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 made himself nothing, 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”. Philippians
2:5-8
When we think of passages of Scripture most often used in Christmas
sermons, we probably think of early chapters from the gospels which focus on
the miracles surrounding Christ’s conception and birth. How many of us,
however, have ever viewed these words from Philippians 2:5-8 as a foundation
for a Christmas sermon?
We should; for Paul’s words form one of the most significant statements
regarding the incarnation found in the Bible. Philippians 2:5-8 takes our focus
off the baby lying in a manger and puts it where it belongs: on the Son of God
Who, before time began, humbly chose to forgo the rights and privileges of
heaven in order to enter into human history – to live, to suffer, and to die an
excruciating death – in order to redeem His sin-and-death bound people
(Romans 5).
With my finite mind, I try to imagine that pre-Genesis 1 conversation between
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as they came up with their plan to create the
world and all that is in it (Psalm 24:1), knowing full well that the pinnacle of
their creation – mankind – would fall into sin, and knowing that one day the
Son would need to enter the world in order to save it. I wonder why the Son of
God chose to come save us when God the Father could have simply killed
Adam and Eve and begun anew. Why would He willingly endure so much
suffering in order to fix what we broke?
Jesus, of course, gives us the answer in John 3:16: He did it because God loves us that much.
So why did Jesus come? He came to do for us what we cannot do for
ourselves. We may be able to put a man on the moon, explore the deepest
recesses of the oceans, climb the highest mountain, create machines which
can communicate across millions of miles of space, and find cures for terrible
diseases; but we can’t solve our sin problem and we can’t solve our death
problem Thinking about the helpless baby Jesus should remind us of our
willingly helpless Savior who chose to endure the Cross rather than calling 12
legions of angels to His defense (Matthew 26:53) – all because He loves us
that much.
May we look to Jesus as the one who gave it all, so we can have it all! Thank
you Jesus!