Smeagol is Free!
A hermitudinal view of...stuff...


10.12.2008  

Emptied and Humbled

Paul, in the second chapter of his letter to the Philippians, tells us that Christ both emptied and humbled Himself in becoming a man and dying on a cross. By emptying Himself, Christ laid aside His rights and privileges as God, as firstborn over all creation. By humbling Himself to the point of death on a cross, He took on our sin and shame and bore God's wrath on our behalf.

If I sit here and think about what Christ has done long enough, I find I must confess that I have an immense problem with both of these. There's a niggling notion in the back of my brain, telling me something's wrong. I suppose this is the case for one basic reason: Christ, to a degree, gave us a pattern to live by when He lived His life here on earth and died on our behalf.

I spend the vast majority of my life trying to maintain my dignity. Even in the midst of being silly and foolish, I think it's safe to say that I do so with a purpose, and that purpose is aimed toward maintaining a carefully cultivated persona. This purpose, my purpose, insofar as it resists the emptying and humbling manner of Jesus' life and death, rails against the purposes of God. You see, Paul did write about Christ coming to earth and dying. Yet, in the same letter, Paul also made clear, with vivid and compelling pleas, to look toward the resurrected Christ and to rejoice in Him. In other words, Paul's instruction on Christ's life and death was to be seen in the light of Christ's glorious resurrection and victory over sin. Death could not hold Him, and because of this, neither can death lay claim upon us!

If I have trouble accepting the fact that my life, just like Jesus', is to be filled with a laying aside of my own supposed rights and privileges, as well as a humbling myself by putting sin to death, it is because I do not see either of those in the light of heaven. Just as Christ did not take on the form of man and die on a cross to rot in a grave for eternity, so I, too, am not to hold fast to my own earthly wants and pridefully stay away from the mercy found at the cross. To do so would be to turn away from the joys of heaven...and that, dear friends, is not worth any sort of earthly dignity.

posted by Bolo | 12:48 AM
0 speakage
Free Hit
Counters
Dell Coupons
Daily
Read
Listen
Visualize
Blogging Buddies
Old School
Me
Bug Me
Yore
Factuality
Quotatious