Under The Authority

Pride is a sneaky, slimy trait that worms its way into most all aspects of our character.  As I prayed this morning, I asked for the ability to follow Jesus' lead into the beauty of humility.  As rehearsed over and over in the Gospels, He was under the authority of God.  Do we get that?  For me, it's one of those mind-boggling truths that gives me a headache.  I'm just too finite to get it.  Jesus told the Jews that He was not there on His own authority.  He told the disciples that He did not speak on His own authority.  He told them that the Father was greater than Himself.  (John 7:28; 14:10;28)  While there are many more references, the point for my post today is that Jesus humbled Himself.  He was fully God and also fully Man.  And as Man, He was under the divine authority of God, the Father!

Do we get that?  Here is one more amazing example of perfection lived out before a watching world and written down for the benefit of all the people who were to come.  Jesus, God in the flesh, submitted Himself to the authority of God.  He is equal, but made Himself submissive for a purpose that was perfectly planned out.  I thought to myself, "why am I so dull of mind?"  I get upset over a few ungodly unbelievers and believers.  I want to cry "unfair"!  And here is God in the flesh submitting to the authority of God Who is in control and has planned and purposed all things rightly.  Who am I in all my stupid pride to fret over a few inconveniences and slandering?  God submitted to God because He knew that it was the only way that was true.

And it's the way of peace.  Under the authority of God!  As I continued in prayer, Philippians 2:6 came to my mind: "He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped".  That is where we have to come: submission!  I wanted to put my hands over my head and cry for forgiveness.  Pride stinks and I want it destroyed.  The Christian's walk is a process, always learning, always fighting sin, and always growing in amazed wonder at our Sovereign God.  Pride fills the way with potholes that will keep us anxious and fretting over things of no value whatsoever in the spiritual realm.

Let the instruction of Philippians 2:5-7 and the example of Christ's humility written down in the Gospels, direct us in a path that fulfills the true longings of the heart.  Only He can fill the void created by sin and give us true purpose for living. "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 bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men".  Under the authority of God is the only safe haven for all creatures.  And Jesus has lived out that example for us and blessed us with the privilege of having it written down for our eternal benefit.  Pride must not be allowed to hinder us or it will be a calamity far more heinous than anything this life could ever bring.