Have you ever seen what happens when a drop of gasoline hits a puddle of water? What takes place is called “thin-film interference.” The gasoline spreads out and floats on top of the water – perhaps as single molecules. And when the sun hits it, it displays a swirl of rainbow colors, spreading out from where the drop first hit. I think that phenomenon might illustrate what we have in the middle of this chapter.
The eleven verses we have just read are all a part of one thought – one paragraph – not two or three. Most sermons, including mine today, divide the paragraph at verse 5 and perhaps again at verse 9. But actually, the second half of the paragraph give us an illustration to enforce the first four verses. Paul was encouraging the church at Philippi toward greater unity, using several arguments. He exhorts – “Have the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” “Let each esteem other better than themselves.” “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” In other words, “Put the interests of your fellow Christians above your own.” And so, “Let nothing be done through conflict, but in humility seek the welfare of your neighbors.” “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” “Ignore for a moment what might be in MY mind, seek and follow the MIND of CHRIST.”
As He is in many things, the Lord Jesus is the perfect illustration of the principle Paul was teaching. Are you interested in strengthening your faith? Study the life of the God-man. Do you want to know how holy people should behave under persecution? Take a look at your Saviour. The best illustration of meekness and humility can be seen in the incarnation of the infinite God. Every thing which God expects to find in us already exists in our Saviour. The more and the closer we abide in the vine, the more these good things will be found in us. And so, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
As Paul is exhorting his friends to greater unity and humility, he releases one drop of Christ onto the water. As soon as it hits his argument, it spreads out in a beautiful circle of rainbow colors in Paul’s heart. The single point of Jesus’ humility and meekness instantly brings Paul to other thoughts about Christ. For example, Jesus didn’t consider it to be blasphemy to identify Himself with God. He emptied Himself of the prerogatives of deity to become a man – He became incarnate. But Jesus Christ wasn’t just another man, He became a slave, so to speak. And even though all men die, God the Son chose to die the very worst of deaths – as a criminal on a cross. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.” That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…“ “and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord – JEHOVAH.”
Having looked at verses 1-4 already, let’s move on to consider the mind of Christ. But for this morning, we’ll stop short of examining the glory with which Jesus’ humility shall be rewarded. Paul’s drop of theological gasoline was “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
The mind of Christ knew it was necessary that He SACRIFICE the FORM of GOD which was rightfully His.
There has never been a more condescending act of humility than what the Son of God did. Christ Jesus, “being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” May it never, ever, cross your mind that Paul considered Jesus Christ anything less than God in the flesh. That is what Paul knew and believed, and it is the consensus of the entire New Testament. Biblical penman after Biblical penman imply, declare and teach that Jesus Christ is God, beginning with Jesus Himself.
In John 10 we hear Jesus say, “My sheep hear my voice, and … I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is great than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stone again to stone him.” Why did the Jews try to stone Jesus to death? Because He equated Himself with the deity of God. In John 5 Christ said, “As the Father raiseth up the death and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will… That all men should honour the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the father which hath sent him.” He said to Philip in John 14 – “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me…” In these and other scriptures, Jesus implied and declared that He is God the Son.
And His disciples heard Him, and so they reiterated that fact. John declared in his first chapter, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. In the begging was (that) Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same with in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Putting it another way, God the Son was with God the Father before creation. And in fact, it was the Son of God who created all things. John added in the closing of his first letter: “We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” Christians know and understand that eternal life is found only in union with the Saviour. And they know, whether or not they can fully explain, that Jesus Christ “is the true God” and He is that eternal life.
“Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” The Greek word “robbery” is used only one time in the New Testament, and so we can’t explain it by comparing this verse to others. Some Greek experts relate it to the word “prize.” Christ, being in the form of God, thought equality was not to be prized. That idea confuses me more than it helps. Here is the way I look at it: To claim equality with God is blasphemy; it is theft or robbery of the highest order. But Christ Jesus didn’t look at it as robbery on His part, because He is indeed one with God the Father. There was no dishonor to God the Father for Jesus to claim to be God the Son, because that is Who He is.
Nevertheless, it was the mind of Christ to take on the FORM of a MAN.
He “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” I know that it is difficult to grasp, but God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are not like Alexander Dumas’ “Three Musketeers” or Hollywood’s “The Three Amigos.” They are not like you and your two best friends. They are not exactly like the three parts of an egg. They are one, while at the same time they are three persons. On a few occasions they appeared at the same time, yet individually. The mind which was in Christ, was also the mind of the Heavenly Father and the mind of the Holy Spirit. In other words it was not just Christ’s choice to become incarnate. It was the agreement and decision of the Divine Trinity.
But the effective point is that Christ “took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.” Galatians 4 – “When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made unto the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of Sons.” There was no way for sinners to be redeemed from under the law, and there was no way that we might be adopted into the family God, without God becoming man to make it come to pass. As Isaiah prophesied, “A VIRGIN conceived and bore a son whom she called ‘IMMANUEL,’ which means ‘GOD WITH US.’” Isaiah also said, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” When Paul was teaching about salvation from sin in Romans 8, he said, “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, GOD sending his OWN SON in the LIKENESS of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” Notice that here in Philippians, he said, Christ “took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the LIKENESS of men.” Christ, as well as being God, was every bit a human being, but because of his virgin birth, without sin. He came in “the LIKENESS men” in that He came only in “the likeness of SINFUL men.” In writing to Timothy, Paul added, “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh…”
In addition to becoming a man, Christ became a servant in the sense of coming to do the will of the Three. Speaking of Himself, Jesus said in Matthew 20 – “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” After nearly a dozen verses prophesying some of the details of Christ’s crucifixion, Isaiah concluded: “It pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin… He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.” Coincidentally, Isaiah concludes the chapter by describing some of the same things Paul describes in the verses we aren’t studying this morning. “Therefore will (Jehovah) divide (with Christ) a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because (Christ) hath poured out his soul unto death; and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
It was the mind of Christ, in perfect conjunction with the Father and the Spirit, that He become a man – and even a servant of men and the Father.
And of vital importance to us, it was the mind of Christ to become the SACRIFICE we need for salvation.
“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” The Son of God visited His creation on many Old Testament occasions. For example, He gave Noah the blue prints for the ark. He visited with Abraham a couple of times, giving him the promises of his covenant. Among several others, He revealed Himself to Moses there on the top of Mount Sinai. But when the prophesied time arrived, the Son of God did more than just appear before men’s eyes. He was made of a woman; He chose to become the helpless baby of a young virgin woman.
Again, “When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made unto the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of Sons.” The Son of God became incarnate with one specific, primary purpose. Yes, He was a teacher of morality, but so was Moses. And He shared some prophetical statements, but the Old Testament is full of prophecy. He performed more miracles than anyone else, but He was not the first to raise the dead or to provide food and water in the wilderness. No, Christ came into the world to do the one thing no one else had ever done or could ever do. In Psalm 49 the poet became the theologian, when he said, “They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in their multitude of their riches; None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” As Peter reminds us, “forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as sliver and gold from your vain conversation receive by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Why did the infinite Son of God agree to become a human being? He became incarnate in order to become the sacrificial Lamb of God. And again from Matthew 20 – “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Here is Paul’s argument on this subject in Romans 3 – “Now we (Christians) know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.”
The Son of God became a true human being for the primary purpose of sacrificing his life to save a few of us. “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross.” I have forgotten who said it, but I heard or read that Christ Jesus put his foot on the bottom rung of the Heavenly ladder. He didn’t just leave the glory which he had with the father before the world was – John 17. He didn’t just become a human being. He could have been the greatest of all human beings. He could have been stronger than Samson. He could have been known as wiser than Solomon. He could have been a greater and wealthier king than David or David’s son. He didn’t just become another human being, but He voluntarily chose to become the son of a poor Galilean carpenter. And He chose to minister God’s word for forty-two months – earning the hatred and wrath of men. And then He voluntarily submitted himself to Roman crucifixion.
In other words, He surrendered to become the lowest of the lowest. He put His foot on the bottom rung of the ladder which reaches into heaven. He was accused of being Satanically possessed; of being a blasphemer; of being a friend of adulterers.
He stepped into the gutter in order to pull the real gutter-dwellers with Him to glory. And by doing so, no one is left so low that Christ cannot reach him and pull him up. No one is too destitute that he becomes impossible to save. The disciples asked: “Who then can be saved?” Christ replied, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
There is no better illustration of the kind of humility Christians should have, than the humility of God’s Son. But remember His humility, His incarnation, was for the purpose of becoming our sacrifice for sin. Of course, those who benefit from Christ’s death should strive to resemble Him in their lives. And those who can see the ultimate reason for Christ’s death, need to humble themselves and to trust Him as their Saviour. As Colossians 1:14-15 says, He who is the image of the invisible God, is the one in whom we have forgiveness of sin and redemption through this blood. I ask you once again, “Is Christ Jesus your Saviour?”