The Incarnation of the Triune God;
The True Message of Christmas

By Pastor John MacArthur

I’d like to invite you to take your Bible and turn to Philippians chapter 2. I want to take Philippians chapter 2 verses 6 through 11 as the text of our Christmas message.

Before we read the text and specifically present what the Spirit of God has said, let me just set our thoughts in context. At Christmas, we are confronted again with the sometimes very difficult task of separating the reality of Christmas from the clutter that surrounds that reality. There is so much confusion that sometimes you feel like the real Christmas story is like a diamond lost in a haystack‑‑it just seems impossible to find.

Christmas has really become a hopeless muddle of confusion. The humility and the poverty of the stable are somehow confused with the wealth and indulgence and selfishness of gift giving. The quietness of Bethlehem is mingled with the din of shopping malls and freeway traffic.  The soberness of the incarnation is somehow mixed with the drunkenness of this season. Blinking colored lights somehow have some connection to the star of Bethlehem. The room in the inn, so obscure, so dirty with such meager fare, somehow embraces the thought of a warm house, a fireplace and opulent feasting. Cheap plastic toys for kids are mixed up with the true value of the gifts given by wise men. Salesmen somehow get mixed up with shepherds.  Angels are confused with flying reindeer. The pain of childbirth is mixed with the parties. The filth of the stable is confounded with the whiteness of fresh snow. And then there’s Mary, Joseph, Perry Como and Bing Crosby. And so it goes.

The great reality of Christmas, which is the glory of the Lord being revealed, is obscured by so much tinsel and activity and commercialism. And I think it’s true that Santa Claus really has become the focus of Christmas for most people. And I’ve noted in the years that I’ve been ministering, that more and more each year, Santa Claus takes a dominant place.

Now, as we face the reality of Christmas, I want us to see the true story and this time not from the perspective of Bethlehem or Joseph or Mary or shepherds or innkeepers or wise men or Herod or Old Testament prophets, but I want us to see the Christmas story from the viewpoint of the Holy Spirit of God as revealed to the Apostle Paul. And I believe it gives us the real Christmas story. The scenery isn’t there.  Bethlehem isn’t the issue. Shepherds and wise men and Joseph and Mary and mangers and oxen, they don’t appear in this perspective. But what is here is the reality of the incarnation. This is one of the greatest texts in all the Bible. It is, perhaps, the most profound statement of the Christmas story anywhere in the Word of God.

Look with me at verses 6 through 11. In these verses we will see five steps in the Christmas story, five features as God enters the world, five great aspects to the incarnation.

First of all, number one, the Lord Jesus Christ abandoned a sovereign position. Verse 6, let’s begin. “Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.” Now we’ll stop right there.

We find in verse 6 particularly, and then just at the beginning of verse 7, that the Lord when He came into the world abandoned a sovereign position. Now first of all, the Holy Spirit establishes that sovereign position. Look at verse 6. It begins with the relative pronoun “who” and that refers back to Christ Jesus in verse 5. “Christ Jesus who being in the form of God.” Christ Jesus, then, is the theme of this passage, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now what does it say about Him? The first phrase, “being in the form of God.” This is without question the heart and soul of the Christian faith. The affirmation of the deity of Jesus Christ is the sine qua non of all that we believe. That is why it is always under attack. Christ is in the form of God.  It is the deity of Jesus Christ that is the substantive affirmation of the Christian faith.

Now, let’s see what this phrase means. The word “being” is very important. The word “being” denotes that which a person is in his very essence...that which a person is in his nature. In other words, that which is true of a person that cannot be altered, it cannot be changed.  That which someone possesses inalienably and unchangeably that cannot be removed. It refers to the innate changeless, unalterable character and nature of a person. For example, men may look different but they’re all men‑‑that’s their nature. They all have the basic same elements of humanness, the functioning of breathing and the heart, organs, mind, will, thought, emotion. These are the elements of humanness. You can change his clothes. You can do things to the physical form. But you never change the humanness. That is the being of man. And that is the meaning of this term. And it says of Christ that He is in the being of God. He is then unalterably and unchangeably God in His essence, in His essential being.

In fact, in John 8:58, Jesus said, “Before Abraham was I am.” And He used the “I am” because He lives as an eternally present God. He is eternally in the “I am” mode, in the present mode. He is always and will always be. He isn’t was and will be, He is simply “I am.” That is the basis of our faith. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word”...what?...“was God.” Hebrews 1, “He has spoken in these last days by His Son who is the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person.” First Timothy 3:16, “Great is the mystery of godliness”...what is it?...“that God was manifest in the flesh.” That is the substance of our faith that Jesus Christ is God. Colossians 1:15, “He is the image of the invisible God.”

So the word “being” then has to do with His essential nature.  Jesus Christ, then, has His being--now mark it again‑‑in the form of God. Now what do we mean by “form?” The English can’t really help us with this Greek word. We have to go back and talk about the Greek term for a moment. It is not “form” in the sense that we think of a material shape or a resemblance. It is completely different than that. The word in the Greek is the word ‘morphe’ and morphe has to do with a deep inner essential abiding nature of something. It is not the external. That is the word ‘schema.’ Schema means the outward, the passing, the changing, the fleeting, the external. And by the way, look at verse 8, schema is used in verse 8. “He was found in fashion as a man.” We’ll talk about that in a moment. But “fashion” is the external, the changing. “Form” is morphe, the unchanging, the internal.

For example, if you traced the use of the term morphe in its various forms, you will find that that is exactly where the emphasis lies. There are places where they seem to be used in an overlapping sense, but the specific uses of morphe in very important texts of the New Testament lead us to conclude that it means the inner nature. For example, in Romans 8:29, “Whom He foreknew, them He predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son.” And it’s morphe. It is a new nature, an inner change. The inside of man is conformed to the image of His Son. It’s talking about our nature.

Second Corinthians 3:18, it says, “As we look on the glory of the Lord we are transformed into His image.” Again, it’s morphe. We are changed on the inside, an abiding change that affects our inner nature.  In Galatians 4:19, Paul says, “My little children, I have birth pains until Christ be morphe in you,” -- until literally He be formed in you. He isn’t talking about trappings. He’s not talking about externals, but that the image of Christ would be manifest in the inner nature of man.

In Philippians 3:10 he uses it again, he says, “That I may gain Christ and become conformed unto His death.” So, he’s talking about a deep inner representation of the image of God.

On the other hand, the word schema‑‑from which we get scheme‑‑ is something to do with a passing, fleeting external. For example, First Corinthians 7:31 uses schema this way: “The fashion of the world passes away.” Second Corinthians 11:14, “Satan fashions himself as an angel of light.” He isn’t really, but he puts on that facade. First Peter 1:14 says, “As a Christian, do not fashion yourselves according to your former lust.” In other words, you have a new nature, you are a new creation, don’t put on the garments of the old life.

You find both of these words brought together in Romans 12:2: “Stop being fashioned according to this world, but be transformed in your inner man through the renewing of your mind.” So, one is deeply related to the internal, and one is to the external. And the one of the internal is used here. It is being in the morphe of God. That is being substantively and essentially in His deepest inner man and nature in the form of God. He is God. Don’t let anyone deny that. That is the basic affirmation of the Christian faith.

Consequently, look at the end of verse 6, “He did not think it was something to be grasped to be equal with God.” Now what does that mean?  Listen to this. Satan was a created angel. Satan was created by God, he was inferior to God, he was less than God. But in Isaiah 14, he said, “I will...I will...I will...I will...I will,” five times and the substance of what he was saying was “I will be like”...whom?... “God.”  Satan thought it something to be grasped at to be equal with God. He thought it something to seize, something to grasp at. Jesus didn’t.  Why? He was already equal to God. There was nothing for Him to seek.  There was nothing for Him to grasp. He is in contradistinction to Satan.

A second way to approach it, the verb that is used there means to clutch or to snatch or to grasp tightly. And it can also be interpreted this way, “He thought it not something to cling to,” not so much that He didn’t have it and He snatched it, but that He had it and He might lose it, so He clutched it. But Jesus didn’t hang onto this thing fearing He would lose it. Why? Because He was essentially God and could never cease being God. So it wasn’t something He had to snatch to get and it wasn’t something He had to hang onto to keep. Do you see? It is a classic statement affirming that Jesus is God in His inner nature. So much so that He didn’t seek it. And so much so that He never feared He’d lose it. He’s God. That is the great heart and soul of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But then this, verse 7, “But He”‑‑the Authorized said--“made Himself of no reputation.” The Greek says this, “He emptied Himself,” ‘kenoo’ from which we get the theological term ‘the kenosis,’ the self‑emptying.  He emptied Himself. The verb means to pour out everything until it’s all gone. He poured out Himself. He emptied Himself. He divested Himself. He rendered up.

Now what is this saying? Well, what I pointed out in the very first statement I made, as you begin to move through the steps of the incarnation, first of all the Lord Jesus Christ abandoned a sovereign position. The sovereign position is affirmed in verse 6 and the abandoning of it is in verse 7. Now notice that I did not say He abandoned His deity. He did not give up His deity. He did not give up His divine attributes. He abandoned the position. He could never give those things up, they were His essential being. And if He ceased being God, He would be no one. And God could not cease anyway for He’s eternal.

Now what then did He give up? What did He pour out? What did He empty out? Some people have tried to say He emptied out His deity.  That’s ludicrous because then He would cease to exist, that’s who He was. He could never lose that. Some writers put it, I think, this way, He stripped Himself of His privilege. He gave up the insignias of His majesty and so forth.

But let me put it to you very simply. I can tell you in the New Testament what He gave up because the New Testament tells us exactly what He gave up. First of all, He gave up His glory. He gave up the manifestation of His glory. He gave up the radiance of His eternal effulgence and brightness, the full manifestation of all of His attributes in glory. That’s why in John 17:5 He says, “And now, Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” Give Me back the glory which I once had. Which means at that point He didn’t have it. He veiled His glory in human flesh. He set aside the full expression of His glory.

Secondly, He gave up His honor. Isaiah 53 says, “He was despised. He was rejected.” The New Testament tells us He was hated, He was mocked, He was spit on. His beard was plucked. He was defamed. He was dishonored. He was discredited. He was accused.  He was murdered. He gave up His honor clearly. And the prophet Isaiah said in His despising and rejecting there was no beauty in Him that men should desire Him.

Thirdly, He gave up His riches. Second Corinthians 8:9 says, “He who was rich for our sakes became”...what?...“poor that we through His poverty might be made rich.”

Fourthly, He gave up His favorable relation to the Father. And He did that only in a moment of time when He died on the cross and said, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” But He lived with the anxiety of coming to that point through all His life.

He also gave up His independent exercise of authority. He said, “I will do only that which the Father shows Me. My meat is to do the Father’s will. What the Father says I will do. What I see the Father do I will do.” In other words, He gave up His independent exercise of divine authority. He gave up His very special relationship to God. He gave up His riches. He gave up His honor. He gave up His glory. He emptied all of those things out and yet He continued to be God. It wasn’t that He lost any of His divine attributes, it is that He chose not to use them, that He gave up the prerogative, or the privilege, of using them.

Was He still God? Yes, that’s who He was. It’s a deep mystery, people, by the way, and I can’t fathom it all. John Milton wrote, “That glorious form, that light insufferable He laid aside and here with us to be forsook the courts of everlasting day and chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.” He was God, but He gave up all His privileges.  Boy, does that say volumes about His character? Does that say volumes about His love?

Jesus had all the privileges of glory and He had no obligation to us. He was equal with God. And yet it says so much about His character that He chose to use His privileges to build the Father’s Kingdom and to reach lost sinners.

So, like a king who takes off his robes of majesty and puts on the garment of a beggar, the Son of God abandoned a sovereign position, second point, He accepted a servant’s place. Back to verse 7, “He took upon Him the form of a servant.” When He became a man He didn’t become a king as a man, or a great ruler, or great leader, or great master, He became a servant. The moment that He divested Himself of His robes of majesty, He donned the servant’s apron. This is exactly as the Old Testament prophet had said, Isaiah 52 verse 13 said He would be a servant. Hebrews 10, “I’m come to do Thy will, O Father.”

And notice again in verse 7 that He wasn’t just acting like a servant. He wasn’t just pretending to be a servant. He wasn’t just playing the part of a servant. He really became a servant. Verse 7, “And being”...look at this...“in the form, or having taken upon Him the form,” and there’s the word morphe, He took on Him the inner essential nature of a servant. He became a real servant, a true servant, a genuine servant. Luke 22:27, “I am in the midst of you as one who serves,” He said. Mark 10:45, “The Son of Man is come not to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom.” John 13, the disciples had dirty feet and He put on a towel and He washed their feet. And then He said the servant is not greater than His lord.

We see Him in service all the time. And the ultimate act of service when He died on a cross to save sinners. He served His Father.  His Father invited Him to come into the world as a servant to work out the plan of redemption, and He willingly became that servant. So, truly He abandoned the sovereign position and accepted a servant’s place.

Thirdly, He approached a sinful people. He approached a sinful people. In His perfection He was willing to be a servant to the Father.  In His perfect harmony with the Father He was willing to be a servant.  That service meant that He had to approach a sinful people. He had to enter this sin‑cursed planet. He had to render His service here on this earth. He couldn’t do it from outer space. He couldn’t do it from the edge of heaven. He had to come into this world and He had to touch sinful man at his own level. So that abandoning a sovereign position and adopting or accepting a servant’s place meant approaching a sinful people.

Look again at verse 7. “He was made in the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man.” That was the only way it could be done. He had to become a man. By the way, it says in the Authorized “was made in the likeness of men.” The word “was made” is probably not the best translation. It is a participle of the verb ‘ginomai,’ which means ‘becoming.’ He was becoming in the likeness of men. And the idea there is not that He was created then, but that He always was God but He became a man. He preexisted as eternally as God is eternal. He wasn’t made then. He was then becoming a man. He had always been in existence. So the proper use of that verb indicates a change, becoming something. And it is saying that Jesus who always was in the form of God was becoming in the likeness of men. And it was a process. He was born and He grew in wisdom and stature. He was becoming in the likeness of men.

By the way, the word “likeness” is so important. The first part of the word is the word homo which means ‘the same,’ homogeneous, something that is the same. And what it’s saying is He was becoming the same as men. He was in every sense in the sameness as men. He was a genuine man. He had the essential attributes of humanness. He wasn’t just God in a shell, He was fully man, in all parts and dimensions, a genuine man with real humanity. He had everything that all men have except for one thing...what was it? Sin. But that doesn’t mean He wasn’t a man. Adam was a man before he was a sinner. And you and I will be glorified men throughout all eternity when our sin is put behind us. And there are times in our lives when we’re not sinning. So to be a man does not necessarily mean you must sin. And Christ did not. The Bible is clear, He was without sin, but He was no less a man. In fact, if I may be so bold to suggest, He was all that a man could be that we could never know a man to be because of His sinlessness.

So, He was a genuine man. He was fully man in the essence of His humanity, at the deepest point. He was man.

But go to verse 8. He also was found in the fashion of a man. Not only was He a genuine man and deeply and truly in His nature all that a man is, but He also took on the outward form of a man. And here’s the word schema, the fashion of man. He didn’t come into the first century with a twentieth century outfit, talking a twentieth century language.  He didn’t drop like some visitor from outer space. He was born of a Jewish mother. He lived in the little village of Nazareth. He ate the way they ate. He talked the language they talked. He transported Himself the way they did. He wore the clothes they wore, took care of Himself the way they took care of themselves. He ate what they ate. He drank what they drank. In other words, He took on the scheme of their life, the customs of their culture.

So by personal experience, He adapted to the outer manifestation of the time in which He lived. He was man at the deepest part of His nature. And He adapted to man in that climate and that culture and that time and experienced all of their experiences, fully God, fully man. The mystery of the incarnation and sinless all the while.

Don’t think of Jesus as less than fully human. He was fully human.  Did people come into this world through the natural process of birth, through the womb of a mother? So did He. Had others been wrapped in swaddling clothes? So was He. Had others grown up? So did He. Did others have brothers and sisters? He did. Did others learn a trade and work? So did He. Were other men at times hungry and thirsty and weary and asleep? So was He. Were others grieved and angry? So was He. Did others weep? So did He. Did others rejoice? So did He. Were others destined to die? So did He. Did others suffer pain? So did He. Were others loved and hated? So was He. He was a man in the form and the fashion.

So He abandoned the sovereign position. He took a servant’s place.  He approached a sinful people. He became one of us.

Fourthly, having abandoned the sovereign position, having accepted a servant’s place, having approached a sinful people, He then adopted a selfless posture. Verse 8, “He humbled Himself.” What a statement! Do you ever think about the humility of Christ? I mean, I see Him and there He is as a little boy or a young man and He’s helping Joseph make a yoke in the carpenter shop to put on some oxen that He had created. I mean, He’s washing the feet of twelve disciples and it was He who designed their brains. He’s hungry and it was He who created the universe. The place of humility. He adopted a selfless posture...utterly selfless.

For us He did this, people. Humility is the theme of Christmas...humility.

St. Augustine wrote so beautifully of His humility, “The word of the Father,” he said, “by whom all time was created was made flesh and born in time for us. He without whose divine permission no day completes its course, wished to have one of those days for His human birth. In the bosom of His Father He existed before all the cycles of the ages. Born of an earthly mother, He entered on the course of the years on that very day. The maker of man became man that He ruler of the stars might be nourished at the breast, that He the bread might be hungry, that He the fountain might thirst, that He the light might sleep, that He the way might be wearied in the journey, that He the truth might be accused by false witnesses, that He the judge of the living and the dead might be brought to trial by a mortal judge, that He justice itself might be condemned by the unjust, that He discipline personified might be scourged with a whip, that He the foundation might be suspended on a cross, that He courage incarnate might be weak, and He security itself might be wounded, and He life itself might die.”  Humility.

And how humble? Look back at verse 8. “He humbled Himself.” How far did it go? Well, certainly He became mortal but it went beyond that. He also became obedient unto death. You see, it was an act of obedience. He learned obedience, Hebrews 5:8 and 9, by death. The greatest act of obedience to the Father was in dying, that was God’s will. And even in the garden when He said, “O Father, let this cup pass from Me,” the humanness was crying out against dying, the deity was crying out against sin bearing and yet He said, “Not My will but Thine be done.” He was obedient to death. He didn’t just become mortal, He died. That’s the worst that man can ever endure...all the way to the grave.

And He didn’t just die, either. Look at the end of verse 8, “Even the death of the cross.” It’s one thing to die, it’s infinitely beyond that to die the death of the cross. The ancient writers used to say that to die on a cross is to die a thousand times before you take your last breath. The pain is excruciating, unimaginable. The suffocation of the organs when the body is suspended by four great wounds is more than you can believe. The pain, the fiery pain pulsing through the body is more than we can conceive. It was a painful death.

And it was a shameful death. It was reserved for the vilest and most wicked of criminals. And you hung suspended in space, naked before the gaping gazing mocking throng. It was a cursed death. God Himself had said, “He that hangs on a tree is cursed.” It was a lonely death.  There was no companionship, even God was gone. And I wonder so often as I hear the words “Still, O soul, the sign of wonder of all the ages see; Christ thy God, the Lord of glory is on the cross for thee.”

Incomprehensible humility. But what’s so marvelous is that even in His dying, even in such abject depth of human suffering, He still wielded the power of God to redeem the human race.  In His dying He could do that. You look at Jesus Christ and you see His humanness.

So, what do we see then? What is the Christmas story? The Lord Jesus Christ abandoned the sovereign position, accepted a servant’s place, approached a sinful people, adopted a selfless posture. That’s the Christmas story.

But there’s one more thought. Fifthly, He ascended a supreme prince...He ascended a supreme prince. What was God’s reaction to this?  And what should be ours?

God’s reaction, first, in verse 9: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name”-- or a title, or a position, or a rank --“ that is above every other name”-- or title, position, or rank. God lifted Him up. And, people, listen to me. That is a great classical spiritual truth. Jesus said it Himself in Luke 14:11, “He that humbleth himself shall be”...what? “Exalted.” And that is the spiritual truth that we must learn. When we humble ourselves, God will lift us up and exalt us. And that’s exactly what happened. He humbled Himself and He was exalted. He then becomes the supreme illustration of this Kingdom principle: you sink to the depths of selfless sacrificial humiliation and God will lift you to the heights of glory.

We see that in the Beatitudes. We see that all throughout the teaching of Christ and the Apostles -- Humility, then exaltation. Humility, then exaltation. Jesus in His baptism is humbled. He’s baptized by John. And in humility He identifies with the sins of His nation. But in exaltation, the voice of God bursts out of heaven, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

We see Him in the temptation. He’s humbled 40 days without eating.  He’s being buffeted by Satan. He’s fasting in repentance, again identifying the sins of the nation. In humility, He trusts the Father to take care of Him and never uses His power to meet His own needs. And then in glorious exaltation, when the time is done, the Father dispatches the angels who come and feed Him. In humility, He publicly proclaimed to His disciples that He was going to die. And a moment later He’s in a mountain with them and He pulls His flesh back and they see His glory. We see Him on the cross in humility and then He bursts from the grave in exaltation. And that’s the pattern. Humility, then glorification. God exalted Him.
That was God’s reaction. God exalted Him and God gave Him a name above every name. Why? Verse 10. “In order that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.” Every knee...now we come to us and to all the other creatures. Every knee to bow. Every knee in heaven...who would that be? That would be the holy angels and the redeemed saints who have already gone to heaven. Everyone in earth...that would be all the living. And under the earth...the demons and Satan and all that host.  All the creatures in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, all of them are to bow to that exalted name. He is, says Ephesians 1, far above all principalities and powers, far above all other names, given a supreme place, the prince of God.

Notice that He’s given a name above every name. You say, “What is that name?” Very clear, in verse 10, the name of Jesus, that all that is embodied in that name, all that is embodied in who He is, He is unequalled, the Savior, the Lord of the world and the universe. And at that name every knee should bow.

And you know something? Every knee will bow. That’s right. Every knee will bow. If not in adoration, in judgment, right? If not in worship, in condemnation. Every knee will bow...even Satan will be cast into the pit forever. He’ll bow the knee to the authority of Christ.

But look at verse 11 and bring it to personal response. Verse 10 encompasses the broad picture‑‑every knee should bow. Verse 11 comes down to the individual‑‑“Every tongue should confess Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Every living thing, every living creature in this world will confess Jesus Christ as Lord. The demons and the damned, the redeemed, the holy angels, all will bow, all will confess sooner or later. The issue is when. If you wait until the judgment, it’s too late. But if now you confess Jesus as Lord, you enter in to His Kingdom, His salvation.

Romans 10:9 and 10 says, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, believe in thine heart God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be”...what?...“saved.” This is the message of the gospel.  Jesus Christ is Lord. That’s what we’re saying. He is God. He is in the form of God. He is God. God with all the attributes of God, come into the world with all the fullness of humanness. He became the servant. He humbled Himself. He died, even dying on a cross. And in the midst of that death, purchasing our salvation. God approved and God lifted Him back up and exalted Him. And then God calls to all the created universe and says, “Bow the knee and confess His Lordship.” And if you won’t now, you will someday...but then it will be in judgment and condemnation. Now or later...the choice is yours.

You can bow the knee now in adoration and love. You can confess Him as Lord now and enter into the joy of salvation forever. Or you can resist and say no and someday you’ll bow the knee because you’ll be forced and you have no choice and you’ll be condemned. Our prayer is that you’ll confess Jesus as Lord.  What greater Christmas gift than that? And to receive eternal life.  Why be a fool? What kind of fool would reject that? Incomprehensible.

But is there a message for Christians here? Most of us are Christians. Is there a message for us? For sure. You want to know something? This passage was written for Christians. That’s right. The passage was not written for unbelievers. It was written for Christians.  How do you know that? Because this whole passage is just an illustration of another principle. Go back to verse 5. The whole passage simply illustrates another principle. And what is the principle?

Verse 3, “Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves.” Don’t look on your own things, but on the things of others. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being...” and then you go into the passage.

What is Paul saying? Be humble. Be selfless. Be lowly. And if you need an illustration, then let this mind be in you which was in Christ who was something and became nothing that God might make Him something again. He is a living illustration to the believer. If you will humble yourself, God will exalt you.

And what is he saying to us? “Let this mind be in you.” That is the message. Be humble this Christmas. Be selfless. Reach out to somebody else in need. Jesus did.

Pastor John MacArthur is a bestselling author and a popular conference speaker as well as the president of Grace to You (www.gty.org) and the featured teacher of the Grace to You radio program which airs more than 800 times daily on stations around the world.