Philippians 2:12-13 reminds me of what Mark Twain once wrote, “Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.” Paul gave us a good example in the threefold view of Christ then said that we ought to have the same mind as Jesus did in dealing with people who try to steal our joy. Paul takes us to aspects of Jesus’ life where we can gaze out at the vistas of the incarnation of Jesus.
• We stopped first at the cliff of “renunciation” and looked at the utter beauty of Jesus as He laid down in eternity His right to rights.
•We walked further and stopped at the seemingly bottomless canyon called His “humiliation” and there we saw the depths that Jesus willing went to without a word or action of complaint to reach the lowest person.
•Finally we climbed to the peak called “exaltation” where because we could look back over the canyon of “humiliation” and the cliff of “renunciation” it is there that we could experience the fullness of Jesus’ “exaltation”.
In the wild the African impala can leap over ten feet in the air to hurdle brush while running at full speed. Yet if you have ever gone to a zoo you will see these impressive animals behind a fence that is only four feet high. Why don’t they just take a run and jump over the fence as they could do so easily? Well it seems that the impala will never jump if it can’t see where it will land. Paul has shown us Christian “impala’s” that over the fences of “renunciation” and “humiliation” is the wonderful ground of “exaltation” so that we can be reminded that all we need to do is jump to be free!