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Depths of Humiliation, March 3
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he
also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he
might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.
Hebrews 2:14
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Wondrous combination of man and God! ... He humbled Himself to
man’s nature. He did this that the Scripture might be fulfilled; and the
plan was entered into by the Son of God, knowing all the steps in His
humiliation, that He must descend to make an expiation for the sins of a
condemned, groaning world. What humility was this! It amazed angels.
The tongue can never describe it; the imagination cannot take it in. The
eternal Word consented to be made flesh! God became man! It was a
wonderful humility.
But He stepped still lower; the Man must humble Himself as a man to
bear insult, reproach, shameful accusations, and abuse. There seemed to
be no safe place for Him in His own territory. He had to flee from place to
place for His life. He was betrayed by one of His disciples; He was denied
by one of His most zealous followers. He was mocked. He was crowned
with a crown of thorns. He was scourged. He was forced to bear the burden
of the cross.
He was not insensible to this contempt and ignominy. He submitted, but,
oh! He felt the bitterness as no other being could feel it. He was pure, holy,
and undefiled, yet arraigned as a criminal! The adorable Redeemer stepped
down from the highest exaltation. Step by step He humbled Himself to
die—but what a death! It was the most shameful, the most cruel—the
death upon the cross as a malefactor. He did not die as a hero in the
eyes of the world, loaded with honors, as men in battle. He died as a
condemned criminal, suspended between the heavens and the earth—died
a lingering death of shame, exposed to the tauntings and revilings of a
debased, crime-loaded, profligate multitude! ...
All this humiliation of the Majesty of heaven was for guilty, condemned
man. He went lower and lower in His humiliation, until there were no
lower depths that He could reach, in order to lift man up from his moral
defilement. All this was for you
[69]
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S.D.A. Bible Commentary 5:1127, 1128
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