Mild He Lays His Glory By: A Christmas Challenge
What is Christmas all about? If you ask schoolchildren, you’ll probably get some humorous answers. But have you taken the time lately to consider that question for yourself?
As a Christian, you probably know the easy Sunday school answer: Jesus. Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. But why should we celebrate his birth? It wasn’t just what he did, it’s how he did it that matters. Not only did he die on a cross for our sins, but he showed us how to live as well.
Felix Mendelssohn illustrated it beautifully in his popular Christmas carol:
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Hark! The herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King!
The Humility
One of the most stunning truths about Christmas is that God set his all-consuming glory aside to be born a human. In coming to Earth in that manner, he set aside everything he had and was, his godly privilege, for our sake.
In his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “...privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily…” Yet, this is exactly what Jesus did. He voluntarily set aside the privilege of being in very nature God for that of a fragile and broken human body. He left the perfect communion of the Trinity to be ridiculed, mocked and ultimately betrayed. Jesus willingly left heaven, where all is holy and right and good, and he traded it in for a cross.
Paul shows just how much Jesus was willing to sacrifice to demonstrate his love to us:
“...though [Jesus] was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Philippians 2:6b-8
Jesus did not lay His glory aside to live a life of power and luxury as a human. His whole earthly life was one of sacrifice and service, which culminated with hands and feet nailed to a tree. God Almighty died on a cross to conquer death once and for all so that those who trust in Him could have life eternal and join the angels in singing, “Glory to the newborn King!”
The word privilege is a loaded word lately, but the truth is that we all have privilege, especially living in the United States of America. Martin Luther King Jr. was right, but if we strive to be like Jesus, we will be different.
The Challenge
This Christmas as we celebrate Jesus, think about what he did and how you can follow his example in your own life. What has God given you to be grateful for that you can use for the betterment of others? We at the Christian Financial Advisors Network have accepted the challenge to look for ways to respond to God’s sacrificial love by loving others sacrificially. Jesus didn’t only come to save us from sin, he came to show us how to voluntarily give of our power, influence, and resources to serve others. That should be our goal as His followers. After all, that’s what Christ did for us.
