Since attending the Winter Concert at BBC, this Christmas season for me has been full of meditation on the sacrifice that Christ made in coming to earth. As I think about what Christmas really means, my thoughts inevitably return to the fact that the Son of God emptied Himself in order to become a mere man. He gave up so much of who He was - power, omniscience, rights, omnipresence - in order to become Jesus Christ, the God-man. What a sacrifice! The Creator willingly limited Himself in order to walk and talk and live and breathe among the created.
Most of us know His purpose in coming to earth. As Matthew 20:28 reads, "the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." He came ultimately to give His life, dying on the cross for the sins of the world in order to restore mankind to right relationship with the Father. Ephesians 2:1-10 has much more to say about this restored relationship, but what I want to focus on is the initial sacrifice Christ made to become a man.
This morning, as I was meditating on that initial sacrifice, Philippians 2:5-8 came to mind:
"Your attitude should be the same as that of 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, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! "
If the Son of God can give up His God-like qualities to become nothing, a mere man, a created being... if He can become a servant, not even a rich man or a king, but a lowly carpenter... and if He can humble himself, giving up His rights, even the right to live, to the point of dying an undeserved death... if He can do all that for people like me.... what can people like me do for Him?
In comparison to what Jesus Christ has done for me, I can really do little in return. But because the Son of God was willingly and greatly inconvenienced.... because He gave up so much of Himself in order to reconcile sinners like me, enemies, to His Father..... because of these things I must be willing to give of myself for Him.
Therefore, day to day inconveniences, sacrifices, and the giving up of the things I want.... all these are privileges for me, one redeemed. A privilege indeed, but it's certainly not easy to surrender all things - hopes, dreams, family, friends. When I think about the things I want it seems unfair, even cruel to have to give them up. That is why it is so important for me to remember the sacrifice of Christmas and the fact that the Son of God gave infinitely more on that not-too-long-ago night when He became a human infant. With such an example of humility, I can only be inspired to give more of myself.Labels: journal/quiet time, reflections