Week 36 — SUNDAY

We repeat a verse already looked at which perhaps is the most important verse in our quest: “have this mind among ourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). Then follows the seven steps down which Jesus went: (1) Did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. (2) But emptied himself. (3) Taking the form of a servant. (4) Being born in the likeness of men. (5) Being found in human form he humbled himself. (6) Became obedient unto death. (7) Even death on a cross (Phil. 2:6-8). He went from equality with the Father to equality with a thief—from the highest to the lowest. Then the seven steps up: (1) Therefore God has highly exalted him. (2) Bestowed on Him the name. (3) Above every name. (4) At the name of Jesus every knee should bow. (5) In heaven and on earth and under the earth. (6) Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (7) To the glory of God the Father.

The mind in Christ Jesus was a mind that lost itself in the deepest renunciation possible and found itself in the highest annunciation possible—“Jesus Christ is Lord.” He fulfilled the deepest law of life— lose yourself, and you find yourself. Self-realization is found by self-renunciation.

When we are in Christ we go down with Him—down with Him even to the cross. Then we go up with Him and share His victory. So the self in Christ is not lost. It is affirmed—affirmed with the mightiest affirmation possible—we share His rulership. “They shall sit on My throne.” Humanism with all its vaunted emphasis on the dignity of man and his self-affirmation is puny and earth-bound compared to the mighty sweep of this affirmation of man. Humanism breaks itself upon the moral law; it saves its life and loses it—loses it in final despair about its own meaning and survival. It has no horizons. The Christian has meaning both now and forever—the highest meaning. He is identified with the highest life lived on this planet. Humanism is identified with itself alone. It seems cheap and tawdry compared to being in Him.

O Jesus, Lord, when I am identified with You in self-surrender and obedience, I’m identified with the name that is above every name. What matters it what my name is? Amen.

AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: If I hit bottom with Him, I also hit the throne with Him.