Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript: James 2:1-13 “The Lord of Glory”
April 13, 2014, Passion Sunday | Pastor Dennis R. Tuuri

Sermon text is James chapter 2, verses 1-13. Please stand. James chapter 2. “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold ring, in fine apparel. And there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes. And you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ and say to the poor man, ‘You stand there or sit here at my footstool.’ Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him. But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the court? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scriptures, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ Now, if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and act and do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

Let’s pray. Father, we delight in that truth that mercy triumphs over judgment. Bless us, Lord God, with a further and deeper understanding of that. Bless us, Lord God, with hearts that receive the message of your word today and exalt the Lord of glory in Jesus’s name we pray. Amen. Please be seated.

It was very nice to have people with their cameras and video cameras out as I came up the aisle, pointing past me to the children, of course. So today is Palm Sunday. It’s also in the historic church and her calendar Passion Sunday, and that’s because what we just sang is true: that Jesus came in to go to an event that we celebrate Good Friday, which we’ll have a service here, by the way, at 7 p.m. Friday. So this year I’ve decided to continue the flow of the book of James and address really Passion Week and Passion Sunday as a result of that. I want to focus on the entry—the triumphal entry of Jesus—focusing on what he came in to do. What is that triumph about? What is that glory that we think of in this triumphal entry? How does it really manifest itself as Passion Week unfolds? That’s what I want to do.

I was walking down to Mike’s drive-in earlier this week. I was here at the church working and didn’t have dinner, walked down there on a beautiful day, and I happened to pass a couple, a family, and the wife was saying something—just a simple sentence to her husband—and I was just sort of struck at the time first with the beauty of the day and the great blessings that surround us all the time. And I thought, “This is undeserved mercy and grace from God. This is beautiful.” Why is that? And then as I heard this woman talking to her husband, I thought, “I know nothing about them. I don’t know if they’re Christians, what the basis of the relationship is, but it’s nice they’re getting along, you know, and it’s nice that she’s talking to her husband in a nice tone.” And I thought, “This too happens every day all over the world, and it’s undeserved mercy and favor from God.”

Why is it that we’re not at each other’s throats all the time? Yeah, we’re at each other’s throats some of the time. Why aren’t we at each other’s throats all the time? Why aren’t we tearing each other apart? Why aren’t wild animals ripping me to pieces when I walk over to Mike’s? Why aren’t lightning bolts, you know, coming down from the heavens to destroy us? Because clearly we’re a fairly radical departure as a culture from Jesus today. Why is that? Well, the reason for that is what we’re celebrating today. The reason for that is the Lord of glory.

Going back to the story of Noah, we read why that is. When we talked about Noah, we talked about of course a lot of things, and I didn’t think I read these texts, but there are two verses in chapter 8. Then Noah—okay, so this starting at verse 20—in verse 19 they come out of the ark. So they come out of the ark, and verse 20 says this: “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. And then the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake. This is the verse that I don’t understand what it means. I mean, I know what it means in the story, but the language here seems so similar to the curse on the ground as a result of the fall. He says, ‘I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. We don’t want to forget that. Nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.’

Why is it a wonderful world? It really is. I say to myself, “What a beautiful world?” Why is it? Why do these things happen? Why can we get along? Why are relationships primarily, you know, relationships where people are getting along even if they’re not Christians? It’s because God smelled the sweet aroma of the sacrifice that Noah did. Noah comes out and he recognizes that this is the grace of God, that I’m alive and they’re not. And so he recognizes that and he immediately initiates worship with a substitutionary atonement of an animal for his sins and the sins of his family. He recognizes the grace of God, and God smells that and is pleased and says, “It’s a beautiful world. It’s going to be a beautiful world for mankind.”

Now ultimately, what God is smelling, of course, is what we celebrate at Passion Week and today. It’s what we’re focusing on. He smells the ultimate sacrifice that the clean animals were a picture of with Noah and his family. What he ultimately is smelling there is the sacrifice of the second person of the Trinity dying on the cross, reflecting the character of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That’s why our lives are lives of incredible blessing in spite of all the difficulties of the world we live in and our own personal sin.

I’ve been getting up a little earlier these days. I think I’ve passed that stage in human life where older people tend to need less sleep. And now that I’m kind of recovered from my physical difficulties of the last year, I find that I typically wake up at six hours, and I used to be a seven or eight hour guy. So I’m waking up earlier than I used to, and I’ll get up and it’ll be like 4, maybe 4:30, 5:00 in the morning, and it’s so cool because I’ll sit there and I’ll hear birds. It’s dark. It looks like it’s still dark, but I’ll hear the birds at the break of day, and it’s a beautiful sound.

As I was listening to music this week, I listened to a song by Leonard Cohen called “Anthem.” The version I heard was sung by his backup singer. It’s beautiful, though. This is what they say: “The birds they sang at the break of day. Start again. I heard them say, ‘Don’t dwell on what has passed away or what is yet to be.’” Beautiful lyrics. I would have threatened my family yesterday that I was going to sing this to you. I won’t. But if you hear this, and so in the providence of God I had these beautiful convergences of hearing these birds and listening to the song. And when I hear them now every morning, this is what I think. The birds say, “Start again. Don’t dwell on what’s passed away or what is yet to be. Receive the day with thanksgiving,” because the day is one that’s given to you through the mercy and grace of God through the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, his passionate work for us on the cross two thousand years ago.

That’s what I want to talk about today from James 2. I really want to focus in on one little phrase: “the Lord of glory.” And hopefully you heard it as we read verse one: “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with partiality.” The Lord of glory—different constructions could be interpreted here, but the Lord of glory is good. That’s a good identification. You could say Christ Jesus, the Lord of glory, whatever it is. But the point is this phrase, “the Lord of glory,” is the identification of who Jesus is here at James 2:1. And so I want to talk about that today as a way of thinking about why our lives are as beautiful as they are and what the passion of Jesus Christ, how that’s related to this phrase, “the Lord of glory.”

Now, let’s begin first of all by doing a quick overview of these 13 verses. As I said, the sermon is not really geared toward exegeting this text, but rather executing and drawing out the meaning of the phrase “the Lord of glory.” But let’s put it in context, and we’ll come back to the text after we look at the Lord of glory based on other texts as well to get a further sense of what this is.

So, you know, he’s going to criticize them here, as you heard, for showing partiality to rich people, whatever that means. And notice how he begins: “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with partiality.” We’ll come back to why those two things are linked. But the idea of partiality, of course, is favoring one person over another. But really, in the Greek word that’s used, it has the idea also of judging according to appearances. And of course, that’s what he talks about here. They’re judging according to appearances.

This is a section of scripture that ought to be in our—I was talking to ABS this morning—it ought to be in our greeter training manual if we ever develop such a thing, right? Because what are you going to tell them? How to greet people when they come to church. Inspired instruction for greeters. This is good. Applies to all of us. And here’s what he says. He says, “For if there should come into your assembly this morning, people walked in the door, a man with gold rings and fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes. And you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes.” Now, he goes on to say, “And tell him where to sit,” right? So it’s a seating thing, and you’re going to give seats of preference to those people. But why are you doing it? Because what he says here is you’re paying attention. You’re favoring people that are rich in some sense of the term. You’re distinguishing between people based on some sort of condition of external appearance.

In this case, actual wealth seems to be, of course, part of it, because they’re wearing good clothes and fine rings—gold rings, et cetera. But the point is, what do we do? I talked about this last week with net worth. How do we evaluate people? How do we evaluate visitors coming in the door? And even if you don’t want to say, “Well, we would never have a place in the church where the rich people sat and the poor people sat over here,” yeah, but do you pay attention to particular people based on these external appearances?

Because that’s how he begins this. You end up with seating problems, because if you’re paying attention to someone, you have partiality. You’re making external judgments based upon an external show—an external show of glory, somehow. You could just as well apply this, you know, to people of position and power. Even if we knew that the governor of Oregon comes in his jeans, he’s not wearing fine apparel. But you may want to pay attention to him or not. Hard to say, but you may want to pay attention to him and show him more deference, make sure he signs the guest book. So what James is doing is he’s telling him, “Don’t do that,” and he’s telling him something very important about how we evaluate people in terms of their wealth or in terms of their external appearance or in terms of their particular favor in a particular culture of influence or power. I think all those things apply.

So he tells them, “Don’t do that. If you do that, you have shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts.” So we’re supposed to be judges. We make discernments, but now we’re discerning based not upon what the Lord of glory would have us discern things on. We’re judging now with evil thoughts. It’s evil. It’s not just, you know, “Oh, well, that’s not a good thing. Come on, be careful.” It’s evil.

He says, “Listen, my beloved brothers. See, he comes back to that. He’s going to correct people, and he starts by calling them brothers, and now he’s really going to dig into them and he calls them “beloved brothers,” right? Now, there may be other reasons for the use of those terms, but this is good pastoral advice from me to you. When you’re going to talk to a brother or sister about a problem, affirm them as brothers and affirm them as beloved brethren of yours. Love first.

He says, “Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?” Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God,” right? So the poor in spirit, right? It’s not—he’s not talking about an economic election here, although it is true that people in a lower economic class frequently will come to faith quicker, and our Savior made that clear in the gospels, right, where the rich man—it’s harder to get him through the eye of the needle because he doesn’t feel his needs as much.

And when God—so really the distinguishing factor here is pride and humility. And frequently the poor will be more humble. Although in our day and age that’s flipping a bit. There’s actually kind of a proud entitlement view coming in. But the point here is that God has chosen the humble in downcast circumstances generally speaking to inherit the kingdom. They’re heirs of the kingdom which he promised. And who does he promise to? Those who love him. We’ll come back to that at the end of the sermon as well, because ultimately the kingdom is not promised to a socioeconomic class or even people that are humbled. Ultimately, the kingdom is promised to those who love him, who love the Lord of glory.

Do we love him? We’ll find out today. But if you have dishonored the poor man—but he says rather you have, rather, dishonored—you haven’t given proper weight or esteem, proper honor to the poor. Okay, so it ties in with this whole idea of external glory and power, et cetera. And instead you end up honoring the rich, and these are the very ones who oppress you and drag you into courts. Do they not blaspheme that noble name—Jesus, of course—by which you are called? Or which was called out over you? By which you were baptized is maybe the reference here. It doesn’t mean you’re being called Christians. That doesn’t really actually happen, I don’t think, yet. But what he’s saying is the name that was called out—that’s literally in the Greek what this means. And so you’re baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And frequently the rich people, and in their context it was the rich establishment Jewish people, that were persecuting the followers of Jesus, and they’re blaspheming and striking out at the very name by which you’ve been baptized, in which you’re called.

And he says, “If you fulfill the royal law according to the scriptures, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well.” The royal law. So now he’s saying again, what goes out throughout this? Whether you’re dishonoring—the royal law, the Lord of glory, rich and poor—it’s the idea of where is true net worth found? Again, where is the glory? And it’s not judged by external appearances. And the royal law means the kingly law, and it means the law that we’re supposed to—how our lives should reflect the King of glory, right, the Lord of glory, and this royal law tells us that we’re to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Now, he’s quoting here Leviticus 19:18, and I’ve made this point before, but I hope you know it. Those of you that have been here a while, the Torah, the first five books of the scriptures, the center of the Torah is Leviticus. The center of Leviticus is Leviticus 19. The center—I think I could demonstrate this to you given some time—the center of Leviticus 19 is this verse: “Love your neighbor as yourselves.” The Torah was always about that. That was the heart, the beating heart of the revelation of God’s law in that particular time for particular people, was loving your neighbor as yourself. And that’s what he quotes here.

And if you were to take the time to go back and look at Leviticus 19:18, you’d find that just a few verses above that, it says, “Don’t be partial relative to rich and poor.” So he’s bringing in that content. Now, of course, he’s also quoting our Savior, because our Savior cites this in Matthew’s gospel. And remember, we think that James came shortly after Matthew.

But if you show partiality, you commit sin. Evil judgment. You’re committing sin. You are convicted by the law as transgressors. So you’re violating the law of God. For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Ten Commandments. But in the Sermon on the Mount, those are the two commandments Jesus quotes from, or rather cites. He exegetes them. And remember, that murder means being angry, irritated with your brother, et cetera, being calling him stupid or fool or whatever it is—don’t commit murder. So he’s saying, you might have the adultery thing done. You got the p*** blocker on your computer, right? And you’re doing okay that way. But you know, you got hateful thoughts against those poor people. You’re despising them. Whether you know it or not, you’re dishonoring them because you pay attention to the rich people or the people with power, prestige, influence, the tall people, whatever. You know, apply whatever standard you want here. But you’re showing by external appearances, by standards apart from God’s word, a partiality towards some that he connects now to murder—to murder of the poor person.

So speak and act and do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. There’s a judgment, and the law that brings freedom is the one that says, “Love your neighbor as yourself. Don’t be partial in judgments. Reflect the Lord of glory.” That’s how this section began. And it ends by saying that judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. We pray that every Lord’s Day, right? “Forgive us our debts, our sins, as we forgive those that sin against us.” Judgment without mercy—those who don’t show mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. And that’s the history of the world. And that’s why I can have a nice walk to Mike’s or listen to the birds in the morning and open the day up with hope and thanksgiving. And you can too, every day, whatever your circumstances are.

Because history—or the history of man—is the history of God’s mercy triumphing over judgment. And how does it triumph? Why does it triumph? Because of what we celebrate today, the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ. We celebrate the Lord of glory during this Passion Week.

All right. So that’s kind of a brief overview of the section. And what we want to do now is turn to a different text to discuss the Lord of glory. There’s one other occurrence of this phrase in the New King James, ESV. That’s found in 1 Corinthians 2:7 and 8. Listen. “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory. Interesting. He ordained it for our glory. We’re being glorified according to this mystery, okay? Which none of the rulers of this age knew. For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

Only other occurrence of this phrase in the New Testament: “the Lord of glory.” Here, what does this tell us? Well, it tells us an amazing thing. It tells us that the identification of the one who is crucified—that is, the culmination of Passion Week on Good Friday—that one who is crucified is the Lord of glory, and he’s crucified by men that have external power, external wisdom. And yet in the wisdom of God, they’re foolish and they really have no power. They’re affecting the very thing that they’re seeking to avoid: the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ through his crucifixion.

But what I want you to see here is the text says it wants us to think of crucifixion in immediate context with the Lord of glory. Who is the Lord of glory that James is talking about in chapter 2 that sets up all the rest of it? It’s the Lord of glory who was crucified. Okay. And so as we come to this week, we come to a week of the celebration, I think, of the Lord of glory. Now, the Lord of glory—you know, the subject of who Jesus is, who died on the cross. Was it a man? Was it just the human nature of Jesus that died on the cross? These are things of the early heresies and ongoing heresies of the church today.

“Well, the second person of the Trinity couldn’t have died on the cross. I mean, writhing in pain, you know, crying out to God, this can’t be the second person of the Trinity. This is the human nature of Jesus.” And I’d ask you, who died on the cross? If I was to—I know that, you know, very—Jeff Myers talks about it in his lectures, you know, but other things I’ve heard—is that, you know, if you—And I’ve been on examination committees, you know, who’s dying on the cross. And a lot of times people think it’s the human side of Jesus, right? And the same with the birth of Jesus. “How could the second person of the Trinity have dirty diapers, right?” Well, the early church, you know, struggled with these things. And in our common conception, I think we struggle with it, too, knowing who the Lord of glory is and how do we identify the Lord of glory with what occurs on the cross?

And the church survived these heresies through the adoption of creeds. The creeds we recite and sing regularly in this church. Let me read from one of these creeds. I’m having a hard time seeing the beginning of the quote here. Give me just a minute. Okay. Here’s one of these creeds, the Apostles’ Creed. They confessed their faith in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. Now, did you notice that when we recite that—which we’ll do again today—there’s a whole sentence there that equates the second person of the Trinity with the one who suffered and died on the cross?

The Nicene Creed, which we frequently sing in this church, is even more explicit. It says this: “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, Lord of glory.” We can insert there if we want, I mean. “One Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds. God of God, light of light. Very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. He’s the Creator. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate for us by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, right?”

You notice there too there’s no change of subject. We begin with the Lord Jesus Christ, God of God, light of light, very God of very God. And the whole string of things that it describes really are describing the events of the Lord of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the church has always confessed that when we read in the Gospels this or that other thing about Jesus, we don’t say to ourselves, “Is this the human side of Jesus or is this the God side of Jesus? Which is it here?” and parse out every gospel. We don’t do that. We say Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we could say the Lord of glory, was born, had dirty diapers, as I mentioned, as we read the gospel accounts—you know, grew up, he helped people, he ate with sinners. Who’s eating with the sinners? The Lord of glory. And the Lord of glory goes into the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. But it’s that Lord of glory then who is crucified on that cross. You see, not the human nature of Jesus alone. We don’t do that with the gospels.

The gospels are a whole. They present to us the life of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity. And so when we read those gospel accounts, we don’t break it up. We say that Jesus Christ is the Lord of glory. And Jesus, in manifesting the Triune God to us in the gospel accounts and in his life, reflects to us who the Lord of glory is.

Now, let me use one other way of getting at this. This—I just switched two of your points—but point number five on your handout if you’re following: “The Lord of Glory on the Cross.” And these are three kind of verses or sections from John’s gospel that help us to see the Lord of glory then and its relationship to the cross. Okay.

John 12:23 says this: “But Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.’” Death. The hour has come for Jesus—he says—for the Son of Man to be glorified. What does he mean by the hour? Now, there’s a sense in which the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ are dealt with as one event. We know that. But in John’s gospel—when I’ve given you some other references here—when he talks about “his hour had not yet come,” it’s because he’s talking about people that were planning to betray him, planning to kill him. And he’s saying, “The hour is not yet come. So they were thwarted.” But the point is, the hour is the hour of his crucifixion. It seems in John’s gospel. And so John chapter 12 says that it is the glorification of Christ that is accomplished at his crucifixion—certainly in his resurrection and ascension, but it doesn’t break in John’s gospel. The emphasis in this verse is that the hour of his glorification seems to be the hour when he is betrayed into human hands, the hour in which he is crucified on the cross.

That’s what I think those texts mean. “His hour is not yet come. Now it is come.” The same with this phrase “lifted up” in John’s gospel, right? So we read, “Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself.” Now, to be lifted up means to be exalted, right? That’s what you’re doing—exalt, exaltation, being lifted up. And Jesus says that when he’s lifted up, he’ll draw people to myself. And we think, “Well, yeah, when we lift the gospel of Jesus, you know, it’s evangelism.” But the very next verse says this: “He said, signifying by what death he would die.” So when he’s lifted up on that cross from the earth, that’s what he’s talking about. And when that occurs is the time when all people will be drawn to him. And we see the beginning of that with the centurion at the cross, right?

But my point here is that his exultation, again, being lifted up is tied directly in John’s gospel not to his resurrection and ascension. Yes, that’s part of the event. But here it says, “by what death he would die.” John 8:28: “Then Jesus said to them, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me.’” So now the lifting up on the cross, the manner of death, is also a revelation of the Father, and of course, that’s throughout John’s gospel. So we see here in the crucifixion event Jesus’s exaltation, his glorification, as well as we see the representation of who the Triune God is.

John 3:13-16: “No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Yeah, the ascension is alluded to, but the serpent’s raised on a pole. Jesus is raised on the cross. And so in John’s gospel, the hour of his glorification seems to be the hour of his crucifixion, his death, not his resurrection and ascension. Yeah, I know it’s the segue into that, but death. And being lifted up, or exalted, is tied to his death. And I think because of this, this is why in John’s gospel there’s two givings of the Spirit prior to the coming of the Spirit in Acts chapter 2.

What do you mean, Pastor T? Well, let’s look at John 7:37-39. “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scriptures has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” But then we have the interpretation. “This he spoke concerning the Spirit whom those believing in him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Okay? So you and I, the Holy Spirit dwells in us. The Holy Spirit flows out of us, right? And it renews the world. Ezekiel 47—the temple, right? The temple. The water in the temple overflows. It becomes a river. It brings fresh water. It makes great fish abound in the river. Yet great crops grow through beautiful trees. The temple is the flow of the Holy Spirit into the world.

And when Jesus is glorified, the flow of the Holy Spirit starts, and it continues with you and me going into the world. And if we don’t grieve the Spirit, the Spirit flows out of the innermost part of our being, not just satisfying us drinking, but satisfying other people, bringing life to the world. And so Jesus is telling us this, that this hasn’t happened yet. The narrative of the account is because he’s not yet been glorified.

So when he’s glorified, or when we see the Spirit coming out, right? Then we’ll know that’s the point of Christ’s glorification. Well, what do we read in John 19:30? We read that when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. What’s that got to do with anything, Pastor?

Well, what’s interesting about this is if you look at this, this is not the same word that’s used in the other gospel accounts of Jesus giving up the ghost. I mean, this word—where Jesus gave up his spirit—it’s used, I don’t know, a dozen, fifteen times in John’s gospel. And every other occurrence, it’s either translated “betrayed,” because Judas is giving over Jesus to those that will kill him, or it’s translated “delivered,” because Jesus is being delivered from one court and then the next court. The idea of the word is not just giving up something. It’s transitioning something. It’s betraying Jesus into the hands of another. It’s delivering Jesus into the hands of another court. That’s what this word means.

And so when we read this text, Jesus is delivering up the Spirit to somebody or something. This is the beginning, this is the first down payment—whatever—first manifestation of the coming of the Spirit into the church. And what does the earlier text we read say? It says that will happen when the Son of Man is glorified.

So what do we see in this? We see that God wants us to peg the coming of the Holy Spirit, the glorification of Jesus, to his death, to his passion, to what we celebrate now. That the Lord of glory is the Lord being crucified on that tree, and that crucifixion is his glory, and that’s why he’s called the Lord of glory who was crucified in 1 Corinthians.

So I think this is quite clear. Now there are two other occurrences, right, where the Spirit is delivered in John 20:22 and 23, the resurrection Jesus. So the crucified Jesus delivers over his Spirit to those that would receive it—his church, of course. And now the resurrected Jesus in John 20:22 says, “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’” Receive the Spirit so that mercy will triumph over judgment. But the point is he’s delivering over the Spirit. That means he’s glorified, according to what we read earlier in John’s gospel. So at his crucifixion he’s glorified. At his resurrection he’s glorified. The Spirit is handed over.

And then of course we all know about Acts chapter 2, and this is the one we normally think of when we read that text from John—that the Spirit wasn’t given because the Son wasn’t glorified. Because after his post-resurrection appearances, he ascends to the right hand of the Father, receiving the full glory of the kingdom. And there certainly that is a glorification event, and the largest demonstration of the gift of the Spirit comes in connection to his glorification there.

But don’t miss that there are three occurrences of the coming of the Spirit: at his death, his crucifixion, his resurrection, and then at his ascension to the right hand of the Father in Acts chapter 2. They are each glorification events. And the point I’m trying to make here is that Jesus, in other words, in this line of reasoning from John’s gospel, that Jesus is the Lord of glory on that cross. On the cross.

One last piece of work here: the Spirit of life. John 19:34—I mentioned earlier Ezekiel 47, where the water of life comes out from the temple, et cetera. And we read in John 19:34: “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.” So this is another evidence that the life-giving Spirit of God is now flowing forth into the world. He delivers it up. Water comes out. He is the temple. When the temple finds its culmination, the waters flow out over the world.

We’re the temple of God. The Spirit indwells us. The Spirit is going out into all the world. We’re the temple individually and corporately. And again, though, the point here is that coming out, that wonderful, glorified, life-giving water into the world, happens at his death. No waiting for the resurrection. Okay? At his death.

So I think all of these indications tell us why 1 Corinthians ties the Lord of glory to the crucifixion of Jesus—because he’s glorified there. He is the Lord of glory on that cross. On that cross.

As I mentioned, in a couple of quick verses: Romans 9:23, Ephesians 2:4—that the end result of this, if a demonstration of the wonderful blessings of the glorified Lord of glory on the cross, is our proper response to love him, right? Because he first loved us and gave himself for us. The Lord of glory is the one who gives his life, and the glory is that he dies for another, that he dies for you, that he affects your salvation, my salvation. He makes full atonement of our sins. He propitiates the wrath of God. He turns God’s wrath to pleasingness, to blessing toward us, right? He does all of that on the cross as the Lord of glory.

And our response should be love. But it isn’t just love for Jesus. Because if we were to look at these texts we’d see that what he’s doing is demonstrating the nature of the Triune God. So we can say that the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are glorious because of the reflection of who they are in the coming of Jesus to die on that cross for us. They’re glorious because they’re not self-serving. They’re glorious because they are others-serving, and we love them because of that.

Now let’s go back to James 1 and 2, then, and the use of this term in James. Well, what we see now is that, well, okay, so it all kind of makes sense now. He’s talking about external appearances, power, glory, whatever it is. He’s talking about dishonoring, taking glory away from poor people when we make those sort of judgments, right? He’s talking about the royal law, the law of the Lord of glory. And the application is quite obvious why he begins by referring to Christ as the Lord of glory.

He’s not thinking of Jesus glorified at the right hand of the Father. I don’t think he’s bringing to mind the Lord of glory who died so that we could live, who didn’t esteem the sufferings too great a thing, but wanted to lay down his life for others, and didn’t exalt himself, and those who were kind of, you know, his buds or what he liked. Who came to humble himself so that we could be exalted through his being the Lord of glory on that cross for us.

I mean, the whole thing—it kind of undergirds the entire teaching, I think, of this first half of James chapter 2 when we see the Lord of glory as the crucified Lord of glory, reflecting, you know, the glory of God in being self-giving and dying on the cross for us. And our response to that, brothers and sisters—I hope if we, as we think about these things this week and the beauties of the world that we’ve inherited and the goodness of our relationships generally—yeah, there’s problems. Could be war in Ukraine this week, who knows. But generally when we look at this and we see the mercy of God triumphing over judgment because of the Lord of glory on that cross, I hope it means we love him more. I hope it means we love him more.

And that ultimately is what James says is the basis for enduring the trials that we face, right? James 1:12: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation. For when he has been approved, he’ll receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to who? To those who love him.” That’s the ultimate condition, if you want to think of it that way. He’s promised it to those who love him. The beatitudes of God are given to those who love him because of understanding, because of the revelation of who he is as the Lord of glory.

James 2:5: “Listen, my beloved brethren, you’re loved by me. Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?” I made this point earlier. Who gets the kingdom? Those who love him. And then on the basis of this, James 2:8: “If you really fulfill the royal law, the law of the Lord of glory, the King Jesus Christ, who showed his love on that cross as the Lord of glory, if you really fulfill his law, right? According to the Scriptures, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And if you do this, you do well.

When people walk in the door, rich and poor, they’re your neighbors. Love them. Extend grace and mercy to them. Don’t put the world’s sense of honor and glory above what the Scriptures teach us. That our honor and glory is to be humble before others and to serve them, regardless of the way they look or what class they’re part of or what race they’re part of or whether they look like us or don’t look like us or whether they got, you know, whatever piercings or whatever it is, dirty clothes, whatever it is, you know, we fulfill the royal law by loving people and by greeting them at the door of the church in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because ultimately we’re to love others as lords of glory. And I mean that two ways. Jesus is the Lord of glory, and we worship a God who then we become like him, and we’re to be lords of glory, lords of glory like he was—serving other people, dying at times if necessary for other people, serving them, putting them before ourselves. When we do that, then we fulfill the image-bearing capacity we have as lords of glory. And secondly, we also serve others as lords of glory in the context of the body. And now we can think of the exalted Jesus at the right hand of the Father. And we look at people and we say, “I may not be happy with that person this week. I may not be able to talk to my wife or my husband. I may have problems. But that person who’s a member of this church within the body of Jesus Christ—they’re an exalted Lord of glory. Treat them that way.” Understand the value system that God places in the context of the new creation, because ultimately it’s the only value system that will last.

Brothers and sisters, may we love other lords of glory, and may we be lords of glory, imaging the blessed Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for today. We thank you, Father, for the manifestation of the glory of our Savior during this week in which we celebrate his passion. Bless us, Lord God, in preparation for the joy of the resurrection, to not skip over that death on the cross, thinking somehow it was just sort of an inconvenient truth that had to be acknowledged in the thing, but rather help us to view this week as we finish up Lent the incredible beauty of the Lord of glory on the cross. In his name we pray. Amen.