Jesus!
Pleased as man with men to dwell! Jesus our Immanuel!
It’s mind-boggling if you ponder it for very long. He gave up His Throne for us! It pleased Him to be veiled in flesh, to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, to be laid in a wooden feeding trough.
"But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:” Philippians 2:7
No reputation though He was Royalty. A servant though He deserved to be served. A man though He created the very men he would live among.
He submitted himself to a humble birth for the sake of a sinful world.
His birth is enough to leave us amazed at the humility of our Savior, but then we look ahead to a hill outside Jerusalem where He continues to place our needs above His own.
“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:8
It’s there we see Him stretched upon a wooden cross, wearing a thorny crown upon His head. As a crowd of onlookers are gawking at his broken and bleeding body, He continues to serve them and the millions of sinners who will live in generations to come. The Eternal One hung there in our place though it meant a slow and painful death.
As we see His sacrifice, we are amazed by a Savior not only willing to submit to a humble birth but also to a horrific death.
Our Savior gave much so that we wouldn’t have to live under Sin’s Curse forever.
“And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.” Jeremiah 18:12
”That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:” Ephesians 2:12
His humble birth and horrific death brought hope to a people once hopelessly trapped in the chains of their own sinfulness.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die!
Born to raise the sons of earth!
Born to give them second birth!
We have hope because He laid aside all He is to become all we were.
"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:” Colossians 1:27
We have hope that assures of His Presence in our lives in a personal and daily way.
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13
We have hope that assures us that the One once laid in a manger then nailed upon a cross will one day return to rapture those He made such sacrifices for.
"In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;” Titus 1:2
“That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:7
We have hope that Heaven will be our Eternal Home though we have done nothing to merit entrance.
May the Hope He gives be yours this Christmas and in the year to come!
