The Humility of Christ

Philippians 2:5-8

Let me introduce you to two men from history who are different in an fascinating way.
Ignaz Semmelweis was a 19th Hungarian physician who worked at the Vienna General Hospital. He noticed that when doctors washed their hands with a chlorine solution before they delivered babies, the newborn mortality rate decreased significantly.

Other doctors dismissed his findings because they didn’t see how handwashing would make a difference. Despite his efforts to promote hand hygiene, he faced professional setbacks and was eventually committed to a mental asylum, where he died in obscurity. Years later, the work of Louis Pasteur and others advanced the “germ theory.”

Only after his death was Semmelweis recognized for his key contributions to medical science and practice. Today, he is known as the "savior of mothers," as his insight into the importance of hand hygiene has saved countless lives. But during his lifetime, people treated him as unimportant, failing to grasp the significance of his discovery.

In contrast, Muammar Gaddafi ruled 40 years over the African nation of Libya, from 1969 to 2011. He governed with an authoritarian grip, insisting on being treated with utmost respect, often referring to himself as the "Brother Leader" or "King of Kings of Africa."

Despite his desire for international respect, Gaddafi was viewed as eccentric, especially in the West. But within Libya and across much of Africa, he maintained a powerful presence and portrayed himself as a revolutionary leader.

In 2011, during the Arab Spring uprisings, Gaddafi's regime faced massive protests and armed rebellion. As the rebellion grew, NATO military intervened, and Gaddafi’s forces began losing ground, he continued to insist that he was beloved by the people and that his leadership was essential for Libya's future stability.

Eventually, rebel forces captured him, pulling him from a drainage pipe where he was hiding, then beating him brutally, humiliating him greatly, then killing him (captured on video) in a violent and undignified way, a stark contrast to the respect he had demanded during his rule. His fall from power and severe humiliation marked a dramatic end to his decades of insisting on being treated as Libya's uncontested and revered leader.

In these two men, we have two contrasting examples. In one, we see a man who deserved respect but received none. In the other, we see a man who demanded and received much respect but didn’t deserve it. In the end, whose reputation rose to the top?

In Phil 2, we find an even more important example from history – Jesus Christ – and we are urged to follow his example as the pattern for our own approach to life. Like Ignaz Semmelweis, Christ did not receive the respect he deserved during his life on Earth, nor did he insist upon it. He achieved something far more important than better hygiene practices, though. He provided forgiveness of sins, salvation from death, and a close, never-ending relationship with God to all who believe in him. From this passage we learn that God calls us to express our submission to him by serving others as Christ served us. By doing so, we give back to Christ the respect he deserves.

God calls us to approach life with the same mindset as Christ.

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

Paul is speaking to a church in the city of Philippi. He is writing to people who have believed on Christ for salvation. What he is not doing is explaining how we can earn or receive salvation from God.

Some people believe what is called “The Moral Influence Theory.” A man named Peter Abelard (1079-1144), a French theologian and philosopher a thousand years ago, promoted this idea. It claims the reason Christ lived as he lived and died on the cross was to show us how to live. In this way, Christ performed the most extreme act of love possible in order to inspire and motivate us to love him and others in a selfless, sacrificial way.

This is a wrong view, though, not because it’s bad but because it doesn’t give a complete view of why Christ lived and died for us so sacrificially. It’s true that Christ’s life and death gives us an example to follow. But in doing so, he is not showing us how to live so that we might be saved. We are not forgiven, saved by living like Jesus. We are saved by depending upon and turning what Christ has done for us.

We are not saved by being like him – we are saved by him by depending on him completely. His death didn’t just show us how to be saved, but it was itself our salvation. He didn’t just show us how to die, he died our death for us in our place.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isa 53:5-6)

This is why trying to be like Jesus will not save you. Only believing in him and trusting completely in him and what he has done is the only way to be forgiven and saved by God.

This is where following Christ’s example comes in though, not as the way to be saved but as the way to live, after you have first believed on Christ for salvation. If you have believed on Christ alone for salvation, by trusting alone in what he did for you on the cross, then you have a new mission and purpose in life. Those who have been saved by Christ are called by God to follow Christ’s example. And what is this calling? God calls us to express our submission to him by serving others as Christ served us.

Paul describes this new calling as something not only which God is doing in your life but which you must cooperate and participate in, something to which you must respond.

“Let this mind be in you” points ahead to how Christ approached and viewed his life here on Earth, which he will describe in just a moment. The word “mind” here refers to a person’s underlying attitude about life – their reason for living, for getting up every day, their values and mission – their worldview. So, we are to adopt and internalize the same underlying attitude about life that Christ himself had.

By the way Paul gives this instruction, though, he tells us that this is something we are supposed to “let” or “allow” to happen. This seems odd because we would expect him to say “think this way” not “allow yourself to think this way.” But by saying we are supposed to “let” ourselves think this way, he implies that God is constantly at work seeking to persuade us and change our minds to be thinking this way.

Through the teaching of his Word, the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the circumstances of life, and the people who surround us, God is actively seeking to persuade us to think like Christ. It is our responsibility, then, to be aware of this, notice what he is doing, and respond in a cooperative way.

God calls us to express our submission to him by serving others as Christ served us, and he is working daily through the circumstances and people in our lives to bring us into this new way of living and viewing our life. Let’s look more closely at what this means.

Christ did not insist on getting the respect he deserved.

who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation,

Here Paul describes Christ as “being in the form of God,” which he then explains as “being equal with God.” In other words, if you had seen Christ before the incarnation, before he came to Earth as a human being, not only was he God, but it was clear and obvious from his appearance that he was God. You would have known he was God because he looked like God in every way. He was, as Paul says, “in the form of God” because he was God and that was obvious from his appearance, his eternal glory.

The phrase “did not consider it robbery,” then, is one way to translate a phrase which means something like “did not view it as something to grasp or hold onto.” In other words, though Jesus Christ is God and had always clearly appeared to be God, he did not insist on holding onto that obvious, unmistakable experience. He did not insist on being easily, obviously viewed and treated seen as God. He was willing to empty his expectations and appearance so that his obvious and unmistakable identity as God was concealed.

Today, we call this “going incognito.” Famous people do this today when they go out into public. They wear sunglasses, ball caps or hoodies, and otherwise plain clothes so that they can blend in with the crowd and attract no attention.

This didn’t mean that Christ relinquished being God or that his deity was somehow reduced or diminished. He was not less God than before. Instead, he permitted his identity as God to be veiled, difficult to realize, hard to see in whatever ways were necessary to rescue us from sin. He became weak, unattractive, ordinary, and undesirable so that people would respond to him in a more genuine, honest, and authentic way.

It is also important to mention that if you observed Christ closely, you would realize that he was God. This wasn’t a hidden secret. Though he was a human being, he always acted and spoke the way that God himself would act and speak. He also performed miracles which only God could perform. Yet, because he looked like a human being (because he was one), people struggled and often failed to accept that he was God. This would have been different if he appeared to them in his full, heavenly glory.

If a famous person enters a group of people in their usual, well-known appearance, then people will give them celebrity treatment, treating them as an important person, giving them respect and special treatment. But if that same famous person “goes incognito,” they will find out what those same people are really like, as those people will behave in their normal, usual way.

If a person enters a group as he normally is and asks people in that group to say what they think about him, he will get mostly favorable replies. But if he enters that group incognito and asks people what they think about him (third person, of course), he will get more genuine, honest answers – and probably less favorable ones, too.

He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (Isa 53:2-3)

Even though we did not respond to Christ very well as people (and still usually don’t), God still calls us to express our submission to him by serving others as Christ served us.

He actively involved himself in sacrificial service, instead.

taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 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.

He did this intentionally, submitting himself to God the Father – his equal – by submitting himself to mankind. How did he do this exactly? Here Paul describes his “loss of reputation” (or the way he “let go of his reputation”) as a fourfold mindset and approach.

• He became a servant
• He became a human
• He died
• He died a criminal’s death

In this fourfold mindset, we see a fourfold progression from less to least, from hard to most difficult, from humble to most humiliating.

Consider a similar progression in a physical fitness activity, like running: running a 5K (3.1 mi.) < running a half marathon (13.1 mi.) < running a full marathon (26.2 mi.) < running an ultramarathon (50+ mi.).

Then consider another similar progression in an activity which consists of helping someone in need: listening to a person’s problems in an extended conversation < offering constructive, actionable advice that you follow up on a week or two later < assisting them in taking action by participating with them or traveling with them to get help and resources < supporting them (with time, energy, and finances) through recovery with long-term care for year after year.

For Christ, this four-stage process consisted of the four things Paul mentions:

• He became a servant
• He became a human
• He died
• He died a criminal’s death

We might call this Christ’s four-step stairway from the throne of heaven’s castle into the basement or dungeon of ultimate humiliation. With each stage or aspect of his submission to God the Father and to mankind, he demonstrated even more profound humility.

• By becoming a servant, he submitted himself in two ways. First, he submitted himself to God the Father, his equal. It’s hard to submit to someone who is your equal! Second, he submitted to those who should have submitted to him. As the king of the universe, he submitted himself to those whom he ruled. As the creator of all things, he submitted himself to those whom he had made. As the judge of all people, he submitted himself to those whom he would judge and who, ultimately, were guilty of sins against him. We find this step most clearly when he picked up the towel to wash his disciples’ feet.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. (John 13:3-5)

• By becoming a human, he not only submitted himself to the people he created, he became like them, too. By doing so, he confined himself to the limitations and difficulties of human existence. He hungered, thirsted, felt weakness, grew tired, experienced temptation, and of course endured excruciating discomfort and pain.

He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (Isa 53:3)

• As a human being, Christ didn’t take the easy way out – he entered willingly into the full range of human experience, which included departure from this life through the difficult, heart-rending experience of death.

• And finally, Christ didn’t died in any ordinary, usual, or normal way, nor did he die in a heroic, epic manner (from a human standpoint). He died a criminal’s death – “the death of the cross.” By the way Paul states this, he emphasizes “even” the death of the cross. By this he means “not just any death, but the most awful kind of death” – the kind that ruins your reputation, also. Our equivalent to this kind of death today would be to die via capital punishment on death row. Dying this way ensures that people view you as an awful person. And while such a death may be fitting for people who molest children, murder innocent people, embezzle money, or commit treason, it is a horrible way for an upstanding, charitable person to die, esp. if that person – Christ alone – is not only entirely sinless and completely good, but is, in fact, God.

From this passage we see, then, that to fully appreciate how Christ provided us salvation, we should seek to follow his example by adopting his same mindset. Doing so does not give us salvation, but it’s the way we should live once we’ve received salvation from him.

• After washing his disciples’ feet, he said: “For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15).
• And Peter said this: “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps” (1 Pet 2:21).

What does this mean for us today? First, it means that when enter into relationships, whether those be relationships in our family or our broader community, we should enter into those relationships and social contexts to benefit and serve others not to be recognized, respected, and served. Not to receive attention but to give it. This also – and even more so – applies to the one distinctly Christian group of which we must become a part when we believe on Christ – the church.

We should actively and purposefully join with and submit ourselves to the members of a church body if, for no other reason, than to place the interests and needs of other believers ahead of our own. He did not come as a consumer but as a service provider. We who are followers of Christ must be intentional about the same thing, because God calls us to express our submission to him by serving others as Christ served us.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)

We are products of a narcissistic society. We are trained by the culture around us to take ourselves way too seriously. We expect and insist that everyone else around us respects us, serves us, and accommodates us, but this is not the way of Christ.

Second, it means that to follow Christ as he desires, to think and become like Christ, we should deliberately seek to “enter into” the experiences and lives of other people, not as a controlling influence but as a friend who understands and serves them like Christ. To be this sort of person will require a commitment to serving, stepping outside of your usual context and comfort zone, even – to some extent – suffering and difficulty, possibly even some loss or damage to your reputation.

Alasdair Groves says this in his excellent book, “Untangling Emotions”:

"Jesus doesn’t just have an abstract knowledge of who I am and what I experience. He’s actually entered into my experience, and I trust him as my High Priest. He’s inhabited my world and my experience, so I’m going to follow him now."

This means that for us to become more like Christ and for us to bring other people to Christ, we must involve ourselves in other people’s lives so that we can understand and serve them better.

That is not how we are as naturally. As a part of this culture and community myself, I need to be aware of this. Since moving here more than three years ago, I’ve realized that people from this area generally have friends and groups which they’re a part of since childhood, including family in the area. While we’re nice to other people who cross our paths and are quite friendly often (this is positive!), we often don’t go out of our way to genuinely get to know other people, understand their lives and perspectives, welcoming them into our lives, adjusting or accommodating our lifestyles to build a relationship with them, and investing in those relationships actively and sacrificially over time.

Knowing this provides a wonderful opportunity for us to grow and become more like Christ. When we do this, we show that we not only understand the way that Christ reached us but the reason for why Christ reached us – so that we would follow his example.

What accommodations, changes, and efforts are you making in life to relate to, understand, and reach people for Christ? Consider this following four-stage process of Christian service:

• Seeking out and entering into sincere, interested conversations with people at church or in your community whom you don’t know well.
• Initiating and spending additional, planned time with those same people outside of church and normal times of interaction.
• Inviting those people into your life and home as friends and entering into an intentional discipleship relationship with them.
• Befriending and supporting people through your church throughout your lifetime, with energy, money, and time, through the many changes and stages of personal and church life, being willing to say the hard things, too, even if that risks your relationship.

Unfortunately, we are too easily distracted and self-absorbed. We are far more like Muamar Gaddafi than we care to admit – insisting on being treated with utmost respect and unwilling to submit ourselves to others because we are unwilling to be a servant, unwilling to enter into other people’s lives and experiences, unwilling to be hurt, and unwilling for our reputations to take a hit.

Even so, God still calls us to express our submission to him by serving others as Christ served us. As we observe the Lord’s Table today, let us thank God for how Christ served us, became a human being, died like us, and forfeited his reputation to know and to save us. And let us seek God’s help and resolve to honor his great sacrifice by choosing to live the same way, no matter what the cost or inconvenience for doing so may be. We have a community to reach for Christ and this will require us to leave our comfort zones and normal way of life to serve, to understand, and to sacrificially love people for Christ.

Discussion Questions

• Did God make us to care about our reputation? Is there any redeeming aspect to our longing to have a good reputation?
• Why is it important that we understand Jesus did more than motivating and inspiring us to love Him and others in a selfless, sacrificial way?
• How do we go about letting God change our minds to think like Christ? What does it look like when we obey the command in verse 5?
• What are some ways in which we are called to go “incognito” for the Kingdom of God?
• How is a “comfort zone” for one of us like everything that Jesus left to become human and serve us?
  • What are some “comfort zones” that we might need to leave to serve others as Christ did? What are some situations in which we would need to leave a “comfort zone” to obey God and put the interests of other before our own?
• What is difficult about entering new deeper friendships? Why does holding people at a distance, while still being cordial, feel safer or more comfortable?
  • How did Christ respond when the prospect of obeying His Father and serving others was scary? How can we follow His example in this?
  • How does the grace we have because of Jesus’s sacrifice help us to overcome fears of what missional, sacrificial living will cost us?