On this Passover night my mind is turned to the wonderful verses of Philippians 2:1-11
Paul wishes the brethren at Philippi to live without strife or vainglory; to be in a humble mind-set, esteeming others better than themselves (verse 3).
Oh what a teaching, what a goal, what a mind-set; to think that EVERYONE ELSE is better than yourself. It makes no difference how great your abilities, talents, gifts of this or that; it makes no difference how God has used you in His work....you are to think of yourself LESS than all others. My oh my how many men down through the history in the Church of God have FALLEN like off the edge of a huge cliff, in this regard.
Some were used by the Father in a large way at times, in doing the work of the Gospel, but how some of them FELL with a mighty CRASH.....just not able to stay HUMBLE! We can surely see how Moses was used of God, used in such a POWERFUL way, yet it is written of him that in his day there was none as MEEK as Moses (Numbers 12:3). And this was the man that God talked to face to face (Exodus 33:11). This is the man who was allowed to see God in His GLORY - the back-parts (as no man can in the flesh live who would see the face of God - Exodus 33:18-23). Now that is some kind of HUMILITY that Moses had. So it matters not how the Eternal has used you, you are to count everyone else as better than yourself.
We are to "Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus (Phil.2:5). Ah this is indeed the KEY to Christian living in VICTORY! We are to put our mind to one side, we are to stop think our mind, and to allow the mind of Christ to be our mind. It's good to get into the habit, when in certain situations, to say to yourself, "How would Jesus look at this?" Or "What would Jesus do?" Or "What would Jesus say?"
We read in Isaiah 55:6-9 a most important section of Scripture. God's thought are not our thought (as we might think with our natural mind) and His ways are not our ways (as we might think with our natural mind). God's thought and His ways are as the heavens are higher than the earth! And so we must strive to let His mind be IN us. One way to help us think like our Father does is to study and read His word. We find the mind of God in His word the Bible - from Genesis to Revelation.
Paul goes on to tell us that Jesus was in the very "form" of God. Yes He was part of the very Godhead. He was as John in the first words of his Gospel, says, WITH God, and WAS God. It's pretty simple to see from the New Testament especially, that the Godhead was made up of TWO persons - the Ones today we call FATHER and SON. I have given you many studies on my website "All About God."
But Jesus did not think being in the form of God was something to hold-on-to like bare frozen hands on a frozen pipe in the Antarctic. This is what verse 6 is saying putting it in a modern example of words. Verse 7, Jesus was willing to make Himself of no reputation, and take on the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Yes, being born a baby is about as much less of reputation as you can get.
You need to stop now and meditate: think about the whole universe: think about some of the DVDs you may have seen on the universe, or the photo books of the universe, the mind-bending size of some of the things out there in the universe, and of course just the expanse of the universe itself, which is expanding every second as the galaxies move away from each other. Think about the POWER that God has, to not only create such a universe but to maintain and uphold it. The human mind cannot grasp the reality of it all. Well whatever else you want to think about pertaining to God, Jesus was willing to put aside and become a human baby, then a child, then an adult, all of flesh and blood.
Paul says Jesus HUMBLED Himself and became a man, and more still......He became obedient unto DEATH, even the death of the cross - crucifixion!! You may like to read about Roman crucifixion from the Internet, I'm sure you'll find all about it somewhere on the Internet.
Why did Jesus have to come and be human and die the death of being slain on a Roman cross? Well Paul will tell you all about it in the book of Romans (which I have expounded for you in "The New Testament Bible Story" on my website).
Then we can find it all kinda simplified for us in Isaiah 53.
Jesus came as a Jew and there was nothing about his physical looks that had any great "beauty"- He was not some terrific handsome Hollywood idol type. He was just an ordinary looking Jew (Isaiah 53:2). Why Judas had to betray Him with a kiss, to tell the Roman guards which man to arrest on that Passover night in the garden, as recorded in the Gospels.
He was mostly despised and rejected of men ( a few men and women followed Him), and most just did not esteem Him at all. Do you know that in the MANY writings of the pagan world of the Romans, not ONE person every mentioned Him in that world of the Romans. None of their history books, none of their poets, none of their writers of anything ever mentioned anything about Jesus the Christ (verse 3).
You can read on in Isaiah 53; He was like a lamb led to the slaughter. He was to be an offering for sin; He was to justify many, for He was to bear their iniquities. He had His life blood soul poured out to bear the sins of many. And He was also to make INTERCESSION for the transgressors.
Yes, after His death, He was resurrected and returned to the Father's right hand, and as the book of Hebrews makes clear, He does a work today as the interceding High Priest to all who accept Him as their personal Savior. You see the whole truth, or the "rest of the story" as the late Paul Harvey would have said, we are saved by BOTH the death and life of Christ Jesus (see Romans 5:5-10).
Paul finishes off his thoughts in Philippians 2 by saying that because Jesus was willing to do all this, He has been EXALTED and given a NAME ABOVE every name. And sooner or later at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE is going to bow - no matter who or where in the universe, and even if some do reject salvation, they will, with everyone, have to confess that Jesus the Christ is the LORD, to the glory of the Father (verses 9-11).
As you meditate on all this, truly humans words cannot do justice to explain it all. We try as best we can to put it into words, so the human mind can get a little light of it all. But it is so MIND-BLOWING that....well as Paul said, we often look through a glass darkly, our human mind, wonderful as it is, can only obtain a basic understanding of the LOVE Jesus had for us, in being willing to put aside being part of the very Godhead, for 33 and 1/2 years of human life. Yes still being God, but God in the flesh, being both human and divine. Yes having the Holy Spirit without measure, but still having to NOT sin, not even one sin. For just one sin, would have smashed the plan of salvation the Father had for human kind.
Then you need to think at this Passover time, Jesus was literally DEAD as a door nail, as the saying goes, for 3 days and 3 night! For 72 hours He did not LIVE!! He was not in some under-world, preaching to departed spirits, as one teaching has it (the truth of that is given correctly to you as I went through the epistles of Peter in "The New Testament Bible Story"). Jesus put FULL - 100 per cent FAITH in the Father to RAISE Him from death into the GLORIOUS RESURRECTION!!
And the importance of the RESURRECTION is given in no uncertain terms by Paul in the well-known "resurrection chapter" 15 of 1 Corinthians. And that is another study you may want to spend time with this Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. As Paul says in that chapter without the resurrection we have no hope, our faith is in vain. So it is a very important subject that you need to know and understand. I have a whole section on my website devoted to "death and resurrection."
Praise the Lord for His HUMILITY! And you my friends, make sure you are always HUMBLE, and esteem everyone else BETTER than yourself.
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