Developing Christian Character
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one glance at the cross caused him to gird up anew the loins of his
mind and press forward in the way of self-denial. In his labors for his
brethren he relied much upon the manifestation of infinite love in the
sacrifice of Christ, with its subduing, constraining power.
How earnest, how touching, his appeal: “Ye know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He
became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.”
2 Corinthi-
ans 8:9
. You know the height from which He stooped, the depth of
humiliation to which He descended. His feet entered upon the path of
sacrifice and turned not aside until He had given His life. There was
no rest for Him between the throne in heaven and the cross. His love
for man led Him to welcome every indignity and suffer every abuse.
Paul admonishes us to “look not every man on his own things,
but every man also on the things of others.” He bids us possess the
mind “which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no
reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in
the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled
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Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Philippians 2:4-8
.
Paul was deeply anxious that the humiliation of Christ should
be seen and realized. He was convinced that if men could be led
to consider the amazing sacrifice made by the Majesty of heaven,
selfishness would be banished from their hearts. The apostle lingers
over point after point, that we may in some measure comprehend
the wonderful condescension of the Saviour in behalf of sinners. He
directs the mind first to the position which Christ occupied in heaven
in the bosom of His Father; he reveals Him afterward as laying aside
His glory, voluntarily subjecting Himself to the humbling conditions
of man’s life, assuming the responsibilities of a servant, and becoming
obedient unto death, and that the most ignominious and revolting, the
most agonizing—the death of the cross. Can we contemplate this
wonderful manifestation of the love of God without gratitude and love,
and a deep sense of the fact that we are not our own? Such a Master
should not be served from grudging, selfish motives.
“Ye know,” says Peter, “that ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things, as silver and gold.”
1 Peter 1:18
. Oh, had these been sufficient
to purchase the salvation of man, how easily it might have been ac-