(Basics) 32. Humility in Jesus Coming to Earth — Zac Poonen

The first thing that we could say we see in the life of Jesus Christ, when he lived on this earth, is his deep humility. Man is basically proud. We are proud of many things. We are proud of our race and upbringing and our family tree, perhaps.

We can be proud of our education, our good looks, our intelligence, our capabilities, our talents, our gifts, our position, maybe our house or car, or it could be anything, influential friends. But when Jesus came to earth, he took the lowest place that any man could ever take.

He came as a servant of everyone, even though he was God. He was God manifest in human form. That's where we see the greatness of our God. You know, we can see the greatness of God in creation. The stars and the planets and so many wonderful things, and the snowflakes, the little atoms, which our eye cannot even see.

All these things contain the wonders of God. But to the one who reads the scriptures, to the true disciple of Jesus Christ, the greatness of God is not seen in these wonders of the universe. It is seen in the humility with which God came to earth in human form.

The Word Became Flesh and Identified with Humanity

Emptying himself of the privileges and powers that he had as God, and identifying with our fallen race. The Bible says in John 1 .14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.

And that glory, we can say, was far greater than the glory seen in the creation of the sun, moon and stars. God came and dwelt as one of us. And he didn't come in a condescending, patronizing way as our benefactor.

You know, showing that he's a great person, but humbling himself to be with us. No, he came with real humility, making himself one with us in every way. He was made like his brothers in all things. And once we see this glory of his humility, we will see there's a far greater glory in that, than even in the wonderful miracles that Jesus did when he was on the earth.

Jesus’ Life as the Pattern for Human Humility

And here is the first area, where we need to see, how God wants man to live. In the life of Jesus, we have an example, God has given us an example, of how God wants man to live. There was not an atom of pride in our Lord Jesus Christ.

He never imposed himself on people, he never made people dread him, as if he was somebody far superior to them. He was far superior to every single one, he was after all their creator, almighty God. But he hid all that glory, it was all concealed in that flesh in which he came.

And he lived just like any other ordinary man, he would call himself the son of man, meaning, I'm just an ordinary man. And there we see the greatness of God. He humbled himself. God wants man to live in humility.

The Origin of Pride in Lucifer and Humanity

In one of our earlier studies, we considered how evil came into this universe through Lucifer, the head of the angels, seeking to exalt himself in pride. Because he was perfect in wisdom and beauty, Lucifer began to be proud of it.

And he sought to go still further up, and even exalt himself above God almighty himself. And as soon as such a thought came into Satan's heart, God immediately cast him down. God is always against pride, wherever he finds it.

The Bible says, God resists the proud. If you're a proud person, it doesn't matter what you're proud of. If you're a proud person, you'll find that God is resisting you all the time. Now, resist is the opposite of support.

God does not support proud people, and not only that, he resists them. He fights against them. And that's why Satan was cast down. There could be no pride in heaven. And when Satan was cast down, and man was created, Satan decided to infect man as well, with the same pride with which he was infected.

And now the human race is infected with this pride. Every child born into this world is born with this infection of pride. And that's why from the time he can do anything, he begins to fight, assert himself, and seek his own.

Redemption Through the Self-Humiliation of Christ

And to save man from this wretched pride, Jesus came and humbled himself. To redeem man from this poison. So just like our sin originated in the pride of Lucifer, all sin originated in the pride of Lucifer.

In the same way, redemption originated in the self-humbling of Jesus Christ. See, these are two completely different spirits operating in the world. We need to understand this. There's a spirit of pride, always seeking to exalt itself, push other people down, show that we are greater.

And then there's a spirit of humility of Jesus, always seeking to go down. So, it's very easy for you to know how much of the mind of Christ you have in your own life. Here's the answer. You have as much of the mind of Christ in you, as you have of his humility.

Humility as the Measure of Spiritual Growth

That is the infallible gauge of spiritual growth. You're growing spiritually, if you're growing in humility. That's all. No more than that. Not when you grow in Bible knowledge. A lot of people think that spiritual growth means, I'm growing in knowledge of the Bible.

I'm growing in usefulness. I'm growing in serving God here, there and everywhere. Well, that's not really the infallible gauge. You can be mistaken. Because a lot of people who are serving are not really growing.

They're more active. But they're not really growing spiritually. The person who is growing spiritually will always become more and more humble. Now, when you look at Jesus, the very fact that he came down from heaven to earth, God, and became man itself, would be a tremendous demonstration of humility.

Jesus Chose Servanthood Instead of Kingship

But, he didn't stop there. When he became a man, he refused to be a king. Now, if Jesus had come from heaven and become the greatest king on earth, that would still have been humility. Because it would have been a tremendous step down from God to become a king.

But the wonderful thing we see here is, he went still further. He refused to be a king. We read once that when people tried to crown him, he just ran away. When he became a man, he humbled himself. And he became a servant of everyone.

He became like a slave. He often used to tell his disciples, I didn't come here for you people to serve me. I came to serve you. That's how God is, you know. God's nature is to serve and help and bless other people.

And the more you have a God's nature in you, what will you do? The more you will seek to serve and bless and help other people. You will not seek to promote yourself and show yourself as great. See, unfortunately, even among those who call themselves Christians and Christian leaders, one finds very often a spirit of self-exaltation.

That's so contrary to the spirit of Christ. Jesus never exalted himself. He told his disciples not to use titles. And he said, you must be just like, you must be just brothers. Just like all the others.

We are here to serve one another. Jesus demonstrated by his life that a person's position and wealth and accomplishments and family status, all have no value. It's humility alone that determines your value in God's eyes, primarily.

Christ’s Humility in Choosing His Birth and Family

Consider one fact. Do you know that you and I never had a choice as to which family we should be born in, in this world? You didn't choose the family you were born into, did you? We could say it was accidental, completely beyond your choice.

I was born into a family which I never chose. You were born into a family which you never chose. We were just born into it. We were born in a country which we didn't choose. Into circumstances we didn't choose.

There was only one person born into this world who could choose and determine beforehand where he will be born, when he will be born, in which town, in which building in which town, in which family. Everything.

That was Jesus Christ. From heaven he could have planned his birth perfectly. The exact date, the exact time, the exact location, the exact family. And what does Jesus choose? He chooses a poor, unknown carpenter's family in a place called Nazareth which had a very bad reputation in Israel.

And it was a very poor family. Joseph was a carpenter. Not only that. Jesus was the only person who could determine where exactly he was going to be born. And what place does he choose? A stable. A lowly stable where donkeys and cows and all were moving around.

A dirty place. This is the place he chose. And when you read in Matthew chapter 1, you read the family line. People are proud of their family line. He chose a family line of where there was a woman there called Tamar who committed adultery with her father-in-law.

Another one in that family tree was Rahab who was a prostitute in Jericho. Another one was Ruth who was a descendant of Moab who was born as a result of incest. We read in Genesis 19. And one was Bathsheba with whom David committed adultery.

This is the line which Jesus chose. Why did Jesus choose this type of humiliating line and a lowly place to be born? Because he wanted to come underneath all of us to serve us. Remember dear friend, this is the nature God wants you to have.

To go underneath others to serve them and bless them.