Be Humble Like Christ (Philippians 2:1-8)

The Call to Worship and Prayer for Unity

All right, I think we're all set and ready to go. Come on in and get your seats. It is amazingly good to be in the palace of the Lord with you people this morning. I am super blessed by all of you, and I cannot tell you how thankful I am for all the prayer and encouragement that you guys have offered throughout the past eight weeks.

I don't think you realize fully just how much that impacts the positive momentum of a teacher to have the congregation that he's working with, praying for him, interacting with him, and I encourage you to continue doing that.

Whoever's teaching up here, it blesses them and it blesses the whole body. All right, I think as long as Will gets his seat here, we can start and pray. All right, Will, let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we proclaim you and your son, Jesus Christ, who is now glorified and sits at your right hand, awaiting his coming kingdom.

As we wait for him, we delight in these times of corporate worship in which we can draw close to you alongside of one another. Father, as we give attention to the word this morning in the book of Philippians, may your spirit work powerfully in our midst today as we give ourselves to the study of truth.

May you impress it upon our hearts deeply. May you allow us to rejoice in the fulfillment of that truth, and may we apply it to our lives practically. We pray all this in your son, Jesus Christ's name, amen.

Unity in Philippians and the Call to Humility

So open up your Bibles to Philippians 2, verse one. Back in our introductory lesson in week one, when I gave you those 10 reasons that I believe that we should study the humanity of Christ, the sixth reason that I gave for you was that it would be fundamental or foundational for our church unity to study the humanity of Christ.

And that's going to be our focus today. We want to really zero in on the topic of unity, specifically with a broadening topic of humility. Now, humility and unity are critical. And how do I know that?

I know that from God's word. Pastor David, or David Forsythe taught from his Sunday school class a couple of, or not Sunday school class, I'm getting all mixed up, a sermon on Ephesians 4, verse one through three, and talked to us about unity.

And that passage has been resonating in my heart and mind ever since I heard that sermon. Let me just read you that brief section from Ephesians 4 again, to get your minds moving in that direction. In verse one, it says, therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.

With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Just realize how critical unity is to the body and how the spirit is there working with us, providing the unity that we are being diligent to preserve in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4, 13, about 10 verses later says, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God. So we're in this process together as a church body, we're all seeking for a maturity, a unity, a faith progression that comes from studying the knowledge of the son of God.

And he's using that to create in us a mature man to the measure of the stature, which belongs to the fullness of Christ. So we know that unity is something we should pursue, but sometimes it gets a little murky as to how we pursue it.

How do you get to that goal that's so clearly set forth in scripture? Well, the passage we're gonna look at this morning is gonna focus our hearts and minds on one of the ways in which we preserve unity, which is humility.

Now, humility is absolutely out of style. In the time that we live, it is just super common for us to see men and women applauded for their swagger, bragging their ability to elevate their achievements around those, above those around them.

Even just think of the most recent political scene that we've been enjoying and kind of tolerating in some ways. But if there's one thing that you can acknowledge about many of the new leaders who are about to come into power is they are proud.

They let you know their accomplishments and it's part of their appeal, right? The virtues of humbling yourself, hiding your achievements, diminishing your influence, elevating others and serving them have faded into the background in our society.

You don't see people seeking out those virtues as often as you see them seeking out their own self-elevation. So the title of our lesson today is Be Humble Like Christ. Be humble like Christ. And we're going to look today in Philippians 2, verses one through eight, at three core aspects of Christian humility so that we can humble our minds and our hearts and cultivate unity.

Paul is going to give us three core essential aspects of Christian humility with the goal that we would transform our hearts and minds through the Spirit and cultivate unity in our body. So let's look together and we'll read Philippians 2, verses one through eight and focus in on the first core aspect.

Verse one says, therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in Spirit, intent on one purpose.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

I love this passage. I've been waiting for this opportunity to teach this one for the first eight weeks of our study here together. And I woke up first thing this morning, my eyes just popped open because I was so excited to finally be able to dig into this with you.

It's a big passage, and I'm not gonna be able to do it justice in the short time that we have together. So you're gonna leave hungry to go home and do your Berean work and study it yourself. But our first critical core aspect here of Christian humility is that humility itself is critical to unity.

Humility is critical to unity. And just think of the context here as we get warmed up. Paul loved this church body at Philippi. They were one of his favorite bodies and they loved him. They poured out their love and affection on him.

The church was a relatively strong group of believers and Paul commended them. He encouraged them. He counseled them in this brief letter of four chapters. And the heart of his counsel is to focus on helping them course correct in light of some dangers, some dangers that were affecting their unity, both external dangers coming in from the outside of the church and internal dangers that were affecting the strength of their unity and their progress in the gospel.

He sought to spur them on. He says, take what you're doing right now and give me more. Go forward, get farther in the process. Take what is a good church and make it a great church. And he commends for them several examples to help them confront and counteract the errors and the teachings that are coming in from the outside that are seeking to tear apart the body.

So he commends to them the example first and foremost of Jesus Christ, which we'll look at this morning, but also Timothy, Epaphroditus and himself as examples to say, walk this way. Don't walk the way of the false teachers, walk this way.

Now, structurally look back at verses one through four. You see how verses one through four is this first chunk of these eight verses. And it's verses one through four are connected to the later verses by this key central verse right in the middle that I want to zero in on first before we look at one through four.

Look at verse five. It says, have this attitude or mind in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. Have this attitude. This is an imperative here. Now at face value, this instruction seems unattainable and almost hyperbolic.

After all, Jesus is the son of God. He's a perfect divine being, perfect in all his ways. So is Paul saying something to the effect of, well, even though you can't, I want you to do your best to have an attitude like Christ Jesus.

No, I don't think that that is what Paul is saying to us is basically saying, look, I know I'm going to give you an example that's too much for you, but if you just try your best, you'll get close enough, right?

You shoot for the stars, you'll hit something, right? That's not the way that Paul is instructing them here. Let's look at what he is saying. So verses one to four are split into two parts, a positive instruction, pursue unity, and then a negative warning, flee selfishness.

And that's how we're going to split it up. Now, this theme of unity was introduced by Paul back in chapter one, and let your eyes glance back to chapter one, verse 27. It says, only conduct yourselves or let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

So that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. So Paul has already started the conversation with the Philippians about unity by the time we get to chapter two, and he's going to continue it all the way through the book.

We know that he warns the church against disunity in chapter four, verse two. And we know that he also warns them against the threats, against their unity that would seek to come in and divide the body in chapter three.

So unity is all the way through this section here. And this exhortation to unity within the body of believers is and always will be a priority for God's church. This is not just for the Philippians. Clearly they needed that instruction, but so do we.

And more critically for our discussion today, unity is not just this external thing that we desire and pray for. Like, gosh, I really hope the snow comes to this body. We're not just praying for unity to come to this body.

Unity is something that we pursue internally through the salvation and sanctification of every heart and mind and every believer in this local church body, the body of Jesus Christ. And we know that that only comes through the power of the spirit.

So when we say we want unity, we're not pointing out at everyone around us or something outside of this church. We're pointing inward to our own hearts and saying, we want unity. Therefore we will follow Jesus Christ through the power of the spirit and do what he says.

Paul knew what we should learn. You cannot have unity in your church body without every single person seeking to cultivate an attitude of humility.

It's impossible.

Humility Is Critical to Unity

Now look back at verses one to two. We want to see what is the basis for his admonition? How can he make this imperative statement? Why is it possible for us to be unified together? Well, you see at the beginning there, he points at four things that are available to believers.

Do you see them there? Verse one, he says, if there's any consolation or of love, could also be a translated encouragement here, or I'm sorry, before that, he says if there's any encouragement in Christ, secondly, any consolation of love.

These are synonymous kind of phrases here. One refers to the comfort in Christ that we have that is basically equivalent to our salvation through the exhortation of the gospel. We have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

He has saved us, therefore we have the encouragement in Jesus Christ. Secondly, we have this consolation. Christ's love has brought us a comfort, a support in times of danger or suffering.

Third, look back.

It says if there is any fellowship in the spirit, one of Paul's favorite words and one of the most important words to this book of Philippians, the fellowship, the participation that we have in the spirit, the intimate relational benefit of being indwelt by, guided, instructed and empowered by the spirit through the word.

That's something that we all have access to. We can call upon it when we need it to help us cultivate humility and unity. And finally, he says, if we have affection and compassion, we have the tender, loving mercy of God himself.

Now, Paul begins his instruction for the Philippians in verse one with this phrase, therefore, if, which could also be translated since or consequently. So the truth that comes before this makes this conditional, not only possible, but probable.

So you could almost reread this passage this way. If there is any encouragement, exhortation from our life in Christ, as there surely is, if there is any consolation or comfort of his love, as there surely is, if there is any fellowship of the spirit, as there surely is, if any deeply felt affection and tender mercy and compassion as there surely is, Paul is dead set confident that the Philippian body has everything that they could possibly need.

There's no lack. There's no deficiency out there that needs to be fixed for them to be able to obey the command that he's about to give them. And therefore, by extension for us and any believer who comes to this passage, the imperative clause that follows this is not hyperbole.

It's an imperative that can be obeyed. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. So unity is possible because God has provided everything that you need through the work of Jesus Christ and his spirit.

Now, as an illustration, wanted to get your minds thinking about unity and how we protect and we guard it. Have you ever observed the behavior of an ant hill when you're out digging and suddenly your shovel hits the ant hill and disturbs the entire ant hill?

What did the ants do? Do they run for the hills and protect themselves individually? No, there's this amazing unity where they all pour themselves into the effort of relocating themselves and everything that's precious in that ant hill to a new safe location.

And nobody has to tell them to do it. There's no one leader is kind of giving instruction to everybody else. They all know that this is critical to their survival as a group. And they're not seeking their own individual protection.

They're going to the unity of their entire colony. When threatened, they don't strike out on their own. And that should be how we as believers look at the unity of our body. When threatened, do you protect yourself?

Do you run away from the body or do you draw near and protect the unity of this body? The unity of any church is constantly under pressure and attack both externally and internally. The shovel illustration helps us think about the reality that that can come from nowhere.

You can think you're fine. You can be sitting there resting and delighting in the reality that when you come to church on Sunday mornings, there's no fighting, there's no big theological issues, there's no huge problems.

And then suddenly, boom, out of nowhere, there's an issue. So we have to be on guard. We have to be ready to protect ourselves and strengthen our body so that when trouble comes, we are ready to deal with it.

When troubles arise, how quickly do you run to what we just studied here? The encouragement of Jesus Christ, the consolation of his love for you, the fellowship that you and I enjoy together in the spirit and the tender affection and mercy of God is that where your heart goes when trouble comes?

Or do you go to something else? Do you turn inward and focus on your own self-interest or do you look outside of yourself at the interests of others? So let's pause there and see if there's any questions or comments from that first four verses.

There's two verses really, I'm not seeing any yet, but if you have some, save time, there are more later. So our first core aspect that we saw in the first two verses about Christian humility is that humility is critical to unity.

Second, we're gonna see in the second two verses that humility is contrary to selfishness. Humility is critical to unity and it is contrary to selfishness. Look back at verses three and four with me. Paul says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.

Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. So he's given us the reasons why Philippian believers could pursue unity. Now Paul is addressing the sin that would compromise their unity.

It's selfishness, selfishness. Note that combination of two phrases. He says, do nothing, verse three, and then he starts verse four, do not. These warnings here that Paul gives us tells us that Paul wants believers to have nothing whatsoever to do with selfishness.

This is not an acceptable sin. It's not like you can keep a little partition in your spiritual lives and say, well, this is who I am. I can't really get rid of all of this. God's just gonna have to deal with this little piece of my life because I can't give that up.

I have things that are important to me. You just don't understand, right? I can't be at church on Sunday mornings because you fill in the gap. It's important to me.

Why do I have to give it up?

Is that really what God's asking me to do here is to give up the things that are important to me? Yes, yes, that is what he is asking you. That's what he is commanding you to do. It's not a request here.

When he looks at this, he says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. Selfishness or selfish ambition is the plan to put yourself forward ahead of others, particularly in the context of politics or leadership in general.

When you say, we have a plan, I have a plan to get myself to the front, to the head, to the top, so that I can have what I need in place to do what I want to do. That's very easily crossing the line over into selfishness, selfish ambition.

Empty conceit here, the second phrase is, is glorying in what is empty. It's vain glory. It's glorying in what is going to go away and is not going to exist. So when you come back to the illustration I gave you of saying, what do you put in front of fellowship with this group of believers on Sunday morning?

You can say, well, what it is, whatever it is. Are you going skiing up on Schweitzer? Right, are you going to some entertainment event on Saturday night in Spokane and you're up too late and you can't get up on Sunday morning?

Whatever it is that is getting in front of this body and Jesus Christ as the first and foremost priority needs to go. Now, the people in Philippi struggle with the universal human condition, a desire to act selfishly, to exalt your own glory.

Think of the example in our day. When you're in a group of people, are you more likely to share something about yourself that would elevate others' opinion of you? Right, or are you more likely to tell them something that might lower their opinion of you?

Right, what is your natural tendency? What do you do to guard and protect your own glory? Paul not only commands the Philippian believers to do nothing from selfishness, but the good news is here is he gives us the contrasting behavior.

I love this, when Paul is instructing us, he often gives you the positive thing to put on right after he gives you the sinful behavior that you have to put off. So look back at verses three and four. He says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.

Regard one another as more important than yourselves. It fundamentally consists of elevating your opinion of others and their interests above your own. Humility means I take my opinion of myself, my opinion of my own interests, and I take it lower.

And I raise my opinion of you and your interests above them. When we have a conflict and I can't have both things and I have to choose one, which one do I choose? Do I choose you or do I choose me? And I love the picture in this.

I'm studying John one through three in anticipation of next week. And the example of John the Baptist just stands out to me. A man who Jesus commends as one of the greatest men who has ever lived and ever will live.

He could have had so much more glory, authority, influence. But what did he choose? When threatened, when his disciples came to him and said, hey, look, people are going after Jesus, not you anymore. What did John do?

Says, I need to increase, I need to decrease. He needs to increase. This is the best. So Paul does not deny here for us that the believers in Philippi are going to continue to have personal interests.

It's not like saying you can't have any personal interests, any hobbies, any things that you do that are unique and joyful and important to you. It's not like you're abandoning all good things. Paul is just simply saying, if you have personal interests, can you live in unity with a whole bunch of other believers who have their own personal interests?

And can you demonstrate self-control through the spirit, like Jesus did, to lower the importance of your interests below the interests of other people? As an example, if you find yourself in a long line of people waiting to get into an event, are you more likely to get there early so you can hold your spot in the line?

Or are you more likely to look around and say, you can go ahead of me, I'll go back, I'll wait. Which one is the spirit producing in your heart and life? The desire to put yourself first and hold your spot or the desire to see others have the best?

I was thinking about this in light of church attendance. If you say, I value the fellowship of this body, then that needs to be demonstrated by your consistency in attending and participating. And I mean fully participating, not getting in here at the last possible moment, maybe 15 minutes late, because you're just super tired, but setting aside Saturday night so that you have the energy to come and worship the God who died for you.

And to do so in context with a bunch of other believers who need you here, they need you. So what are some ways that you can demonstrate practically that you put the interests of others ahead of your own personal self-interest?

Well, avoid opportunities to needlessly elevate yourself. When you're in conversation with others, avoid the opportunities to subtly kind of position yourself in a way that is more positively perceived.

You don't need that.

God will elevate those whom he chooses to elevate. He doesn't need your help. Secondly, avoid the attitude of being overly critical of others by putting them down. Whether you do so with your mouth or your mind, doesn't matter, God knows them both.

If you're looking around going, I mean, that guy, geez, I don't even know where, how are you, he's even here. Think of the way that you were rescued out of darkness in life and how you did not deserve that.

There's no reason for you to be critical of others in this body needlessly. Find ways to serve quietly. Find ways to serve quietly so that others can relax and enjoy the fellowship with other people. When we are here together as a body, it's an enriching, relaxing, joyful, relational time.

And if someone has got something going on, maybe they have little kids and they're struggling to just have a conversation with another person, offer to take care of that little kid for a couple of minutes to just give them a second to be able to relate and relax and enjoy the fellowship that exists in this body.

Many other ways. Hold your personal preferences and your opinions loosely and do not elevate your personal preferences or opinions to the level of doctrinal priority. We are a body, we are held together by truth.

That is absolutely true. We don't compromise on doctrine, true doctrine, but I am willing to bend, to allow personal preferences and interests and opinions to allow the unity of this faith to be preserved.

And finally, this is hard, it's hard for me. Be willing to admit that you are wrong and then learn. Be willing to admit when you are wrong and then learn. So we looked here now at the first two core aspects.

Let's see if you guys have questions or comments before we look at the third.

Peter, it's a good question.

Peter's asking, is unity something that exists or doesn't exist? Is it something that's moving in a direction? How in danger is it? And so I think of it this way. How many of you know of church bodies that have disintegrated?

Okay, so did the unity of that body survive? No, it fell apart. So unity in that sense can be compromised. And that's what Paul is concerned about here. He wants this Philippian body to stay unified. Now, unity of the church, Jesus Christ builds his church.

The church cannot be compromised. Jesus Christ is building his church one person at a time and drawing them together, but he does so in the context of local bodies that are always under the threat of disunity.

Good question. Okay, we have one more here and this is my favorite part. This is where we're focusing in on the humility of Jesus himself. So the first two core aspects of Christian humility are humility is critical to unity and it is contrary to selfishness.

Humility Is Christ-Like in the Example of Jesus

Third, humility is Christ-like, humility is Christ-like. And for that, we'll look at the ultimate example that Paul provides to the Philippians to pursue Jesus himself. Let's look at verses five through eight.

He says in verse five, have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men.

Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Now, you know that this passage continues on with verses nine through 11. I don't have time to do all of that this morning.

We're going to focus on just five through eight. So this command, have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. Is that really possible? I think we all have to just deal with this command here for a second.

Jesus is God. I am not. I am just a man. Isn't it unfair of Paul to place in front of me an example to which I cannot possibly imitate? It's like saying, when you're having difficulty running, run like a cheetah.

If you're having problems swimming, swim like a dolphin does. When you're having difficulty flying, just fly like an eagle, right? All of those would be worthless comparisons for you and I. We will never be able to run, swim, or fly like any of those creatures.

But that is not what Paul is saying here. He's saying it is possible for you to have the mind, the attitude of Jesus.

Why?

Because Jesus was a man, just like you and I. This passage helps us address several important questions that have been just percolating in this series the entire time we've been in it. Is there a genuine correlation between his experience and ours that justifies this command?

Why did Jesus choose to become a man? Why did he choose? And was it really necessary that he be not just a man, but fully man, a full human? Is his humanity in any way compromised by his deity? Can we look at him and say, well, he's human, but he's God.

So whatever the explanation is, he's God. How does contemplating his nature as the God-man allow us to better obey God's words as we grow in our sanctification? Was Jesus tempted to be selfish? That's a critical, important question for this passage right here.

Do nothing from selfishness, have this attitude which was in Christ Jesus. So therefore, was Jesus tempted to be selfish and look out for his own personal interests as a child, as a young man, as a mature adult?

Was that a real test for him? Would conceitedness, vainglory have been a sinful attitude that Jesus had to avoid by depending on the Spirit? Would it have been a challenge for him to consider others and their personal interests as more important than his?

Would that have been a real problem for him? So the apostle Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, does not shy away from this comparison in one way. He doesn't issue any caveats, any exception clauses, any contingencies.

He simply says, have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus. So he assumes that Jesus had this attitude and this mindset and had exercised the diligence in guarding himself from sin in all of these areas.

What attitude specifically is he talking about here? We've seen it, but we need to zero in on it. Verse three said, the attitude is one of humility of mind. And you see it again, verse eight, he humbled himself.

The attitude is humility. How did Jesus demonstrate humility? Well, he chose the ultimate humiliation, a humiliation that you or I could never experience. So if we have humiliation that we think is humiliating and beyond our current capabilities, we can compare it to the extent of his humiliation.

He chose to take upon himself the debilitating limitations of human frailty.

Why?

To be like us. Now the Greek word here, form, verse six, who although he existed in the form of God, and again in verse seven, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, that can have the impression in the English language as being the exterior shape of something.

It looks like what it could be, but that's not where the Greek word has. The Greek word refers to the inner substance, the very nature of the thing. Jesus existed in the form of God. He is essentially, fully, completely God, but he took upon himself the form, the essential nature, everything that it means to be a human bondservant.

Look back at verses six and seven here. Paul affirms that the deity of Jesus Christ is intact. He existed in the form of God. He did not regard equality with God something to be grasped because he already had equality with God, and he chose to take upon himself something that changed that state.

So his choice, Jesus did not insist upon holding on to something that he already had the privilege to have. He already had full equality with God, but he chooses to condescend by embracing, taking to himself something in additional.

What? Well, look at it here. There's three participles that give us what he does to take upon himself. He empties himself, that's the key verb, by taking the form of a bondservant, or literally a slave, doulos, and being made in the likeness of man, and by becoming obedient.

Taking the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of man, and becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. So we don't have time to go into all of the various ways in which this passage has been interpreted, but let me just simplify it for you this morning in the following way.

The key word here is emptied. Jesus emptied himself, and that can trip anyone up. It doesn't matter how you read it, whether you're reading it in the English language or whether you're reading it in the Greek.

You think to yourself, emptied? Did he take away his power? Did he take away his deity? Did he throw it all away? Did he relinquish that? The answer is no. The way to think about this here is that he does not pour something out of himself.

He pours himself out. It is subtraction by addition. He is taking to himself a form that clouds our ability to see the full deity that he never relinquishes. While the deity is fully present, it is voluntarily Jesus' choice obscured or hidden by him taking the form of humanity.

So let's make several observations from this passage before we apply it to our own hearts. First off, Jesus had access to something that no other human being could ever have access to. He existed eternally in the form of God the Father and had equality with God the Father.

He had the capacity though to choose to take on the form of a bondservant, a man, and stay a man. He is still a man. So he has in that sense taken upon something that he will never relinquish. He had though to choose to relinquish something, his rights to exercise those power whenever he chose to.

And he did so by humbling himself. His choice was obedience to God the Father, which demonstrates that he was aware of the necessity of submitting to the will of God the Father. And his choice is something that we could never do, to live a life that was ultimately designed to end in a perfect expression of righteous love by the humiliation of death on the cross.

Listen to Matthew 10 verses 29 through 30. It says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. Jesus' humility is our opportunity.

When we come to him, we find rest for our souls in his humility. Listen to Matthew 20 verse 28. It says, just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

That's good news for us. His humiliation is our access to the Father. He did not come to be served, to put his own personal interests ahead of ours, to show us just how good and powerful and amazing he is.

He came to serve, to give his life as a ransom for many. Listen to John 6, 38. He says, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Jesus is the ultimate example of putting the interests of others before his own.

Principally here, the interests of God the Father are ahead of Jesus' own self-interest. So we cannot imitate his eternal existence. We don't have to choose to be human, but we can conform to his attitude of humility by thinking and acting towards others the way that he did.

We can choose to give up the free exercise of our rights and our privileges to walk in humility. We can choose to obey the will of God the Father, even when it is really hard. We cannot choose to die on a cross for all humanity, but we can choose to live our lives in a sacrificial way, to express our love for others by being willing to die daily to ourselves.