about one
of the most simple, practical things in daily life,--humility; and in
connection with that, he gives us a wonderful exhibition of divine truth.
In this chapter we have the eternal Godhead of Jesus--He was in the form of
God, and one with God. We have His incarnation--He came down, and was found
in the likeness of man. We have his death with the atonement--He became
obedient unto death. We have His exaltation--God hath highly exalted Him.
We have the glory of His Kingdom,--that every knee shall bow, and every
tongue confess Him. And in what connection? Is it a theological study?
No. Is it a description of what Christ is? No; it is in connection with a
simple, downright call to a life of humility in our intercourse with each
other. Our life on earth is linked to all the eternal glory of the Godhead
as revealed in the exaltation of Jesus. The very looking to Jesus, the
very bowing of the knee to Jesus, ought to be inseparably connected with a
spirit of the very deepest humility. Consider the humility of Jesus. First
of all, that humility is our salvation; then, that humility is just the
salvation we need; and again, that humility is the salvation which the Holy
Spirit will give us.

Humility is the salvation that Christ brings. That is our first thought. We
often have very vague,--I might also say visionary--ideas of what Christ
is; we love the person of Christ, but that which makes up Christ, which
actually constitutes Him the Christ, that we do not know or love. If we
love Christ above everything, we must love humility above everything, for
humility is the very essence of His life and glory, and the salvation He
brings. Just think of it. Where did it begin? Is there humility in heaven?
You know there is, for they cast their crowns before the throne of God and
the Lamb. But is there humility on the throne of God? Yes, what was it but
heavenly humility that made Jesus on the throne willing to say: "I will go
down to be a servant, and to die for man; I will go and live as the meek
and lowly Lamb of God?" Jesus brought humility from heaven to us. It
was humility that brought Him to earth, or He never would have come. In
accordance with this, just as Christ became a man in this divine humility,
so His whole life was marked by it. He might have chosen another form in
which to appear; He might have come in the form of a king, but He chose the
form of a servant. He made Himself of no reputation; He emptied Himself;
He