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How to Win a Perfect Kingdom

28 November 2011 by Tom Chantry

Q. 54. How is Christ exalted in his sitting at the right hand of God?
A. Christ is exalted in his sitting at the right hand of God, in that as God-man he is advanced to the highest favor with God the Father, with all fullness of joy, glory, and power over all things in heaven and earth; and doth gather and defend his church, and subdue their enemies; furnisheth his ministers and people with gifts and graces, and maketh intercession for them.

Q. 55. How doth Christ make intercession?
A. Christ maketh intercession, by his appearing in our nature continually before the Father in heaven, in the merit of his obedience and sacrifice on earth, declaring his will to have it applied to all believers; answering all accusations against them, and procuring for them quiet of conscience, notwithstanding daily failings, access with boldness to the throne of grace, and acceptance of their persons and services.

As eager as our society is to make idols of our fellow man, we are equally ready to tear them down. Perhaps the famous have become too famous; we know too much about them to hold them in awe. Whatever the reason, we delight in seeing the mighty humbled.

This trend is particularly evident in conversation about our political leaders. Coarse jokes and rude insults are the currency not only of comedians, but of talk-show hosts, columnists, and (sadly) pastors. Who can be bothered with propriety when it seems that every politician has invited the slings and arrows of outrageous rhetoric?

Yet such irreverence is out of step with the Bible. We might have remembered the words of Solomon in Proverbs 16:14-15.
A king’s wrath is a messenger of death,
and a wise man will appease it.
In the light of a king’s face there is life,
and his favor is like the clouds that bring the spring rain
But then, we wouldn’t want to be accused of pandering!

Worse, though, is the temptation to employ the same coarse familiarity towards our true King, the Lord Jesus.

He is no king like those of the nations. Rather than exalt himself with pomp and ceremony, he seized a kingdom through humiliation. He allowed himself to be degraded - to be dragged through the muck of our common, evil existence - in order that he might win a perfect kingdom in a world to come.

But we should stand in awe of his humiliation, not find in it an excuse to speak lightly of him. Let us never forget, even as we express his humiliation, where He is now! “…as God-man he is advanced to the highest favor with God the Father, with all fullness of joy, glory, and power over all things in heaven and earth…” And would we, who confess him to be Lord and Christ, speak coarsely or familiarly of his former humiliation?

Here is a King whose wrath is a messenger of eternal death, but whose favor brings the spring rain of God’s blessing. Let us not, whenever we speak of his humiliation, allow ourselves to drift into forgetfulness of who he now is or of where he now sits enthroned.