The Lord Jesus Christ is greater than any office which He fills. With men it is usually the office which makes the man. Not so with the Lord Jesus. He Himself gives glory to the offices He occupies. For Him to fill an office is to transform it into another of His many glories. As we think of His offices, and of that which engages Him in each, we shall realize how full and varied is His work, and how great is that which has been, and is being, accomplished by Him.
The glory of His work, however, is intended to lead us to the glory of His Person. To think of salvation should lead us to think of Him as Saviour. Rightly apprehended, the blessings we receive from Jesus Christ will always lead us to Him. In order to appreciate these acquired glories of Christ, it would be well to think of them as they were acquired in their historical sequence–those which were acquired by virtue of His incarnation; those by His death; those by His resurrection and ascension; and finally those which will be His by virtue of His second advent.
His Incarnation
The first of these glories is probably that of Mediator. “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). In this passage Paul is dealing with the supremacy and the Saviourhood of God in relation to men. He stresses not only man’s accountability to God, but also God’s availability to man in the Man Christ Jesus. By becoming Man, the Lord Jesus stepped into the breach and bridged the gulf between God and man. There is now direct approach to God through Christ, and only through Him. “I am the Way…no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (Jn. 14:6).
There was also His glory as Messiah. This had particular reference to the Jewish nation. Anyone claiming to be the Messiah of the Jews must stand or fall by the test of the Old Testament Scriptures. Jesus Christ proved Himself to be the fulfillment of all prophecies and promises relating to the Messiah. “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Lk. 4:21) was His claim at the beginning of His ministry. As that claim unfolds itself, it can be seen that the Old Testament is full of Christ, and that every type, shadow, and prophecy finds its fulfillment in Him.
Although rejected and crucified, the Lord Jesus will again offer Himself to His earthly people as their Messiah, then to be accepted as their Deliverer and King. The title Messiah, meaning “Anointed One,” embodies within it the offices of prophet, priest, and king, the three offices for which anointing was required in the Old Testament.
His Crucifixion
There is His glory as Saviour. While He was known as the Saviour of the world during His life, and He always saved those who came to Him in repentance and faith, yet this was only possible in view of His coming sacrificial death. The pardon of each sinner before the Cross meant that his sins were covered until the moment when the Saviour of sinners met their judgment in His death, and removed them forever. The ruin wrought by sin has been met by the remedy of salvation, and is available to all through faith, on the grounds of the atoning work of Jesus Christ.
We must also notice His glory as the sinner’s Substitute. The pardon of the sinner is only possible because there is One who has taken the sinner’s place. He was without sin Himself, but was made sin and bore its condemnation and penalty instead of the sinner.
There is also His glory of Redeemer. In the New Testament we are viewed not only as sinners needing forgiveness, but also as slaves needing redemption. These two aspects are brought before us in Ephesians 1:7, “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Forgiveness deals with what we have done; redemption deals with what we are–the slaves of sin (Jn. 8:34); “sold under sin” (Rom. 7:14); and under the sentence of death (Ezek. 18:4; Rom. 3:19). Here we have indicated that redemption has been accomplished. Those who are His have been purchased from a state of slavery out of the slave market of sin, never again to be exposed for sale, and the price paid is our Redeemer’s life’s blood. “Redeemed…with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:18-19). How precious then is our redemption, and how precious to our hearts should be the glory of Christ as Redeemer.
His Resurrection and Ascension
In the sight of God the resurrection and ascension of our Saviour were really two stages of one great act of power, and should not be viewed separately (see 1 Pet. 1:21). As ascended on high, He has acquired many new glories. Among these is His glory as Head. The Headship of Christ covers many spheres. He is the Head of every man (1 Cor. 11:3), the Head of a new race of beings, the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), but what we have specially in mind is the truth expressed in Colossians 1:18, “And He is the Head of the body, the Church.” When He ascended on high, and the Holy Spirit descended, the Church was born, and became linked with Christ in the unity of the one Body. This oneness is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12:12, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” Not, “so also is the Church.” We are so at one with Christ as His body that we are viewed as Christ Himself.
As the Head, He has complete sufficiency for all the needs of the body. The Church derives her sustenance from Christ, and He has made full provision for her welfare. He has given gifts “for the edifying of the body,” in order that we “may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ” (Eph. 4:12, 15). As members of His body, we should render complete submission to Him as our Head, and not only so, but also to exercise constant sympathy to other members of the same body.
Having entered into heaven, He has done so as our Great High Priest. Melchizedek was a type of Christ in priesthood as to His Person, while Aaron was a type of Him as to His work. And while the priest of the Old Testament stood before the throne of God, the Lord Jesus is seated on it. Their sphere of service was on earth, His is in heaven.
The Lord Jesus represents His people in the presence of God. He is there on their behalf, pleading their cause and guarding their interests. We can approach Him, bringing all our need. He is never overwhelmed with the multiplicity of needs which are brought to Him, but is able to deal with them all.
He is also concerned with our pathway on earth. granting us the needed strength, and guiding us along the right path. There is no path we are called on to tread which He has not trodden before us. Therefore He is able to sympathize as well as help.
Then as our High Priest He is concerned with our praises. His priesthood is based on the offering of Himself as a sufficient sacrifice at Calvary. The offering with which He is now concerned is “the sacrifice of praise…that is, the fruit of our lips” (Heb. 13:15). He receives our worship and praise and makes it suitable for acceptance by a holy God.
His Second Advent
When the Lord Jesus comes again for His own, it will be to manifest Himself in the character of Bridegroom. The Church is His body. She will also become His bride. The body denotes nearness, while the bride denotes dearness. The expression of Christ’s love for the Church had in view the presenting of the Church to Himself as a spotless and perfect bride (Eph 5:25-27). Revelation 19 describes the coming marriage feast when the Church will become the Lamb’s wife. The blessedness of a happy Christian marriage is just a faint picture of the joy of that coming union between Christ and the Church.
Another of the glories our Lord will acquire by His Second Advent is that of King. While it is true that He was born, lived, and died a King, yet His glory in this character will not be displayed until the moment when He ascends the throne of Israel. Then will He be known as the King of kings, king over all the earth (Zech. 14:9). His authority will be absolute, His glory as King reflected in the abundance of blessing, both spiritual and physical, which He will shower upon the inhabitants of the earth. Universal peace will be accompanied by universal plenty.
As well as universal peace and plenty, there will be universal praise. Every detail of that kingdom will be a manifestation and reflection of the glory of the One who “must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:25).