Christ, Our Model of Humility

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Philippians 2:5-11, Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones describes this as one of the most magnificent passages in the whole Bible. It has a “take your shoes off, you’re standing on holy ground” grandeur. Paul begins with Christ in heaven being in the form of God and ends back in heaven when Christ is highly exalted with a name above every name. But what happened between the two is just mind-blowing. Christ came down to bring us up. He died that we might live. He suffered our hell so we can enjoy His glory.  

But Paul didn’t write this just to teach us about Christ. He wrote this to show us how we ought to be thinking. That’s what we see in verse 5. Let this way of thinking, this attitude, this perspective, this humility, and this esteeming others above ourselves. Let this be in and among us, just like it was in Christ. Paul is counseling us about the only suitable attitude to have as believers, the attitude of humility. Humility is that lowly attitude appropriate for humans created out of dirt, and worse, as redeemed rebels. We are naturally proud people, crowing and tooting our horns as if we created ourselves and somehow sustain ourselves. Before going any further, here are six absolute principles about pride and humility.

PRIDE AND HUMILITY.

• God hates pride and loves humility. God tells us He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble at least three times:  Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6; and 1 Peter 5:5.  
• Pride always leads to dishonor and humility always leads to honor.  Proverbs 18:12 Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, But humility goes before honor.
• Christ is our preeminent model of humility. He never catered to the elite crowd; He spent time together with guys with the smell of fish on their hands. Matthew 11:29, Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.
• Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Christ taught this absolute law in God’s universe in Matthew 23:11-12: But the greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.
• God’s saving work always humbles a man. The first step into the kingdom is to become poor in spirit, teachable. No one gets through the narrow gate all puffed up with pride. All come as beggars: “Nothing in my hands I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling.”
• Humility is the heart uniform of the church.  First Peter 5:5 instructs us to clothe ourselves with humility. Every believer wears the servant’s apron. 

Now Paul’s been driving the call to humility home in Philippians 2:1-5. Paul’s joy will be full as he sees these believers learn to rejoice in all their blessings and think about others as more important than themselves. These are the principles and practices that nurture unity and loving fellowship in the body of Christ. 

Now verses 5-8 require a short course in Christology. Who really is this Christ?  Why did He come?  

CHRIST IS TRULY GOD AND TRULY MAN (vs. 6-8).

In verses 6-8 Paul brings before our eyes and our hearts this glorious description of Jesus Christ, our model of humility. Verse 6 says He was in the form of God and equal to God. That means He was God from all eternity past, is God now, and always will be God. He is the second person of the Godhead. He isn’t a created lesser God as the Jehovah’s Witnesses claim. He isn’t just a manifestation of God as the modalists like T. D. Jakes and the United Pentecostals teach. He isn’t a top level created being, brother to Michael and Lucifer, as the Mormons teach.  And He isn’t just a good man like the Unitarians and theological liberalism teach, or a great prophet like Mohammed as the Muslims teach.  

No, Jesus Christ of Nazareth was truly God and truly man, as the Council of Chalcedon of AD 451 stated. He was God from eternity past and He became a human being through virgin conception at a point in time here on earth. So, He now has two natures: humanity and deity, God and man, both natures in one person. Here’s a sixteen-cylinder description you’ll want to write down. Jesus Christ is the theanthropic person in hypostatic union. Theanthropic means God-Man. Hypostatic union means both natures joined in one person. Jesus Christ is the only person like this. 

THINKING LIKE CHRIST.

But Paul didn’t teach us all this about Christ just to fill our heads with knowledge, although knowledge is important. No, Paul says Christ is our model for how we should be thinking. Verse 5 says we should have Christ’s attitude of humility and way of thinking among ourselves. He’s our model of humility – not climbing up but coming down. Satan tried to climb up – “I’ll ascend to heaven, I’ll be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14). Christ came down – “I have come down from heaven to do the Father’s will” (John 6:38). Christ says, “Meet me at the bottom. Meet Me with a beggar’s attitude. Meet me at the cross and like that thief say to me, “Lord, remember me.” That thief literally met Jesus at the cross, at the bottom. And so did that centurion and his men. Luke 23:42-44 says when the centurion saw Christ breathe His last, he began praising God. Matthew says the centurion and the soldiers with him said, “Truly this was the Son of God.” That’s where Christ meets all His people. “At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my sins rolled away.” Jesus Christ willingly humbled Himself to come down from heaven to do the Father’s will. “Let this way of thinking be in you which was also in Christ.”  

FROM HEAVEN’S GLORY TO CALVARY’S HORROR.

Let’s track with Paul Christ’s great descent from heaven’s glory as our model of humility. We start at the top in verse 6a and descend in seven steps to verse 8c.

Step One: Look at His high status (vs. 6a), “Who, although He existed in the form of God.” 

Being in the form of God and being equal with God means He was and is and always will be nothing less than God Almighty, Creator of the heavens and earth. Hebrews 1:3 says, “He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s nature and upholds all things by the word of His power.” That’s where we start with Christ. He is God and we’re not. We’re animated dust with oxygenated blood keeping us alive. We were created by Christ and are totally dependent on Him for our existence. We are also totally depraved of any goodness before God because of our sin nature through Adam and the sins we personally commit. Christ was God, but He humbled Himself. What should we do?

Step Two: Look at His unselfish attitude (vs. 6b), “He… did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.”

He didn’t selfishly cling to and tenaciously grasp His exalted position of equality with God. He didn’t say, “I’m not going down there to that world full of filth and ungodly corruption. I’m staying up here where it’s all glory and holiness.” How often have you found yourself clinging to your so-called rights? Too often we think, “Why doesn’t God give me a good, comfortable, pain-free life? I deserve better than what I’ve got.” Note that Christ didn’t cling to his high status in glory.  

Step Three: Look at His servant’s heart (vs. 7a), “But emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant.”

This phrase, “He emptied Himself” has spawned a ton of theological treatises trying to explain what Paul meant. It’s called the kenosis, based on the Greek word for “emptied.” We know it doesn’t mean He emptied Himself of His Godhood. That’s impossible – the entire universe would cease to exist if He didn’t maintain his Godhood. No, in His humility He laid aside His glory or His privileges of deity to become a slave, that’s what bond-servant means.  

2 Corinthians 8:9, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

William Borden, or Borden of Yale, was born in 1887 into a Chicago family of wealth and opulence. But God captured his heart at age 25 and gave him a burden for lost people on foreign fields. He laid aside all his human privilege, all that wealth, and set sail to be a missionary to China. Sadly, when he got to Egypt, he contracted spinal meningitis and died on April 19, 1913. He didn’t cling selfishly to his earthly wealth and privilege, just like Christ didn’t cling to His heavenly wealth and privilege. Both willingly took the form of a bondservant, a slave.  

Let’s think about the reality of Christ laying aside His privileges. It is hard to imagine. The second person of the Godhead, the Creator of all, the Lord of Glory, laid aside his heavenly glory to become a slave, one who takes orders and carries them out. This was His way of thinking, “I am God, but I’m going to lay aside my glory, my divine rights, and become a slave.”  He taught His disciples the importance of becoming a servant.

Luke 22:26-27, “The one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant. 27 “For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.

Are you thinking Christ’s way asking, “How can I serve others?”  Or are you more like, “I wish folks would reach out to me more. No one seems to listen to me, respect me, meet my needs, fill my empty love cup.” One preacher said, “We all want to be loved, comforted, understood, and esteemed by others. But Christ turns this upside down and calls us to love, comfort, understand, respect, and esteem others.”  

Step Four: Look at His identifying with us (vs. 7b), “and being made in the likeness of men.”

Christ came from the throne room of heaven’s glory to this planet earth soaring around the sun at 67,000 mph, one of many planets He Himself created. And at a point some 2,000 years ago in mankind’s history on earth, our history, He was virgin conceived as a human being in the womb of a young peasant girl in a village named Nazareth. Someone asked, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Jesus Christ came as a human, with flesh and blood like us, subject to all the trials of our cursed bodies. He, eternal deity, came down and stooped to become a real man. He hungered, thirsted, felt pain, wept over Jerusalem, a real man except he had no sin. He identified with us to redeem us from sin!  

Step Five: Look at His humble spirit (vs. 8a), “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself.”

He came under God’s authority, not doing His own thing or making up His own rules. He lived a life of obedience, to do the Father’s will. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38). Remember when He was in the garden agonizing in the shadow of the cross, “Father, if possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet, not My will, but Yours be done.” Every step of His life was humbling Himself under the will of the Father.  He didn’t own anything – He borrowed a place to be born, a boat, a place to sleep, a donkey to ride, an upper room for the last supper, and even a borrowed tomb for His body. And He esteemed others as more important than Himself. Imagine the God-man Jesus esteeming you, me, as more important than Himself. That was Christ’s way of thinking to which Paul is calling us. What about me, you? Who concerns you more…yourself or your spouse? Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husband, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her.” Christ humbled Himself to do the Father’s will and save His people from their sin. Nothing in fiction can compare to this truth of God humbling Himself and coming down from heaven to become a human, a servant.

Step Six: Look at the extent of His obedience (8b), “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.”

Christ humbled himself to the point of what? Death! And this is our model of humility? What was He thinking? He willingly committed to going down to earth, obeying His Father to become one of those people, knowing it wasn’t going to be fun, comfortable, or appealing to pride. He came down to serve, to heal, to feed, to cast out demons, to prepare men for future ministry. In John 13:1, “…knowing that His hour had come that He would depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” He loved His own in this world and loved them to the uttermost. So He got up, laid aside His outer robe, wrapped a towel around Himself, poured water into the basin, and began to wash their feet. But much more than washing their feet, He came to die and give His life a ransom for many. He obeyed His Father’s will even to the point of death.  

Step Seven: Look at the kind of death to which He humbled Himself (8c), “Even the death of the cross.” 

This is the last step, the bottom. Not just death, but this horrendous death of the cross. He knew why He came. Even He shrank back in horror in the garden. Crucifixion was reserved for crimes of treason, robbery, piracy, assassination, sedition. The Roman statesman Cicero wrote, “Let the very name of cross be far away not only from the body of a Roman citizen, but even from his thoughts, his eyes, his ears.” Roman citizens were exempt from this awful form of execution.  They said the victim of crucifixion died a thousand deaths. The sufferings were so frightful that even during the passion of war times, pity was sometimes given. Sometimes they broke the legs of victims to hasten their death. But Christ’s legs were not broken. The soldiers knew He was already dead. Not a bone was broken, fulfilling prophecy (Ps. 34:20, John 19:36).     

But even death of the cross isn’t the worse. The Romans and Greeks crucified tens of thousands of people. Alexander the Great crucified 2000 people of the city of Tyre. So, it wasn’t just His crucifixion that redeemed us. It’s what happened on that cross that proved His ultimate obedience. He was there in our place, as our substitute. Our sins put Him there. Luther said we all carry the nails in our pockets. What happened in those three hours when God dropped that veil of darkness over the whole scene? That is when Christ suffered the full measure of that cup of the wrath of divine justice our sins deserved. He cried, even screamed as the Greek indicates, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He obeyed all the way – even to the point of being forsaken by the Father while on the cross. 

In our place condemned He stood.

It is finished was His cry.

Hallelujah, what a Savior.

There you have it. Let this way of thinking be in you just as it was in Christ, our model of humility. He couldn’t have started from a higher position than being in the form of God and equal with God. And He couldn’t have gone to any lower disgrace than death by crucifixion and the Father turning away from Him.  

But why? What motivated His humility? He came to earth to obey the Father, but there is more. He was motivated by eternal love. It was the outpouring of His infinite love for sinners. When you look at the Christ on the cross, you see the love of God poured out, the love of God’s immeasurable love for sinners. Paul said the Son of God loved him and gave Himself for him. 

Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Jesus Christ came into the world in all humility, submitted to the Father’s will because of His love for sinners, and died on that cross to save sinners. You need Him as your Lord and Savior. Believe that His death on the cross paid for your sin’s penalty and tell Him you repent of your sins and are trusting Him to save you. You can never take care of your own sins. You need Him to forgive your sins and to place His perfect obedience and righteousness to your account before God in heaven.  

2 Corinthians 5:21, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

As believers, Christ is our model of humility. He humbled Himself. He came down and was one among us who served others. Which direction are you going? Are you exalting yourself or being a humble servant among others? Christ endured the worst in obedience to His Father. What are you willing to endure for God’s glory? Trace Christ’s descent from heaven’s glory to that awful cross. That’s where you meet Him – at the cross. Let Christ’s way of thinking and attitude be in you.