Have This Attitude

[Christsfreeservant]

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8 NASB1995)​

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – left his throne in heaven, came to earth, humbled himself, and took on human form. He was born into this world as a human baby, but was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary. So he was not born with a sin nature as we are. And while he lived on the earth, he was fully human and fully God (God incarnate). And he never sinned, although he was tempted as we are.

Now Jesus grew up to be a man, and at the age of 30 he began his time of ministry on the earth when he chose 12 men to be his disciples to work alongside him in ministry and to learn from him to be followers of Christ. Many of them went on to be the Lord’s apostles after he died and was raised from the dead and ascended back to the Father in heaven. But for 3 years Jesus ministered to the needs of the people, both to their physical and their spiritual needs, even healing, raising the dead, and casting out demons.

But many of the religious rulers and teachers of the law and the Scribes and Pharisees were opposed to Jesus and to his ministry and to his teaching. And they didn’t like it that he confronted them in their sins and called some of them out on their hypocrisy. They were jealous of his temporary popularity among the people, too, and they feared that their own positions of power might be in jeopardy. And they did not like it when he claimed to be God, who he was and is. And so they had him put to death on a cross.

[Isaiah 53:1-12; Matthew 26:26-29; Luke 17:25; John 1:1-36; John 6:35-58; John 8:24,58; John 10:27-33; John 20:28-29; Romans 5:8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 9:5; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 2:9; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8-9; Hebrews 2:14-15; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Peter 1:1]

Now, they had no power over Jesus but what he allowed them to have. And his death was always part of God’s plan for us to save us from our sins and to give us new lives in him, surrendered to his will. For in Jesus’ death he put our sins to death with him so that, by God-honoring and God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in him, which is not of our own doing, we would die with him to sin and now live to him and to his righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands, by God’s grace, in his power, for his glory.

But Jesus didn’t stay dead. On the third day God resurrected him from the dead, and he appeared to many people over about 40 days before returning to God the Father in heaven. And then he sent his Holy Spirit, as he had promised, to indwell his followers and to teach them all things about Jesus, and to be their comforter, encourager, strength, helper, and guide. His presence within us who are followers of Jesus Christ is God within us. And the Holy Spirit speaks God’s truths to our hearts in our spirits.

Now we who believe in Jesus to be Lord and Savior of our lives are to take on that same attitude as what Jesus had. We are to humble ourselves and to be willing to die for the sake of Christ and for the sake of the gospel, in order to get the truth of the gospel of Christ out to the people of this world. But first we must die with him to sin and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness, in walks of obedience to his commands.

We must be willing to be despised and rejected of man, a people of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We must be willing to be thought crazy or odd or peculiar because we take God and his word seriously, and because we take the gospel message seriously, and because we believe its message, in its fulness, and so we share that message with the people of this world. For in today’s world, if you believe what the Bible teaches is the message of the gospel, you are likely to be disregarded and discarded by the majority.

But we must be willing to give it all up to follow Jesus with our lives. We must not hold on to this world or to the people of the world by putting them above God so that we will not be rejected and cast aside as unwanted and as unnecessary. Jesus Christ (God) has to be first in our lives. His will must be our will, and his choices our choices. And we must be obedient to our Lord and to his commands, even to the death. And we must be those who are spreading the gospel that Jesus and his apostles taught, in context.

And what they all taught mainly is that Jesus died on that cross, putting our sins to death with him, so we will now die to sin. And he was resurrected from the dead, in victory over sin and Satan, death and hell, so that we can now walk with him in obedience to his ways in victory over sin and Satan. And they taught that if obedience to God and the putting of sin to death is not our practice, but sin and disobedience to God are still our practice, that we will not have salvation from sin and eternal life with God in heaven.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

I Can Only Imagine

Song by Bart Millard

I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk by Your side
I can only imagine
What my eyes would see
When Your face is before me

Surrounded by Your glory
What will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you Jesus
Or in awe of You be still?
Will I stand in your presence
Or to my knees, will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah?
Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine, yeah

I can only imagine
When that day comes
And I find myself
Standing in the Son
I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever, forever worship You
I can only imagine, yeah

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Have This Attitude
An Original Work / April 28, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love