“That teaching was so practical!” We have all heard it, but it is often unclear what it means. Depending on how you define it, practical can mean everything from parenting how-tos to the finer points of systematic theology. And what Sunday school teacher and youth worker doesn’t want to be practical in a world that is so distracted and challenging to navigate? And yet we who live in the shadow of the failed project called modernity are so prone to worshipping our methods and pragmatics that a word of caution may be needed when we want to be “practical.”
Perhaps it’s best we go back to the beginning of Christian preaching to take our cues from the apostles as to what the shape of our preaching should really look like. “Jesus is Lord” is by all accounts one of the earliest summaries of Christian proclamation (Rom 19:9-10; 1 Cor 12:3; Phil 2:11). Of course, this statement assumes a good many other things: that we know who Jesus is and what “Lord” means.
Truly, it is worth pausing for a moment to reflect on what this summary of the earliest Christian message is trying to do: it is trying to make sure that we are rightly thinking about the greatness of Jesus. Of course, there are other summaries of the early Christian proclamation that include more about his death and resurrection (1 Cor 15:1-4), and much more would be shared even with this statement (Rom 10:9-10) in the earliest Christian teaching. But this simplest statement is about calling the listener to recognize what kind of person Jesus, the Messiah, is. He is Yahweh, the LORD (1 Cor 8:5-6). That was profoundly practical.
And this drive to call Jesus Lord did not originate from the human side, but rather from the Divine. Or, from a different angle, the Christian proclamation was a call to agree with the Father about the greatness of his Son. We hear in the first sermon of the Christian church, “God has made him, this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Thus, in a very real way, the first Christian proclamation was a call to repent from low thoughts about Jesus Christ and to think exalted thoughts of him instead, even as God had directed. God is intensely practical in his instruction to humanity.
Taking its cue from the phrase “Jesus is Lord,” this article seeks to explore three things regarding the Father’s desire to exalt the Son. First of all, we will examine how the call to recognize Jesus’ greatness emerges from God’s purposes regarding the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah. Secondly, we will examine how the New Testament repeatedly uses the Servant as the paradigm for the Father’s exaltation and glorification of the Son. Thirdly, we will reflect together on what this theme means for those who teach others in the Christian church.
The Exaltation of the Servant of the Lord
The rightful place for any discussion of exaltation in Isaiah is Yahweh, the King. It is the mountain of his rule that will be lifted up so that the nations might come to it (Isa 2:2) and it is the various forms of human pretense which will be brought low before him (Isa 2:9, 12, 13, 14; 37:23). This sets the tone for how we should think about high and low in the book of Isaiah. To be sure, the ultimate expression of this exaltation comes in the throneroom vision of Isaiah 6. The initial description of Yahweh is awesome: “I saw the Lord, seated up on his throne, high and lifted up” (Isa 6:1). Later on in the vision, the angels cry, “Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of the armies, The whole earth is full of his glory” (6:4).
To be sure, this vision of Yahweh has left its mark on Isaiah. And so we read later in the book, “Thus says the high and lifted up One, who lives forever, holy is his name. I live in a high and holy place…” (Isa 57:15). This description draws on the original vision of Isaiah 6 to again describe the exaltation of Yahweh.
And that is why it is so surprising that in Isaiah 52:13, God says these words about his Servant: “Behold my Servant, he will act wisely, he will be made high and exalted, greatly lifted up.” In contrast to other parts of Isaiah where Yahweh alone is to be described in this way, Yahweh himself purposes that the Servant should receive this position. We may not see the Trinity with clarity in the Old Testament, but this is certainly an arrow in that direction.
To be sure, this is a vindication of the Servant. In context, the Servant is both despised by people (Isa 53:3) and punished by God (Isa 53:3-6). But Isaiah 53:10-12 helps us understand why God seeks this reversal for his Servant. When he makes his soul an offering for sin, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days (53:10). Because he bears their sin, “Therefore, I (Yahweh) will give him the many as a portion” (53:12). Because of the Servant’s atoning mission, it is God’s desire to vindicate and exalt him. Elsewhere, this is labelled the vindication or justification of the Servant (cf. Isa 49:4; 50:8).
To summarize, although the Servant will be despised, suffering for sin, Yahweh will honour his Servant for his obedience, with honour that parallels his own. In context, this is expressed in the Servant being vindicated (seemingly beyond death) and being rewarded.
There is one final note that is worth making in this section before we move on to our discussion of the New Testament: that when the Jews translated the Servant’s exaltation from Hebrew into Greek, they translated it, “he will be lifted up (Gk. hupsoō) and glorified (Gk. doxazō) exceedingly.”
The Father Glorifies and Exalts the Son
When we turn over to the New Testament, it is no surprise that the words lift up/exalt and glorify are often used with regard to the Father’s purposes for the Son. We will look briefly at how this idea presents itself in the writings of John and Paul and then reflect more thoroughly on how Acts reports this theme in the preaching of the early church.
In John 12:22-43, Jesus brings together the themes we have already seen. The passage begins by Jesus affirming that he had come to die and that he would not seek to avoid this (12:27). In describing his death, Jesus speaks about himself being lifted up from the earth (12:32, 34) and the Son of Man being glorified (12:23). But, in explicit fulfillment of Isaiah 53:1, the Jews will not respond with faith (12:37). And the unbelief expressed regarding the Servant in Isaiah 53:1 is the same unbelief that was prophesied when Isaiah saw the Holy One of Israel high and lifted up (John 12:39; Isa 6:8-10). Perhaps most remarkable is that John applies the glory that Isaiah saw in his throne room vision to Jesus: “[Isaiah] saw his [Jesus’] glory and spoke about him.” To bring together all the threads, Jesus must be lifted up and glorified in his death, just like the Holy One of Israel was in his throne room and like the Servant of the Lord was in acting wisely. For the Apostle John, this is the glory of the pre-existent Christ. The Servant of the Lord, the Messiah, shares the glory and exaltation of the Father through his death.
The second example is perhaps simpler. Paul, in his great reflection on the humility of Christ (Phil 2:5-11), also uses the Servant of the Lord as his framework. The pre-existent Son takes on the form of “a Servant” (Phil 2:7; Isa 52:13), humbles himself like the Servant (Phil 2:8; etapeinōsen; cf. Isa 53:8, Gk. tapeinōsis), is obedient and dies as the Servant does (Phil 2:8; Isa 50:5-6, 12). And because he dies (Phil 2:9; Isa 53:10), the Father lifts him up, just as Yahweh exalts the Servant (Phil 2:9; Isa 52:13). It seems clear that Paul is using the suffering and vindication of the Servant of the Lord as his framework for both the humiliation and the exaltation of the pre-existent Messiah.
This leads us to our main passage in considering the exaltation and glorification of the Servant in the New Testament. In Acts 3, the Apostle Peter has healed a man at the temple gate, and when a crowd gathers, he begins to preach. He begins his sermon by saying that God “glorified his Servant, Jesus, which you handed over and denied before Pontius Pilate, judging him to die. Indeed, you denied the holy and righteous One” (3:13). That the prophecy of the Servant of the Lord has shaped this sermon is clear. To begin with, Jesus is called the Servant (Gk. pais, Acts 3:13; Isa 52:13). Likewise, Jesus, the Servant, is labelled the Anointed (Christ, 3:18), just as the Servant was anointed (Isa 42:1, 61:1). In addition, Jesus is glorified (doxazo) by God (Acts 3:13), just as the Servant was (Isa 52:13). Also significant is that Jesus was handed over (Gk. paredothe) in the same way as the Servant (Isa 53:12, LXX). Moreover, Jesus is labelled “the righteous one,” as was the Servant (Isa 53:11). Not surprisingly, the death of Jesus is portrayed as ignorance (Acts 3:17) and such ignorance is certainly present in the death of the Servant (Isa 53:4). Perhaps not suprisingly, Jesus’ judgment (Acts 3:13-14) is one unto death as the Servant was judged unto death (Isa 53:8,12). In terms of benefits, both the Servant and Jesus will bring times of refreshing and moral transformation (Acts 3:20-26, Isa 52:7-11, 54:1-10). Finally, and perhaps most obviously, in Peter’s speech, Jesus is seen as a fulfillment of all the prophets and their predictions that the Anointed would suffer (Acts 3:18). This confirms that his words were drawn from prophetic sources.
This symphony of connections makes it quite clear that from the earliest days of the church, when Peter preached about the exaltation of Jesus, he was thinking about God’s purpose to glorify the Servant. No doubt, based on his Sermon in Acts 2, God’s exaltation of the Servant (Acts 2:33, Gk. upsoō) includes the resurrection and ascension to the Father’s right hand (cf. Acts 2:32-35). And all this dovetails perfectly with how Peter speaks elsewhere: the foreordained Anointed one who redeems people through his death and is then raised and glorified (1 Pet 1:18-21).
This smattering of examples from John, Paul and Peter makes clear that when the apostles thought of an exalted or glorified Jesus, they understood that this was in fulfillment of the exalted Servant of the Lord. The Servant of the Lord foundationally shapes the expectation that the Father will glorify and exalt Jesus, the Son, in the New Testament. The exaltation and glorification of the long-awaited Messiah wasn’t a New Testament surprise; it was the long-awaited fruition of prophetic promises.
Agree with the Father, Exalt the Son
In some ways, everything above can be summarized in God’s call to us in Isaiah 52:13: “Behold, My Servant will act wisely, he shall be high and lifted up and highly exalted.” The Father calls us to pay attention to the Son. And not just his existence, but the skillful accomplishment of the Father’s will. And in consequence of this skillful accomplishment, the Son will be exalted. The Father wants us to see and agree with the exaltation of the Son.
And so we return to the proclamation of “Jesus is Lord” with which we began. When Peter proclaimed in Acts 2:36, “This Jesus, whom you have crucified, God has made him both Lord and Christ,” his purpose was to take apart the hearers previous understanding of Jesus and show that God actually attributes to Jesus a much higher significance: Jesus shares authority with the Father, as demonstrated in the Son’s resurrection, ascension and authoritative pouring out of the Spirit. Peter is challenging his audience to agree with God about Jesus. And this is the pattern of all the sermons in Acts, whether it is Peter preaching to the crowds at Pentecost (Acts 2) or Paul on Mars Hill (Acts 17). They are seeking to convince their readers that Jesus is much greater than anyone previously thought.
To be sure, this message could be preached in an abstract and irrelevant way, but clearly that need not be the case. The exaltation of Jesus can and should be the stuff of family devotions and youth lessons. After all, do not all of our problems in some way or another relate to a diminished view of Jesus? Question 28 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is not a mere technicality.
After all, are not many of the New Testament epistles seeking to simply elevate our view of Jesus in some area or another? In Galatians, they have forgotten the greatness of his finished cross-work. In Ephesians, Paul reminds them he is Lord of salvation, evil powers and the church. In 1 Corinthians, that they belong to their death-conquering Lord? And on it goes in the New Testament. Beholding the Anointed’s person and work so that we might exalt him in our lives is the very shape of the New Testament and anything but an academic irrelevance. Indeed, reminding people of the greatness of Jesus is profoundly action-oriented: “they were cut to the heart and said to Peter…what shall we do?” (2:37).
And this heartbeat of New Testament preaching and teaching is perhaps why (among other reasons which only God knows) God chooses to bless some ministries and not others. Indeed, there are ministries that might, from our perspective, misunderstand some secondary doctrines (examples ranging from that of John Wesley to Keith Green could be given), but their functional theology from which they taught was profoundly and passionately right. They sought to make clear that Jesus was much greater than we had previously supposed and that our lives should be reordered around this fact. And God blessed them. Or in other words, they spoke like the Father, calling others to behold the Son and his work and so exalt him. Whether it be songs, Sunday school lessons or sermons, God has prophesied that he will exalt his Son.
