December 18 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Philippians 2:5–11

Devotional

By coming into this world, Christ became poor. To be poor is painful. It is not easy to be poor, but to become poor is even worse. He became so poor that He was left with nothing. Everything was taken from Him, even the very clothes He wore. Soldiers cast lots for His garment. He came into this world with nothing and He left the world with nothing. That was because He was made in the likeness of men—that is, man as he stands before God, bankrupt and with no rights whatsoever. He became equal to man. To become man meant to be made subject to all the miseries of sin. Man lies under sin and all its consequences. Christ had the ability to please Himself, but He chose, nevertheless, to come in the form of a servant.

He “made himself of no reputation” is a remarkable statement. He emptied Himself, and He did this more and more until He finally was condemned under the law and the justice of God. He undid Himself of His divine garment and took upon Himself the garment of a slave. In that garment He was bowed down under the demands and the curse of God’s law.

This does not mean that He did not remain God. He remained what He was, but He became what He was not. The sun remains the sun when it is hidden behind the clouds, yet the clouds cover the rays of the sun. That is a weak example of what happened to the Lord Jesus Christ. He covered His own divine nature by taking upon Himself the form of a servant. He parted willingly from the perfect, heavenly glory and from the angelic praises. He parted from all that was glorious and divine. He left the praises of the heavenly glories and He wanted to be born through Mary and to be laid in a manger in the greatest poverty. He “made himself of no reputation.” He needed clothes, because He was now without honor and because man had lost his honor. He possessed nothing. He had no rights. He was a nothing before God and man.

Who would have recognized the Christ Child as He was lying there in the stable in Bethlehem? Who would have seen in Him that He was the Christ? The shepherds would not have seen it, if it had not been for the divine message. The wise men from the East would have never found Him, if the star had not shown them the way. That is because this Child is so poor, so poverty-stricken. Instead of carrying the world with His arm of power, He Himself had to be carried in the arms of His mother. That was because He “made himself of no reputation.”

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.