Jesus Humbled Himself

…He humbled Himself…(Philippians 2:8)

This morning I’ve truly been humbled as God spoke with me about His humility. I had an encounter with a Jehovas Witness. We spoke about several things and at the end I asked him to share the Gospel with me in a few minutes. He began to elaborately weave a long story of God, paradise, satan, this world, peace, joy and all the rest of it. I then asked him to tell me what he would share with those people who were stuck in the Twin Towers on 9/11 if he had 3 minutes with them. Again he paused, thought about it and went on to explain this long story of how God wants everyone to be happy and be in paradise. He spoke about everything other than the Gospel: resurrection, Christ crucified, the cross, sin, hell, heaven which are all spoken of by John in regards to the Gospel (Galatians 1, 1 Cor 2:2, 1 Cor 15).

I then shared with Him what I would have said and what I believe the Bible teaches us about the Gospel. Again I could be wrong too, but I would rather stick with what the early church and Paul taught regarding the Gospel. According to the Apostle Paul if anyone, including a Jehovas Witness and me, bring another Gospel, let him be accursed.

I finally said to Him ‘ Only God could save you from your sins. It had to take a perfect Redeemer, a perfect sacrifice and a perfect God to save you. That perfect person was Jesus Christ.’

After he had gone, I remembered one of my favourite books Pastor Carter Conlon and his wife Teresa Conlon (Times Square Church) gave me during my internship. They gave it to the internship students to help us understand Church history and have answers for when the JWs come knocking at the door. The book is by Bruce L Shelly called ‘Church History in Plain Language’. As I flicked to the index to find some more information about the origins and doctrines of the Jehovas Witnesses, I stopped all of a sudden on the index of popular names in church history. And there it was, the name of Jesus amongst the list of all those other names. Ignatius, Innocent III, Irenaeus, James, Jansen, Jerome, JESUS, John…and the list went on and on.

And there I stopped. Jesus, the name above all names, the name at which every other name will one day bend the knee and confess to be Lord. The highest name given which every created thing in heaven and under heaven will one day acknowledge and tremble before, commonly, humbly placed amongst the list of sinful men. It made me realise that God has humbled Himself to such an extent and degree that we cannot fathom and understand it. Another name given to Jesus is Immanuel, which ‘God with us’. The very name of God indexed amongst His own people, His own creation.

Philippians 2:8 says …”He humbled Himself…” This morning I think I took a few milimetre steps of understanding what this verse means. He humbled Himself knowing that His name would also be indexed and placed amongst His own creation as just another name in the list.

But here is the beautiful thing which made me rejoice. His humility is beautiful and I thank God that God is a humble God. I thank God that He humbled Himself and gave us Jesus. If He didn’t, there would be no hope or salvation for anyone. The Jehovas Witness lives in despair, darkness and vanity because He is putting his hope in a created being who is less than God.

Perhaps the most humbling sentence I have read outside of the Bible is found in Church History in Plain Language. The very first chapter, the very first page and the very first sentence says this:

“CHRISTIANITY is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God.”

I’ve truly been humbled by His humility. What a humbling and beautiful morning.