Once, long ago, the world of the ants become dark and depraved. The Creator of the ants, looking down on their plight, devised a plan to rescue them. A notice went out to the world of mankind: “The ants need a rescuer. The one who would venture to rescue the ants must be born into the world of the ants. The rescuer must grow and mature as an ant. The rescuer’s food, living arrangements, social life and daily work must be as an ordinary ant. The rescuer must live within the limitations of the ants. In the end, the ants will reject, falsely accuse, torture and execute the rescuer. After accomplishing all this, the creator promises to reestablish the rescuer’s place in the world of mankind.”
When no one stepped forward, the Creator personally took on the task of rescuing the ants (this was His plan all along). After all this, many of the ants still rejected the Creator’s help. The analogy of the ants pictures God’s Only Begotten Son’s coming into the world, His sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection.
Unsurprisingly, the analogy quickly brakes down. Fallen mankind plunged much further down and Holy God is eternally higher than the analogy of ants to men. The gulf that Jesus spanned to bring the Creator and the creation together stretched eternally in both directions. Still, Jesus accomplished for us what we could not accomplish for ourselves. He died that we might live. He rose again so that we might rise again at the last day. What a wonderful Rescuer!
"[Jesus] set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death — and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion." (Philippians 2:7-8, The Message)
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