The Incarnation: Leadership According to Jesus Christ

Is anyone else tired of the  powerful elites using their positions of influence to enrich themselves at the expense of the masses?  I am.  But it’s nothing new.  A quick read of Matthew 20:20-28 reminds us that even in the 1st century political rulers were doing much the same.

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However, the Lord Jesus makes it clear that such rulers were not and are not models for leadership, especially Christian leadership.  In fact Jesus, Himself, is our leadership model.  He is the one that exemplifies Christian service.
 
   "(Jesus Christ) who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."  
(Philippians 2:6-8, ESV)

Just think about what we are being told! 

​That although Jesus, as God the Son, shares fully in the one essence of the Holy Triune God, He, “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” (v.6).  That is to say, that the eternal Son of God, long before His birth in a Bethlehem stable did not use His status for His own ends, nor did He use His status to take advantage of the masses.  Quite to the contrary, He made Himself “nothing” by coming to earth as a tiny baby who would grow to serve those in need of His help.  As Jesus Himself once put it:

     "…the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."  
(Mark 10:45, ESV)

Through His incarnation, the eternally existent second person of the Holy Trinity took to Himself a human nature in the person of Christ Jesus.  In doing so He was adding to Himself all that is essential to humanity and He did this so as to meet our deepest need – namely to make atonement for our sin and to reconcile us to God.
 
The incarnation of Jesus Christ anticipated and celebrated by Christians each Advent season provides us with clear insight not just into the nature of genuine leadership but also into the heart of God Himself.  In the incarnation of Christ we are shown that the One true God will go to the ultimate length to save and serve and secure His people.