but Christ is all, and in all. – Col 3:11
Phi 2:5-7 is the passage we usually turn to whenever we want to talk
about “humility”. “Let this mind be in you”, Paul writes, “which was
also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to
be grasped to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took
upon him the form of a servant”
Nevertheless, when you come to think of it, if Humility is “thinking of
yourself less”, how much of that can that be said of Christ?
Unlike the traditional Prophets, He didn’t say, “Thus saith the LORD”,
rather He’d declare, “Verily, Verily I say unto you...”
On the Emmaus Road, He chided the two disciples for not knowing that all
the Old Testament Scriptures were about Him! (Lk 24:13-25) and in Jn 5:39 He said to the Jewish leaders, “Search the
scriptures because they testify of Me”.
Not really self-effacing, is He?
Of the Holy Spirit, He said, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father...
He shall testify of
me”. And again, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, is come... He shall not
speak of Himself... He shall glorify me” (Jn 15:26;16:13,14). Psychologists
today would see this as a clear case of egomania.
Nevertheless, true humility is not putting yourself down but placing
yourself correctly. If Jesus had not stressed His pre-eminence to us, He’d have
been doing us injustice. Because God’s solution for Sin is Jesus, and it would
have done us no good if Jesus spoke less of Himself, or asked us to “look
inward” for our deliverance.
That’s why the Holy Spirit does not talk about Himself but about Jesus.
And that’s why the Father says we should “listen to Him (Jesus)”, (Lk
9:35).
We can be wrong in our theology about the Holy Spirit and still be saved,
but there’s no salvation if we get it wrong with Christ. Hence, all World
Religions, sincere as they may be, are leading their followers to damnation.
For we can only worship God on His own terms, not ours. He has declared that He
that would come to Him must come through Jesus. “For there is no other name
under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved” (Act 4:12).
This is why Jesus places all the focus on Himself; and why all of
scripture is about HIM, not us. Christianity is not about discovering
ourselves; it’s about discovering Christ. For all that we need, in this life
and in the life to come, can only be found IN HIM.
AMEN.
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN
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