He emptied himself. He took on the form of a servant. He took on human likeness. He became obedient, even to death on a cross.
Jesus didn’t come to earth in a display of divine splendor. From the manger to homelessness, mockery, rejection, and public cru- cifixion, Jesus’s life was a portrait of humility. He came to be not an earthly monarch but a sacrificial Lamb. Our justification and adoption as the children of God rest on the willing humiliation of the Son. We should be his humble and willing children. But, thankfully, our hope rests not on our willingness but on his. Paul doesn’t stop with Jesus’s willing humiliation; he also points us to Christ’s exaltation. Humble Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father as the reigning King. The final defeat of sin and death and the delivery of the final kingdom of peace and righteousness rest on the exaltation of the Son. There will be a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is, in fact, Lord. Be thankful for the willing humiliation and great exaltation of the Son. The sacrificial Lamb is now a reigning King. Hallelujah!
Reflection
What difference does it make that the same Jesus humbled at the cross is now exalted on high?
Prayer
Lord, even now I bow before the throne of Jesus. Even now I confess that he is Lord, master and ruler of all things, king of the universe. And yet what humility he has displayed! What tender love to stoop so low, even to die on behalf of me and all his chosen people. May I display that same sort of humility in all that I do. In Jesus’s name, amen.
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