Where He Leads I Will Follow: Emptying Himself

 

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!  Philippians 2:8

 Let’s be real. Jesus didn’t have to do anything He did for us. He is God. He is above all. He is all. He has all. He needs nothing. He DIDN’T HAVE TO DO IT. But He did. That’s the hugest, coolest part of it all. He didn’t have to, but He did. Jesus demonstrated for us the height and perfection of obedience to the Father and today’s passage (Philippians 2:1-11) breaks it down for us.

 Jesus, being in very nature God, emptied Himself when He came down from heaven to be implanted in Mary’s womb. He set aside His Godhood, His power, His immortality, His omnipotence. All the things that made Him God, He set aside for a time. Yes, we still have the mystery of the Hypostatic Union where Jesus was fully man and yet fully God, but certain aspects of His Godhood were removed from Him for a season.

 Jesus took on the form of a slave. He could have come as a king, been born into a palace, lived a comfortable life of ease, but He didn’t. He chose to come as a poor, carpenter’s son. He lived a very normal life for the most part – for about 30 years. He was a son, a brother, a friend, a student, all manner of roles but what it boils down to is that He was enslaved by choice to a body and life. He came to serve, not to be served (Mark 10:45, Matthew 20:28).

 God is depicted in many ways in the Bible. He is huge, using the earth as a footstool (Isaiah 66:1). His glory filled the Tabernacle like an impermeable cloud (Exodus 40:34-35). Ezekiel described Him as seated on a throne of lapis lazuli with an upper body as if made of glowing metal with fire below (Ezekiel 1:26-28). In Revelation, John describes Him with hair white as wool, eyes of fire, glowing bronze feet, and a voice with the sound of rushing waters (Revelation 1:14-16). I can only imagine that these depictions are poor reference points to an even more incredible truth. What will it be like to see Him as He is in heaven! But, again, all this was set aside to take on the appearance of a man, simple, basic, human.

 But He didn’t stop there. He didn’t just look like us, He shared in human nature. He was subject to temptation (Matthew 4:1-11). Isaiah 53 tells of how Jesus was despised and rejected, a man of suffering and familiar with pain. Jesus felt all of life for us.

 And, in that feeling, He didn’t shirk from His goal. Even though it was terrible, filled with brutal torture and pain, He didn’t revert to His role as God and smite His oppressors. He could have wiped them all out with one breath. At a word, an army of angels would have been at His side to fight. But, instead, He was obedient. And that’s what we’re focusing on in this study, learning to walk in obedience one step at a time. If we can learn that from anyone, it would definitely be Jesus! Could He have done it differently? I guess not because that’s just not who He is.

 His beautiful, tragic portrayal of obedience for us wasn’t just to death, it was to death on a cross. That was the most despised form of execution in its time. It signified awful things about the person it was performed on, and He submitted to it humbly. He was completely undeserving of it. He had never done wrong. No one had convicted Him of anything in fact. They just killed Him anyways.

Here’s the Thing: If you want to talk about ultimate obedience, it’s Jesus. He is the perfect example. Oh that we would be drawn nearer to Him and become more and more like Him every day!