who emptied Himself—who took the form of a servant—who humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death.'
obedience. But as the righteousness is indeed believed in and submitted to, and its full dominion over us, as 'servants of righteousness,' sought after, it will open to us its blessed nature, as born out of obedience, and therefore ever leading us back to its divine origin. The truer our hold of the righteousness of Christ, in the power of the Spirit, the more intense will be our desire to share in the obedience out of which it sprang. In this light let us
STUDY THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST,
that like Him we may live as servants of obedience unto righteousness. 1. In Christ this obedience was a life principle. Obedience with Him did not mean a single act of obedience now and then, not even a series of acts, but the spirit of His whole life. 'I came, not to do My own will.' 'Lo, I come, to do Thy will, O God.' He had come into the world for one purpose. He only lived to carry out God's will. The one supreme, all-controlling power of His life was obedience. He is willing to make it so in us. This was what He promised when He said, 'Whosoever shall do the will of My
The link in a family is a common life shared by all and a family likeness. The bond between Christ and us is that He and we together do the will of God. 2. In Christ this obedience was a joy. 'I delight to do Thy will, O God.' 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.' Our food is refreshment and invigoration. The healthy man eats his bread with gladness. But food is more than enjoyment—it is the one necessary of life. And so, doing the will of God was the food that Christ hungered after and without which He could not live, the one thing that satisfied His hunger, the one thing that refreshed and strengthened Him and made Him glad. It was something of this David meant when he spoke of God's words being 'sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.' As this is understood and accepted, obedience will become more natural to us and necessary to us, and more refreshing than our daily food. 3. In Christ this obedience led to a waiting on God's will. God did not reveal all His will to Christ at once, but day by day, according to the circumstances of the hour. In His life of obedience there was growth and progress; the most difficult lesson came the last. Each act of obedience fitted Him for the new discovery of the Father's further command. He spake, 'Mine ears hast Thou opened; I delight to do Thy will, O God.' It is as obedience becomes the passion of our life that the ears will be opened by God's Spirit to wait for His teaching, and we be content with nothing less than a divine guidance into the divine will for us. 4. In Christ this obedience was unto death. When He spake, 'I came not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me,' He was ready to go all lengths in denying His own will and doing the Father's. He meant it. 'In nothing My will; at all costs God's will.' This is the obedience to which He invites and for which He empowers us. This whole-hearted surrender to obedience in everything is the only true obedience, is the only power that will avail to carry us through. Would God that Christians could understand that nothing less than this is what brings the soul gladness and strength! As long as there is a doubt about universal obedience, and with that a lurking sense of the possibility of failure, we lose the confidence that secures the victory. But when once we set God before us, as really asking full obedience, and engaging to work it, and see that we dare offer Him nothing less, we give up ourselves to the working of the divine power, which by the Holy Ghost can master our whole life. 5. In Christ this obedience sprang from the deepest humility. 'Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who emptied Himself—who took the form of a servant—who humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death.' It is the man who is willing for entire, self-emptying, is willing to be and live as the servant, 'a servant of obedience,' is willing to be humbled very low before God and man, to whom the obedience of Jesus will unfold its heavenly beauty and its constraining power. There may be a strong will, that secretly trusts in self, that strives for the obedience, and fails. It is as we sink low before God in humility, meekness, patience, and entire resignation to His will, and are willing to bow in an absolute helplessness and dependence on Him, as we turn away wholly from self, that it will be revealed to us how it is the one only duty and blessing of a creature to obey this glorious God! 6. In Christ this obedience was of faith—in entire dependence upon God's strength. 'I can do nothing of Myself.' 'The Father that dwelleth in Me doeth the works.' The Son's unreserved surrender to the Father's will was met by the Father's unceasing and undeserved bestowment of His power working in Him.