LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Tasters from the King's Table
An Atonishing Fact
Philippians 2:7-8
The Son of God's descent from His throne of glory to the cross is an astonishing fact. It is perhaps the most astonishing thing that we can know.
Being God with God, having a divine, perfect nature, exempt of all stain, weakness or error; having the glory of God, before which the heavenly creatures feared and fell down, being the splendor of the glory of God and the very image of His substance, the first-born of all creation, and who sustained all things by the word of His power; being by whom and for whom all things had been made, being all that and more, He didn't claim any of this as a reason for not coming down, but rather He emptied Himself.
How much would it have meant to empty Himself? It is not possible to know. The only one who fully knew was the Father, and for that reason He loved Him so much; for that reason He could not stop telling Him time and again that He was well pleased with Him. The most intimate form of the deity was thus perfectly expressed to the Son.
But that is not all.
When He had emptied Himself of everything imaginable, He was then in condition to become a man. He truly went down to the abyss! Truly, if He had wanted to, He could have been the most beautiful, most idolized, most served and most admired man. Yet behold Him, humbling Himself, being obedient in everything –as though He were not God–, even to death.
See Him descending to the most extreme form of obedience, that in which humanity is most useless, that which man's distorted heart hates most. But there is still more. How was He to die? One's departure from this world is something that worries men. All want a "good death."
Oh! He certainly didn't have it, because in fact the most brutal, repugnant, and hellish form that has ever been invented was the one chosen for Him. Death on the cross.