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The Ministry of Health and Healing
How earnest, how touching, was his appeal: “You know the
grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”
2 Corinthians 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 the human family led Him to welcome
every indignity and suffer every abuse.
Paul admonishes us, “Let each of you look out not only for his
own interests, but also for the interests of others.” He bids us possess
the mind “which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form
of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made
Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming
in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He
humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of 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 people could be led
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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 Savior in behalf of sinners. He
directs the mind first to the position that 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 human life, assuming the responsibilities of a servant,
and becoming obedient unto death—the most ignominious, revolting,
agonizing death—death on 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.
You know, says Peter, “that you were not redeemed with cor-
ruptible things, like silver or gold.”
1 Peter 1:18
. Oh, had these been
sufficient to purchase our salvation, how easily it might have been
accomplished by Him who says, “‘The silver is Mine, and the gold
is Mine’”!
Haggai 2:8
. But the sinner could be redeemed only by the