“He Emptied Himself…”
“O Lord, our Lord, How majestic and glorious and excellent is Your name in all the earth! You have displayed Your splendor above the heavens. Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, That You might silence the enemy and make the revengeful cease. [Matt 21:15, 16]
When I see and consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have established, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of [earthborn] man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, [1 Cor 15:27; Eph 1:22, 23; Heb 2:6-8]”
— Psalms 8:1-6 AMP
God is inviting us to know the fullness of who He is. He doesn’t need to know or love us, but He wants to. He gave everything so we could know him, and we can spend our whole lives seeking Him and it will never be enough. We will never reach the other side of His love or fathom the depth of His grace, but we get to pursue intimacy with Him!
God is the Creator, the uncreated One, mighty in power, sovereign, and holy. He is awesome and unfathomably great. In His infinite wisdom, love, and goodness, He saw you, and long before you were a thought in your parents’ minds, you were in the mind of God. He is the maker of the heavens and the earth, and yet He knows us. Even more, He loves us. At the heart of God is the heart of a Father. The heart of a Redeemer.
At the center of eternity is Jesus, both the Lion of Judah and the Lamb who was slain. Jesus stepped out of heaven and didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. He became a man, yet was fully God. He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God gave Him the name which is above every other name. Every person on planet Earth will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:6-11). The paradoxical attributes of God paint a picture of God that exemplifies His otherness. He is holy and humble. He is King and servant. He is the High Priest and the Offering. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and all grace-giving. He is strong and gentle. He is holy and He is our friend.
“who, although He existed in the form and unchanging essence of God [as One with Him, possessing the fullness of all the divine attributes—the entire nature of deity], did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or asserted [as if He did not already possess it, or was afraid of losing it]; but emptied Himself [without renouncing or diminishing His deity, but only temporarily giving up the outward expression of divine equality and His rightful dignity] by assuming the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men [He became completely human but was without sin, being fully God and fully man]. After He was found in [terms of His] outward appearance as a man [for a divinely-appointed time], He humbled Himself [still further] by becoming obedient [to the Father] to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also [because He obeyed and so completely humbled Himself], God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow [in submission], of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [Is 45:23] and that every tongue will confess and openly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord (sovereign God), to the glory of God the Father.”
— Philippians 2:6-11 AMP
“He emptied Himself” out for us…Marinate on that a for a moment. HE EMPTIED HIMSELF OUT FOR US.
Father, thank you for loving me in a breathtaking way through Jesus. It is a miracle in itself that you hear me and welcome my prayers. Even more, you answer and draw me near. “I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications” (Ps 116:1). Amen.