AN EXEMPLARY STANDARD
04.29.09
J.A. Matteson
Consider Him who has endured such hostility…that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:3
The Lord Jesus Christ is the quintessential example of perfect single-minded devotion to God. The Lord began and concluded His earthly ministry displaying an unshakable resolve to faithfully discharge His Father’s will, irrespective of how men interpreted it; an inner awareness of absolute devotion to His Father existed from the earliest years, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” (Lk. 2:49). This compulsion towards obedience defined the Lord’s life and finds resemblance in the circumcised heart, inclining it toward the faithful discharge of the saving truth entrusted to it, “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:16).
The Lord Jesus Christ serves not only as a perfect model for obedience, but also as an exemplary standard of endurance in the midst of suffering—the result of obedience—and to this end the faith of the saints of old serve as an encouragement. Along the pilgrim’s path unexpected dangers lurk and their intended end is to divert the pilgrims devotion away from the Savior and Calvary, tempting him to concentrate upon temporal concerns, the utmost of which is to preserve personal autonomy while serving his Master, to which the Lord warns, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24). The Apostle daily mortified the flesh with its vigorous tendency towards self-determination exclaiming, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).
The Lord encountered overt hostility to His Gospel, enduring all things for the joy set before Him, so too the pilgrim is called to endure while maintaining an eternal perspective. As the Son of Man the Lord Jesus Christ experienced humanity completely, if this were not so He could not qualify as the pilgrim’s high priestly intercessor. He was misunderstood in His speech and reviled, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” (Jn. 2:19-20); He was ridiculed for His stated identity, “In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself” (Mk. 15:31); He was vilified regarding the perceived source of His empowerment, “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons” (Matt. 9:34); He was mocked, beaten, bled, and died in response to His unwavering convictions, “…after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified” (Matt. 27:26).
In spite of ill treatment the Lord was never demoralized, discouraged, distracted, doubtful, scared, concerned, bitter, envious, inclined to outbursts of anger, cynical, pessimistic, disparaging, or in any other way unsettled within, for these things depict the fallen depraved nature of man. In the midst of the storm the Lamb of God knew nothing but perfect obedience and peace. It is this disposition that the Spirit steadily produces in the hearts of the saints so that they “not grow weary and lose heart.” Let the saints of old serve to encourage you as you sojourn, for they like you were mortal men who, gazing into the future looked intently for a better city, whose foundation and walls are not made by human hands. And knowing that God was for them they remained undaunted in their mission of mercy to proclaim the excellencies of Him who calls and sanctifies in order that men might escape the coming wrath of the Lamb. The impetus of obedience is love, and the fruit of love is endurance, “…love… bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:7-8). And love comes full circle in that the object of the pilgrims love is Jesus Christ the Son of God, who is love. Perfect loves casts our fear in the face of violent hostility to the messenger and his message; therefore, let the pilgrim be fully persuaded of the Lord’s immutable love for him. And let him not entertain the false conclusion that opposition signals defeat, “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).
Let him recognize, rather, that terse opposition indicates the Lord is taking enemy ground and that he may confidently stand firm in the administration of the Gospel to which he has been called.
Copyright 2009 Immutable Word Ministry (“…the Word of our God stands forever. Isa 40:8)
(Reproduced with permission)
Originally posted 2009-04-29 18:50:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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Hi Tim,
I know you post these messages from J.A.Matteson in faith, and I also don’t think anyone would argue that the man has a wonderful ability to administer the Word of God to encourage the saints; but I don’t believe that either of you could understand how meaningful this message is to me personally. It is as though I have been spoken to directly from the Lord Himself, and the message is like cool waters to a bone dry tongue.
Thank you my brother, and if you get any opportunity to do so, please convey my regards to brother Matteson, for the wonderful input he has given to this ministry.
God bless,
John.
John,
J.A. Matteson says — Sola de Gloria
Tim
The part that states, “In spite of ill treatment the Lord was never demoralized, discouraged, distracted, etc…,for these things depict the fallen, depraved nature of man…”.
Jesus was not always at peace and “unsettled” emotionally. Some examples are Gethsemane, the incident at the Temple with the moneychangers, his dissapointment at the lack of faith shown by people, and His strong words to the Pharisees.
As a human being, he had human emotions; He experienced emotional pain and struggle just like we do. Emotions are not sinful; it’s our response to them that can be. I take great comfort in the fact that Jesus has experienced the same things I have, and therefore, knows exactly how to help me not to sin in response.
Diane S.
I don’t think the author would disagree with you completely. In the paragraph before that quote you reference he does say.. “As the Son of Man the Lord Jesus Christ experienced humanity completely, if this were not so He could not qualify as the pilgrim’s high priestly intercessor.”
But, “In spite of ill treatment the Lord was never demoralized, discouraged, distracted, doubtful, scared, concerned, bitter, envious, inclined to outbursts of anger, cynical, pessimistic, disparaging, or in any other way unsettled within, for these things depict the fallen depraved nature of man.” I also don’t believe that He was able to have these emotions within the nature of “depraved man”. Jesus was not a depraved man. That is outside His nature, thereby, saying that He was a sinful man.
Yes, He did experience those things, but did so with in the Holy Characture of the Holy Father. He is our example of how we can have those emotions, yet under the power of the Holy Spirit, be able to operate in those emotions with proper responses.
I forget often (in my life) that through the Holy Spirit, learning to walk and let the “fruit of the Holy Spirit” be formed in my being, my mind transformed, that I am in a constant forward race to be transformed and made into the likeness of Christ and these attributes are to be more and more of my characture moving away from a depraved man characture, yet understanding that without Christ I am a depraved man. Does that make sense?
Here is a question for you, are the things that Christ experience as a man (emotions) happened through-out his daily life or did they actually happen on the cross?
I agree that Jesus is/was completely sinless; He is God in the flesh…but it is the all-inclusive phrase “in any other way unsettled within” that I find to be false in light of Scripture. He agonized in Gethsemane, and asked that the cup be taken from Him, yet He yielded to the will of the Father. He told His disciples that He was “troubled to the point of death”…doesn’t sound like He was at peace in that moment.
Emotions are not evil…God is jealous, and does get angry, but is still holy. Our emotions are part of Image-bearing. It isn’t sin until you act it out, or harbor it, just like it isn’t sin when a stray “wrong” thought pops into your mind…dwelling on the thought is the sin.
I think that Jesus suffered daily life; the hostility & unbelief from sinners, grief over the human condition, etc, but the ultimate price obviously was on the Cross when He took our punishment. He is a “Man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief”.
There is a balance here; Jesus was/is God and Man both equally. When you over-emphasize the God part, or over-emphasize the human part, you get into error.
Thanks for the question, I am delighted when the body of Christ discusses and probes theological questions of this nature.
Humans are indeed created in the image of God and emotions are a central part of humanity. The essential difference between the emotions of the sons of Adam (fallen) and the Son of God (Holy) is that His emotions were absolutely pure in essence, completely unsoiled by sin in their origin and expression, being displayed perfectly as the first Adam’s were prior to the Fall, so He is referred to by the Apostles as the Second Adam. Jesus Christ displayed in His humanity the characteristics of the first Adam prior to the Fall. As the sinless Son of God, in His humanity, Christ displayed a wide range of familiar emotions (e.g., anger, sorrow, etc.), but their essence and display never once ceased to be completely theocentric (God centered), for He always did those things that were pleasing to His Father. It would be unwise for fallen humans to make such a claim.
My employment of the term not “unsettled within” is indicative of the harmonious inner state of the Son of God in relationship to His Father while expressing real human emotion (resultant in His being without sin), unpolluted, as originally intended by God. Without question Jesus Christ clearly displayed human emotion in Scripture, yet it was emotion void of sin (the root of sin in human displays of emotion is “self” (often resulting in an unharmonious inner state between the creature and his Creator).
The Son of God could become angry (yet not sin) in that His anger as predicated upon absolute holy righteous indignation; fallen humanity on the other hand (even regenerate souls) are incapable of absolute righteous indignation as they remain tainted by a sin nature that is ego-centric at the core rather than theocentric. Human emotions are God given and thus good, unfortunately they are polluted by sin and their expression is rooted in a sin nature which distorts them.
In summary the Son of God was not “unsettled within” in that His display of emotion was pure and holy (sinless) as God designed it to be in the first Adam, something that fallen human beings cannot emulate, as much as they might desire to.
I hope that what I have written helps, and that it aids in answering present questions.
J.A. Matteson