1

The Message of the Gospel,

Part 3:
The Mystery and Beauty of
Christ and His Death
1 Corinthians 15:3
Rob Wilkerson
April 4, 2004

Introduction

When you think of a mystery what do you think of? Do

you think of a good murder mystery? Or do you think of
a suspense-filled movie? What is your feeling while you
are watching the drama unfold? Are you hooked, sitting
on the edge of your seat, watching each moment with
baited-breath to uncover another clue that will lead you
to the conclusion you have already preformed in your
mind? Or are you watching anxiously to just see how
the thing ends?

How do you feel about the ending when it comes? Are

you usually disappointed? Relieved? Vindicated? Have
you ever gotten mad at the ending? After all, it did draw
your attention out for several hours, stringing your
emotions along with it. You were desperately and
seemingly inseparable from the characters in the plot all
the way until the very end, and then the author or
producer springs an ending on you that just won’t do!

I’ve done that before. I’ve gone out of movies (because I

don’t like reading mystery novels) feeling gypped, like I
wanted my money back. It simply didn’t end the way I
thought it ought to end. And, doggone-it I was mad
about it!
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Now you can relate just a little bit more to what the
Pharisees, scribes, priests, and chief religious leaders
were going through while watching the mystery of Jesus
Christ unfold. There was something mystical about Him.
He performed miracles, something they never could do.
He had compassion and mercy on the low-life of society,
something they never did. He preached and taught with
authority, which was something the people knew they
had never heard before from their own religious leaders.
He was able to cast out demons, again something they
could not do. He walked on water, calmed a storm, feed
five thousand with a boy’s lunch, forgave prostitutes,
made friends with tax collectors, loved on little children,
and the list goes on. He was certainly a mysterious man
for the days and times in which the people lived.

But as the Father’s plan for Christ unfolded, so did the

mystery. And toward the end of His ministry Christ
revealed the ending of the mystery. But the disciples
didn’t understand it, and the religious leaders hated it.
The mystery was that He Himself, a man, was also God.
The beauty was that He had come to forgive sins once
and for all, putting an end to the ceremonial institutions.
But a majority of the people simply didn’t like the
ending, so in their feeble minds, they concocted a plan
to change the ending. This, of course, only fulfilled the
ending God had predetermined before He ever created
the world.

The Pharisees, scribes, chief priests and religious leaders

of Jesus’ day simply could not grasp the concept that a
man could also be God. They could not conceive that
God would assume a human body. That is the mystery
and beauty of Christianity. The cults do not recognize
Jesus as a God-man. This very truth is still a stumbling
block today for Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses,
and the New Age Movement to name a few. It was for
just such a claim that Jesus was threatened with stoning
in His day, and He would still be threatened today with
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the same thing. He was rejected for this claim then, and
He is rejected for it today. It was considered blasphemy
then, and it is considered blasphemy today, among
those ‘religions’ that do not receive the truth.

Paul called this union of divinity and humanity a great

mystery of godliness, in 1 Timothy 3:16. “And by
common confession, great is the mystery of godliness:
He who was revealed in the flesh…” He repeated the
same thought in his letter to the Colossians, telling them
that “the true knowledge of God’s mystery” is “Christ
Himself” (2:2). To this day, the actual act itself of God
assuming a human nature is still a mystery. Christ is the
revelation of that mystery, certainly. But can anyone
really understand how divinity assumed a nature it had
not previously possessed before?

Of the statement in 1 Timothy 3:16, 17th century English

pastor, John Flavel wrote:

“The proposition contains one of the deepest

mysteries of godliness…A mystery, by which
apprehension is dazzled, invention astonished,
and all expression swallowed up. If ever the
tongues of angels were desirable to explicate
any word of God, they are so here. Great is the
interest of words in this doctrine. We walk
upon the brink of danger. The least tread awry
may ingulph us in the bogs of error.”

This is a solemn warning which we must take to

ourselves this morning as we examine the mystery of
Christ: the truth that God assumed a human nature,
becoming 100% God and 100% man. And out of that
mystery we want to possess the true knowledge of God
Paul spoke of in Colossians 2:2. That true knowledge is
the beauty of Christ: that as 100% God He could forgive
sins forever, and as 100% man He could die in order to
accomplish this.
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This beauty of the union of humanity and divinity is a

glorious sight to behold with the heart and mind. I want
to draw it from our text which we have spent some time
on the past several weeks – 1 Corinthians 15:3. From
that text, the words “Christ died” reflect the mystery
and beauty that Paul beheld in his mind and heart. And
it was this mystery and beauty that He intended to
communicate in the words “Christ died.” For in those
words we see reflected for us divinity in the word
“Christ” and yet humanity in the word “died.”

As Christ, He was the divinely anointed Son of God, very

God of God, who was omnipotent enough to figure out
how to impregnate a woman without the seed of man,
and to be born a human being. As Christ, He was God in
the flesh, able to commune with man personally, as He
had done never before. As Christ, He was 100% God in a
human body, and therefore able to forgive sins without
the mediation of a priest. As Christ, He was God in
human form, obeying the demands and commands of
the Law of God perfectly, before the audience of an
entire nation.

But He also died. And as a human He was able to offer

Himself as the once-and-for-all sacrifice for sins, doing
away with the wearisome institution of sacrifices. As a
human He was able to experience what other humans
experience, to a certain extent, so that we are better
able to relate to Him in our experiences. As a human,
He was able to be hurt, able to suffer, and able to die.
Listen to John Flavel once more in this beautiful mystery.

“He that undertakes to satisfy God, by

obedience for man’s sin, must himself be God;
and he that performs such a perfect obedience,
by doing, and suffering all that the law
required, in our room, must be man. These
two natures must be united in one person, else
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there could not be a concourse or co-operation
of either nature in his mediatory works. How
these natures are united, in the wonderful
person of our Immanuel, is the first part of the
great mystery of godliness: a subject studied
and adored by angels!” (1:72-73).

Proposition: With this in mind, I’d like to spend the

next few minutes unfolding the mystery and the
beauty of Christ and His death. I’ll first unfold the
mystery of Christ by proving His divinity and
humanity. I’ll then portray the beauty of Christ by
applying His mystery to His death. Finally, I’ll close
by delivering to you the reasonable responses these
truths ought to produce in us.

I. The Mystery of Christ

A. Six Proofs of His Divinity: Jesus Christ

was 100% God – “Christ died…”

1. Proof 1: He Claimed to be God. This is the

strongest proof, and the one we should look
at first. In any court of law, the witness’
testimony is allowed to speak the loudest
for itself.
• In John 5:18; 8:57-59; 10:31-33; 19:7 He
clearly and unequivocally claimed to be God.
• In John 8:57-58 He equated the Hebrew
word for God – YHWH, meaning “I AM” – with Himself,
a statement which caused the Pharisees to want to
stone Him for blasphemy.
• In John 10:31 and following, they stated
their desire to stone Him because He being a man
made Himself equal with God. The statement “I and
the Father are one” means “I and the Father are
equal.”
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• In John 19:7 we see the connection
clearly made between the title ‘Son of God’ and
divinity. To claim to be the Son of God, in the Jewish
mind, was to claim to be God.

2. Proof 2: As the Anointed One and Messiah,

Jesus was God. The fact that Jesus was the
Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah
necessarily means He was God. Psalm
110:1 is a proof-text for this truth. David
prophecies there that Christ was exalted to
the right hand of God. To be exalted to the
right hand of God was a Jewish figure of
speech that identified the one being exalted
as God.
• His Own Testimony: According to
Mark 12:35-37 and Matthew 22:41-46,
Jesus interprets Psalm 110:1 for the
Pharisees. His point in those passages is
mean to both confuse the Pharisees and
prove His divinity. Why does David call
his own descendant ‘Lord’? Because He
existed before David. Therefore, He
must have been God.
• Another’s Testimony of Him: Peter
affirms this in his sermon in Acts 2. In
verses 33-35 Christ’s exaltation to God’s
right hand is proof of His divinity (see
5:31 also). This exaltation means He is
prince and Savior, a fulfillment of Isaiah
9:6.

3. Proof 3: He accepted worship reserved for

God. In Matthew 14:33; 28:9; John 20:28-
29; and Revelation 1:9-19 we see various
persons bowing down and worshiping Jesus
Christ. He accepted this worship from them.
If we are only to worship God, according to
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the first of the ten commandments, and if
Jesus claims to be God and accepts the
worship belonging to God, then He must be
God.

4. Proof 4: Other’s Testified to His Divinity.

Having allowed Jesus to speak for Himself,
let’s look at what others who followed Him
had to say about this subject.
• John (John 1:1). John recorded in the
very first verse of his gospel that the Word was in the
beginning. Now, we know from 1:18 that this Word
became flesh, which means that this Word must be
Jesus. Also, we recognize the phrase “in the
beginning” as also being the very first words in the
Bible, found specifically in Genesis 1:1, of course.
But that is not quite what John is referring to. By
using the phrase “in the beginning” John means to
point back beyond the official ‘beginning,’ if you will,
to eternity past, when the beginning had not yet
begun. It was during this time that the Word, Jesus
Christ, was already with God. He existed before time
and creation. But John doesn’t stop there. He goes
on to make another bold claim: “the Word was with
God.” If Jesus Christ existed before the beginning of
time and creation, then He must have existed with
God, since God also existed before time and creation.
But John ends with another bold claim: “the Word
was God.” Not only did Jesus Christ exist before time
and creation, and not only did He exist with God, but
He existed as God. Could there be a bolder claim
that Jesus Christ is God?

• Paul. Paul uses a particular thought three

times, in three different epistles, to make the claim
that Jesus Christ was God. In 2 Corinthians 4:4;
Philippians 2:6; Colossians 1:15 the phrase “image of
God” is used. In 2 Corinthians, Paul refers to Christ
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as the image of God. In Colossians, Paul uses the
wording that Christ is “the image of the invisible
God.” And in Philippians, Christ “existed in the form
of God.”

o Philippians 2:6 – The word for

“form” here is the Greek word isos, which means
‘equal.’ We use this root in our English language
today to refer to “isomers,” “isomorph,” “isometric,
and “isosceles triangle.” “An isomer is a molecule
having a slightly different structure from another
molecule (as, for example, being a mirror image of
it), but identical to it in chemical composition. An
isomorph is something that has the same form as
something else. Isometric means ‘equal in measure.’
An isosceles triangle has two equal sides. Paul’s use
of this word in reference to Jesus teaches that Jesus
is God’s equal” (Boice, Foundations, p. 269).

o Colossians 1:15-20. Paul says that

Christ is the image of God (v. 15). He refers to Christ
as the Creator in verse 16. Then, Christ is said to be
before all things, and that all things hold together in
Him (v. 17). He is the head of the church, in verse
18. He is the beginning in verse 18. And all the
fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Jesus (v. 19).
Therefore, Jesus Christ must be God, since God is the
only other person who is also described by these
statements.

• The Author of Hebrews: According to

1:3, Christ is the exact representation of God’s
nature and the One who upholds all things by the
word of His power. Who else can this describe but
God? Therefore, Jesus must be God.

5. Proof 5: He was seen by Isaiah. In Isaiah 6,

the prophet sees the glory of God in all its
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fullness. Hundreds of years later, Jesus
declares in John 12:41 that He was the glory
Isaiah saw. Therefore, Jesus must have
existed before His human birth in order for
Isaiah to see Him. This means Jesus is God.

6. Proof 6: He possesses names reserved only

for God.
• “Alpha and Omega” – Revelation 22:13
• “I AM” – John 8:57-58
• “Immanuel” – Matthew 1:22
• “Son of Man” – Matthew 9:6; 12:8
• “Lord” – Matthew 7:21; Luke 1:43
• “Son of God” – John 10:36
• “God” – John 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1

B. Seven Proofs of His Humanity: Jesus

Christ was 100% Human – “Christ died…”

1. He had a human birth (Matthew 1:18-2:11;

Luke 1:30-38; Galatians 4:4).
2. He had a human development (Luke
2:50,52).
3. He had the essential elements of human
nature:
• Human body (Matthew 26:12; John
2:21)
• Reason and will (Matthew 26:28; Mark
2:8)
4. He had human names
• Jesus (Matthew 1:21).
• Son of Man (Mathew 8:20; 11:18)
• Son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1)
5. He had sinless infirmities of human nature
• He became weary (John 4:6)
• He became hungry (Matthew 4:2;
21:18)
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• He became thirsty (John 19:28)
• He was tempted (Matthew 4; Hebrews
2:18)
6. He was repeatedly called a man (John 1:30;
4:9; 10:38).
7. He expressed emotion consistent with
humanity
a. He expressed love, compassion and pity
• For the rich young ruler (Mark 10:21)
• For the hungry people (Mark 8:2-3)
• For a leper (Mark 1:41)
• For two blind men (Matthew 20:34)
• For a widow’s dead son (Luke 7:13)
• For sheep without their shepherd
(Matthew 9:36; 14:14)
• On account of the stubbornness and
rebellion of His people, the Jews (Luke 19:41)
• On account of His friend, Lazarus’
death (John 11:35)
b. He expressed indignation and anger
• At the refusal of the disciples to allow
children to come to Him (Mark 10:14).
• At the Pharisees and religious leaders
(Matthew 15:7; 23:37; 23:33; 15:14; John 8:44)

“It is not an impassible, insensitive, unmovable

Christ that is presented to us in the New
Testament. Rather it is one who has entered
into our griefs and understands our sorrows,
one who was on occasion moved to righteous
indignation and angered by sin” (Boice, p.
283).

c. He expressed joy and gladness (Hebrews

12:2; Luke 10:21; John 15:11; 17:3).
d. He experienced suffering (Luke 22:39-46;
Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42).
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C. The Union of Divinity and Humanity –
Getting it Right and Saying it Right

Augustine, the fourth century church father, is

recorded as having made the following
observation about the union of the divine
nature and the human nature. When the Word
was made flesh we should not misunderstand it
as if there were a mutation in the Godhead into
flesh. No, this union was performed, “not by
changing what He was, but by assuming what
He was not.”

Often times in theology we define what

something is by discussing and defining what it
is not. While we may not precisely know a
certain thing, we may certainly know what a
thing is precisely not. This subject entails just
such a pattern of thinking. While we do not
precisely know just how the divine and human
natures came together, we do know how they
did not come together. It is important
therefore for each of you as Christians to know
the Christ you say you serve, and to think and
speak of Him appropriately and soundly.

• He was the communion of human and divine

natures, not the mixing of them.
• Deity did not permeate humanity, and
humanity was not simply absorbed into deity.
• God was not changed into a human being.
• He did not unite Himself with a human person,
but rather united Himself with a human nature.
• He was not acting sometimes as human and
other times as God.
• He is not two persons inside one body.
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II. The Beauty of Christ and His Death

A. The beauty of Christ in His divine and

human natures is seen in the following.
Because Jesus Christ was both man and God
He could…
• Be hungry and yet feed the multitudes.
• Sleep in a small fishing boat during a violent
storm and yet calm it.
• Be thirsty and yet turn water into wine.
• Weep at Lazarus’ death and yet raise Him
from the dead.
• Be killed and yet come back to life three
days later.
• Experience pain and suffering and yet cause
it to cease by healing it.

B. The beauty of Christ’s human and divine

natures is seen in His death and
resurrection.

“As Priest, had he not been man, he could have

shed no blood; and if not God, it had been no
adequate value for us” (Flavel, 1:80).

As a man He could offer Himself in death being

the perfect and final sacrifice for sins. As God
He could offer Himself as forgiveness, being
the perfect and final sacrifice.

1. This truth means the end of the ongoing

demand of death. Hebrews 4:24-16; 5:9; 7:26-27.
The payment for all sin was death. Since sin is an
offense against a holy God, it required ongoing
death. This is seen in the OT sacrificial system. The
ongoing deaths of bulls, goats, and lambs was
required for God to forgive their sins. This is seen
also in hell which is a place of ongoing, eternal
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punishment. Those who are there have sinned
against a holy God, therefore they suffer eternally.

Now, there is only one way to put a stop to

ongoing death – whether ongoing animal
sacrifices or eternal hell. A once-and-for-all
sacrifice must be made to satisfy the
ongoing demands of death. But in order to
do this one would have to be both eternal
(since only eternity can pay for eternity) and
sinless (since sin is the very thing which
requires death).

God meets both requirements. He is both

eternal and sinless. But again, this payment
had to be death. The only way God could
die was if He became a man and then died.
This is just what God has done in His Son
Jesus Christ. God in Christ made the once-
and-for-all eternal payment to God for sin by
sacrificing Himself. As God, He was eternal
and therefore able to satisfy the demands of
eternal death for sin. As God, He was
sinless, unable to sin, and therefore able to
represent those who are sinners.

The result is that man can now be free from

the ongoing deathly demands of sin. He can
be free from those ongoing demands
expressed in animal sacrifices. And he can
be free from those demands expressed in
eternal hell.

2. It means eternal redemption for us, a clean

conscience within us, and the promise of an eternal
inheritance for us (Hebrews 9:11-15). If sin is forever
forgiven, and if God remembers it no more, then the
conscience of a Christian is clean, nevermore bearing
the stain of guilt or condemnation.
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3. It means His law can be written on our

hearts and our sin forgotten forever (Hebrews 10:10-
14). We have been sanctified once-and-for-all,
because He ministered unlike the high priest. He
offered the final and ultimate sacrifice and sat down
at the right hand of God. As a result, God can now
write His law on our hearts and minds, ensuring our
sanctification (unlike the law of the Old Covenant
which ensured nothing but more and more
sinfulness).

III.Five Reasonable Responses to this Mystery

and Beauty

A. Adore Him! Look what He’s done for you!

“The love of the Father is herein admirably

conspicuous, who so vehemently willed our
salvation, that he was content to degrade the
darling of his soul to so vile and contemptible a
state, which was, upon the matter, an undoing to
him, in point of reputation, as the apostle
intimates, Phil. ii.7” (Flavel, 1:81).

Imagine an entry-level employee of a Fortune 500

company and the president of that company being
at odds with each other. Imagine that the
president is the offended party, and the employee
is the thief who has stolen thousands and
thousands of dollars in cash, stocks and assets
from the president and his company. Imagine
now the president, the one wronged and offended,
stooping first to say to the lowly employee, “you
have deeply wronged me, and there is no way on
earth you will ever be able to pay me back and
repair the wrongs you’ve done to the company.”
So far, so true. But imagine him as he continues:
“However, my love for you and my willingness to
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be at peace with you is so great that I will part
with what is most dear to me in all the world, just
in order to be at peace with you, to restore you to
the company as an employee and promote you.
Yes, though I am going to have to stoop below
myself, and seem to others, as it were, to forget
my own relationship to my own son who is the
heir to my company, I am not going to let this
breach continue to exist between us.” Is this not
the message of John 3:16? God loved the
unbelieving, hateful, thievous world so much that
He gave His one and only Son to die for it…

“How astonishing is the love of Christ, that would

make such a stoop as this to exalt us! Oh, it is
ravishing to think, he should pass by a more
excellent and noble species of creatures, refusing
the angelic nature, Heb. ii.16. to take flesh; and
not to solace and disport himself in it neither, nor
experience sensitive pleasures in the body; for, as
he needed them not, being a the fountain-head of
the highest joys, so it was not at all in his design,
but the very contrary, even to make himself a
subject capable of sorrows, wounds, and tears”
(Flavel, 1:81-81).

Imagine this also, if you will. The Father saw your

sin, your constant affront to His holiness, and your
conscience sees Him rolling up His sleeves
preparing to punish you with His infinite wrath.
But the Son added a human nature to Himself by
becoming a man, picked up the hammer of God’s
punishment, and handed it to the Father who then
punished His own Son. He armed Himself with
wrath ready to avenge Himself for your sin; but
then He took on flesh and loved us instead.

B. Pray to Him! He knows what you’re going

through!
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When being conquered by sin and temptation (by

pornography and lust, greed and pride, anger and
bitterness); when struggling over your child’s
constant disobedience or a child who has gone
astray; when agonizing in physical pain and
suffering; or when grieving over the loss of your
spouse, talk to Him! Weep to Him! Grieve to
Him! He has compassion and pity on you, and He
loves you the same as He loved all those other
persons of whom we read in the Bible. If he loved
the widow in Luke, he loves you, widow, today! If
he had compassion on the misled rich young ruler
in Matthew, he has compassion on your misled
young people today. If he had compassion on his
own children who rejected Him, he has
compassion on you and your children who are
rejecting you. If he wept at the loss of his best
friend, he weeps with you over the loss of yours.
Jesus loves you deeply and He loves you dearly.

Because He is a human, He will grieve with you,

weep with you, suffer with you. But because He is
God, He can answer those prayers, console your
broken heart like no other, wipe away the tears of
grief as no other, give you strength and courage
as no other.

C. Be Like Him! He did it to show you how

to do it!

“Jesus, by means of the Incarnation, came to

know all the vicissitudes of life: trials, joys,
sufferings, losses, gains, temptations, griefs. He
entered into them, understood them, and thus
became a pattern for us, that we should go
through these experiences as he did, and also an
encouragement to us to come to him in prayer,
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knowing that he understands what we are going
through” (Boice, p. 285).

He came to experience what we do and by this He

became a pattern for us to follow. Let us be like
Him in…

• His Humility – Philippians 2:2ff.

• His Sufferings – 1 Peter 2:21

D. Believe in Him! He’s ready to satisfy you

completely!

This mystery of the God-man, and this beauty of

His union for us is of absolutely no value to us if
He does not unite Himself with you also. And this
is done by faith, by your believing in Him, by you
finding your entire life’s satisfaction in what God
has done for you in the person and work of Jesus
Christ.

In Matthew 28:20, Jesus promised His disciples

that He would be with them until the ends of the
earth. This promise was repeated in Hebrews
13:5 where “God has said, ‘I will never fail you. I
will never forsake you.’” This is none other than
Jesus Christ of verse 8 who “is the same
yesterday, today, and forever.” If He has
promised to be with you, never to fail you, and
never to forsake you, and if He is forever the
same, then why not believe in such an ever-
present, never-changing comfort and help to your
life, your children, your marriage, your job, your
home, your finances, your divorce, and your
problems?

“It is indeed infinite mercy, that God is come so

near you, as to dwell in your flesh; and that he
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hath fixed upon such an excellent method to save
poor sinners. And hath he done all this? Is he
indeed come home, even to your doors, to seek
peace? Doth he vail his unsupportable glory
under flesh, that he might treat the more
familiarly? And yet do you refuse him, and shut
your hearts against him? Then hear one word,
and let thine ears tingle at the sound of it: Thy sin
is hereby aggravated beyond the sin of devils,
who never sinner against a mediator in their own
nature; who never despised, or refused, because
indeed, they were never offered terms of mercy,
as you are” (Flavel, 1:83).

E. Exult in Him! He will soon give you a

body like His!

His union with flesh and blood meant conquering

its death. In so doing, God intended to show us
what He would also do with our bodies. This is
largely what the chapter of our text is about. Paul
wrote 1 Corinthians 15 to show that as a result of
God uniting with human nature, humanity was
glorified with His resurrection and is no longer
subject to space and time. Since He had a
resurrection body as a human being, we also will
have a new body, just like His! Without Him
becoming human, we would never experience a
resurrection from the grave.

According to Philippians 3:21, Christ “will take

these weak mortal bodies of ours and change
them into glorious bodies like his own…” (NLT). In
short, Christ conquered death and gained a
transformed body so that He could give us one
also. So come what may, we too may look
expectantly, straight through the suffering,
hardship, labors, pains, trials and tribulations to
the joy that lays before us (Hebrews 12:2).
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Conclusion:

Some people live in fear of God, unable to defeat

temptation, and discouraged without hope and
courage. These do not know or behave like they do
not know that Jesus was human! He faced what you
face, and offers you the ability to do it without fear.
He was tempted as you are tempted, and defeated it,
offering you the ability to do the same. He suffered
more than you will ever suffer, in order to show that
it can be endured with godliness and in holiness. If
your soul is downcast and depressed this morning,
lift up your head and see that your Savior was
human!

Other people live speaking and thinking of Christ too

lightly, sinning constantly and ignoring His
commands. These people do not know or behave
like they do not know that Jesus was also God! He
makes demands on you that no other human can
make, and He expects your love and submission in a
way that no other human can. He teaches with more
authority than any person ever will. He has done
more for you than any person ever will. And all of
these things occur and occurred because He is the
everlasting, unchangeable God of the universe.

Whichever you are, I urge you and beg you and plead
with you to search your heart diligently to see if the
Jesus Christ I have presented to you this morning is
the Jesus Christ whom you say you serve, whom you
say resides in your heart, whom you profess to love
and follow. Whether this is the Jesus of your
profession or not, the call to you is one and the
same: take hold of the mystery and beauty of Christ
and His death for you so as to believe in Him more,
exult in Him more, be more like Him, pray to Him
more, and most of all adore and worship Him more.