The Muslims call the Christian faith a blasphemous lie. They say that calling Jesus the Son of God is an insult to God. Surah 4:171; 5:72-75, et al. They deny the Trinity and say that Christians will be in hell. A Mohammedan fails to find in Jesus a nature worthy of adoration and worship.
I read my children a Bible story tonight that centered on John 13:1-17 where Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. Can you imagine being one of the disciples on that night? The humbling of the Son of God would have been unsettling to the core. How could He get down like a beggarly servant and scrub the dung, sweat and city dirt off of their feet?
Christ is no pretender. Those who are not what they pretend to be can never lay aside pride or personal gain. They fear the loss of it. There are no Messianic secrets among non-Messiahs. One like Jesus, who is God from before all time, did not need to hold onto His divine prerogative (Philippians 2:5-7). He could set it aside for the redemption of His sheep. His glory remains intact. Christ is no longer on earth. Scripture gives us hints to the glory that’s His:
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:
“Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:11-13, NKJV).
Even on that day, though it will not and need not happen, Christ could again wash our feet, and He would lose no glory. His glory is not seen or proven only by what He does; it’s in who He is. God’s inherent worth is more than the sum total of all the gold. What He has done brings us to bask in who He is. Through what He has done, and only through His earthly works, could we have a seat in the kingdom of heaven, but it is God who makes it glorious.
Some see calling this Man God as evil, how much more could they never see glory in His humiliation? Find Him there in the manger (Luke 2:12) find Him homeless (Matthew 8:20) find Him rejected and perhaps, like His own of old, you’ll suppose His lot in life a result of a curse of God upon Him, Isaiah 53:4. Do you now on this day through the faith deposited, however, see the glory that He cannot lose? John 1:14. Do you see why Simeon spoke of Him as the light of the world on His eighth day? Luke 2:30-32. Do you see why kings some years later acknowledged Him as a born King and worshipped Him? Matthew 2:2, 11. “Death on a cross? That’s for scum! Such is not befitting a true King of kings. What an insult,” they wag their tongues.
The gospel is foolishness to them. What’s He to you? 1 Corinthians 1:18.
(Matthew 16:13-16; 12:42; Colossians 2:2-3; John 14:6; 1 Corinthians 15:14; Philippians 3:9; 2:8-11).
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