Who, being in very nature God,
… he made himself nothing. And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death
even death on a cross! (Phil 2:6-8)
There is no greater gift that God gave to humanity than His Son. And there is no greater role model in all of history than Jesus Himself.
One of the most impacting devotional books I have ever read (over-and-over) is Humility, by Andrew Murray; a man who spent most of his life serving others as a missionary in South Africa.
Here are a few quotes from this book which I consider to be among the most profound, powerful, and potentially life-altering statements I’ve ever read:
“Christ is the humility of God embodied in human nature; the Eternal Love humbling itself, clothing itself in the garb of meekness and gentleness, to win and serve and save us.”
“The chief glory of heaven, the true heavenly-mindedness, the chief of the graces, is humility.”
“Humility is the only soil in which the graces root; the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of all, because it alone takes the right attitude before God, and allows Him as God to do all.”
If you caught that, he is proposing that the character trait of humility is the chief of all of Christ’s attributes that we should seek to emulate in our lives.
Without humility, love is like a clanging cymbal.
Without humility, pride takes over and life revolves around us instead of others.
Without humility, all the remaining gifts of the Spirit that we find in Galatians 5 fall flat.
Mr. Murray made a very sad confession when he said:
“When I look back upon my own religious experience, or round upon the Church of Christ in the world, I stand amazed at the thought of how little humility is sought after as the distinguishing feature of the discipleship of Jesus…
... alas! How much proof there is that humility is not esteemed the cardinal virtue, the only root from which the graces can grow, the one indispensable condition of true fellowship with Jesus.”
“It is pride that made redemption needful; it is from our pride we need above everything to be redeemed.”
This Christmas, let’s all step back and admire, honor, and worship Our Lord for giving us a Holy example of what humility looks like: Living for others and dying for others, considering others as more important than ourselves.