Christ was Humiliated

^{Christ was Humiliated}

²⁷ Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. ²⁸ And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹ and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” ³⁰ And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. ³¹ And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

In high school, if you had lined up some denominations of the Christian church, I'm pretty sure that Presbyterian would be far last on the list. It appeared boring, frozen and lame. However, after studying the different views on church government and baptism, Presbyterianism is the clearest and in my opinion most biblical. With that said, as Spurgeon says, I am a Christian first and I don't use my beliefs in how I attend church and worship to look down on others. (Rom 2). Learning about the doctrines of grace, the holiness of worship, and the accountability of elders has led me to a deeper appreciation for the denomination and it has helped me to move from playing games with God to approaching church as "other" and transcendent. Or in the words of RC Sproul, moving from the profane to the holy. 

When I first began attending different churches I didn't feel much accountability. It was as if I could go and leave and nobody knew who I was or what I was involved in. It's not that I was searching for new churches but I was learning more about the grace of God through the doctrines of Grace or what the Bible would call predestination. I also learned about Dr. Sproul's illustration about what happened to him as a college professor regarding papers turned in late. Students that hadn't turned in papers for three quarters received grace and after the 4th quarter they hadn't turned in the paper and he gave them justice at which point they said the justice was not fair. After being a teacher for almost 7 years now I know all to well how students can get comfortable as the semesters go by and as humans we expect grace rather than view it as unmerited favor. After growing in my faith and my understanding of what grace really is, especially in comparison to an absolutely holy God, I'm beginning to realize what I actually am and what man is before the redemption found in Christ. I can relate to Peter when he cried for Jesus to depart from him and Isaiah when he came to terms with his wretchedness. And all too often Pastors and Christian truly believe they have grown in there faith to the point that they are spiritually flying over most of the world. We all need to remember the man who walked side by side with Jesus for years and denied him three times. One denial was to a little servant girl. The point is, we are weak, frail and unable to follow Christ or not fall into sin without his restraining grace. 

With all that said, I deserve, because of my sin, to receive absolute justice and ultimately to be utterly humiliated. I am Korah, I am Absolom, I am Cain, I am Esau, I am Saul, I am David and I have the heart of Jezebel, Delilah and Mary Magdelene when she was filled with 7 demons. I am Noah when he was drunk, I am Abraham when he was a liar, I am Jacob when he lied to his father and I am Joseph’s brothers. I am the people that God commanded Joshua to kill and I am the Romans who put Christ on the cross. The truth is that I am utterly and completely filled with sin. Therefore, I deserve the justice that those students in Dr. Sprouls class deserved but to the scale that God would issue it. Ultimately, God is so good that he would give me the justice just to the level that I deserve it and the punishment would be forever. And with that said, Christ offers adoption to me by the blood of his cross. I believe he was born of a virgin, kept the law perfectly, was crucified and died on the cross that I deserved to be on and after three days he rose again. I also believe that without the resurrection there is no hope for mankind and our only hope is to return to the dirt. I don't believe we return to dirt, I believe we will live with God in eternity because that is what we were made for. 

Christ offers second chances to those who don’t deserve them. But he didn’t stop there. Philippians 2 reminds us that Christ, in humility, became man. So that is ultimately were his humiliation began. He took on the form of a servant, born to a peasant family and he came into this world in a manger. He became obedient to the point of death. When I encountered church done the way that it is supposed to be done and realized God is holy and that I owe him my worship because I am deserving of Justice but he offers me grace, this passage hit me right between the eyes.

I DESERVE TO BE HUMILIATED because of who I am and yet…..

CHRIST WAS HUMILIATED FOR ME. When the Romans took Jesus into the headquarters they didn’t just gather a few men but the entire battalion of men. And in the presence of the entire battalion they stripped him down and they put a robe of royalty on him. Mocking him for his claim to be the king of the Jews and twisting a crown of large thorns they pressed it into his innocent head. They put a scepter in his hand and kneeled before him before they, not one man but all of them, spit all over him. They struck him on the head and led him away to be hung on a piece of wood. This is what the sinner deserves but because of Christ’s great love for his church he was utterly humiliated so that we don’t need to be.

The woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well, the woman with a bleeding issue, the Roman who nailed him to the cross and came to faith, the thieves on the cross, the very mother of Jesus herself because of her sin deserved to be humiliated, and yet Jesus did not come to condemn, but to be humiliated and save. What love is this that though we were still sinners Christ died for us? Romans 5:8 and what love is this that although I deserve to be humiliated Christ was humiliated so I don’t have to be. He is completely innocent.