Chapter 3 - The Humility of Jesus Christ

 Chapter 3 - The Humility of Jesus Christ

The humility of Jesus. 

I am among you as one who serves. Luke 22:26. 

Luke 22:26 is a verse in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus redefines leadership by contrasting worldly authority with servant humility.  In this passage, Jesus instructs His disciples that unlike Gentile rulers who exercise dominance, the greatest among them should be like the youngest, and the one who leads like the one who serves.

The phrase "I am among you as one who serves" is a direct quote from Luke 22:27, spoken by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper to address the disciples' dispute over who was the greatest.  In this context, Jesus Christ subverts traditional hierarchies by asserting that true greatness is defined by humility and service rather than authority or status. 

He uses a rhetorical question to highlight the cultural norm that the person reclining at the table eating and drinking is greater than the one serving the table, then contrasts this with His own example. This statement establishes the principle of servant leadership, indicating that His leadership style—and the expected behavior of His followers—is characterized by selfless service, culminating in His sacrificial death. 

In the Gospel of Luke, we are given a glimpse into the inner life of our Lord. 

 Jesus Christ often speaks of His relationship to His Father God, the motives that guide Him, and the spirit and power in which He acts. 

Though the word humble is not directly used, nowhere else in scripture do we see more clearly what His humility truly was. 

As we've already seen, humility is simply the willing surrender of the creature to let God be all, to yield   completely to HIS working. 

In Jesus' life, we see this perfectly. 

Whether as the Son of God in heaven or as man on earth, Jesus Christ fully submitted Himself to His Father God, giving God all the glory and honor that belongs to HIM. 

And what Jesus Christ so often taught, he lived, "Whoever humbles himself shall be exalted." 

The phrase "Whoever humbles himself shall be exalted" is a central biblical principle found in Matthew 23:12, Luke 14:11, and Luke 18:14.  It teaches that God opposes pride and honors humility, creating a "kingdom economy" where those who seek to elevate themselves are humbled, while those who serve others with a modest spirit are raised up by God

It was fulfilled in Him. Jesus humbled himself. 

Therefore, God highly exalted Him. 

Listen to how our Lord speaks of His relationship to the Father God and how often He uses the words not and nothing about Himself. 

The not I that apostle Paul used to describe his own life in Christ is the same spirit Jesus Christ used to describe His life in relation to the Father. 

Hear these statements from John's gospel. 

The son can do nothing of himself. 

I can of my own self do nothing. 

My judgment is just because I seek not my own will.

 I receive not glory from men. 

I am come not to do my own will. 

My teaching is not mine. 

I am not come of myself. 

I do nothing of myself. 

I have not come of myself, but HE sent me. 

I seek not my own glory. 

The words that l say, I speak not from myself. 

The word which you hear is not mine.

These words (above) reveal the deepest foundation of Christ's life and work. 

They show how God was able to carry out His mighty work of redemption through Jesus Christ. 

They reveal what kind of heart Christ believed was fitting for him as the Son of the Father. 

And they teach us the true nature of the redemption Christ accomplished and now gives to us. 

Jesus made Himself nothing so that God could be everything.

He gave himself, his will, his power, his entire being completely to his Father so that the Father Alone would work in him. 

Concerning his power, his will, his glory, his mission, his teaching, his miracles. About all of it, Jesus said,"It is not I. I am nothing. I have surrendered all to the Father to work through me. I am nothing. The Father is all." 

This life of total self-denial, complete submission, and constant dependence on the Father's will was for  Jesus Christ a life of perfect peace and joy. He lost nothing by giving all to God. 

The Father honored his surrender, worked through him, and then exalted him to the highest glory. 

Because Jesus Christ humbled himself fully before God. 

Because God was always before him, he could also humble himself before people and become the servant of all. 

His humility was simply this. He gave himself to God, letting him do whatever God pleased, no matter what people thought of him or did to him.

It is this mindset, this spirit and attitude that gives Christ's redemption its power and effectiveness. 

 We are made partakers of Christ so that we may be brought into this same disposition. 

This is the true self-denial to which Jesus Christ calls us. 

The confession that self has no good in it except to be an empty vessel for God to fill. 

Self must never be allowed to claim the right to be anything or to do anything on its own. 

Above all else, this is what it means to be conformed to Lord Jesus Christ, to be and to do nothing of ourselves, so that God may be all. 

Here we see the root and true nature of humility. Because this is so little understood or sought after, our humility  remains shallow and weak. 

We must learn from Jesus Christ who is meek and lowly in heart. 

He shows us where real humility begins and where it draws its strength.  It is from knowing that God is the One who works all in all and that our place is to yield to HIM in full surrender and dependence, agreeing to be and do nothing apart from HIM. 

This is the life Christ came to reveal and to give us a life lived to God made possible through death to sin and death to self. 

If we feel this humbled life is too high or too far from our reach, let that feeling drive us to seek it in Him all the more. 

For it is Christ living in us who will live this meek and lowly life. 

If we long for such a life, then above all else, let us seek to know this holy truth about the nature of God that He is the One who works in all things at every moment ; to the praise of His glory. 

This is the secret that all creation is meant to declare.

 That every creature and especially every child of God is   nothing but a vessel, a channel through which the living God displays His wisdom, power, and goodness. 

The root of all grace and virtue, of all true faith and acceptable worship, is this to know that we have nothing except what we receive and to bow in deep humility as we wait on God to give it. 

Jesus Christ's humility was not just a passing feeling stirred up when he thought of God. It was the constant spirit of his entire life. Because of this, he was just as humble in his dealings with people as he was before God. 

He saw himself as God's servant sent for those whom God had made and loved. And so, as a natural result, he became the servant of men, so that through him, God could carry out His work of love. 

Jesus Christ never once sought his own honor or tried to defend or exalt himself. 

His whole mindset was one of total surrender to the Father, allowing God to work in and through him. 

It is only when Christians begin to see the humility of Jesus Christ as the very essence of his redeeming work, the joy of his life as the Son of God, the only proper relationship to the Father, and therefore the very thing he must give us if we are to share in him, that the painful reality of our lack of true heavenly humility will trouble us deeply.

Only then will we be willing to lay aside our ordinary religion in order to seek this humility. The first and most important mark of Christ living within us.

Brother, sister, are you clothed with humility? 

Ask your daily life. Ask Jesus Christ. Ask those around you. Ask the world. 

Then begin to thank God that in Jesus Christ, a heavenly humility has been open to you.

 A humility you may have never truly known through which a heavenly joy and blessing perhaps never yet tasted can enter your life. 

Chapter 4 - Humility in the Teaching of Jesus 

Learn of me for l am meek and lowly of heart. Matthew 11:29. 

Whoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant, even as the son of man came to serve. Matthew 20:27.

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