Conversion by the Holy Spirit

John 11:43-44

Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

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There is much misunderstanding about just what exactly the Holy Spirit does when He converts a sinner. It is popular these days to believe that the Holy Spirit simply changes a person’s mind to make him favorably disposed toward God. Some don’t even give God credit for this miraculous work, instead some say that a man must change his own heart and make some sort of a decision that would cause God to come into his wicked heart. Neither of these are taught by Holy Scripture.

Scripture describes conversion to faith in Christ as something like a birth or a resurrection. Remember that because of our inherited sin we are by nature “dead in (our) transgressions and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” (John 3:5-6) Since we are spiritually dead by nature then the new life that is begun in us through the power of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Holy Baptism is like a resurrection. God creates life where before there is only death.

The raising of Lazarus both gives a great example how this works, and it shows that Jesus has the divine power to accomplish this miracle. Lazarus was four days dead when Jesus came to visit his home in Bethany. Lazarus had no power to walk out of the grave on his own to meet Jesus halfway. Lazarus had no will to make a decision that would cause Jesus to act favorably on his behalf. Even Lazarus’ sisters did not presume to encourage Jesus to raise their brother (see John 11:23-26) even when Jesus told them what He was going to do. Lazarus was as dead as dead can be and his body was beginning to decay (John 11:39). Lazarus had no active role in his resurrection, no will, decision, cooperation, nor any help whatsoever.

Jesus didn’t need any help from Lazarus or anyone else. Jesus displayed the same power that He used in the beginning of time when He created all things visible and invisible. He simply spoke the words, “Lazarus, come out” and Lazarus came out of the tomb alive and well.

The same thing happens when a baby (or anyone) is baptized in the name of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “We were, by nature, objects of wrath” (Eph. 2:3) but when God’s Word is spoken and the water is applied, then a new child of God is born as Jesus says in John 3. It is a true miracle what God does in Holy Baptism. It is equal to what happened to Lazarus in Bethany four days after he died. It doesn’t seem to us to be a great miracle, especially when the person baptized is still an infant, and many would deny the miracle, but it is a great miracle nonetheless. “The Spirit gives birth to spirit,” is how Jesus describes the miracle of Holy Baptism.

Our sinful nature does not like to give Christ credit for even the miraculous things that He does in our lives, especially when that miracle includes killing our sinful nature. That is why people make up stories about the supposed power of a personal “decision” to follow Jesus. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism says that Baptism “indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires…” Luther writes this based on the words of Jesus in Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me,” and the words of St. Paul in Galatians 5:24, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.”

There is great comfort in the miracle of new birth by the Holy Spirit in Holy Baptism. It takes away any question or doubt regarding the sincerity and effectiveness of one’s own decision or self-driven conversion. It gives us the assurance that what Christ says is done, and it is very good, as are all things that God creates by His holy Word. It is also as wonderful as a dead man walking out of his grave alive after Jesus calls him by name. Jesus does that to all of us who believe and are baptized.

Christ’s Blessings Through Wine

Jesus changes water into wine

John 2:1-11

A wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

“Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

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I remember watching a television documentary years ago on the making of wine. They interviewed a man from the so-called “Bible-belt” in the Southern United States who said, “I’m almost ashamed that the first miracle of our Lord was changing water into wine.”

This man was wrong on at least two counts (probably more). He wasn’t “almost” ashamed, he was completely ashamed of Jesus. In the Bible, the Pharisees were ashamed of Jesus. Christians are never ashamed of Jesus (except while we are sinning). Next, though the Holy Scriptures condemn drunkenness in many places, they never give an absolute ban on drinking wine (or similar drinks). Instead, wine is described as a blessing from God, and as a sign of His grace and favor.

The Holy Bible is very clear that drunkenness is a sin against the Fifth Commandment (“You shall not murder.”) because it hurts the body that God gave you. “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.” (Proverbs 23:20-21) Also, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18) There are also many examples in Scripture of those who have gotten drunk and have suffered because of it. Noah, and Lot (after the destruction of Sodom) are two examples. King David got Uriah drunk to try to cover up his own sins with Uriah’s wife (2 Samuel 11:13), though Uriah was more righteous when he was drunk than David was when he was sober.

Scriptures also show that wine is a blessing from God. “[Yahweh (the Lord), my God, makes] wine that gladdens the heart of man.” (Psalm 104:15) In addition to making man’s heart glad, the blessings of wine are used in the Old Testament to describe the blessings of heaven. “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills. I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.’” (Amos 9:13-14)

Those who say that Christians should not drink wine or alcoholic beverages are adding new laws that God never spoke. They are like Eve, who said that God told them that they shouldn’t touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:3). God only told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit (Gen. 2:16-17), but when Eve added to God’s Word it made her more vulnerable to fall for the devil’s temptation and lies.

Besides changing water into wine, Jesus did not refrain from drinking it either. This should be enough to show people that God does not forbid the moderate use of wine. However, our sinful flesh often looks for opportunities to justify itself, especially when we can pretend to be more righteous than God Himself. That is what the Pharisees were doing when they criticized Jesus for not observing the rules that they had added to God’s Word. Jesus noted their hypocrisy in Matthew 11:18-19 when He said, “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’ But wisdom is proved right by her actions.” Jesus was certainly neither a glutton nor a drunkard, but because He didn’t follow the rules invented by the Pharisees they looked down on Him and thought they were better than Him, even though Jesus was obeying God’s law perfectly in every way.

Jesus ultimately fulfills the promise of the blessings of wine when He institutes the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and gives His holy blood to those who drink the wine of the Sacrament. “Then [Jesus] took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.’” (Matt. 26:27-29)

In this holy Sacrament Jesus joins Himself with us even after His ascension into heaven. Jesus is still “God with us” even as He is seated at the right hand of the Father and ruling all of God’s creation. Jesus has not abandoned us, but has given Himself to us through the ordinary means of wine in the Sacrament by the power of His Word. Through Christ’s blood in the wine, we receive the forgiveness of our sins that Christ has won for us on the cross. This is why the devil works so hard to demonize wine, even in the church, or to tempt us to misuse or abuse it. Satan doesn’t want us to enjoy the blessings of Christ’s forgiveness through the Lord’s Supper. However, Christ has given us a greater gift than we could possibly hope to receive. He has given us Himself. First, on the cross where Jesus exchanged His holy life for our sinful lives, and now He unites us to Himself through bread and wine that we may enjoy His gracious blessings both now and forever.

Temptation

The Temptation of Jesus

Luke 4:1-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here.

For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

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In our culture we all are very familiar with temptation. Unfortunately, instead of teaching our children to resist temptation, they are taught quite early to give in to nearly every temptation. Nearly all marketing and advertising uses temptation to get us to desire the product or service being sold. A great portion of our economy is driven by temptation, much of it sinful.
It is important for Christians to understand how temptation works. Temptation is the ONLY weapon the devil can use to destroy us, but he wields this weapon skillfully and it is why he is so dangerous. The devil is a big problem, but he is not our biggest problem. Our biggest problem is that we are by nature sinful and we naturally desire only the things which will destroy us. Obviously this makes the devil’s job much easier. All he has to do is to get us to do what we want to do anyway.

I think that the danger of temptation is one of the reasons why God limited man’s life span to a maximum of 120 years after the great flood of Noah's day (see Genesis 6:3). Before the great flood people lived hundreds of years. Noah himself lived 950 years (see Genesis 9:29), but he was the last one to live anywhere near that long. When people lived that long it gave the devil more opportunities to tempt them to sin and to find their weaknesses so he could lure them away from the faith. This is one of the reasons why the world was so evil in the days of Noah, which prompted God to send the flood.

Many of the most popular preachers in America are fond of telling you how “great” it is to be a Christian, but you don't often hear them teaching about how difficult it is to fight temptation. This is completely backwards. It is much more difficult and troublesome to be a Christian than to be an unbeliever because the Christian must struggle and fight against temptation, while the unbeliever generally doesn’t care and freely gives in to temptation whenever he desires.

The way temptation works is that the devil tries to get us to want or desire that which will kill us. That is how it has worked all the way back to the garden of Eden. There Satan got Eve to desire the forbidden fruit by getting her to believe the lie that eating the fruit would make her more like God.

Satan didn't (and couldn't) force Adam and Eve to kill themselves, and he couldn’t make God condemn the people He loved, but by getting Adam and Eve to desire to eat the forbidden fruit the resulting effect was the same. Once they desired evil it didn’t matter to them that God had decreed death to all who disobeyed Him.

“Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" Deuteronomy 8:3

The temptations of Jesus worked in the exact same way. In each case the devil tried to get Jesus to desire something sinful so that He would act on it and in so doing make himself unworthy to save us from our sin. The trick was to get Jesus to act on self interest rather than love. The first temptation was to satisfy His own hunger after 40 days of fasting. Other temptations tried to get Jesus to take the easy way out instead of having to suffer and die or to test God the Father to make Him prove that His Word was true.

We should also take notice of how Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil. Jesus did not do anything miraculous in resisting the devil. All Jesus did was to quote the Holy Scriptures and put His trust in God and His Word over and against the lies and innuendo of the devil. This also should give us comfort and confidence in our task to resist temptation. Jesus did nothing that we cannot do. It is true that we have our sinful nature working against us which really does want to sin, but we, too, can learn and quote Bible verses to resist temptation. As sinners, we are not going to be able to resist all temptation, but when we fail we can trust that Jesus will forgive us, even as we ask for strength to resist the next time we face a similar temptation. We also have to be careful to use Scripture properly because you may have noticed above that the devil quoted the Bible, too, in trying to get Jesus to sin. The verses he quoted were accurate, but out of context. God' s Word should never be used to justify disobedience against God, but the devil has been doing that since he asked Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat...?’”

Fortunately for us, Jesus loved us more than He cared about His own comfort. Jesus also trusted that God the Father’s will is always best, even if it cost Him tremendous suffering and death. That is what love does - it cares more about someone else than one’s self. Because Jesus wished to obey God the Father and save us from our sins He always resisted temptation, and though it cost Him greatly, He won for us full forgiveness and everlasting life.

The Slaughter of the Innocents

Matthew 2:13-18

When [the Magi] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in adream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

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This window depicts the holy family’s flight to Egypt. This happened in response to the first attempt by God’s enemies to take the life of Jesus. It is a very tragic story and it shows why all of Jerusalem was “troubled” when King Herod was upset to learn of a potential rival newborn king (see Magi). History tells us that Herod was so ruthless that he murdered his own son when he believed the young man was a threat to his rule, so the babies of Bethlehem were of no concern to him.

This was a great tragedy, but greater massacres occur every day in the United States alone, not to mention numerous other nations, when thousands of innocent babies are mercilessly slaughtered in the womb by people who view these children as some threat to livelihood or prosperity just as Herod did. All this tells us is that we live in a cold, cruel world full of sinners who need redemption from our sin.

Christians know that there are no real “innocent” people in the world. The unborn victims of abortion need a savior from inherited sin as well as their murderers. Fortunately that is where Jesus comes in. It is precisely because God loves both murder victim and murderer alike that Jesus was born to redeem sinners. When Jesus was less than two years old He had not yet accomplished all that was necessary to win our salvation, so He walked away. This is exactly the same tactic He used on other occasions when people wanted to kill Him before He had finished His work. However, when his work was done He did not walk or run away, nor did He try to save Himself in any way, but He let them torture Him, humiliate Him, and crucify Him. By suffering in this way, Jesus paid the price for sin so that all sinners may escape punishment for sin though faith in Him.

The life and death of Jesus does not excuse the wickedness of King Herod, nor of modern day abortionists and their apologists. Evil is still evil no matter how one may try to excuse it. We can take comfort, however, that just as Jesus forgave those who nailed Him to a cross and killed Him, so He will forgive my sins, no matter how wicked they may be. This is what gives Christians the courage to repent of all our sins - the assurance that God has forgiven us all our sins for the sake of Christ Jesus.

Magi

From Emmanuel

Matthew 2:1-12

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

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It is easy to get the wrong idea about the Magi who brought gifts to the infant Jesus. First, the details that Matthew gives us about the Magi only leave us wanting to know more. Who were these Magi? Where exactly in the East did they come from? How many of them were there? What was the star that they saw, and how did they know it proclaimed the birth of the Christ? Why did they give Jesus these three gifts? It seems like God’s Word leaves us with more questions than answers about the Magi. It is very tempting to speculate about the answers to these questions, and many scholars who are undisciplined in their study of Christian theology are all too eager to give in to that temptation. There seems to be no end to such speculation. Faithful Christian theologians know that God’s Word tells us ALL that we need to know for our salvation, and whatever it leaves out is not necessary for us to know (no matter how much we want to know it.)

Second, the whole world is filled with false religions which tell of demanding gods which must be appeased by gifts given by supplicants. In a strange way this enslaves the supplicants who must work hard to please a capricious god, but it also shows a weak god who may be “bought off” by the work or sacrifices of people. There are even some Christians who have this view of God, but that isn’t true Christianity. It is only pagan theology with a Christian façade. The true, Triune God (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) cannot be appeased by our gifts or good works. All things belong to Him anyway, so He is truly not impressed when we make a pretense to give Him a tiny portion of what already belongs to Him (see Hebrews 10).

Instead of requiring sacrifices and gifts from us, the True God made the sacrifices Himself and gives us the gifts. Jesus is God in the flesh and He sacrificed His life to redeem our lives from the guilt of our sin. The gift that He gives us is full forgiveness and pardon from any punishment which we deserve through our sinfulness and disobedience of God’s Law.

This is why Christians give gifts to one another at Christmas. God has already given us the greatest gift in the forgiveness we have through Christ, so we demonstrate our trust in this priceless gift by sharing what we have with others.

I don’t know who the Magi were, or how they knew about Christ, but we do know that they came to worship Christ and they were faithful to the God’s Word which told them to avoid King Herod. In this they can be great examples to us of faithfulness and worship.

A Peaceful Passing

When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord” ), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:22-35)

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You will sometimes hear people say, “I can die happy, now.” This is a great exaggeration. There is nothing “happy” about death, and with all due respect to Simeon, there is little that is “peaceful” about death either. Death is not “natural.” God did not create death. God created life. Death only came into the world as a result of people’s sin (see Genesis 3:19). Because of this, death is always a great tragedy, though in some cases, it is welcomed as a release from suffering (as long as the person has the assurance that the life beyond death is in Paradise, and not a greater suffering.)

Simeon, however, was given a great gift. God the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not see death before he saw the Christ, the long-awaited savior of mankind. Yet what did Simeon see there at the temple in Jerusalem? Simeon saw a helpless newborn baby and a young family far from home who were struggling with cash flow problems. The baby Jesus looked and sounded and felt and smelled like any other baby His age. He couldn’t talk, He couldn’t walk, He couldn’t feed himself despite the fact that He was the almighty creator and ruler over all things visible and invisible.

It wasn’t the appearance of Jesus that made Simeon praise Him. Many other people saw Jesus with their eyes, and did not receive the great blessing that Simeon received. King Herod saw Jesus, but was unimpressed and felt disappointed. Judas saw Jesus nearly every day for about three years, and was a student of Christ’s teachings, yet, Judas did not believe and lost the salvation which was so close, yet so far away for him.

Many people view faith as a matter of feeling. We are sensual creatures and we often rely too much on what we take in with our five senses. It also wasn’t just how Simeon felt about this baby which made him identify Him as the Christ - he could have felt more strongly about someone else, and would have been wrong. Remember that Eve (Genesis 4) felt that her firstborn son was the promised Christ, but she was tragically wrong. What Simeon had, which blessed him so, was the Word of God!

Despite what Simeon saw, felt, heard, and smelled, he believed God’s word to him that this baby was the promised Christ who would redeem the world from sin. It didn’t matter to Simeon that this child had not accomplished any of this yet. All Simeon knew was that God had promised that it would happen and this baby, Jesus, would do what was necessary for our salvation. That was good enough for Simeon.

Simeon sings a prophetic song of praise to God, though he does briefly mention his experiences. He says, “my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” Note that while he mentions what God had revealed to him, Simeon only praises God and not himself. Simeon rejoiced in his salvation, not because he was convinced by what he saw, but because he believed God’s promises to send a savior who would redeem the world from sin.

Simeon also notes that God did not do this in secret, but had “prepared [this] in the sight of all people.” This was the task that God had given the Israelites from the days of Abraham (who was actually, Israel’s Grandfather) until the fulfillment of the promise in Christ and then the spreading of the message of salvation to the Gentiles. Jesus is the “glory of Israel” because all believing Christians praise God for the Israelites who were faithful to Him and remained faithful up to Christ’s birth of the Virgin Mary. We also praise God for all those Christian Jews like St. Paul who also spread the Gospel message to the world during the first century Roman persecution (and subsequent persecutions).

Christ is a “light for revelation to the Gentiles” because before that time God’s promises of salvation were largely forgotten and unknown by the whole world except for the Israelites. Only Israel knew the true God and kept His Word in the Holy Scriptures, though as we read in the Bible even Israel forgot about God from time to time and needed some gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) reminding about who God is and what He has done for us.

I don’t know if Simeon died happy. I do know that he was at peace. He knew that God had kept His promise to send a savior to redeem the world from sin. In this respect we are no different from Simeon. Just as Simeon trusted in God’s Word more than just what his senses told him when he met the baby Jesus, so we, too, can trust in that same Word from God.

The Humble God

The angel said to [the shepherds], “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10-12)

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A “humble God” sounds like an oxymoron, especially when the Holy Scriptures describe God as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. How can God be humble when He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere? Yet, Jesus shows us that God is humble. God does not use His power for His own benefit. Instead He uses His power in a loving way to benefit us – if we will have it.

Many people mistake the humility of God for weakness. This is understandable, but it is a mistake. It is a mistake to think that the true God is weak because one day (soon) each of us will have to stand before God and answer for the sin we have committed against Him. If we imagine that we are stronger than God or greater than Him in any way then we are more likely to reject His solution for our sin.

It is understandable to mistake the humility of God for weakness because when sinful people create false gods, they exaggerate their “powers” so as to make them seem more impressive and frightening. The more powerful a god you seem to have on your side, then the more you can intimidate others to treat you favorably (or otherwise succumb to your wishes). False gods, however, have to be hyped up with hyperbole. They don’t have anything else speaking in their favor, especially the truth.

Jesus had nothing to prove to anyone, and He didn’t try – though many tried to tempt Him to prove Himself. Jesus was (and is) the same almighty God who created the earth, the universe, and everything that exists (except Himself, of course). Jesus didn’t have to prove Himself because Jesus is God. This would remain true even if no one had ever believed Him. So Jesus lived a humble life from beginning to end, simply living His own life so that through His life and death He would win salvation for us.


The humble life of Jesus began with His conception which was, at first, known only to His mother, Mary. By the time Jesus was born only a handful of people knew that God was soon to be born as a baby boy, including Mary and Joseph, and Mary’s elderly cousins, Zechariah and Elizabeth. Thus, when the holy family traveled to Bethlehem for the Imperial Census, no one made any room for the baby Son of God, and He spent His first night after His birth sleeping in a manger, where the livestock would ordinarily have been feeding. No other god on earth would be caught dead lying in a manger, but there was Jesus.
Jesus didn’t come to impress us, or to threaten us, or to “put the fear of God” into us. Though He could rightly have done any of these things, Jesus instead came to save us from the punishment required for our sins. Jesus lived an ordinary, humble life just like any other human being, even though He is God in the flesh.


The humility of Jesus is also shown when He went to be baptized by John, the son of Zechariah. John had been preparing the people to receive Christ by preaching repentance and baptizing for forgiveness of sins. He had truthfully told the people that he was unworthy to untie the shoelaces of the Christ who was soon to be revealed to them. Though God had sent him to preach and baptize in this manner, even John was surprised when Jesus came to be baptized, too.

The baptism of John was for sinners. Jesus was holy and innocent and pure, and had no sin. It could only make Jesus “dirty” to be baptized in the same baptism as the worst sinners. But Jesus didn’t come to earth just to remain “clean” and pure as if He were only here as an example for us to show us that it could be done. That would surely have condemned us because we are unable to undo what has already been done.

I have heard a saying, “For something to become clean, something else must become dirty.” You can’t make something clean with a dirty cloth or dirty water, for example, and our sin makes us filthy dirty inside and out. Jesus came to earth to “fulfill all righteousness” for our benefit, but He also came to “get dirty” with the guilt of our sin so that He could cleanse us from that same sin. So Jesus again humbled himself and insisted that He be baptized like a sinner. Jesus didn’t gain anything for Himself by doing this, but He gained amazing things for us, including full forgiveness of our sins, reconciliation with God, and the hope of everlasting life in paradise. To do this for us it cost Jesus a tremendous amount of shame and suffering and death, but that is what love does – love causes one to care more about others than about one’s self.


This leads us to the final humiliation of Jesus. Once Jesus had taken the guilt of mankind’s sins upon Himself and had completed the work of proclaiming the Gospel and preparing the Apostles to continue His work after He ascended into heaven, then He had to destroy our sins and the death curse that came along with them. Jesus did this by letting sinners do to Him what they wanted. What all sinners want to do God is to kill Him, so they killed Jesus.

Now, understand that it does no good to assign blame either to the Jews or to the Gentile Romans for the death of Jesus. They are both guilty. Jesus knew this, too, but He didn’t assign blame to them, but instead asked God the Father to forgive both Jews and Gentiles, which is to say, all people. We all are guilty of the death of Jesus, but that is only fitting because Jesus died for us all so that everyone who trusts in Jesus to save them from sin and death has been forgiven and will live with Jesus forever.

We ought to be glad that God is humble. If God were not humble and merciful, but only a righteous, all-powerful God, then He would have to use His power to punish all sinners for their sins. No other god would humble himself like Jesus did, but then no false god has any answer for sin except to pile more requirements upon us to try harder to accomplish the impossible task of saving ourselves. Jesus was not ashamed to humble himself. Jesus had nothing to prove, but He had much to accomplish. Jesus dirtied His body and soul with our sin so that He could wash us clean and rescue us from death. This He accomplished, and for this we (humbly) worship and praise Christ Jesus our savior.

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Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

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For more on this topic see: The Sovereignty of God