remaining
God and having the form of God; he was God, and his divine words and
works were spoken and wrought for our benefit. As a servant, he served
us with these. He did not require us to serve him in compensation for
them, as in the capacity of a Lord he had a just right to do. He
sought not honor or profit thereby, but our benefit and salvation. It
was a willing service and gratuitously performed, for the good of men.
It was a service unspeakably great, because of the ineffable greatness
of the minister and servant--God eternal, whom all angels and
creatures serve. He who is not by this example heartily constrained to
serve his fellows, is justly condemned. He is harder than stone,
darker than hell and utterly without excuse.

18. Third: "Being made in the likeness of men." Born of Mary, Christ's
nature became human. But even in that humanity he might have exalted
himself above all men and served none. But he forbore and became as
other men. And by "likeness of men" we must understand just ordinary
humanity without special privilege whatever. Now, without special
privilege there is no disparity among men. Understand, then, Paul says
in effect: Christ was made as any other man who has neither riches,
honor, power nor advantage above his fellows; for many inherit power,
honor and property by birth. So lowly did Christ become, and with such
humility did he conduct himself, that no mortal is too lowly to be his
equal, even servants and the poor. At the same time, Christ was sound,
without bodily infirmities, as man in his natural condition might be
expected to be.

19. Fourth: "And being found in fashion as a man." That is, he
followed the customs and habits of men, eating and drinking, sleeping
and waking, walking and standing, hungering and thirsting, enduring
cold and heat, knowing labor and weariness, needing clothing and
shelter, feeling the necessity of prayer, and having the same
experience as any other man in his relation to God and the world. He
had power to avoid these conditions; as God he might have demeaned and
borne himself quite differently. But in becoming man, as above stated,
he fared as a human being, and he accepted the necessities of ordinary
mortals while all the time he manifested the divine form which
expressed his true self.

20. Fifth: "He humbled himself," or debased himself. In addition to
manifesting his servant form in becoming man and faring as an ordinary
human being, he went farther