The Humility of Christ

Philippians 2:8- “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

John 6:38- “For I have come down from Heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.”

I once read (in a book by Henry Scougal, I believe) that the key to Christ’s humility was that He was so focused on God that He forgot about Himself. In these two verses (and several others), we see how Mr. Scougal came to such a conclusion, as well as how this enamorment was manifested in the life of Christ through His unconditional obedience.

In order to understand Christ’s humility, we must first have a good understanding of what it means to humble oneself. In the Philippians 2 passage, the Greek word used for “humbled” is the past tense of the verb ταπεινόω (tah-pay-no), which means “to make small or low” or “to weaken.” In using this verb, Paul says that Christ made Himself low. This lowliness allowed Him to be under the authority of God. But how did this “self-lowering” take place? This is answered in the next portion of the verse, which says “by becoming obedient.” The phrase “by becoming” is a past participle (verbal adjective) which says that this is the way Christ humbled himself. He caused Himself to be in a particular state of being: that of obedience. This “obedient” state is from the Greek ὑπήκοοϛ (hūp-ā-kos), which refers to the position of man in relation to the dominant religious or moral powers. This refers to an attitude or heart condition, as opposed to carrying out a specific set of actions. After taking this language into consideration, this verse can be expanded slightly to say “Christ was made low by causing himself to be in a state of an attitude of obedience.” Christ caused himself to be in a position of submission to the authority of God. This attitude is more explicitly stated in the John 6 passage.

John 6:38 explicitly presents to us a very prevalent theme throughout the life of Christ in the Gospel of John; the theme of Christ's focus on God's will. This theme is also explicitly seen in John 4:34 and also John 5:30. Here in this passage, Christ gives us a look into the state of obedience that Paul would eventually mention to the Philippian church. Through using a particular flow of thought, Christ shows the how and why of His humility and this state of obedience. In the first part of the verse, Christ makes known to us that He knows where He comes from, saying, “For I have come down from Heaven.” In knowing where He comes from, Christ shows us that He is aware of who He is. Christ’s self-awareness as Son of God (and fellow Person of the Trinity) is another theme found in the book of John. Christ knew He was God (seen in Philippians 2:6-7), but this keen sense of identity also came with an undeniable sense of purpose and an understanding of that purpose. It is reasonable for this sense of purpose to be present; for God would most assuredly not leave Heaven and lay aside His splendor without cause. In this passage, there would be no continuing of Christ’s statement after saying that He came from Heaven if He has no sense of purpose.

The second portion of this flow of thought shows that Jesus knew what His mission/ purpose was not. Jesus says (after revealing His original abode) He came “not to do My own will.” This is a rather interesting claim; considering that He came down from Heaven, which means He has a good deal authority on the earth, to say the least. As the Son of God who descended from Heaven, one would think He came to do the exact opposite and carry out his desires. As the Sovereign Son of the Divine, Christ would have been perfectly reasonable and blameless if He simply lived out whatever He wanted. After all, “all things were created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16). However, despite all of this, Christ says He came not to do His own will. He truly did not consider equality with God a thing to be taken advantage of. He completely disregarded His own will, bringing it to a point so low it became irrelevant. Another intriguing thing in this passage is that Christ chose this specific thing (His own will) to reject in this passage. He could have just as easily said He came “not to do the will of man” or “not to establish a physical kingdom,” but instead chose to say “not to do My own will.” Why did He say that? Well first, let us do a brief word study of the word “will.” The Greek word used is from the word θελημα (the-lay-ma), which refers to an expression or inclination that comes from the will. Simply put, Christ is speaking of willful desires. Here, Christ says “I have come not to perform my own willful inclinations.” The most pressing reason Christ chose to reject this particular attitude is because it is one of the most tempting desires that Christ could be tempted with. The strength of this temptation is due to the aforementioned factors (His divine nature, coming down from Heaven with authority) and the fact that he is fully man. It is as if Christ had to battle a double dosage of temptation in this situation, for His flesh would be using His divine nature and authority to tempt Him to perform His willful desires. Satan was undoubtedly working to strengthen the temptation even more, knowing that the entire fate of eternity depended on the life (and death) of Christ. If Christ just performed His own desires, He would have had a much easier, more fun life. He would have been fine in the long run. He would still enjoy eternal, infinitely sweet communion with the Father and the Spirit. These are just a few of the things Satan must have used to tempt Him, but because of these factors, Christ absolutely had to deflate the opportunity for His willful desires to motivate His purpose in life. So in telling the Jews in John 6 that He came not to carry out His own purposes and desires, He shows them (and us) that He knew what His purpose was not.

The third portion of this flow of thought (that resulted in Philippians 2:8 taking place) is communicated when He finishes His statement. He says “For I have come down from Heaven… to do the will of Him who sent me.”  This was the driving force behind the negation of the desire to do His own will. The reason He did not come to do His own will is because He knew His purpose, or τελοϛ.  This was the singularity of Christ’s focus, for He was solely focused on the will of His Father and how He should go about carrying it out. The word θελημα is used again when referring to the “will” of the one who sent Him. So we can now expand this verse to hear Jesus say “For I have come down from Heaven not for the purpose of performing my willful inclinations, but to carry out the desires of Him who sent me.” Notice “the desires.” Christ does not speak of a decree or law, but merely the desires of His father. Christ was motivated by the fulfillment of His Father’s desires, and no one would know them better.  

It is because of the attitude communicated in this verse that Christ sincerely teaches the disciples to pray, saying “Your kingdom come” and “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Out of this condition of the heart, Christ asks that the cup of God’s wrath be removed from Him, but then prays that God’s will would ultimately be done, and indeed it was. Because of this condition, Christ preached with the utmost power and confidence, knowing that He would not speak one word out of line, for His desires were flushed out by placing Himself in the state of obedience. In doing this, Christ disregarded Himself and placed Himself under the authority of His master.