Depths of Humiliation

[Thompson, Darryl]

Depths of Humiliation 

     Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he
also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might
destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. Heb. 2:14.


     Wondrous combination of man and God! . . . He {Christ} humbled
Himself to man's nature. He did this that the Scripture might be
fulfilled; and the plan was entered into by the Son of God, knowing all
the steps in His humiliation, that He must descend to make an expiation
for the sins of a condemned, groaning world. What humility was this! It
amazed angels. The tongue can never describe it; the imagination cannot
take it in. The eternal Word consented to be made flesh! God became man!
It was a wonderful humility.  

     But He stepped still lower; the Man must humble Himself as a man to
bear insult, reproach, shameful accusations, and abuse. There seemed to
be no safe place for Him in His own territory. He had to flee from place
to place for His life. He was betrayed by one of His disciples; He was
denied by one of His most zealous followers. He was mocked. He was
crowned with a crown of thorns. He was scourged. He was forced to bear
the burden of the cross.  

     He was not insensible to this contempt and ignominy. He submitted,
but, oh! He felt the bitterness as no other being could feel it. He was
pure, holy, and undefiled, yet arraigned as a criminal! The adorable
Redeemer stepped down from the highest exaltation. Step by step He
humbled Himself to die--but what a death! It was the most shameful, the
most cruel--the death upon the cross as a malefactor. He did not die as
a hero in the eyes of the world, loaded with honors, as men in battle.
He died as a condemned criminal, suspended between the heavens and the
earth--died a lingering death of shame, exposed to the tauntings and
revilings of a debased, crime-loaded, profligate multitude! . . .  

     All this humiliation of the Majesty of heaven was for guilty,
condemned man. He went lower and lower in His humiliation, until there
were no lower depths that He could reach, in order to lift man up from
his moral defilement. All this was for you.  

>From That I May Know Him - Page 68