A Season for the Incarnation – and Exaltation – of Jesus

There is one question that has hung in the back of my mind for almost the first two decades of my life.

“Why?”

Especially in my teens, I probably asked God that question a thousand times at least. I was born without either one of my arms and have spent my life adapting to a world designed for people with arms when I did not have any. I experienced lots of external struggle as I learned to accomplish daily tasks using my feet while also facing pushback and criticism from the outside world that simply could not understand my situation.

Before I was in a relationship with Christ, the question I asked God was “Why don’t you love me?” I felt like the circumstances of my life filled with hardship was the picture of God’s love for me. When I understood the gospel, the picture of God’s love for me could not have been more clear. As Romans 5:8 says, “But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Once that “Why” question was answered, then a new question emerged: “Why do I have to suffer so much?” That question took a significantly longer time to answer. Yet, I am so grateful for a number of men who invested in me and discipled me through the years and were willing to shepherd me through my pain.

It was wild to watch how each of those men kept pointing me to the life of the Apostle Paul. I began reading through the book of Acts and all that Paul encountered in both his story of salvation and the timeline of his ministry. I read through Romans, which God had already used in a significant way in my life to show His love for me. Then I slowly read through the litany of Paul’s letters, especially the ones that he wrote from prison.

Paul’s “Why”

There was a lot to learn from the life of Paul. I think the one clear thing that jumps off the pages of Scripture is the love that Paul had for both Jesus and His church. Yet, behind the backdrop of Paul’s love of Jesus is the fact that he had done so in the face of so much pain and affliction. 

Paul tells the Corinthian church of the incredible list of afflictions he had endured for the name of Christ: beatings, stonings, shipwreck, all sorts of dangers and the anxiety of leading churches. On top of all of that is Paul dealt with something that he called his “thorn in the flesh.” We have no idea what exactly that Paul was dealing with but we know it tormented him so much that he pleaded with the Lord on 3 separate occasions for the Lord to make the thorn go away.

The Lord’s reply to Paul answered my “why” when it came to my suffering. “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness,” was God’s words to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9. It was in the times when Paul was at his most vulnerable were the times that Paul reflected the power of God all the more in his life. 

The Pain that Restores

The power of God to redeem the dark parts of our life doesn’t end with our sin. The promise of Romans 8:28 is, “ We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God.” There is no asterisk when it comes to what exactly is covered by “all things.” Good things, difficult things, scary things, sad things – can all be used by God for His purpose.

Even the gospel itself is intertwined with suffering and hardship. Man sinned, so toil and death came on the scene in Genesis 3. Jesus takes on flesh to be a perfect sacrifice for the sin of man. That sacrifice on a brutal Roman cross is what gives man hope of restoration to a holy God. To be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, the only sinless person in the history of Earth had to die.

The grace of Jesus going to the Cross was not only the means of our salvation but it also gave us a path to follow. Philippians 2 calls us to have the same mind Jesus had when He humbled Himself to the point of death on a Cross for a bunch of rebels like you and I. It is because of that sacrifice that Christ is exalted as Philippians 2:9-11 says:

For this reason God highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus

every knee will bow—

in heaven and on earth

and under the earth—

and every tongue will confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

In the exaltation of Christ, we see man’s way forward to have the endurance of Christ. That is why Paul can say one chapter later in Philippians 3:8, “More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ.”

We can keep going because He is not going to leave us. We can keep going because we know He is redeeming the hardest parts of our life. We can keep going because we know that He is worth it. We can keep going because we know we will see Him face to face – at the Father’s side – in eternity.