Conclusion
MY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS TEXT
My favorite Christmas text puts humility at the heart of
Christmas. So this Christmas I am marveling at Jesus’s
humility and wanting more of it myself. I’ll quote the text in a moment.
But first there are two problems. Tim Keller helps us
to see one of them when he says, “Humility is so shy. If
you begin talking about it, it leaves.” So a meditation on
humility (like this one) is self-defeating, it seems. But even shy people peek out sometimes if they are treated well.
The other problem is that Jesus wasn’t humble for the
same reasons we are (or should be). So how can looking at Jesus’s Christmas humility help us? Our humility, if there is any at all, is based on our finiteness, our fallibility, and our sinfulness. But the eternal Son of God was not finite. He was not fallible. And he was not sinful. So, unlike our humility, Jesus’ humility originated some other way. Here is my favorite Christmas text. Look for Jesus’s humility.
Though he was in the form of God, [Jesus] did not
count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men. And being found
in human form, he humbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
(Philippians 2:6–8)
What defines Jesus’s humility is the fact that it is mainly a
conscious act of putting himself in a lowly, servant role for
the good of others. His humility is defined by phrases like
› “he emptied himself [of his divine rights to be free from
abuse and suffering]”
› “he took the form of a servant”
› “he became obedient to the point of death, even death
on a cross”
So Jesus’s humility was not a heart disposition of being
finite or fallible or sinful. It was a heart of infinite perfec
tion and infallible truthfulness and freedom from all sin,
which for that very reason did not need to be served. He
was free and full to overflow in serving.
Another Christmas text that says this would be Mark
10:45: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and
to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus’s humility was not
a sense of defect in himself, but a sense of fullness in himself
put at the disposal of others for their good. It was a voluntary
lowering of himself to make the height of his glory available
for sinners to enjoy.
Jesus makes the connection between his Christmas
lowliness and the good news for us: “Come to me, all who
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and
lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).
His lowliness makes our relief from burdens possible. If
he were not lowly, he would not have been “obedient unto
death, even death on a cross.” And if he had not been obe
dient to die for us, we would be crushed under the weight
of our sins. He lowers himself to take our condemnation
(Romans 8:3).
Now we have more reason to be humble than before.
We are finite, fallible, sinful, and therefore have no ground
for boasting at all. But now we see other humbling things:
Our salvation is not owing to our work, but his grace. So
boasting is excluded (Ephesians 2:8–9). And the way he
accomplished that gracious salvation was through volun
tary, conscious self-lowering in servant-like obedience to
the point of death.
So in addition to finiteness, fallibility, and sinfulness,
we now have two other huge impulses at work to humble
us: free and undeserved grace underneath all our blessings
and a model of self-denying, sacrificial, servanthood that
willingly takes the form of a servant.
So we are called to join Jesus in this conscious self
humbling and servanthood. “Whoever exalts himself will
be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalt
ed” (Matthew 23:12). “Have this mind among yourselves,
which is yours in Christ Jesus…” (Philippians 2:5).
Let’s pray that this “shy virtue”—this massive ground of
our salvation and our servanthood—would peek out from
You have been reading "Good News of Joy", by John Piper
http://dwynrhh6bluza.cloudfront.net/resources/documents/5544/DG_Advent_eBook-2013.pdf?1384881563
© 2013 Desiring God
Published by Desiring God
Post Office Box 2901
Minneapolis, MN 55402
www.desiringGod.org
Permissions
You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this
material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in
any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction.
For web posting, a link to this document on our website is required.
Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Desiring God.
Please include the following statement on any distributed copy:
© Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org
Cover design and typesetting
Taylor Design Works
All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the
author or editor
No comments:
Post a Comment