Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:5-11
I'm in a women's Bible study that meets each Thursday morning. Right now we are going through the book of Philippians section by section. Today our conversation focused on 2:1-11. A few things caught my attention and caused me to ponder.
- Obedience is a choice. Even Jesus had to choose to be obedient to the plan God had for Him. He could have at any point said, "That's it I'm done. These people don't get it! Here I am, in the flesh, the Messiah they have been waiting for for generations and they still do not believe!" But He knew God's plan. A rescue plan that started when Adam and Eve first sinned. My disobedience lead to Christ's obedience.
- Compared to me, Jesus had so much to lose and less to gain. While I have so little to lose and much to gain. Jesus left heaven, His father's side, and came down to earth as a human. He left the perfect to dwell among and to walk along side of the imperfect. He knew that by giving all He had for me (all of us), He would be getting, in return, all of my (our) sins upon His shoulders, thus separating Himself spiritually from His own Father. God literally turned His face away from His son. That was far more painful than the physical pain Christ went through on our behalf. The sins Christ died for were not His, but ours alone. On the other hand, what do I have to lose in exchange for Christ? He will give me eternal life, peace beyond my understanding, a heavenly home, forgiveness, a relationship with Him and all He asks of me is to surrender my heart to Him and acknowledge Him as King of kings, Lord of lords and Saviour. No matter how hard I try, I can not make what He gave up balance with what I need to surrender. It doesn't make logical sense. What on this earth is worth NOT giving to Him in order to gain all He is and has for me! Why do I try so hard to hold on to things that are rubish when I have Christ to gain by letting go? Many times I fool myself into thinking that I can give Him only part of me in exchange for all of Him.
- Christ must love me like crazy to endure what He did. He knew that I would make bad choices, go backwards, and choose to sin, but He willing went to the cross on my behalf. All He had to gain was a relationship with sinners. Sinners, who could become blameless through the blood He shed on the cross. He has made a way for me (us) to be forgiven and be made pure. It's because of His obedience to God that He died on the cross.
