"... but made himself nothing ... being made in human likeness ..." (v. 7)

For Reading and Meditation:     Philippians 2:1-11

We are reflecting on the fact that the Christian faith is not just a little better than other faiths but radically different. Religion is mankind's search for God; Christianity, however, is God's search for man. Therefore there are many religions, but only one gospel. Religion is the word become word; the gospel is the Word become flesh. The commentator William Barclay, when writing on the verse "And the Word became flesh" which we looked at yesterday, said that this phrase explains why John wrote his Gospel. John apparently could not get over the fact that God had become man in the Person of His Son, and he sustained that thought throughout the whole of his writings. Augustine, the great saint of the fourth and fifth centuries, remarked that in his pre-Christian days he had never read anything comparable to that phrase: "And the Word became flesh." One thing the ancient Greeks could never contemplate was that God could reveal Himself in bodily form. To the Greeks the body was a prison in which the soul was shackled, a tomb in which the spirit was confined. Plutarch, the wise old Greek, believed it was nothing short of blasphemy to expect God to involve Himself in the affairs of the world. Yet in the face of this, the highest thought of the New Testament world, the gospel unfolded the thrilling truth that the Son of God became the Son of Man in order that the sons of men might become sons of God. Could anything in heaven or earth be more wonderful than that? If so, I have yet to hear it.

Blessed Lord Jesus, how can we thank You enough for taking on Yourself a human form and showing us what God is really like? For we could never have known unless we had seen. Having seen, it is sufficient. We want no other. Amen.