Humiliation Preceeds Exaltaion

  

 

 

The principle of humiliation preceding and being requisite for exaltation is not one we hear of often. Yet it is laid in front of us in the scriptural patterns at every turn. Christ is rejected. And not just by anyone, but those that are closest to him. Joseph of Egypt, Moses, Job all are rejected and suffer humiliation from their immediate associates. 

 

Doctrinally the necessity of such suffering eludes us almost entirely. Making little distinction between salvation and exaltation, we have adopted a vision of coming unto Christ as a glorious, ‘precept upon precept’ ascension, with honor, praise and recognition paving the way (Isaiah 28:10). And it is true that the process of spiritual growth is gradual, incremental and cumulative (D&C93). Yet the path of discipleship can only be one of descension, plummeting down to the bottom of the pit, the only place where “condescension below all things” can occur (D&C88:6). 

 

            What are the implications of this principle for us? It has been common Sunday school practice to embrace the notion of “opposition in all things”, at least superficially. But the concept of necessary infamy is unheard of and would be regarded as “over the top”. We shun from it, but in reality, we need to be anticipating it, if we are, in fact, trying to become like Christ. Joseph Smith clearly taught about the dregs of the bitter cup:

 

            All intelligent beings … must pass through every ordeal appointed for intelligent beings              to pass through to gain their glory and exaltation. Every calamity that can come upon            mortal beings will be suffered to come upon the few to prepare them to enjoy the        presence of the Lord. If we obtain the glory that Abraham attained, we must do so by the same means he did. (Joseph Smith, emphasis added).

 

In even more poignant terms Joseph taught in Lectures on Faith of the necessity of sacrifice of all things.

 

For a man to lay down his all—his character and reputation, his honor and applause, his good name among men, his houses, his lands, his brothers and sisters, his wife and children, and even his own life also, counting all things but filth and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ—requires more than mere belief or supposition that he is doing the will of God. It requires actual knowledge, realizing that when these sufferings are ended, he will enter into eternal rest and be a partaker of the glory of God (Lectures on Faith 6:5, emphasis added).

 

 

    Undoubtedly such notions are new to us as a church at large, despite the fact that these are Joseph’s teachings. And the old pattern is followed all around us, as “the honest in heart” are stripped of reputation, excluded and alienated, if not targeted… The fiery furnace of opposition and humiliation is not one we look forward to. But the Lord’s promise of His glory to those that “endure in faith” shines brighter than any kiln where exaltation must be forged (D&C 101:35).