When God became man: Day 12

The purposes of His coming: To serve others

[T]he Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28).

If anyone deserved to be served, it was the God-man, Jesus. Yet, when His disciples squabbled over position and greatness, Jesus told them even He did not come to earth to be served. Instead, He – even as Lord – came as a servant. Paul wrote of this same mind-set of Christ to the church at Philippi, when he told them Jesus, “although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped [clutched and held onto at all costs], but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6-7). God the Son offers us the supreme example of servanthood. The final step in a life of service was to give His life freely as a “ransom for many.” The first steps in a life of service were willingly to be conceived in the womb of a poor Jewish maiden and to be born in a stable.

Song: “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”