The Mind of Christ - 7

Philippians chapter 2 contains one of the great incarnation passages in the Bible.

Yet interestingly it was not written for the purpose of information but rather for the purpose of imitation. Paul was not primarily trying to set down the wonders and details of the incarnation of Christ as much as to set before us the attitude, the mind of Christ and how we are to imitate that in our own lives. Yet in doing that, he pens one of the greatest passages on the details of the incarnation that are to be found anywhere in all the Word of God. Philippians 2, 5 through 8 is often called the kenosis passage from a Greek word that is found here, which means to empty. He emptied himself.

A kenosis passage so puzzling, maybe one of the things that makes it so challenging is to understand exactly what that means. Not only how did he empty himself but more importantly of what did he empty himself. And not a proper answer to that question hinges an awful lot of truth or error depending on what you conclude about that phrase.

He emptied himself. I'm fully aware that today is Palm Sunday, not Psalm Sunday but Palm Sunday. And that all across the world today, many churches, maybe most churches will be bringing a message on the triumphal entry of Christ.

I weighed that possibility but decided to go ahead with our Philippians series because there actually is a connection. We wouldn't need an obvious connection to do this but there is a connection because you see in the triumphal entry of Christ, we have one of those few times during the life of Christ when some measure of his honor and glory and majesty was publicly displayed. Very rare, but it was on that particular occasion as the crowds shouted, Hosanna to the king! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord! And other words of praise and accurate description and identification of him as the Messiah, as the promised king to sit upon David's throne. But the truth of the matter is that throughout nearly all of his lifetime, there was no display of his majesty and that is both puzzling and in the minds of some people, very obstructing of their ability to comprehend who Jesus is.

But our text this morning explains why that was so. It explains why it was necessary and it explains both who Jesus is and also why it was difficult to understand who he was when he was upon the earth. And so in today's text, we will find the explanation as to why Christ's majesty was so rarely displayed. Here's what we have in verses five through eight. Number one, the supreme example in verse five. Number two, the exalted deity in verse six. And number three, the selfless humanity in verses six through eight.

It begins with the supreme example in verse five. Paul writing by the Spirit of God says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Why Paul said that needs a word of explanation. It causes us to dip into the background of that statement and to see what it was that Paul was saying prior to these words that we have already examined, but we'll quickly review. Because Paul saw in the Philippian church a need for spiritual growth. Chapter one, verse twenty five, and being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you for your progress and joy of faith.

Remember, Paul there was weighing. Should I prefer to go immediately into the presence of the Lord as I will when I die? Or would it be better for me to remain on earth? And he said, I realize that for your sake, it would be better to remain on earth because you need some additional growth.

And I can help you with that. God has used me to that end. And so you need to make more progress in your faith. And so the need for spiritual growth is the background of our text, as well as a need for united testimony in the Philippian church. Chapter one, verse twenty seven. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. In chapter two, verse two, fulfill my joy by being like minded, having the same love and being of one accord and one mind. It takes some more unfolding of the epistle to come to the place in chapter four where Paul deals specifically with some of the divisions and tensions that existed in the church.

But he alludes to that here. He says there needs to be greater unity, greater like mindedness in the church. And so let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. You see, that's the background of chapter two, verse five, as well as the need for increased humility and self-denial, as well as greater love.

All of that in the verses that precede our text that begins in verse five, reading again verses one through four. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like minded, having the same love. Evidently, there was a bit of a lack of the love that they ought to have for one another in its fullness. And so there needs to be an increase in love as well as the need for humility and self-denial. Verse three, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.

Let each of you look out not only to his own interests, but also for the interest of others. They needed spiritual growth. They needed a united testimony. They needed greater love. They needed increased humility and self-denial.

That last one actually being the key to the first three. If there was greater humility and self-denial, there would be greater spiritual growth. If there was greater humility and self-denial, there would be a more united testimony before the world.

If there was greater humility and self-denial, there would be greater love for one another. Therefore, for all of these things that need to take place to take place, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And so the background leads immediately into the example in verse five, the mind of Christ. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. This mind, which was also in Christ.

Some translations translate that word mind as attitude. Let this attitude be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. It is the mind of Christ. It is the sentiment of Christ. It is the thought process of Christ, how he thought about things.

His thought pattern toward people and toward the circumstances that came to him in this world. And that mind that Christ displayed so powerfully is to be emulated by us. This mind of Christ should become my mind as well. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. I need to think like Jesus did. I need to respond to people and the events in my life the way Jesus did.

It is an exhortation, actually a command. Let this mind be in you. What mind? The mind that was also in Christ Jesus. Which mind will now be more fully described for us in the following verses. And so the supreme example we find in verse five, the exalted deity we see in verse six.

Who? Being in the form of God. Now that's challenging in itself before we get to the place where he emptied himself. Because this tells us what Christ's true nature was. Who, that is Christ Jesus, the mind of Christ Jesus should be in you.

Who? Being in the form of God. The Greek word is morphe, form. It may be translated essence. Who being in the essence of God. It can be translated accurately as likeness. Who being in the likeness of God. Or it can be translated nature. Who being in the nature or being the nature of God. Furthermore, that word morphe is not the only important word, but that word being is rather interesting. Because you'll find it a lot in the Bible, but there's a common Greek verb that is translated to be.

And this is not it. This is an unusual one and it's much stronger than the usual one. It means something like to be really and truly. To be characteristically.

To be by nature. Who being really and truly and characteristically the very essence of God. In other words, who existing in the form of God because he was God. That's the only appropriate conclusion you can draw from this phrase in the beginning of verse 6. We're talking about Christ's true nature. Jesus Christ was God.

If you miss that, you miss it all. If you miss that, then the rest of what is said, though helpful and interesting to a point, does not carry the same weight. It doesn't have the same impact as when you understand who this one is. He is God. And it's God who emptied himself. It's God who humbled himself. It's God who became a servant.

It's incredible when we understand the gap between the greatness of his glory and the depth of his humiliation. Jesus Christ was God. He was God before the Incarnation, before the conception in the womb of a virgin. Jesus Christ was God. Jesus Christ was God after the Incarnation, after he was born of the Virgin Mary. He was still God. But the Incarnation veiled his glory. The taking upon him human nature in addition to his divine nature obscured the manifestation of who he was. Who being in the form of God.

It tells us that Jesus Christ is uncreated. Only God is uncreated. He had no beginning. In the beginning was the Word.

And the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him. And without him, nothing was made that was made. There's only one thing in this whole universe that is uncreated and that is God.

Everything else is created, made by God. And Jesus Christ is God. That means Jesus Christ is uncreated.

It means Jesus Christ is eternal. He had no beginning. Our minds can't comprehend that. We cannot conceive of anything that has no beginning, but God has no beginning. He has always been. He is eternal. He had no beginning. Jesus Christ had no beginning. Not as God. He had a beginning as man, but not as God.

He had no beginning at all. Jesus Christ is God. That means he is one with the Father. Jesus Christ is God. That means he's equal to God the Father in glory, power, wisdom, and all the attributes of God. They are as much his as they are the Father's.

They belong as much to Jesus Christ the Son as they belong to God Almighty, our Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ is God, who being, being in the very form of God, the essence of God. He is very God of very God, as one of the great historic creeds puts it, because it's hard to know what else to say. How do you describe this?

How do you communicate it accurately? He is very God of very God. He is God. That, of course, takes us to the mystery of the Triune Godhead. We can't understand it.

We can only tiptoe around the edges of it. We can accept what the Bible says about it and believe what the Bible says about it without fully understanding it, because nobody can fully understand it. How can we understand this mysterious Godhead? One God in three persons. It's only one God, but there's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are three distinct persons, and yet they are all equally God, and in fact they are all one.

It's one God. How do you understand that? How can you explain that? I can't, can you?

I can't. Somebody said to endeavor to understand the Trinity will cause you to lose your mind, but to deny the Trinity will cause you to lose your soul, because if you're worshiping any other God than the Triune God, you're not worshiping the true God. If you believe in a Jesus Christ who is not God, then you don't believe in the Jesus Christ or the Bible, and you have no Savior, because the only one who saves is this one, who being in the form of God. God is one and God is three in one, and that's who Jesus was. But what happened at the Incarnation? He is God. He is God. But what happened at the Incarnation?

And that's the whole question here. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, and here we go with a description of what happened in the Incarnation, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, coming in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. And so we come, number three, to the selfless humanity. We've seen, number one, the supreme example, verse five, number two, the exalted deity, verse six, and now the selfless humanity, verses six through eight, which is a sixfold description of the selflessness of this one called Jesus Christ, this one that we trust in for salvation, this one that we worship as our Lord and Master, this one that we follow as our Redeemer. A sixfold description, what are these six descriptions of his selflessness? We see, first of all, a selfless attitude, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.

That's another phrase in this passage that is very difficult to know how to translate. He did not consider his equality with God and holding onto it to be robbery. He did not consider his equality with God, and this might be a little fuller translation, but he did not consider his equality with God a prize to be grasped and held onto at all costs. That's where the idea of robbery comes in there.

There's something in this phrase that has the idea of the booty that a robber gains by his robbery, the prize that he acquires by his robbery, and there's that element in this phrase. And Jesus didn't consider the prize of equality with the Father to be something to be held onto at all costs, to be unwilling to relinquish, to be unwilling to let go. He did not count his existence in a manner equal to God something to cling to. That's why it's hard to see his deity and his humanity because he gave up the expression of his deity, the manifestation of his deity, the obvious glory of his deity. If you are allowed to come anywhere near God the Father and you can't get very close to him without being consumed, he is a consuming fire and he dwells in unapproachable light, but if you are allowed to see the hinder part of his glory like Moses did, what would you see?

You would see majestic light and glory like you've never seen before. Now Christ had that same manifestation of glory, but he veiled it so that it was not seen. It was seen briefly, wasn't it, on the Mount of Transfiguration where that glory of God began to shine through his skin and shine through his clothes and shine in such a way that the three apostles who were with him saw that and they were struck by the glory of his majesty. But except for that rare exception, all throughout his earthly ministry that manifestation of his glory, that evidence of who he was, was veiled in his humanity and he clearly did not consider the expression of his deity to be a prize that must be held onto at all costs. He was willing to relinquish it. He gave it up, who being in the form of God, did not think his equality with God was a prize to hold onto at all costs. A selfless attitude. Secondly, we see a selfless action. As we move into the first part of verse 7, But made himself of no reputation.

And there's that kenosis phrase. Made himself of no reputation. He emptied himself is the way some translations put it and I think maybe more helpfully.

He emptied himself. He did not consider the manifestation of his existence with God to be something to hold onto and not let go, but rather he emptied himself, which was a voluntary deprivation of the exercise of his deity. We could say he laid aside his glory, his glory being the outward manifestation of who he was.

It didn't change who he was, but it changed what people could see about him and could understand about who he was. He veiled his glory in his humanity. He veiled his majesty. He veiled his manifestations of deity. He did not, as Charles Wesley wrote in that wonderful hymn in Can It Be, he did not empty himself of all but love. He only emptied himself of the manifestations of his deity, of his glory.

Charles Wesley is usually right on target. It's amazing to me how well trained, how well versed he is in the truth of the Bible, the doctrines of the Bible, and that's why we sing a lot of his hymns. He understands truth very deeply and yet expresses it very clearly and very helpfully, but when he came to this one, he stumbled.

We'll excuse him because thousands of others have stumbled at this point as well. It's very, very challenging, very difficult, but no, he didn't empty himself of all but love. That's sentimental. He gave up everything but love. No, he didn't give up anything but the manifestation, the expression, the visible expressions of his deity. Somewhere I've got the words of that hymn in our hymnal as our editor helpfully polished that phrase to make it true to the Bible, our editor in this case being Joan Pinkston, whom we know and love. In verse 3 says, he left his father's throne above, so free, so infinite his grace, as Wesley wrote, and emptied himself of all but love, but that's not what he did. And so it becomes altered to humbled himself in matchless love and bled for Adam's helpless race.

It is mercy all, immense and free, for oh my God, it found out me. Humbled himself in matchless love. That's what he did. He emptied himself of the expressions of his deity. He was a selfless action. But not only a selfless attitude and a selfless action, but a selfless position because verse 7 goes on to say, taking the form of a bondservant. Taking the form of a servant.

This is a selfless position. He not only came to earth and robed himself in human flesh, but he became a servant. And as I soaked in this passage, over the last two weeks, I've had an extra week to do that because of the Bible conference and I needed that. And as I soaked myself in this passage, I came to understand something I don't think I realized before, the actual fact, taking upon him human nature was an act of becoming a servant.

I'll explain that more in a moment. But he took the form of a servant. And here the word form is the same as before, morphe. Who being in the form, the very essence of God, a morphe of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation or emptied himself and took upon him the morphe, the essence of a servant. The essential nature, the likeness, the visible manifestation of a servant. A selfless position, a servant. He divested himself of his self-interest, his glory, his majesty, his deity, his right to be worshipped, his right to be recognized for who he was. He divested himself of all of that and in its place he made himself a lowly servant. And he did that, number four, by a selfless acquisition, coming in the likeness of man.

Taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. Here the word likeness is not morphe. It's a different word and that itself captures our attention.

Why not the same word again here? But it's because in taking the likeness of man, taking humanity upon himself, he became everything that we are except for two things. So it is the likeness, it is similarity, but it is not total identical reality as it is when we compare him with God the Father. He is the exact nature of God.

But here he is in the likeness of human men, similar but with some differences. Genuine humanity, nothing at all about his humanity that is anything less than full 100% humanity, but here is the difference. Number one, his humanity, unlike ours, is combined with deity, combined in such a way that you can't really separate them fully. He is not only 100% man with a nature like ours, but at the same time 100% God.

None of us have that combination, so that's different. And the second difference is his sinlessness, and that distinguishes him from any of us. He took upon himself the likeness of men, but he did not inherit Adam's depravity that all of us have inherited from birth. He was born, but he was not born with that Adamic depravity.

He was shielded from that, nor did he sin any time throughout his lifetime. He lived a sinless life, a perfect life before God. And so he was in the likeness of sinful men, but he was not sinful. And he was in the likeness of men, but he had this addition of deity, which distinguishes him from any other human being.

Genuine humanity combined with deity and sinlessness. He assumed human nature without ceasing to be God. He emptied himself, and this is important, by acquisition, by addition, not subtraction. When the Bible tells us he emptied himself, we shouldn't spend too much time trying to figure out, what did he empty himself of? What did he pour out?

What did he get rid of? It's more helpful and more accurate to realize he emptied himself by acquiring something, humanity, that added to his deity, veiled the manifestation of his deity. He didn't really relinquish anything, but he added something that changed everything. And so he came in the likeness of men, and he emptied himself by taking something additional to what he formerly was. He became a servant by becoming a man. He did not exchange deity for humanity, but he obtained humanity to add to his deity.

And that was different. In eternity past, he was deity without humanity. At the virgin conception, he became deity and humanity, and for all eternity, he will continue to be deity and humanity.

He will always be the God-man. He acquired to himself a human nature that he did not have in all eternity past, and in that sense altered his existence forever. A selfless acquisition. But number five, we see a selfless submission. We read in verse eight, in being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient. He humbled himself and became obedient. Obedient to whom?

Obedient to the Father. This explains those puzzling passages in the Bible where Jesus seems to not be God. He seems to be submissive to God. He says things like, not my will, but thine be done. Can that be true if he is as much God as God the Father? This is how.

This explains it. He gave up the right to exercise his full deity equal with the Father, and for the sake of redemption, he made himself a servant and became obedient to the Father. The Old Testament is filled with references to the coming servant of Jehovah, a reference to the Messiah. And one of the characteristics of the Messiah is that he will be a servant to God Almighty, and indeed he will say, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. As he submits himself fully and completely to the Father, he is obedient. He who was and is equal to the Father in every way has voluntarily submitted himself to the Father to obey him and to do his will. In contrast to our first father, Adam. The second Adam, who is Jesus, is equal to the Father, but willingly submitted himself in obedience to the Father. Our first father, Adam, who was nowhere equal to God, nevertheless failed to submit himself to God as he should have. And this gets me around to what I was saying. Properly understood to be a human being is to be a servant of God.

That's what we were created for. And Adam rejected that. He said, I don't want to be ruled by God. I don't want to submit my will to God. I want to do what I want to do. I want to pursue my own interests. I want to pursue my own desires. I want to go my own way.

I want to make decisions for myself as to what is right for me and wrong for me. I don't want God telling me these things. And that's the very essence of sin. All of our sins can be traced back to that attitude in one way or another.

And that's what's wrong with humanity. From the very beginning, Adam, who was not equal to God and should have seen himself as the obedient servant of God, refused to do so and plunged himself and the whole human race into sin. And along came Jesus Christ, the rescuer, the second Adam, and he who is equal to God the Father and had no requirement to submit himself to God the Father, for he's equal to God the Father. Nevertheless, he became obedient. He became a servant to Jehovah.

And finally, number six, we see a selfless suffering. He became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. He became obedient to this extent, to death. That's the fact of death.

He acquired humanity so that he could die as a human being. But not just any death, the death of the cross, this describes the manner of death. Death, the fact. The death of the cross, the manner of death, the most hideous death known to mankind. I've been told that there is no death that is more painful than the death on the cross. And I doubt that that statement has ever been successfully refuted.

It was designed with that in mind. Roman citizens were exempt from crucifixion. Only the lowest of Roman society, only the criminals of Roman society, only the dregs of Roman society would ever be crucified upon the cross and experience that death. And Jesus humbled himself all the way down to that point to death, even the death of the cross.

Painful death, shameful death, a cursed death. We read in Deuteronomy 21, 23 just this phrase, For he who is hanged is accursed of God. To die by being hanged up in open view was a mark of God's curse upon one. That was another one of those things that made it difficult for many Jewish people to accept Jesus as the Messiah.

How can he be the Messiah? He died accursed by God. He died hanging on a cross. And in that way showed that he was accursed of God, not blessed of God, failing to understand that he did that vicariously.

He did that as a substitute. He did that not because he deserved it in any way. He did that because we deserve it in every way. The selfless suffering. One commentator, Jeffrey Wilson, says, First, the pre-incarnate Christ emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Then, having become a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient up to the point of death. And he goes on to say that that humiliation describes his entire life.

Everything about his life was a humbling experience. For the Creator of the universe to enter into the body of those whom he created and to live in that existence is great humbling, great humiliation. He who is the judge of all the earth placed himself under the law of God that he might be judged according to it. He who is exempt from all of the pain and the suffering and sorrow of humanity willingly subjected himself to all of that. He who is rightfully due nothing but honor and respect and love and devotion and worship willingly subjected himself to ridicule and scorn and shame and denial and rejection.

He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. That's the mind of Christ. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

It is a self-emptying, it is a self-humbling, it is a self-denying attitude. And that, Paul says, should be our attitude as well. And that would solve most of the problems that you find among Christians and in churches. Two lessons I will draw quickly from this passage. The first has to do with salvation and the second with spiritual growth. We need to understand that salvation involves the coming to Christ for salvation or coming to Christ and saving faith involves an attitude of surrender, an attitude of submission, a willingness to obey. People miss this because when you start talking this way, they say, Ah, ah, ah, ah, salvation is by grace through faith, not by works.

No, you don't acquire salvation, you aren't justified by works, but the faith that saves has an attitude. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. It has an attitude of surrender, an attitude of submission, an attitude of obedience. It is a reversal of what happened with Adam in the garden. Adam, who was required to obey, to submit, to give himself in obedience to serve God, failed to do so.

That was his sin. If sin is going to be reversed in us, then that attitude must be reversed. And we must come to Christ in humility and submission and with a desire to obey, asking Him to help us, for we cannot do it of ourselves. But there's also a lesson here about spiritual growth. To grow spiritually requires that we learn the mind and attitude of Christ. What does it mean to grow in grace and knowledge? We're not quite sure what growing in grace means.

We think we have an idea. And we often imagine that to grow in knowledge means to acquire more and more information about the Bible until we become Bible scholars. No, that's just step number one. Step number two is put all of that into practice in your life, and if you missed that part, you've missed the most important part. It's not knowledge acquired, it's knowledge assimilated and knowledge that is worked out in our lives day by day. It is, in short, the mind of Christ, self-emptying, self-humbling, self-denying. That's what it means to grow in grace and knowledge. It means to become more Christ-like, to become more lowly, more humble, more submissive, more of a servant. Now, there's a lot involved in that. It goes against everything we are in Adam.

Our pride, our desire for honor, our desire to be served, our desire not to deny ourselves. And all of that is given to Christ, but it takes a lifetime to learn how to deal with these stubborn, proud, Adamic elements that war against this attitude of the mind of Christ. One thing for sure that we're going to have to learn if we're going to make progress in this area is to quit being so concerned about what other people might think.

I think that's the biggest downfall. Not only of young people, what will my friends think, but adults too, what will my friends think? What your friends think is of very little consequence, and if they think he'll love you, so what? If you have the mind of Christ, it doesn't matter. What matters is what God thinks of us.

What matters is whether we are reflecting the mind of Christ in our lives and actions. And so we must ask God to help us to empty ourselves of self, to empty ourselves of pride, to empty ourselves of whatever keeps us from being a willing servant to others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. May God help us, shall we pray.

Father, we are convicted, we are challenged, we are rebuked. We confess, all of us, that we are far short of the mind of Christ. No matter how much we have grown in grace, we are still far short of the mind of Christ. And, O Lord, we pray that you will help us, help us to let that mind be in each of us, which was also in Christ Jesus. That we might honor and please you and love you and serve you and serve others as Christ did for us. We pray. Amen.