HE LAID HIS GLORY BY
William Mealand

THERE is an impressive twofold thought concerning the glory of Christ in that wonderful transcript of grace written down for us in Paul's Philippian letter. There, in the second chapter, we perceive a glory gathering up the past, present, and future, which will yet transfigure and thrill the entire universe.

We read that Christ was not only "inherently in the form of God," but that He came "to be in the likeness of humanity." There was thus an essential glory marvelously His as "the Image of the invisible God," as also an acquired glory, from His "coming to be in the likeness of humanity." These characters of the Christ of God are strengthened and sustained by two great thoughts. These are in the opening chapter of Colossians.

As "Firstborn of every creature" we note His essential glory, the ground and reason being given." For in Him is all created, that in the heavens and that on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or sovereignties, or authorities, all is created through Him and for Him, and He is before all, and all has its cohesion in Him," Here we unmistakably see His inherent glory as the Son of the Father's love. Great Firstborn of every creature, He is divinely set as the One in and through Whom all is created. Moreover, so magnificent a creation is for Him. He cannot, therefore, be separated from the work of His hand.

Yet, glorious Elohim as He is, in stately being and before all, He must needs come down to this earth of ours. And so, He lays His glory by. From the exalted position of Creator and Upholder of all things, He comes "to be in the likeness of humanity." And, still descending, yet with a wondrous dignity, He becomes obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Notwithstanding His glorious past as the great Firstborn and the illustrious One, Who from time to time appeared to prophets and men of old, He yet lays it all aside. "Being rich, because of you He is poor, that you, by His poverty should be rich" (2 Cor.8:9).

Those lovely lines in sonnet form, by Trench, are a tribute to the condescension of the Christ of God.

He might have built a palace at a word,
Who oft-times had not where to lay His head.
Time was when He, Who nourished crowds with bread,
Would not one meal unto Himself afford.
Twelve legions, girded with angelic sword,
Were at His beck, the scorned and buffeted;
He healed another's scratch, His own side bled,
Side, hands and feet, by cruel piercing gored.
Oh! wonderful, the wonders left undone,
And not less wonderful than those He wrought:
Oh! self-restraint passing all human thought,
To have all power, and be as having none.
Oh! self-renouncing love that tared alone
For needs of others, never for its own.

But therein lay that marvelous acquired glory. He took the form of a slave, delighting at all times to do God's will. And, though He knew where that will would lead, He never questioned its profound mystery, but held steadfastly to its course. Not for Him, man's proudly vaunted free will, "not My will, but Thine, be done!" What grace and lowliness is here.

Even so, "grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. God no one has ever seen. The only begotten God, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He unfolds Him." (John 1:18) Yes, the great Firstborn of every creature descends to this earth of ours, to be a Man, Christ Jesus, that mankind everywhere might see in Him a God most truly to adore. And might also see in Him those graces, and that dignity we would associate with the God And Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Can a man know God? To this query a striking story is told by Dr. J. Stuart Holden. Two friends were one day walking in the fields, talking as they walked of the inscrutable mystery of God's doings. One of them, a man of some intellectual force, whose heart had never yet been opened to the divine light, said petulantly: "How can a man of finite mind know God? How can he discern what God is doing? How can He understand God's will?" And, pointing contemptuously to an ant-hill where thousands of insects were busy at their toil, he asked: "How can those ants understand what is in my mind?" Like a flash the answer came: "There is only one way--by your becoming an ant and declaring it to them!" And in that answer lies everything we need for knowledge and understanding of God.

Now, the power and majesty of this rare descent on the part of Christ is the putting away from Himself of the Power so truly His. "For it became Him, because of Whom all is, and through Whom all is, in leading many sons into glory, to perfect the Inaugurator of their salvation through sufferings" (Heb.2:10). And again, how blessed to know that He, so wreathed with glory and honor, "should, in the grace of God, be tasting death for the sake of everyone."

"For the sake of everyone." There, indeed, lies the majesty of it. And with what completeness is the sacrifice crowned. For, as the outcome of thus taking human form to redeem, He becomes the illustrious "Firstborn from among the dead." And what a thought is here. That all the beauty and grandeur of this rare linking up of ourselves with Him, is foreknown by God. For, "whom He foreknew, He designates beforehand, also, to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him, to be Firstborn among many brethren" (Rom.8:29).

What an ideal! Transformed to be conformed. God wants us to be a reproduction, as it were, of His fair, glorious Image. And how great the honor laid upon us, that we should thus be essential to Him. He assuredly is to us. But how wonderful that we should be indispensable to Him! And to our hearts, is it not because of "the illumination of the evangel of the glory of Christ, Who is the Image of the invisible God?" To this great end, God "is He Who shines in our hearts, with a view to the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor.4:6).

We see, then, a noteworthy chain of expressions relative to Him, Who, for our sakes, laid His glory by. As the great Firstborn of the vast creation, what inherent glory was His. Unimaginable splendor, power and might. Lordships, sovereignties, and authorities, all beneath His sway, with messengers at His beck and call. Yet He, the Effulgence of God's glory, and Emblem of His assumption, must needs lay all this rare honor aside, not only to be the Firstborn among many brethren, but also to be the Reconciler of the whole creation.

Now, the seal of this supreme achievement lies in the faith-strengthening fact that He became the Firstborn from among the dead. Even to be "the Firstfruit of those who are reposing." What an acquired glory this! And how in keeping with the purpose of an all wise God. For, how orderly is the setting forth. "Each in his own class: the Firstfruit, Christ. Thereupon, those who are Christ's in His presence. Thereafter comes the consummation"--that glorious fullness of joy and peace, and universal satisfaction, which will enthrall the entire universe.

What reward for the now risen, ascended Christ of God, the Celestial One! And, with all the glory of His name, Name of all names, how assuring to our hearts that, "according as we wear the imagine of the soilish, we should be wearing the image also of the Celestial" (1 Cor.15:49). And all this because He laid His glory by. As simply yet eloquently expressed in a children's hymn by Walsham How:

It is a thing most wonderful,
Almost too wonderful to be,
That God's own Son should come from heaven
And die to save a child like me.

And yet I know that it is true,
He came to this poor world below,
And wept and toiled and mourned and died,
Only because He loved us so.