God’s Love For Us, Part 3: Humble
David W Palmer
(1 Corinthians 13:4-7 TLB) “Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud. …”
So far, we have seen that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16); all of the above passage applies to the way God feels about us, and acts towards us. So based on it, we are looking at what his love, his attitudes, and his actions towards us are really like. Today, we are up the the section above, which says, “Love is … never … boastful or proud”:
Love Is not “Proud,” so God Is humble
(Romans 12:3 NKJV) “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly …”
God doesn’t think of himself “more highly than he ought to think,” but he doesn’t think of himself more lowly than he ought to think either. He knows that he is God; Jesus knows that he is Lord, and we are not. That’s why he says that if we love him we will do what he says (John 14:15). His honest, humble appraisal of reality is that he is the one best suited, equipped, and God-appointed to direct our lives; we are not. Thankfully, Jesus is not a tyrant; he practices his lordship over our lives with humility and love.
Perhaps, the best demonstration of God’s humble love can be seen in Jesus. Can you imagine the creator of the universe—the almighty, all-knowing, absolutely all-wise God—humbly submitting to humans—to young newlyweds at that? Yet that is exactly what God did in Jesus.
Becoming a helpless, vulnerable baby, he trusted himself into the hands of Mary and Joseph; with nothing between him and death—apart from their obedience to instructions they received from angels in ethereal dreams(See: Mat. 1:20, 24, 2:13, 19). Jesus submitted himself to nappy changes, potty training, schooling, and house training—the God of the universe submitted to his human mother and stepfather.
Jesus humbly traversed his education as a clean-skin, “goodie.” He no doubt worked as an apprentice in carpentry, served around the house, helped raise his younger siblings, and maintained a perfect example for his little brothers—all while perfectly loving his parents.
When he was 30 years old, our Lord further demonstrated his humility and love for his Father, when he allied himself with the man God was using at the time—John the Baptist, a wild, desert man, considered “weird” by most. Not only that, but Jesus—the holy, all-knowing God of the universe—then humbly submitted himself under the ministry of a fallible human … in a baptism he didn’t need. Wow! That’s humility! That is amazing love demonstrated in a plan to save lost humanity.
The unimaginable depths of God’s love and humility are ultimately seen in the way Jesus died. He lived his life kindly serving others—teaching, healing, forgiving, providing, and delivering. He clearly demonstrated his Father’s goodness, love, kindness, and willingness to reconcile with his estranged creation. Yet, the pure love and humility that he exhibited was so much of a threat to God’s haters that instead of accepting his offer of forgiveness and reconciliation, they plotted to kill him.
With astounding humility, the God of all justice allowed them to perpetrate the ultimate miscarriage of justice: wrongful arrest, fake trial, mockery, insults, perjury, torture, and then cold-blooded murder. Yet, our loving Father and humbly submissive Jesus allowed it. And beyond the grasp of human understanding, their motivating love for the human race used the very act of gross injustice and murder committed against the only pure man, to be the very act that would purchase the forgiveness and freedom of those who perpetrated it—along with the entire rebellious human race.
Wow! That is the humble, loving God who is reaching out to you today with this same humble love. He has allowed himself to come as a baby again—inside the womb of your heart. He has allowed you a certain level of control over him as he allowed Mary and Joseph. But he wants you to think of him, not as a helpless baby now, but as the risen, all-conquering Lord of lords and King of kings. He wants you to let him rule and reign as Lord and King in and through you. But most of all, he wants your love, trust, and respect.
Today, I present Jesus:
(Philippians 2:3–11 NKJV) “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. {4} Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. {5} Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, {6} who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, {7} but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. {8} And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. {9} Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, {10} that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, {11} and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
(See also: Isaiah 53)
