His choice: 'I'll become poor for you'

(my eyes are back to normal and will explain about this latest MAJOR wake-up call for me. in my "sightless" hours--at least for the computer, TV, written material, etc.--the other night, I found comfort listening to this old sermon on a cassette tape) 

What is the grace of God? Paul says in Philippians 2: [5] Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

[6] Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
[7] But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
[8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Rich in splendor, rich in identity as God yet, as it says in II Corinthians 8: [9] For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

Not for His reputation but for you He became poor. That's the opposite of rich, explains Richard Jordan.

Why did He do that for your sake? "That ye through His poverty might be rich." Did you get that? There's grace.

If anybody ever asks you to define the grace of God, that's a good verse to use.

Jesus Christ made the conscious choice in eternity past not to claim His status as God and not to hold onto all the glory associated with that, but He made Himself of no reputation. He said, "Who I am is not going to be the issue."

So, what did He do? He took on Him the form of a servant. Now that's why that word "form" in Philippians 2:6 is important. Because in verse 6, He's got this outward demonstration of Him being God, no question, and He swaps that for the "form of a servant." A slave.

I've thought about that--how do you think about that in your mind? I heard a guy say one time, "It's like if you were rich and you had a chauffeur-driven limousine and now you're on a borrowed, broken-down bicycle." But that's not adequate. That's the right direction but it's not nearly far enough.

He said, "It's like reigning in a castle with all the provisions and the glory of kingship and now you're out living in the slums of Calcutta." Well, you're getting closer, but that's not it yet.

I don't know how to get there. We sing a song, "Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne and Thy Kingly Crown." (Note: The lyrics are at the bottom of this post)

Now, that's a little closer. He took upon Him the form of a servant. The form of a slave. What kind of a slave did He become? "Made and fashioned like a man."

There was a thinking process. Here He is in His deity and His glory, and He makes a choice: "I'll become poor for you."

So, the first thing He does is He steps out of that appearance, that manifestation of His glory, where the angels and seraphim are crying, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty," and He says, "I'll leave my throne and I'll take upon myself the form--the outward expression of a slave."

The opposite of a king. "And I'll be fashioned, not just as any servant, but as a man." Now, He's called a servant before He's called a man because the heart of a servant was born in heaven. The heart of a servant is born in the grace of God.

I like to remind people, we had a wedding yesterday, that marriage came off the drawing board of heaven. No man, no woman, would have ever thought to create something that can only be described as "the halls of the highest human happiness" when lived God's way.

Well, grace comes out of the heart of God and the heart of a servant comes off of heaven's table, not ours.

What Paul's doing is using the Lord Jesus Christ as our example of what it means not to live in strife and vain glory, but to esteem others better than ourselves, and that attitude of willingness to spend and be spent comes from Him and He put it into historic reality.

This isn't mental gymnastics and theological theory. Grace is not a theology; it's a life. It's not simply a doctrine you believe; it's life that lives in you.

Jesus said, "The words I speak to you they are spirit and they are life," and it's that sound doctrine that's the texture and the stuff that the Christian life IS as your faith rests in that. Having your mind renewed by it, it puts into the details of your experience the identity you have in Christ.

I want you to understand that when Jesus Christ took the form of a servant, He was fashioned in His servanthood as a man.

Hebrews 1:14, talking about angels: [14] Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

The angels are servants, sent forth to minister. So when the Lord Jesus Christ took upon Him the form of a servant, He could have taken on Him the form of an angel. You see that?

But look at chapter 2:16: [16] For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

Abraham being a son of Adam. He's a man. Christ did not take upon Him the servant status of an angel; that was too lofty. He reached way down below the ranks of angel.

Hebrews 2: [9] But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

You see in order to do this for you, in order for your sakes to become poor, He went all the way down where we are. He did it out of His own free choice.

Romans 8: [3] For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

[4] That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

The one difference between Him and us is that He didn't have any sin. He lived a complete, perfect sinless life because we didn't, and the righteousness of His crosswork become ours by trusting in Him.

Here are the lyrics to the hymn "Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne and Thy Kingly Crown":

Thou didst leave thy throne and thy kingly crown,
when thou camest to earth for me;
but in Bethlehem's home was there found no room
for thy holy nativity.

Refrain:
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
there is room in my heart for thee.

Heaven's arches rang when the angels sang,
proclaiming thy royal degree;
but of lowly birth didst thou come to earth,
and in great humility.

Refrain:
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
there is room in my heart for thee.

The foxes found rest, and the birds their nest
in the shade of the forest tree;
but thy couch was the sod, O thou Son of God,
in the deserts of Galilee.

Refrain:
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
there is room in my heart for thee.

Thou camest, O Lord, with the living word
that should set thy children free;
but with mocking scorn and with crown of thorn,
they bore thee to Calvary.

Refrain:
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
there is room in my heart for thee.

When the heavens shall ring, and the angels sing,
at thy coming to victory,
let thy voice call me home, saying "Yet there is room,
there is room at my side for thee."

Refrain:
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
there is room in my heart for thee.