Be Like Jesus?

The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. (Isaiah 50:4–10)

While the prophet may have experienced what he describes, many of these words describe events in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. They also describe His attitude.

I’ve been thinking much about what it means to be like Jesus. The first thing is that Jesus came to us fully human and lived relying on the power of the Holy Spirit just as we are supposed to live. He did it perfectly…

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by 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. (Philippians 2:1–8)

This servant heart included the humility to be taught. So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.” (John 8:28)

I’m awed by this. God the Son didn’t consider Himself a know-it-all or even having any authority to speak unless the Father gave Him something to say. Because this is true, who am I to think I can blurt out whatever comes to mind? Being like Jesus means listening to the voice of the One who created me and it certainly means yielding all my thoughts and ideas to  Him. It also means total obedience.

Jesus, You know my heart. I can be selfish, wanting to do my stuff rather than listen and obey. Thinking this way seems impossible. Even as a redeemed person who wants to be like Jesus, I know that I cannot do it or even choose it apart from You and the power of the Holy Spirit.

High and Lifted Up

 

 

There are no words beginning with X that point to God, but there are a few that sound as if they do. One of them is EXALT and we exalt Him because of His holiness and excellence.

In the OT, three verbs are translated into forms of this exalt word. One is to make something great, God often being the subject, yet we do not make Him great by our praise; He is already great!

The second verb usually means to go up or ascend not always pointing to God but to the actions of His people. The third is describing things that are exalted. It can refer to stars and other things that are lifted up, but more often points to God.

The psalmists point out how we can exalt Him personally: “The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation” and corporately, “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!”

These song writers also exalt God globally and universally: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” and “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!”

Psalm 99:2–5 offers a few of many reasons why God is exalted: “The Lord is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name! Holy is he! The King in his might loves justice. You have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he!”

Isaiah 6:1 tells how that prophet was given the privilege of seeing God’s glory and exalting Him: “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.”

The NT also translates three verbs into forms of exalt. One means “to look up, lift up” and has several senses. Another one means “to magnify” pointing to praise for God but also referring to His power to make great anything He chooses.

The third verb is similar to the third verb in the OT, but in the NT it is used almost exclusively in a theological sense: first to exalt Jesus and second in reference to God’s promise to the humble.

Jesus was exalted when He was lifted up on the cross. This seems a strange thing unless we know what His crucifixion  accomplished. He fulfilled the saving grace of God illustrated in the OT situation where Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness giving people salvation from the experience of being bitten. Jesus told how His identity would be revealed and His source of power being seen as He was ‘lifted up’ or being exalted in His death. He also said in John 12:32, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Acts 5:31 affirms that “God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” However, this comes only to those who bow before Him. We are told, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” and to, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. These two themes are brought together in the life and death of Jesus. He humbled Himself and God has exalted Him as Philippians 2:5–11 describes:

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by 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.”

When my focus is on Jesus, every part of His life, death and exaltation produces in me a heart filled with praise for all that He is and has done, and for all He will do!