Behold His Humility

Christ Our King

Consider Christ our Saviour

Though in the form of God

He humbled Himself

Refusing what He deserved

Forsaking reputation

Coming to serve as man

He humbled Himself

Rejected and crucified 

He chose to obey

Endured the pain, the wrath, the curse, the shame

Therefore God has highly

Exalted Christ our King

At His name, bow your knee

And confess Christ our King

Knowing that we'd despise Him

Knowing the price He'd pay

He humbled Himself

And laid down His life for us

Though He was tried and tempted

No sin was found in Him

He humbled Himself

He died to fulfill the law

The scroll was sealed ‘til that day

For none was worthy, to take our guilt away

But behold the Lamb that was slain

His blood has ransomed us, so weep no more, He overcame

Devotional

 Jonathan Edwards once said, “We must view humility as one of the most essential things that characterizes true Christianity.” Indeed, there is hardly an aspect of the crucifixion of Christ that does not literally and figuratively bleed humility. Paul, in what is often referred to as “the Christ Hymn”, lays out the process clearly (Philippians 2:6-11). 

Christ was in the form of God, literally comprising the same attributes and abilities, and in equality with God. We see this echoed in Hebrews 1:3 in which the Son is described as “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature”. But He chose to take on the form of man – fallen, finite, futile man – in obedience to God the Father. According to 2 Corinthians 8:9, “he became poor”, and in Romans 8:3, God sent “his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin”. 

It takes humility to leave your throne to dwell with men; it takes humility to be in the form of God and to choose to look like one of us, facing our trials and temptations; it takes humility to obey God, though perfect and undeserving of punishment, and be sent to death; it takes humility to not only submit Himself to a death he did not deserve, but to an accursed death reserved for the lowest and meanest of society. 

Jonathan Edwards was right – there isn’t an aspect of our salvation that didn’t come without a price tag demanding great humility. 

Paul, too, seemed to be aware of this. His letter to the Philippians begins with an exhortation to extreme love for one another, esteeming others above themselves, and the humility of Christ on the cross is given as the reason. Throughout the New Testament, there is a call to live lives marked by Christ and His sacrifice (Ephesians 4:1-3, 21-24; 5:2).

Lives marked by Christ’s manner of sacrifice, are lives marked by humility. 

Let us live lives in which we spurn status for the good of others; in which we pay debts we do not owe; in which we go out to the least to bring people to the light that is Christ, motivated by the Saviour who, “though he was rich, yet for [our] sake he became poor, so that [we] by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). 

Reflections

1. The context for the humility shown in Philippians 2 is Paul’s exhortation for behavior in community. Why is humility in community so important? (See Ephesians 4 and 5)
2. C.S. Lewis once said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.” How, with reference to Scriptures, would you describe what true, Biblical humility looks like?
3. How does the humility of Christ change how we worship?