a humble God

so one thing that always got me in trouble before was trying to make sense of Philippians 2, where it says we're supposed to be humble like Jesus. now i don't know about you, but the idea of God being humble is hard for me to deal with, especially when i know that God's greatest delight is in His glory.

something that struck me tonight while i was reading mahaney's book was that a large part of my problem was with my definition of humility. i always though of it as thinking modestly of oneself, not puffing oneself up with pride or drawing attention to oneself, etc. a general sense of lowliness, self-defacing, slinking into the background and away from the spotlight.

but the redefinition i had of humility a couple weeks ago (see last post) might help change things. if humility is looking great in God's eyes, then i can understand a humble Christ. He left what He had in heaven, knowing the future glory would be greater than the past, and did what was perfect in the Father's sight. He didn't deny His greatness, or rebuke people for worshiping Him. but our God is a God would loves to serve, to gift, to be gracious with those who deserve it least.

and so the life of Christ up to and including His final sacrifice are displaying His glory, but not for the sake of man first. it is good that we see this glory, and enjoy it, and worship Him, but this is not, i think, the main focus for Christ, hanging on the cross. He is first and foremost concerned with what awaits Him when He returns to the Father, "the joy set before Him" as Hebrews 12 puts it. He wasn't primarily concerned with what the people thought of Him, or even what He thought of Himself. He was primarily concerned, i think, with the glory and the joy which He would bring and share with His Dad.

that's humility.