4 Days to Christmas

Philippians 2:5-11 is about the incarnation and exaltation of Jesus, but according to verse 5 it is given as a practical application to us. Here is the point—God will do in our lives what He did in the life of Jesus. This is not to say He will give us a name above every name—that name is reserved for Jesus, but when we humble ourselves and embrace the call to suffer for the Gospel we do so knowing God will reward us.

Are we willing to follow the example of Christ? Are we willing to refuse the notion of a country being closed to the Gospel? Are we willing to reject any people group as being beyond the saving work of the Holy Spirit? If we are to become Christ-like we must be willing to suffer with a ‘therefore’ in mind. Listen to Paul’s words in Colossians 1:24, “Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of the body, which is the church.”

Paul was not saying Christ suffering lacked something in terms of the atonement. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” it was finished, but Paul is speaking of the suffering he still had to endure for the cross (Acts 9:16) and he is speaking in reference to the fact that the sufferings of Christ were not known and felt by those who were not there at the cross. When people see our willingness to suffer for the sake of the cross they will see the suffering of Christ on the cross.