The Triumphs of His Grace

PHILIPPIANS 2:3-11

PRIDE HUMILIATES US, BUT HUMILITY HONORS US JAMES 4:6 God is opposed the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

The Second Person in God, the Son, became human, was born into the world as an actual man – a real man of a particular height, with hair of a particular color, speaking a particular language, weighing so many pounds. The Eternal Being, who knows everything and created the universe, became not only a man but before that a baby and before that a fetus inside a woman’s body.  If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab. 

– CS Lewis in Mere Christianity

SEEING THE GRACE OF JESUS IN HIS ARRIVAL

1. JESUS ARRIVED IN HUMILITY AND GRACE, AND MOVED TOWARD OUR NEEDS
2. JESUS IS THE AGENT OF CREATION, YET HE BECOMES SUBJECT TO HIS TO HIS OWN CREATION.
   · AS THE SON OF GOD, JESUS IS FULLY GOD                                                                                                                                                                                · AS THE SON OF MAN, JESUS IS FULLY MAN.
3. JESUS REVEALS HIS GRACE BY EMPTYING HIMSELF.
4. WE ARE THE TRIUMPHS OF HIS GRACE, AND NOW REDISTRIBUTE IT TO OTHERS.
   
   

The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor - being spent – and shining with the Christmas spirit as exhibitors of Christ’s grace. 

– JI Packer