Descent To Devil’s Island

Philippians 2:4-8

(Hymn on Christ’s Humiliation)

4Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.

5Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had.

6Though he was God,

he did not demand

and cling to his rights as God.

7He made himself nothing;

he took the humble position of a slave

and appeared in human form.

8And in human form

he obediently humbled himself even further

by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.

Psalm Link

Psalm 130:7

O Israel, hope in the LORD;

for with the LORD there is unfailing love

and an overflowing supply of salvation.

Devil’s Island is really a cluster of islands ten miles off the South American coast. A hundred years ago it was notorious for its penal colony, where six thousand prisoners were confined. One visitor commented, “Hell is the only appropriate name for it, with its eternal fire of lust and remorse and impenitence.”

But volunteers from the French Salvation Army went and lived there. They cleared some land and then gathered some prisoners to renovate an old house. Soon the word went out that these Salvationists not only worked alongside the convicts but slept on cots in the same rooms.

As a result, many prisoners turned to Christ. One convict was converted without attending a meeting. He said, “I don’t need to go to the meetings. I have only to think that they left all to come here. That’s enough.”

Jesus left far more to come here, and he did far more after he came here. This hymn in Paul’s letter to the Philippians tells the whole story in a few lines. God himself leaves heaven’s glories and condescends to become a baby in a smelly manger. Even the angels on the hillside must have been amazed at what was happening. The Son of God came to Devil’s Island, not only sleeping on a cot next to us, but taking our death penalty upon himself. And because the Son of God became the Son of Man, we are freed from Devil’s Island and become children of God. Positively amazing!

You who were God beyond all praising,

Because you loved me became a man

Stooping so low, but sinners raising

Heavenwards by your eternal plan.

FRENCH CAROL

Bible Networking

Check out 2 Corinthians 8:9 to see one reason why Christ became so poor.

Notable Quotable

“So poor was he that he was constantly borrowing: a place for his birth, a boat to preach from, a room for the Lord’s supper, a tomb to be buried in. Moreover, he took upon himself a debt (Isaiah 53:6—‘the guilt and sins of us all’).”

WILLIAM HENDRICKSEN