The Sovereign Who Suffered

I’m going to read Philippians 2:5-11 because it’s one text and I’d like you to see the whole context, but we’re going to go back and focus on verses 5-8. Follow with me beginning in verse 5. Paul says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Next week, beginning in verse 9, Christ’s exaltation, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

James Montgomery Boice says about this passage that it is among the most glorious sections of the New Testament. In these few verses, we see the great sweep of Christ’s life from eternity past to eternity future. Now, I could go on and on quoting great theologians and Bible students about the glories of this passage, but let me just say that it is one of—as I said—the greatest passages in the Bible, many feel the greatest passage in the Bible, on Jesus Christ. Now, it’s not exhaustive by any means, but it is thorough and covers from eternity past to eternity future.

The question I want to ask first is, Why does this text, this passage, Philippians 2:5-11, appear in this epistle of joy in this place? If you back up for just a moment to Philippians 2:1, Paul was exhorting them, “…if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any,” tender mercies and compassion, “Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded,” notice that phrase, “having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” We’re going to see that concept, the mind, in verse 5. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind,” that’s a key phrase that will help us understand why this passage appears, “let each esteem other better than themselves,” or more important than themselves. “Look not every man on his own things,” or interests, “but every man also on the things of others.”

I don’t want to rehash my whole study from last week. If you weren’t here, go online and watch it again. Basically, the only issue or problem that we can see in the church at Philippi was disunity, disharmony. Paul knew that the problem was caused by a lack of humility, so he exhorts them to love each other, to walk in lowliness of mind, to esteem others more important than themselves, not to be consumed or wrapped up with their own interests, but everyone to look at the interests of others. In light of that, he now gives us an illustration of what he taught. In verses 1-4 is the exhortation; in verses 5-11, we have the illustration. Paul exhorts us and then illustrates in the life of Christ, he’ll illustrate in the life of Paul, in the life of Timothy, and in the life of Epaphroditus, but it takes the whole chapter to cover all of those illustrations. Basically, Paul moves from pleading for unity in verses 1-4 to a call to humility in verses 3-4, and then the pattern, which is Jesus Christ. Look at verse 5 of our text, “Let this mind,” he just said to have humble minds, be lowly in your minds, “Let this mind,” this attitude, “be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” He’s calling for the humble, Christ-like mind. He’s calling for the same attitude and outlook that Jesus Christ had.

Paul’s purpose in this passage was not to teach doctrine but to use doctrine to teach humble living. He was using the doctrine of Christ to teach humble living, which is kind of fascinating to me because there are so many times people think, Why do you teach doctrine? Why do you get so doctrinal and theological? By the way, doctrine just means teaching. Sound doctrine, the Bible calls for, which is healthy teaching or right teaching; and the Bible tells us we should be devoted to sound doctrine. Why do you teach like that all the time? The answer is because out of it flows practical Christian living. You can’t live the Christian life without knowing what it is. You can’t live for Christ without knowing who He is. To just have the church gather together and for the preacher to do a pep rally kind of motivational speech and get you all excited, “Give me a J, give me an E, give me an S, give me a U, give me an S. What’s that spell? Jesus!” and get all pumped up and excited wouldn’t really help much. We need to have a doctrinal, theological, biblical foundation for how we live. This involves your marriage, your parenting, facing temptation, how you view life, dealing with the world around us, and the culture. Everything we do we must filter through the truth of God’s Word.

Paul uses the illustration of Christ to encourage us to oneness, to lowliness or humility, and helpfulness. What could be better than looking to Jesus for our example. Amen? What individual could be a better example or pattern for us to follow? Paul’s picture of the Lord Jesus as our pattern or example is a powerful incentive to unity and humility.

I want to outline verses 5-11, even though I’m not going to cover them all for you, so you can have a grasp of how this all breaks down. In verse 5, we see the illustration of Christ; in verses 6-8, we see the humiliation of Christ, we’re going to cover those two points tonight; and in verses 9-11, we have the exaltation of Christ. It would mean that we have the illustration of Christ, the humiliation of Christ, and exaltation of Christ. That’s an excellent outline. It’s not original. I borrowed it from somebody somewhere years ago. Now, I think it’s mine, but I know it’s not.

Tonight we want to look together at the first two divisions, verses 5-8, the illustration and the humility of Christ. (I believe some of my points will appear on the screens as well, if you’re taking notes.) First, in verse 5, we have the illustration of Christ. Let’s go back and read that verse again. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Paul does two things in verse 5. He issues a command, it’s a present imperative, “Let this mind be in you,” it’s a command—let this continually, ongoingly be in you, the same mind. I’ll talk about what that means. The second thing he does in verse 5, he gives us the example, “…which was also in Christ Jesus,” so a command, “Let this mind,” or attitude or outlook that Christ had, “be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

Verse 5 is a transition from exhortation to illustration. What does Paul mean by the mind of Christ? Every phrase, almost every word, in these verses is important to understand. The phrase, “mind of Christ” simply stated means attitude or outlook. You might think of it as a philosophy of life, how you look at life, the same humble attitude and outlook and view of life that Jesus had, the same heart that Jesus had. It doesn’t mean that you actually become omniscient, that you have the mind of God, but it means that you have the same outlook on life and attitude that Jesus had, who came from Heaven to earth to sacrifice Himself to serve others. Remember Paul said, “Look not every man on his own things,” interests or concerns, “but every man also on the things of others.” This is what Jesus Christ did when He left Heaven and came to die for our sins. You and I should have the same attitude—to deny ourselves and give ourselves for the sake of others. That’s what it means, the humble attitude or unselfish outlook. Someone described it as the disposition of the eternal Son of God, even before He came to earth, who regarded no sacrifice as too great, no humiliation too painful in accomplishing His redeeming work. How important that is. Jesus is always our supreme example.

In 1 John 2:6, it says, “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” The work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is to do this one thing—to make you like Jesus. Some of you are giving the Holy Spirit a hard time because we resist Him. The more we surrender and yield to Him, the easier it is for us to become like Christ. Now, we’ll never fully arrive until we see Him face to face, and the Bible says that when we see Him, “…we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” It’s a lifelong process in what is called sanctification. The believer has experienced justification, we’ve been justified, we stand righteous before God, but we’re in the process of being made practically righteous. That’s the sanctifying, lifelong process of walking with Christ.

The second thing we see, we move from the illustration of Christ, and this is the meat of tonight’s text, to the humiliation of Christ, verses 6-8. In these three verses, Paul paints three pictures of Christ. I know I’m giving you a lot of outline and a lot of titles and information, but I think this is important stuff, so I encourage you to write it down. In verse 6, we see Christ is the sovereign; in verse 7, we see Christ as the servant; in verse 8, we see Christ’s sacrifice—Jesus the sovereign, verse 6; Jesus the servant, verse 7; and Jesus the sacrifice, verse 8. We’re going to see seven steps down from Heaven and its splendor, to earth’s and its suffering. I’m going to list them for you, if you’re taking notes, seven steps from Heaven to earth and the sufferings of Christ.

Before we trace the steps of humiliation, note first who He is and where He came from. First, verse 6, we see the sovereign, we see His deity. Again, these are important verses. If you ever deal with somebody that denies the deity of Christ, say a Jehovah’s Witness on your doorstep, these verses will be very helpful for you. Go back now to verse 6. “Who, being,” referring to Christ Jesus, verse 5, “in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” so he thought equality with God not something He was robbing because it was His to hold. Notice this phrase, “Who, being in the form of God.”

The word “form” is a very, very key word in this text. It’s the Greek word morphe. That word morphe actually has the idea that denotes the inner nature or essence, not the external form or appearance. It’s not talking about outward shape, we use the word “form” for outward shape, but it’s talking about inner essence—what it is in its essence. In reality, this is a statement of Christ’s deity in, “…being in the form of God,” the morphe of God. It means in essence, He is God. It’s a clear statement to the deity of Christ.

The NIV renders this, “Who, being in the very nature God.” If you consult the NIV you’ll see it’s worded that way, which is interesting because there are people that say, “Well, the Bible doesn’t teach that Jesus is God,” it certainly does. I don’t know what Bible you’re reading or what your problem is, it’s pretty clear, “Who, being in the form of God,” or the very essence is God.

I want you to note the little word “being.” It means Jesus did not begin to be in the form of God because as God He was from eternity in the form of God. This “being” means that He is eternally God. I know I may be bogging down a little bit here, but I want you to get this. He wasn’t created. Why do I emphasize this? Because the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus Christ is not God, that He’s a creature created by God the Father, created as an archangel, Michael, and that He became Jesus the Son of God. The Bible here says, “Being,” it speaks of His eternality, which means that He’s eternal. He didn’t become. He was in the essence the form of God, so Jesus was eternal.

Write down John 1:1. I know I quote this verse a lot, but it’s one of the great verses of the Bible. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,” listen carefully, “and the Word was God.” In the Greek, it’s even stronger, “God was the Word,” another clear statement to the deity of Jesus.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses in their New World Translation have the article “a” there, “He was a god,” and they use a small g, so now they have two gods; but it’s saying, He is God. Jesus is eternal, and He is separate from the Father. “In the beginning was the Word,” He’s eternal, He’s personal, “and the Word was with God.” That word “with” means face to face with, so the Eternal Word was with the Father, personal Word; and He’s the divine Word, “and the Word was God,” Jesus was preexistent. Remember when He said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” not I was, not I have been, not I hope to be, “I am.” He’s the eternal “I am.”

When Moses asked God in the burning bush, “Who shall I say sent me?” “Tell them, ‘I AM THAT I AM,’ has sent you.” This is Jesus speaking from the burning bush, the Great I AM. We also know in Colossians 1:17 that, “he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” In John 17:24, I love it when Jesus was praying in what’s called His Great High Priestly Prayer, He said, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me…before the foundation of the world.” This is what’s called His preexistence, so He’s eternal, there’s never been a time when Jesus was not, and He preexisted Bethlehem, which is obvious. If He’s eternal, then He existed before He was born.

All of these are attributes of His divine nature. He possessed divine attributes. All of the attributes of God are equally possessed by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One of the ways that we affirm the triune nature of God and that the Father, Son, and Spirit are all divine is that all the attributes attributed to God the Father are attributed to God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That only makes sense then that they are all equal and all divine—One God, three Persons. Jesus claimed to be God in John 10:30. He said, “I and my Father are one.”

That word “one” there in John 10:30 is a word that’s neuter which means one in essence, not one in purpose, not one in plan, but We’re one in essence, meaning that We’re one divine God. The Bible says He is God in Hebrews1:8. I wasn’t planning on mentioning Jehovah’s witnesses tonight, but I guess I’ll mention them again. If you ever have a Jehovah’s Witness knock on your door…not if, when you do, although they haven’t come back to my house for a long time. They probably have a big picture of it at the Kingdom Hall with a big black line through it, “Don’t go here.” It’s Hebrews 1:8 where God the Father calls God the Son, God. He said, “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness,” so God calls Jesus, God, in Hebrews 1:8. Jehovah’s Witnesses that have been converted to biblical Christianity and found Christ as Savior have testified that this is one of the verses that often got to them that they couldn’t understand or explain.

The next phrase in Philippians 2:6, “…to be equal with God,” look at it. It says there, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” When you rob something, what are you doing? Taking something that’s not yours. If it’s not “robbery” for Jesus to claim equality with God, it’s because it’s His. He’s not robbing something He already possesses. “…thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” the Father, is a clear affirmation of the deity of Christ. Jesus is the eternal God, verse 6, in Heaven with the Father, and from all eternity past. Write down Micah 5:2. It’s a famous Christmas passage where it talks about the Son of God being the eternal one, so Jesus is eternal God. This is who He is, and He came to die for our sins.

The second thing we see, verse 7, is the servant. We go from the sovereign, verse 6, to the servant, verse 7. “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men,” so the sovereign becomes the servant. Note the three steps down in this one verse. If you’re taking notes, I’m going to end this study with seven steps down, and they’re found in verses 7-8. The first step, “But made himself of no reputation,” or literally it would read, “He emptied Himself.” This is the phrase from which we get the term kenosis. It’s the Greek word kenosis. This is what is called the kenosis passage. This is the phrase this whole passage hinges on.

What does it mean that Jesus emptied Himself? What does it mean that He poured out Himself or emptied Himself? Let me tell you what it does not mean. Listen very carefully. This is perhaps the most important passage in the whole text. It doesn’t mean that He emptied Himself of deity. It does not mean that He laid aside His deity. That is impossible. God cannot change. He is immutable. If you’ve ever been God, you’re always going to be God. If you meet somebody that says, “I used to be God,” he’s never been God. If you meet somebody that’s not God and thinks they’re going to be God, they’ll never be God because God is eternal. That’s why it’s so funny, “If you take this course, sit in the lotus, contemplate your navel and reach nirvana, you become God,” or you can take a course, $39.99, to discover that you’re God. What kind of a stupid god are you that you have to take a course to find out that you’re divine? “Duh, duh, duh, I found out I’m God! Whooo!” It’s so stupid. Forgive me. I’m thinking of Shirley MacLaine, “I am God, I am God, I am God!” What stupidity.

God doesn’t change, God is eternal. He doesn’t change, so make it very, very clear He did not empty Himself of His deity. The passage is Malachi 3:6, “For I am the LORD, I change not,” nor, secondly, did He empty Himself of His attributes. I’m going to explain what He did empty Himself of, but He didn’t give up His attributes. When He stood at the grave of Lazarus and said, “Lazarus, come forth,” He had omnipotence. When He read the hearts of men, He had omniscience, so Jesus had His attributes. If He were to give up His attributes, then He would not be divine. God cannot change. He can’t give up His attributes. It’s like, “I used to be God and all-powerful, but I don’t have it anymore.” No, it doesn’t work that way. He didn’t give up His deity, and He didn’t give up His attributes.

What did He empty Himself of? Let me give you five things that Jesus emptied Himself of. First, He temporarily, these words are all important, divested Himself, emptied Himself of His divine glory, splendor, or majesty. Someone said it was the insignia of His majesty. What happened was Jesus is in glory, and what He did was He laid aside the display, the demonstration of His deity—not His deity, but the glory of His deity. Remember in John 13, I can’t wait until the end of my study to get there, so here it is, when Jesus arose from supper in the upper room and He was going to wash the disciples’ feet? It says that He took off His coat, which is a reference to the outer tunic, His outer coat, that’s a picture of Jesus getting off the throne in Heaven, taking off the glory, the splendor, the majesty of His glory and laying it aside. He became a King in street clothes upon common men. He was God incognito. He was God veiled in flesh. When Jesus walked down the street, no one said, “Look at that guy! He’s glowing. He must be God.” “Look at the halo that Dude has. He must be God.” “Listen to the reverb in His voice. He must be God.” There was nothing, looking at Jesus, that would indicate that He was anything but a man. He laid aside the majesty or the splendor. I like, as I said, the insignia of His majesty.

Secondly, He emptied Himself of the independent use of His divine authority. In other words, when He came down to earth, everything He did was in submission to the purpose, the plan, the will of God the Father as a man. We’re going to see He took on humanity, we haven’t gotten there yet, and submits to the Father’s purpose and plan. Everything He did in healing people, everything He spoke, every deed He did was in obedience to the plan of God the Father. He emptied Himself voluntarily of the exercise of His divine attributes. In other words, He didn’t use His omniscience, He didn’t use His omnipotence, unless it was in the purpose and plan of God the Father. This is why sometimes people will point to Christ as a man and say, “See there, He’s not God. He didn’t know what was going on,” or “He didn’t understand what was happening,” that’s because He voluntarily chose not to use His divine attributes outside the purpose and plan of God the Father.

Let me give you the fourth. He emptied Himself of His eternal riches, 2 Corinthians 8:9. It says, “…though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” By the way, this is kind of a general encompassing concept that He actually left Heaven, gave up His majesty and His splendor, the use of His attributes, and took on a humble form of a servant.

The fifth is He emptied Himself temporarily of His face-to-face relationship with His Father. Remember John 1:1? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,” face to face with God the Father, “and the Word was God.” He gave that up. Think about this. It’s kind of hard to comprehend, but from all eternity, no beginning, God the Father and God the Son were together in Heaven. Then, the time came when God the Son volunteered for the redemptive plan and program of going to earth, being born of a virgin, in order to die on a cross to redeem man back to God, and He said, “Goodbye,” to the Father. Remember when He hung on the cross and cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The eternal second Person of the Godhead left His face-to-face relationship with God the Father in Heaven to come to earth to redeem you and me. Think of what it cost Him just to leave Heaven. I mean, if I were hanging out with God in Heaven, I would say, “I’m not going to go down there and die for these people. Let them figure it out.” Aren’t you glad I’m not your savior? But Jesus, in His great love—how marvelous that is—left that temporarily, face-to-face. In other words, He’s back with God the Father now.

That’s all a part of step one. Here’s step two, verse 7. “..and took upon him the form of a servant.” So, He “made himself of no reputation,” that is, He emptied Himself, and here’s the second aspect, “and took upon him the form of a servant.” The word “form” in verse 7 is the same Greek word used as “form” in verse 6, morphe. What this means is in essence being God, He took on the form of a servant. This is a reference to the incarnation of Jesus becoming flesh, becoming a man; and when we say “flesh,” that means full human nature. He had a human mind, a human spirit, a human body. He was just like us only without sin. He was born of a virgin. Jesus was fully human. Step two, “…and took upon him the form of a servant.” Literally, He willingly took on the nature of a slave. The Divine Son who, with the Father, was supreme over all, now becomes the servant of all and wholly submissive to His Father’s will.

Here’s step 3, I hope you’re following with me, verse 7, “…and was made in the likeness of men.” It starts with, “and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” That’s conveying a couple ideas, that He was actually man, and that when you looked at Him, because He really was a man, He didn’t have any indication that He was God or divine. Jesus walked among people as one of them, fully man. Jesus was truly man, full humanity.

Something important to understand is that to deny the full, or you might use the word true or real, humanity of Christ, is just as heretical or false teaching as to deny the deity of Christ. Throughout the history of the church, the battle has been in both areas. We know the battle to be more in the area of His deity, but the battle is also in the area of His humanity. There’s a group of heretics known as the Docetists, also gnostic in their belief, that actually believed that Jesus was a phantom. If you reached out to try to touch Him, your hand would just SWOOSH! go right through Him, like Casper the Friendly Ghost. How many old folks remember Casper the Friendly Ghost? You know, if you tried to grab ahold of Casper, your arm just went right through him. And, when Jesus walked down the beach, He left no footprints. They believed that He wasn’t really in flesh. This is why John in his epistle talks about, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life,” and that He came by blood and water, so Jesus really was man—He was physical, He wasn’t a phantom—so we cannot deny either the true humanity or the true deity of Jesus Christ in one Person.

Jesus was truly man from the moment He was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. This is why, when I taught this back in June on Sunday morning, I mentioned the issue of abortion. He was a human fetus. He was a human embryo and fetus and grew and matured in the womb—fully human, fully divine. Think about that. Can you imagine if Mary would have had an abortion? Slaughtered and murdered the Son of God? Unthinkable. From the moment of conception, He was the eternal, incarnate Word made flesh. John 1:14, “ And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” this is what’s called His incarnation. Someone said, “He forsook the courts of everlasting day, And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.” It speaks of His incarnation. Jesus was truly man, but not merely man; He was God in flesh, He was the Son given, He was the Child born. He was like us in every way but without sin.

Notice, thirdly, in verse 8, the sacrifice; verse 6, the sovereign; verse 7, the servant; and, by the way, His deity is in verse 6; His humanity is in verse 7; and His crucifixion is in verse 8. “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

We have four more steps down, and I won’t tarry on them, but I want you to get them. We see, fourthly, the step down in verse 8, “And being found in fashion as a man,” so being found in appearance as a man was a step down from Heaven. His outward appearance was altogether human. He was Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Jesus became a man.

Notice the second step here, which is step five, in verse 8, “…he humbled himself,” Jesus was not humbled by others, rather He humbled Himself. When He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He was tried by Pilate, Caiaphas, and Herod, and crucified by the Roman soldiers, it was all His giving Himself. He said, “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” Jesus was not humbled by others, rather He humbled Himself. He voluntarily submitted Himself to the will of the Father. This is why Gethsemane is such a pivotal point in the life of Christ. I think by the time He passed through Gethsemane, the battle had already been won. He was going to the cross to lay down His life for the sins of the world, but in agony He cried, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” He submitted to the will of the Father and went willingly to the cross to be crucified. Isaiah 53:7 says, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth,” He gave Himself.

Verse 8, “…and became obedient unto death,” here’s step six from Heaven to earth. Jesus actually died. Again, this might sound elementary, it might sound unimportant, but it’s absolutely essential. You cannot have a resurrection unless you have Jesus actually dead. He didn’t swoon, He didn’t just pass out, He physically died, and He would be resurrected from the grave. He took on humanity and a human body in order to die. That’s why He became a man, so He could die for our sins.

Here’s step seven, verse 8, “…even the death of the cross.” He humbled Himself, became obedient unto death, not only just death, but in wrapping it up, verse 8, “…even the death of the cross.” If you had to choose how to die, you wouldn’t want to choose crucifixion. I mean how many times have you heard people say, “I want to die in my sleep.” Wouldn’t that be nice? You go to bed that night, you wake up, and you’re in Heaven. I went home this past Sunday after church. I went to bed and woke up about 7:30 at night. I thought it was Monday morning. I thought I slept through the night! Can you imagine? That’s what it is when a Christian dies—you go to sleep here and you wake up in Heaven. You close your eyes here and you open your eyes in Heaven, looking at the face of Jesus Christ.

Jesus came from Heaven to earth, not only died, but He died by crucifixion. He died a very painful, agonizing, shameful death upon the cross. How marvelous is His great love! Jesus died on the cross for us.

Do you know that Roman citizens could not be crucified? Paul could not be crucified. It was only for those who aren’t Roman citizens. Jesus was crucified.

The extend of Christ’s humiliation can be seen that He went from the throne of divine majesty to the cross of agony. He became sin for us. Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It’s all part of a step down. He suffered, He took our shame, our sorrow, and our sin. Now, to think that He did it all for me because of His love is more than I can fathom or comprehend.

If you fail to understand the cross, you do not understand Christianity. If you don’t understand the cross of Christ, you don’t understand the essence of Christianity. Let me give you three things about the cross. He died to rescue us from sin, this is called redemption. Secondly, He died to conquer sin, this is His conquest. Thirdly, He died to reveal the love of God the Father. It’s called the theater of the cross. That’s an abbreviation of the cross, but He died to redeem us, that’s the essence of the cross. He died to conquer Satan and sin. He died to reveal to us the love of God the Father.

All of this, as I alluded to earlier, is pictured when Jesus rose from supper, John 13, “and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.” That towel was the picture of His humanity and His servanthood. Then, He washed the disciples’ feet, got back up, took the towel away, put back on His tunic, and sat back down. All that is a picture of what Jesus did for us when He left Heaven and came down to earth. Let’s pray.