By Staff
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is co-eternal, pre-existing, and equal in power and glory to God the Father. Jesus Christ has always been and will always be.
For a brief time, it was necessary for Jesus to sojourn on earth to accomplish redemption for fallen mankind.
Nobody knows the mind of God, but for some reason, the plan of redemption called for Jesus Christ to become man and be limited to time and space. How difficult would it be for the Creator and Sustainer to become the created and sustained? We can only imagine.
Jesus was successful in the plan of redemption. As He cried out from the cross in His last moments of earthly life, He said, "It is finished!" The price for sin was paid, the righteous judgment of God was satisfied, and sinful mankind had access to the holy God of Heaven through repentance and faith.
The earthly life of Christ was no picnic. He was misunderstood, maligned, rejected, physically abused, and finally killed. All of that could happen to us and we would be powerless to stop it, but Jesus could have said at any time, "Wait a minute; don't you know who I am?"
Jesus had a premise for His time on earth. The premise is stated in Paul's epistle to the Philippians, chapter 2, verses 5-8. He was faithful to His premise.
The Apostle Paul exhorts us to adopt the premise of Christ for our sojourn on earth. Paul said in verse 5 of Philippians, chapter 2, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." In other words, make His premise your premise.
The first step in the premise is to never forget who you are. Philippians, chapter 2, verse 6, states that Jesus knew He was the Son of God and "did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." We must know for sure that we are children of the living God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Once we have the foundation of sonship, we can move on to verse 7, "[He] made Himself of no reputation."
Think a minute of how much stress would be removed from our lives if we released reputation. We are consumed with what others think of us and how things look, etc. The premise of Jesus was that He had One to please and that was His heavenly Father. He did not bother with His reputation among men.
The next thing Jesus did was "[take] the form of a bondservant." We do not mind being called a servant; we just do not want to be treated like one. The premise of Jesus was bondservant-a purchased possession. The bondservant had no rights and no privileges; he simply committed to do what he was told without question.
The last phrase in verse 7 is beyond our comprehension: "coming in the likeness of men." Think of the lowest station of mankind and imagine stepping into it. Jesus stepped lower than that. We only know time, space, and relative powerlessness. Jesus is God and laid all His power aside to step into our world.
Then Jesus as a man humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). Death is humiliating. Death on a cross is not just a gross spectacle; it is a curse and a disgrace.
The premise of Jesus was to do the will of His heavenly Father without thought of Himself. That premise carried Him through days of obscurity, abuse, misunderstanding, temptation, grief, betrayal, and death.
Having the premise of Jesus will help us deal with unfulfilled expectations. The expectations we place on ourselves and accept of others bury us in stress. Let them go!