HisGrace.

Monday, December 17, 2007

A Christmas story

Philippians 2:7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden,’ begins a parable by Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. How could he declare his love for her? She might respond out of fear or coercion, but he wanted her to love him for himself.

So the king, convinced that he could not appear as a king without crushing his loved one’s freedom, resolved to descend. He stepped off his throne, took off his royal robes, and wrapped himself in a shabby cloak. It was no mere disguise, but a new identity. He took on the life of a servant to win the young woman’s hand.

What a gamble! She might love him or she might spurn him and send him away, and he would lose her love forever! But that’s a picture of the choice God gave to mankind, and that, of course, is what the parable is all about.

Our Lord humbled Himself in an effort to win our love. ‘Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, bring made in human likeness’. That is the story of Christmas: God in a manger; God found in a form that no one could possibly fear.

Now the question is this: Will we love Him, or will we spurn Him and send Him away?

- Haddon Robinson

Invite Him in this Christmas,
This Saviour from aboe;
The gift He seeks you need not wrap –
He only wants your love.

God made His home with us that we might make our home with God.

Philippians 2:5-11

The Humbled and Exalted Christ

5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,

7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,

11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

5:05 PM