Trusting God in Your Trials

He] did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6). The word form that is used refers to a Roman stamp. Official government documents were sealed with wax. While the wax was still hot, they would press a ring or stamp into it bearing the emperor’s insignia. The impression made in the wax was an exact representation of the insignia on the ring. We do something similar today when we get a rubber stamp with ink and stamp it on a piece of paper. The impression is the exact image of what is on the stamp. Paul says, that’s the relationship Jesus Christ bears to God the Father. So, when you and I talk about Jesus, we are not talking about someone less than God. We are talking about someone who is the express image of God (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus surrendered His divine prerogatives to redeem fallen creatures like you and me. To put it another way, Jesus did not think that being God was something He had to hold onto so tightly that when men needed salvation, He didn’t mind leaving Heaven to come to earth and meet the need. If Jesus had thought for one moment that He had to protect His deity, if He had thought that leaving Heaven might allow someone else to come in and take His place as Son, and had stayed in Heaven to protect His deity there would have been no one to come down to earth. There was not one on earth qualified to be our Savior. For everyone on earth had sinned and since no one on earth was qualified to be our Savior—there would have been no Savior. Without a Savior there would have been no salvation. Without salvation, there would have been no hope and without hope we would be men and women most miserable (1 Corinthians 15:19). Because salvation has been brought down, we can praise the Lord that Jesus gave up His life that we might have life more abundantly (John 10:10). Though we may have trials and they often arrive in bunches, God can be trusted in all our trials. —James Apollos Maxwell