There are two noticeable phases in the advent of Christ’s selfless act. First is by emptying himself in respect of His divine nature. Second is when he emptied Himself of His deity, when He did become a man, he humbled himself and obeyed even as far as death. Although Christ was equal with the Father; when about to become a man, He did not carry down the glory and power of the God head to confound man before Him, but rather emptied Himself. He was God: yet took the place of a man. He had the willingness to be nothing. He divested Himself from His own privileges as God. He chose not to command as God but to obey as servant.
“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
- Isaiah 53:1-6
- Isaiah 53:1-6
The humility of Jesus was even revealed when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane. Although he was already in the form of man, the fact remains that all the inherent rights of a deity will remain inalienably, but his complete self surrender and obedience was given to the Father.
“Jesus walked on a little way. Then he knelt with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, don’t make me suffer by having me drink from this cup. But do what you want, and not what I want.”
- Matthew 26:39
- Matthew 26:39
