THANKSGIVING & PRAYER

As Dr Watson notes in his wonderful commentaries on these Westminster questions, there are five ways in which Jesus Christ is exalted as Mediator. His exaltation is seen in His: titles, office, ascension, being at God's right hand and His confirmation as judge of the world.

The first exaltation is not seen exactly in our catechism, but nevertheless is magnified by the many titles given to Him in the scriptures. There was once a noted professor who was invited to speak to a large gathering. Very many people came to hear his wisdom. Wisely, he chose to read from the sacred record the many names given to the Lord's anointed. His reading went on for almost half an hour. As some of you remember, we have in storage a neat poster which is composed of many of those same names. I am always amazed at how many titles and Names there are for our Lord and Savior.

In the Last Century, whenever Queen Victoria was introduced, there was a list of the various realms of which she was the Dowager Queen. At that time, the sun never set on the British Empire and fully one-fourth of the world's surface and most of the seas were under her sovereignty. But that empire and the many glamorous titles is almost all gone, and the royal descendants have pretty much gone to seed! All that is left are the tunes of pomp and circumstances that now ring hollow. How much greater are the titles and Names of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And just as the scriptures foretold, His Kingdom continues to increase as people from every tribe and nation become believers and learn to follow Him.

The second exaltation is in the various offices of Christ which we have considered in our studies of Prophet, Priest and King. Paul also proclaims in Acts 5: 31 that "God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel." Simply put, we may say that His office is a saving office. Our wonderful Savior of souls, saves us from sin, and wrath. In the Orient is was once common for a person whose life was saved to serve the one who saved them in gratitude and in thanksgiving. How much more ought we to honor the Name above all Names whose office it is to save us from our sin and the wrath of God toward sinners.

Yet, in our society, if you sincerely seek to tell people about salvation, the common question is "saved from what?" Life is good from a worldly perspective in our time. Why should anyone want to give up the good things of life and sacrifice them to serve a Savior that they do not want, understand or need? The common crowd no longer believes in the realities of hell and damnation. But what they would like to hear, if recent articles in the news magazines are any indication, is to be saved from aging! As the Baby Boomers mature, it seems as if there is a growing concern about our inability to prolong youth and life itself. One of our local schools has lost a couple students before they could graduate. Many of the survivors wonder why anyone has to die?

A good friend of mine passed away earlier this week. His name was Rollo Best, he was 102 years old and he didn't look a day over 92 which was when he quit driving. For most of those years he attended the local Presbyterian Church and I have no doubts that he is alive in well in heaven. So this is the message that we have to tell the worldly Baby Boomers: that they can be saved to live life anew in the presence of our Savior Jesus Christ. Of course, we may also point out that if they are not interested, they can still have eternal life in another more "interesting" place! But if we would be saved in Christ, that is ours because He earned our salvation by the faithfulness of His calling to that office of Savior.

Our third exaltation is in the ascension of Christ. If we remember the ascension scene of Elijah, we may note that he dropped his cloak for Elisha. In the same way, Dr Watson points out that when Christ ascended, He gave gifts to men. Even as He ascended into heaven, he left another person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit to carry on in His place. And it is this Spirit which fills our hearts and draws us to Jesus Christ and His eternal kingdom. He also gave His blessing to the disciples when He departed. These were not material blessings of houses and lands such as worldly kings give away. No, not at all, His blessings and gifts are like His Kingdom in that they are spiritual. In His exaltation and ascension into heaven we can have hope in the Spirit which He has placed in each of our hearts.

The fourth exaltation is in His position at the right hand of the Father Almighty which we read about in our Ephesian's passage. And there at the right hand of the Father, Jesus Christ rules the created order even as the devil and all his kin wage war against Him and His saints.

In World War Two, one of the essential keys to tactical victory on battlefields was control of the air. Early on the German Luftwaffe joined with the Panzer armies to defeat the foot slogging masses of Poles, French and Russians. Only when the Allied powers had gained control of the air was it possible for Montgomery, Patton and Zhukov to return the favor with a vengeance. After D-Day it was almost impossible for the Rommel, the master of mobile warfare to even move his units in daylight. In the same way, at a much, much higher level - Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father praying for us and interceding for us as we serve and honor Him in our work and witness.

The fifth exaltation is in the confirmation of Jesus Christ as the high judge of all creation. One of our United States Supreme Court Justices once bragged in public that if he and the court announced that the sky was pink, then we had better believe it or at least act as if it was! How pompous on his part. How does the worldly proverb go: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"? At the very least, that judge had delusions of grandeur and perhaps we might even say that he even had delusions of adequacy to his appointed task of telling us what the Constitution says.

By contrast, our high judge will rule honestly, fairly and the fact that He even died for us means that He will grant us in the end mercy. I have read in more than one place that too many of the Jewish people expect justice only when the Messiah shall come. That is their demand, and in one of the desperate prison camps of World War Two they even dared to try the God of heaven and found Him guilty of not giving them justice in this life.

Some time ago, one of my sons was involved in an accident on the highway. That Sunday in Church the judge who was to hear the case talked to my dad. Of course I didn't say too much, but at least we knew the judge and were assured that he would judge the case fairly. On the last day, when the final trumpet shall sound and every human who has ever lived will be judged and disposed of for all eternity, we have a hope and a promise because we know the Judge! And not only that, we know in advance how we will be treated! We know that He will show us mercy because He is head over the "Church, which is his body."