The One Who Fills the Universe Emptied Himself

If you’re “full of yourself,” you are prideful, and there’s no room for anyone else, not even for God. I guess that pride allows you to love only you. To love someone else requires making room for others, an emptying, maybe even a humbling, submitting yourself to make someone else’s needs more important than your own. So the God who fills the universe paradoxically “emptied Himself” (Philippians 2:7) out of love, putting aside all that was rightfully His in order to make room for us. “God proves His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8.

What is God like?

BUSTED!

According to Jesus, Satan came to “steal, kill, and destroy.” Look at the way the world is and the way it has been since time immemorial. Most have been following the “prince of this world,” and that evil fruit should give you an idea of what the devil’s like. But Jesus, in His own words, came to “seek and save,” “to give life, and that more abundantly.” It is God’s purpose through Christ to reclaim this world from the prince of darkness, to restore and renew. That should give you an idea of what He’s like.

I think about Jesus’ baptism. Once the Spirit came down, Satan noticed a “disturbance in the Force, the presence of his former Master,” so to speak, and so he showed up rather quickly to check Jesus out and test Him. In the wilderness, the real battle had begun, one that would culminate at Calvary. Whereas the powers of this world sought to kill Him and make a public spectacle of Him, He “disarmed the powers and authorities. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15). That should give you an idea of what Jesus was like.

Jehovah Shammah: The Lord is present.

Wake up, O sleeper. He will give you light.

That moment when you “wake up” and realize that God has just answered a prayer or worked something out or blessed you in some specific way, and you had been clueless, maybe even annoyed that He had not done anything for you in recent memory. I had such a moment today. Jacob had such a moment: “Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.'” Genesis 28:6

God’s Love Paid the Price

“It is finished!” Greek: Tetelestai – “The debt is paid”

Worth is measured by “market value,” how much someone is willing to pay. Now, apply this principle to Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrated His love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” How much was it worth to Jesus to redeem me from Satan’s Slave Market? He paid the price, a ransom, with His precious blood, shed for the remission of my sins. He died my death. I received His Life. My worth to God is immeasurable.

Whereas I was once in Satan’s Slave Market marked “FOR SALE-REDUCED-CHEAP,” I am now seated in the Heavenly Places with Christ Jesus marked with a seal “VALUABLE-BOUGHT AND PAID FOR AT A HIGH PRICE.”