Monday, July 11, 2011

"Nothing of Himself"

 
    As the Son of God and the second Person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ possessed the innate and infinite power of the Divine.
 
    As the son of man, and the "second man," the Lord Jesus chose throughout His earthly lifetime to live not by His own abilities, but by those of of Another (I Corinthians 15:47).
 
    "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do... I can of Mine own self do nothing... The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works... I live by the Father" (John 5:19; 30; 14:10; 6:57).
 
    In order to deliver humanity from its insanity of prideful self delusion, the Savior lived a lifetime of humble determination to trust and submit to His Father.  We have no frame of reference for such condescension.  What sacrifices are involved in the heart and mind of the possessor of infinite power who yields Himself to a state of existence wherein He must receive "life and breath and all things?" (Acts 17:25).  We cannot know, even as the Apostle Paul declared, "Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh" (I Timothy 3:16).  We can only surmise that the challenge must have been profound, such as the wilderness temptation wherein Satan tempted the Lord Jesus to use His innate power rather than trust and submit unto the Father (Matthew 4:1-11).
 
     Some have defined meekness as "power under control and restraint."  This surely depicts the Lord Jesus - "I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29).  The Creator of a universe more vast and complex than we can imagine took upon Himself a humility just as imponderable.  For the proud He became the Humble in order to redeem us unto the proper understanding of both God and ourselves.  Indeed, the Lord Jesus reveals to us God as He is, and man as he should be.  The latter truth drives us to our faces, first in grateful adoration for so wonderful a Savior, and then in the proper posture of heart whereby we also declare, "I can of mine own self do nothing... He doeth the works... I live through Him."
 
"LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am."
(Psalm 39:4)
"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord."
(James 4:10)

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