Humility. It’s a word that I think most of us understand. When we say someone is humble, we think of a person who isn’t flashy or arrogant, who lives/works for the best interest of others and not themselves. A modest person. We also equate humility with lifestyle. Someone who is of humble means is not lavish nor extravagant. This is an accurate, but not necessarily a complete, picture of humility. Especially when we’re looking to Jesus as our example.
One of the best passages, in my opinion, that describes the humility of Christ is Philippians 2:1-8, “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
There is a lot to be unpacked in this passage! But there is one descriptor here the really stands out to me. In verse 6 it says, “…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.” This concept of Jesus as fully God and fully human shows us that while on this earth in human form, He did not consider himself equal to God. This concept stands in complete opposition to original sin.
Way back at the beginning of the Bible we get the origin story of God’s creation of the physical and the tangible world. God’s creation is a physical representation of His glory and His attributes. There was no way a singular creation could fully represent God. God could not recreate himself, in essence creating another God. In order to express His fullness in creation, he created many things. Of all His creation, humans were unique as they were to bear the image of God Himself. Again, one human could not bear it all. So, he created humans to multiply and together represent the fullness of God’s glory (Genesis 1:27).
At some point, outside of (or before) the creation of time, God created all the heavenly creatures, including angles. Satan (perhaps also called Lucifer, though there is no scripture explicitly connecting the two) was one of them. Satan is described in Ezekiel 28 as “full of wisdom and perfect in beauty” and as a “guardian cherub.” In other words, he was very, very high up in the heavenly order. This wise and beautifully created angelic being saw the all-powerful, Creator God and wanted that power. As a creation though, there was no way Satan could be equal to God. There can only be one God! However, Satan did not want to worship, he wanted to be worshiped. As a result, he and all the heavenly creatures who followed him were banished from the heavenly realms.
If Satan could not have equality with God, He set out to target and destroy the next closest thing outside of heaven, the image bearers. You will remember while in the Garden of Eden, Satan tempted Eve with the idea of being like God. Speaking to Eve in Genesis 3:5 he says, “…For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” This scheme appears to be in response to Satan’s original thwarted plan to be equal to God. Eve and Adam were enticed by the potential of being powerful and in control and gave into temptation and sinned against their Creator. In response to this act of rebellion, when Eve and Adam ate of the tree that God forbade, God Himself responded saying in Genesis 3:22, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.” The root of this rebellion and sin was the pride in thinking that they could have equality with God.
Pride can be subtle and insidious. What can start as a temptation to take control, or to think that we have anything that could sway a situation in our direction, sets us up to potentially think that we are like God. This is the continuation of the schemes of Satan that needed to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
When Jesus entered the created order as a man, He gave up His complete power in order to experience and exemplify what it is to truly glorify God. He stood is contrast to the prideful sin nature of man. Because the original design was for humans to each be a part of the representation of the glory of God, Jesus exemplified the true purpose, not claiming his true equality as God, but by humbly living and ministering in community. Jesus rarely ministered alone. He taught and exemplified humble love and leadership to his disciples and apostles, so they would be empowered to show humble love and leadership to others, so they would be empowered to show humble love and leadership to others… and for this pattern to continue until Christ returns to redeem His creation to its original design.
I’m sure most of you are familiar with the illustration of the Body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 describes how each of us are individual parts of the working Body of Christ. One person is incapable of being the complete Body of Christ, just as one human alone could not bear the image of God. Because we are each a part and not the whole, Philippians 2:3-5 gives us practical advice on how we can function as the Body, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.”
God created each of us with unique qualities and gifts that contribute to the kingdom work through the Body of Christ. But if we only apply these qualities for our own interests, we cancel out the effectiveness of our created uniqueness. As Jesus humbled Himself to the authority of His Father by becoming a man and paying the price for our sin, we also must humble ourselves to the authority of Christ, and to one another in order to be a functioning body.
This takes supernatural humility that can only come from Christ and His example. On our own we can start to think that we are in control and able to effect change from our own strength. This is a sign of our temptation to be like God. When we humbly submit to Christ, and humbly bring our uniqueness to the Body of Christ, which is the Church, we will then experience what is to be a part of the physical representation of God’s glory. When we humbly add our gifts to the Kingdom work of the Holy Spirit in the world around us, we will see even more of the Kingdom coming and the will of God being done here on earth as it is in Heaven.