There are so many remarkable things about this passage. No human mind can grasp the full weight of the fact that the God of the universe, in the Divine person of Christ, was made “a little lower than the angels” and humbled as a man. Creators are supposed to show themselves powerful over their creations, yet Christ chose to become like His creation.
However, the fantastic thing about Christ as seen in this passage is not simply His humility. Humility is great, but it is never an end unto itself. Humility is for a purpose, and that purpose is living life for another. It is to give the glory to something else. It is the submitting of oneself to a higher authority. Christ, during His life on earth, was the perfect example of humility through His absolute submission to the authority of God the Father and perfect dependence on the Holy Spirit.
Christ was willing, at the will of the Father, to obey by leaving the glory of His own heavenly kingdom in exchange for a humble life on earth. He was willing to submit Himself to the Father by becoming a man. Not only a man, but He was humbled as a servant of His own creation. Christ obeyed the will of the Father all the way to the point of dying on the cross to pay the sin-debt for those who were His enemies. On the night of His death His prayer to the Father was “not my will, but thine, be done.”
So here we are with the charge to “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” What a charge! Such a state of humility is impossible without the complete empowering of the Holy Spirit and the willingness to yield our own will to God and say “I’ll go where you want me to go…I’ll be what you want me to be…I’ll do what you want me to do.”
Credit to L.S. Chafer for the inspiration and the closing quote.
However, the fantastic thing about Christ as seen in this passage is not simply His humility. Humility is great, but it is never an end unto itself. Humility is for a purpose, and that purpose is living life for another. It is to give the glory to something else. It is the submitting of oneself to a higher authority. Christ, during His life on earth, was the perfect example of humility through His absolute submission to the authority of God the Father and perfect dependence on the Holy Spirit.
Christ was willing, at the will of the Father, to obey by leaving the glory of His own heavenly kingdom in exchange for a humble life on earth. He was willing to submit Himself to the Father by becoming a man. Not only a man, but He was humbled as a servant of His own creation. Christ obeyed the will of the Father all the way to the point of dying on the cross to pay the sin-debt for those who were His enemies. On the night of His death His prayer to the Father was “not my will, but thine, be done.”
So here we are with the charge to “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” What a charge! Such a state of humility is impossible without the complete empowering of the Holy Spirit and the willingness to yield our own will to God and say “I’ll go where you want me to go…I’ll be what you want me to be…I’ll do what you want me to do.”
Credit to L.S. Chafer for the inspiration and the closing quote.
No comments:
Post a Comment