Of What Sort Is This One?

Since it is our belief that the Lord Jesus Christ is God’s full and final revelation to man, that he is God’s answer to man’s needs, and that he is central to God the Father’s eternal plans, it seems only fitting to take a look at this person we call both God and man. As the disciples asked, “Of what sort is this one…?” (Mt. 8.27)

Perhaps the best passage of Scripture in which to take this glimpse is Phil. 2.5-11, surely one of the high points of the word of God. Paul begins by writing, “Have this way of thinking among you which also was in Christ Jesus,” and immediately we are reminded of Is. 55.8, “’For my thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways,’ says the Lord.” God does not think the way man thinks, nor does Christ. How does Christ think?

He was in the form of God, but he did not consider equality with God a thing to be held on to. Equality with God? Not to be held on to? It is human nature to grasp anything of value with a death grip, but the Lord Jesus let go of equality with God. We do not mean by this that he was not fully divine, for he was, but when he lived as a man he did not demand his divine rights, and he did not live on earth as God, but as a man, living by faith and obedience as we are called on to do.

Contrary to holding on to equality with God, he emptied himself of his divinity, not in the sense of giving up divinity, for he could not give up his nature, but of drawing on it for his life on earth. He lived as a man.

When the Lord Jesus emptied himself he took the form of a slave. There is a contrast with the phrase “form of God.” The word “form” normally refers to the outward appearance, though the inner nature is not absent. We might say that when he was in Heaven before he became a man, he appeared as God. When he became a man, he appeared as a slave, a slave of God as anyone should be, and he was made in the likeness of men. That is, he looked like a man, for he was a man. When someone in his day looked at him, he did not see God, but a man.

Being found in this human form, the Lord Jesus humbled himself even to the point of death on a cross. When Paul emphasizes even death on a cross, he is pointing out what would have been clear to readers of his day, but may not be to us. In that day, crucifixion was a shameful death reserved for the worst offenders. The Lord Jesus did not die as a martyr for the faith, but as a blasphemer against God, a crime punishable by death according to Jewish law, and as one guilty of treason, trying to supplant the emperor, a crime punishable by death according to Roman law. Thus our Lord did not die the glorious death of a martyr, but the shameful death of the worst criminals.

What was the result of his having this way of thinking and carrying it out to the full? The Bible says that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Prov. 3.34, Ja. 4.6, 1 Pt. 5.5). The Lord Jesus humbled himself to the uttermost, and God’s grace responded in like fashion. He was raised from death and exalted and given the name that is above every name. To this one who so emptied himself and humbled himself, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord. He glorified his Father by his obedience even to death on a cross, and he will glorify him in his exaltation. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father. This is the kind of Lord we serve, one who literally gave all.

We might think, then, that when he comes in power and great glory it will be time for him to be served. But he is the one who said that the one who wants to be great must be servant of all, and the one who wants to be first must be slave of all (Mk. 10.44). So we see him in his kingdom in the words of Lk. 12.37, “Blessed are those slaves whom the Lord, when he comes, will find awake. Amen I say to you that he will gird himself and have them recline and come and serve them.” He will serve his slaves when he is King! Indeed, of what sort is this one?

And we read in Rev. 5.5-6 that John is told that the Lion of the tribe of Judah can open the scroll, but when he looks to see the Lion on the throne, he sees a little Lamb as though slaughtered. This Jesus who was the Lamb slaughtered before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13.8) and came to earth and was slaughtered physically as the Lamb of God will still be the slaughtered Lamb throughout eternity. That turning loose of everything that he might hold on to, of emptying himself, of humbling himself, is his essential nature, and it will never change.

This is the sort of person we serve, one who is utterly for others. And this one says to us, “Take up your cross and follow me.”

Copyright © 2021 by Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. You may share this work with others, provided you do not alter it and do not sell it or use it for any commercial purpose. “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10.8). Also you must include this notice if you share it or any part of it.

Quotations from the New Testament are the author’s translations.