does not mean soul sleep. It's real death, but it's euphemized, if that's a word, it's a euphemism. Why do we use euphemisms? Well, we're sometimes trying to soften something that we don't want to admit, or we're showing that something isn't as bad as we thought it was.

That's the case here. It's not as bad as we thought it was, because although death is terrible and painful, and departures are occasions for sorrow, and there's just no changing that, death is different for the Christian than for the non-Christian, because they have no hope. But we are merely sleeping, if we die waiting for the day when Christ will come, and we will be united not only with other believers, but obviously with the Lord himself in the air.

Now, if we believe, since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. We have this expression, or sleep through Jesus is another way of rendering it. So, here's the first step in this wonderful experience that could happen at any moment, by the way.

Christ descends from heaven, and he's not coming alone. He's coming with all the believers who have fallen asleep. Their bodies are still on the earth at this point, in this very first stage, but they are with him.

Souls and spirits, we learn from 2 Corinthians 4-5 that there is a temporary housing of the spirit and the soul, but that was now cast aside, and they will be receiving their final spiritual resurrection bodies. So, they come with him. The Lord Jesus will bring with those who have fallen asleep.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, verse 15, that we who are alive and remain, now this is the early Paul. This is an early writing. Paul fully expected to be alive at the rapture at this point.

The late Paul, writing in 2 Timothy, has received additional revelation that he will be meeting his end, and that he will have to die the martyr's death that he faces in 2 Timothy. But at this early point in the writing, he, like us, should assume that there's no reason why I wouldn't be alive when the Lord comes, because it is an imminent event. It could happen at any time.

There's nothing prophetically that has to happen. There's no drawn-out period of time required. He could come at any time.

That is a truth of the New Testament. It's a hope of the believer. It is to cheer us and to help us on the road, knowing any time we could be suddenly with the Lord.

So, we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. Third time we get this expression, asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.

There's debate about what each of those means. I don't think we're told explicitly, but it will be a sound that will be unmistakable for those designed to hear it. And those who will hear it are those who sleep in Jesus, and of course, those of us who are alive and remain on the earth.

Then the dead in Christ will rise first. They do have six feet farther to go, so to speak. Not to speak crassly, but we need to all be standing together before we lift off together.

So, the first event, Christ comes down, bringing the souls and spirits of those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. He gives the shout. There's the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God.

And the dead in Christ immediately rise with resurrection in bodies. It doesn't matter if they have been converted to dust over 3,000 years or something. It doesn't matter.

Wouldn't it be 3,000 because we're talking about the church here? 2,000, okay? It doesn't matter. There is a commonality. There is a link between the original body and the resurrection body, but there's also a great deal of distinction.

Just as a distinction between the seed and the plant, as Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians, correct? And so, God does all that. That's not a problem. So, some Christians live in countries where they have to be cremated, and they're all upset about it because they don't think that it'll affect this.

It won't affect that, okay? These bodies are reconstituted in their new state. Then we lift off together. In 1 Corinthians, we discover we shall be changed.

I suggest that happens at the same time. The dead in Christ rise first, and we who are alive and remain changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. The moment in the twinkling of an eye I refer to the immediate change from what we are today with our soulish, fallen bodies of humiliation, to our wonderful, glorious bodies, our spiritual bodies for eternity.

Don't need the oxygen anymore. We're gonna be able to lift off just like Christ did. And we're caught up together to meet him in the air, and this is one of the greatest expressions in the New Testament, and thus, we shall ever or always be with the Lord.

No matter where he is and what he's doing, we'll be with him. What a wonderful thought. The one who gave himself on the cross, as we've thought, and loved us like that will never have to depart.

Mary held on to him. She says, I'm not letting you go. But in that day, we won't have to worry about that because we'll always be with him.

Therefore, comfort one another with these words. And these are great words of comfort. So we have taken quite a sweep today.

We have begun with who Christ is in his deity. We have tried to talk about his flawless humanity. We've dealt with, tried to think about the relation of those two natures.

Each nature has a set of attributes. All those attributes are retained, but they're in one person with one consciousness. This is the union of Christ, which is beyond our ken, but we are so worshipful and thankful for who he is.

We've seen him coming down from heaven. We've seen him fulfilling a role on earth as prophet. We've seen him showing the signs, making the proclamations, and then finally, going to the cross.

We've thought about the cross itself in John 19. We've thought about what it means theologically with these various pictures of salvation. We've thought about the way that God responded by raising him from the dead.

He's the one whom the heavens must receive. He went through hostile territory. He led captivity captive, strewing gifts to men.

The idea, again, of the picture in Ephesians 4 there is Christ victorious over Satan. Satan can do nothing about it. He's passing as a victor through the realm of the air, where Satan still is the prince, and he's helpless to do anything about it, and he's forging a path where all of his people will follow.

They'll follow him right up into paradise. And then we thought about the end, when Christ will, in the perfection of all that he has done, deliver the finished product, if I can call it that, all that God had in mind for him to do, he will have done perfectly, and he'll present it to the Father as a gift. And then Christ will be over all.

And yet, in his wonderful humiliation, he will defer to the Father he loves. And we shall always be with the Lord. Now, I thank you very much for putting up with my various problems today, my sleepiness in the first meeting, my raspy voice.

But, you know, if we just read the scriptures together and you've had the same thoughts that I've enjoyed, then you've gotten something out of it, because I've enjoyed standing up here talking about this, not because I like to hear my own voice, but because the concepts are very precious to me. And may they be precious to us. This is it, this is life.

This is what it's all about. There really is no other topic. Everything is just footnotes to this.

Christ is everything. And if you're a believer today, and I trust we all are, he's everything to us. So may we walk away from these meetings ready to serve him better, worship him more intelligently, be more faithful and loyal to him who was so loyal to us, and be encouraged that the future is very, very bright.

Very, very bad things happen in this life. And we've thought about how God sometimes takes his choices people and puts them through the worst. But it's all, in the final analysis, going to be for his glory and for theirs as well.

So, with those words, let's commit ourselves to the Lord.