God’s Word is clear that not only are we saved by the death of Christ, but we also are to be like Him in the way He lived.
Shortly before His death, after washing the disciples feet, Jesus says in John 13:15, “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” Even as Jesus served, so we are to humbly serve others. In Matthew 11:29, Jesus says that we should learn from Him, for He is gentle and lowly in heart. Paul states in Philippians 2:5-8, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Many other passages offer the same sage wisdom, linking the example of Christ with His humility, a Christian value that flies smack against our culture as it did in Jesus’ day. As I was reading Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening today (June 3 evening), he emphasized the point that as we follow Christ’s example, it will inevitably result in humbling us. Each of the three verses I listed stresses this point that Jesus humbled Himself, and so should we. In Mark 10:42-45, Jesus contrasts the proud leadership of Gentile rulers with His own leadership style, that the great should be the servant/slave of all. He uses Himself as the chief example, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Meditation upon the birth, life, work, teaching, example, and death of Christ inextricably drives us toward a humbler, servant posture.
Spurgeon writes, “Was He not on earth always stripping off first one robe of honour and then another, till, naked, He was fastened to the cross, and there did He not empty out His inmost self, pouring out His life-blood, giving up for all of us, till they laid Him penniless in a borrowed grave?” Spurgeon challenges us, “If you do not lie prostrate on the ground before that cross, you have never seen it: if you are not humbled in the presence of Jesus, you do not know Him.” Spurgeon concludes, “May the Lord bring us in contemplation to Calvary, then our position will no longer be that of the pompous man of pride, but we shall take the humble place of one who loves much because much has been forgiven him. Pride cannot live beneath the cross.”
Prayerful reflection on the amazing love seen in the cross of Christ humbles us even more than consideration of our shameful sin, and when the two are mixed together, the unavoidable result is worship that both dies to self and lives joyfully for Christ.