“O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth.” Psalm 8:1
Dear Ones:
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, just prior to the great chapter on love, he writes this: “…and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.” (1 Cor. 12:31) In that short phrase the apostle brings us face to face with the excellency that is in Jesus Christ. Indeed there is but one way, means, and purpose for rising up out of the morass of this world’s system, mentality, and downward trend. It is by the excellency of the life and love of Christ. Men’s philosophies begin and end in and with him. Their power is dictated according to the realm of possibility in the nature and capacities of men. But what do we see with regard to this nature when the limits of authority are removed? There is only the descent into the abyss of self-absorption, self-worship, and self-destruction. When Christ came into this world, He came as LIGHT, and this in order to point us heavenward. He has provided “a way for man to rise, and Offering and a Sacrifice, a Holy Spirit’s energies, an Advocate with God.” What is this more EXCELLENT way, this “knowledge of the holy,” which transcends, surpasses, and lifts up humanity to the heights of what God would have us be? The answer resides in the revelation of a contrast.
In chapter 13 of Paul’s letter, he gives us a contrast between what men are, and the possibilities they have according to their gifts and capacities, to “love.” He deals with men being as “sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” (v.1) He goes on to speak of the spiritual capacity to “prophecy,” then to knowledge and understanding all mysteries…even possessing all faith. In all that he is addressing, it is in the context of the spiritual as well as the natural. But then he says, that even though one may possess all these things, he can be “nothing,” from God’s standpoint. Perhaps his addressing the issue of personal sacrifice in its different forms, to serve or even to witness, is the most striking aspect in this matter of drawing a contrast. With regard to these sacrificial acts, which from a human standpoint, are of noble and honorable character, he will write: “It profits me nothing.” Why? Why is there so great a contrast between that which we “think” is so great and this “more excellent way” of which Paul writes? The answer is simply in the revelation of who and what Christ IS. When the Psalmist wrote, “…how EXCELLENT is Thy name,” he was writing of One whose blessed character and person is so perfect and good, and uniquely holy, that there is NO contrast. This is why the apostle wrote to the Philippians, “…I count ALL things but loss for the EXCELLENCY of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” (3:8) Prior to declaring this, he would write: “for me to live IS Christ, and to die is gain.” (1:21)
Proceeding in 1 Corinthians 13, we discover that the “face to face” encounter with Christ, preceded by us being placed IN Him at the moment of our coming to know Him, transcends all capacity that we have in and of ourselves. That which is OF Christ, in its value and excellency EXCEEDS indeed all that we can ask or think. If that which the Lord has prepared for us is characterized by “…eyes that have not see, nor ears heard, nor has entered into the heart of man,” how MUCH MORE is the beauty, loveliness, and goodness of God in Christ, the creator of it all? We are thus called to ABIDE in Him, with Him correspondingly abiding in us, so that HIS excellency can and will be revealed in us. It is as He is seen, lifted up, and exalted by a life of “setting our lives in Him, and deriving all from Him by that inward aspiration of faith,” that His life will appear in our own, this being revealed by His blessed and excellent love.
Dear Father, teach us Thy ways. Give us to live in the excellency of knowing, walking with, and communing with Thy Son, by the Spirit. Strengthen us in our quest to abide in Him, believing Him to abide in us for every need, and at all times. Then we shall rise up to live by Him, and serve those to whom You have sent us…in Thy love. We thank and praise Thee in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad