Equal With God

Q: What does the Bible say about the humility of Christ?

The Bible presents Christ's humility as a profound example for all believers, particularly in Philippians 2:5-8. Philippians 2:5-8 highlights the humility of Christ as he transitions from his divine glory to the form of a servant. This passage emphasizes that Christ, being in the form of God, did not seek to elevate himself but willingly took on human form and humbled himself to the point of death on the cross. This act of divine humility serves as the ultimate model for believers, instructing them to adopt the same mindset. Christ's descent into lowliness demonstrates the depth of his sacrifice and the nature of his mission to redeem humanity through servitude and humility.

Q: How do we know that Christians have the mind of Christ?

Believers possess the mind of Christ as a result of their regeneration and new creation in faith. According to 2 Corinthians 2:16, every true believer has the mind of Christ. This means that through faith in Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, Christians are endowed with a renewed mind capable of understanding and adhering to spiritual truths. Paul's exhortation to 'let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus' indicates that this divine mindset is a natural outflow of the Christian's new identity in Christ. The mind of Christ is not something believers have to attain but rather what they already have as part of their new life, which calls for them to live in accordance with it.

Q: Why is Christ's humility important for Christians?

Christ's humility is essential for Christians as it teaches them to live selflessly and serve others. The importance of Christ's humility for Christians lies in its role as a model for conduct and interaction within the church and the world. By exemplifying humility, Christ demonstrated that true greatness in the kingdom of God is found in servitude to others. Believers are called to emulate his lowliness of mind, prioritizing the needs of others above their own. This pattern of behavior not only reflects the character of Christ but also fosters unity and peace within the community of faith, as Christians strive to support and lift each other up.

Q: How does the idea of being conformed to the image of Christ relate to Christian living?

Being conformed to the image of Christ involves embodying his character and priorities in everyday life. The doctrine of being conformed to the image of Christ speaks to the transformational aspect of the Christian life, as outlined in Romans 8:29. Believers are predestined to reflect Christ's character, which shapes how they live, think, and act. This conformity is not merely external but an internal change that manifests in a lifestyle characterized by love, humility, and service to others. Living in accordance with this transformative process means actively adopting Christ's values and behaviors, leading to a life that glorifies God and positively impacts the world. It fosters a greater resemblance to Christ and thus fulfills the purpose of salvation.

Philippians chapter 2, and we're going to read from verses 5 through to verse 8. Philippians chapter 2, reading from verse 5. Once again, this is the word of the Lord and the Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Philippi and he says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Amen. May the Lord bless this reading to us. Just a short reading, but I trust it will grant us some sweetness as we consider the gospel in the apostles' writings today. We're continuing in our study in Philippians chapter two. And again, we shall see how the Apostle Paul is setting before us the Lord Jesus Christ. He sets the Lord Jesus Christ before the church as the object of our attention, as the standard of our obedience. and as the measure of our conduct. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that the Apostle is directing us to. The object of our attention, the standard of our obedience, the measure of our conduct.

Some people tell us that Moses' Law or the Ten Commandments are the believer's rule or standard of life. Some tell us that, but not the Apostle Paul. He tells us that it is Christ to whom we are to look as believers for inspiration and example for how to live in this world.

Paul never imposes an outward framework of rules upon the church. He directs, rather, to an inward attitude of faith. And that is much more powerful. Paul invokes an internal spiritual transformation of regeneration and conversion. That transformation that is experienced by every true child of God the transformation that calls forth conversion and makes us one with Christ. He calls us to exercise that renewed life in our conversation as becomes the gospel. We saw that a few weeks ago. He calls us to live with conduct appropriate to our new life in Christ. The law makes men proud. It makes them hypocritical. It makes them deceitful. And ultimately, it breaks them. Christ teaches us by example to be humble, to be generous, and to be true to our spiritual calling and family likeness.

I don't know of a more potent argument for Christian living and for personal obedience in the whole of Scripture than this single sentence written to the church at Philippi by the Apostle Paul. He says in verse five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. What an extraordinary measure, or measurement, what an extraordinary rule of obedience and conformity this is.

The mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is what is to rule our hearts, rule our conduct. and lead us and teach us into a life, walk, and conversation that becomes the gospel. As believers, we live by faith in Christ. And living by faith means living according to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's Ephesians 4, verse 13. It is to live according to the example of Christ because he is our example and he will give us the grace that is needed to live for him.

And as the Lord enables our thoughts today, we are going to hang what we have to say upon these words of the apostle. Let me just say in the context of this verse, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Paul isn't telling the church, Paul isn't telling the Philippians and thereby you and me, that we have to go and get the mind of Christ. or that we have to go and discover it elsewhere in the Bible. And once found, we are to agree to it or submit to have it rule our thinking.

You have made Christ your saviour. And because of that, there used to be a way of teaching, a way of preaching. I don't know whether it's as prevalent now as it was when I was a younger man. I guess it still is. I don't listen to so many of these sermons that I used to be opened to or exposed to when I was younger.

But there used to be a way of speaking which said, you've made Christ your savior. Now you need to make him your Lord. You've made Christ your Saviour, now He needs to be Lord in your life. And there was a sense that there was a two-layer experience of grace, one to become a Christian and then another acquiescing, another agreement to make him Lord, as if there were a group of people that were saved and could go on living without Christ as their Lord, go on living in a Christless way, in an evil way, in a wicked way, in a thoughtless way. and they would then need to submit to Christ as Lord. Well, that's not right.

The mind of Christ is in us all, who are men and women of faith. If you believe in Christ, if your sins are cleansed by his blood, if you are forgiven by his sacrifice, the mind of Christ is already in you. Be you ever so young in the Christian faith. Perhaps you're just a child in your spiritual walk. But you have the mind of Christ.

We have the mind of Christ. Those who are his people. Paul tells us that in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 16. We have the mind of Christ. And here the word let means seeing this mind is in you or because this mind is in you, the mind of Christ, live accordingly. The mind of Christ is not discovered after long years of Bible study. It is the new creation. It is the transformed desires of a renewed soul. It's the birthright of every child of God. It's the new heart which houses the Holy Spirit with the fruits of the Spirit, the fruits that the Spirit brings. So let me assume that you are a believer.

Do you know why you were predestinated, or rather, what you are predestinated to? Do you know why and what you are predestinated to? Well, Paul tells us, he tells us in Romans, we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son. predestinated to have the mind of Christ. We are predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son, to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.

That's Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5. Our God has within the covenant of grace, and according to the good pleasure of his own sovereign will, adopted us in Jesus Christ and conformed us to the image of Jesus Christ. And that means we are like Christ. It means, amongst many other things, that we have the mind of Christ. And just as Adam was made in the image of God, so we are made in the image of Christ.

Adam was allowed to fall away by temptation into sin. We too are tempted to sin, and there is a fight, there is a battle goes on in the soul of every born-again believer. because Satan tempts us and we have to wrestle against principalities and powers and against our own weak flesh. But though we sin, we shall never fall away because the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. And because no sin is imputed to us, but only the righteousness of God.

And it is this, it is this state the Apostle is calling the Church of Philippi to consider. These birthrights, the birthrights of grace, the divine comforts and consolations that come to us in the Gospel that are freely bestowed to us by God. that come to us through the Lord Jesus Christ and with our union in Christ. These are what Paul is speaking about, the felt blessings of the Spirit indwelling a believer's soul. And every child of God to one degree or another, experiences these blessings, knows something of the consolation of Christ, the blessing of forgiveness, the removal of guilt, the strengthening of faith in times of trouble and sadness and despair.

We know the presence of the Lord with us. These are the consolations of Christ. And this is not just positive thinking. It's a supernatural application of divine grace. We know the comfort of love. We know the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We know the sympathy and mercy of God. And we know the tenderness and care of Christ towards God's redeemed and adopted people.

And what Paul is saying to us here is that having known these things, having felt these things, having experienced and lived these things, let us live accordingly. Paul would have us, you and me, live life by the pattern of our Savior's love to us. That is lives conformed and empowered by our living head.

And this, all believers, being new creatures in Christ, desire to do. As we've said before, show me a believer who does not wish to be conformed to the image of Christ, who does not desire to be Christ-like or more like Jesus Christ, and I will show you a hypocrite and a liar. Because all believers, all true believers have this spiritual desire in their souls. And I accept that it may at times ebb and flow, it may wax and wane, it may be greater or lesser because of this battle that goes in us. But I do not believe that there is a Christian, a true believer on the face of this globe who does not wish to be more entirely conformed to the image of Christ, or more desire to be Christ-like.

The Lord Jesus is the believer's great pattern for Christian living, and we delight in Him. He is our example. He is our enabler. He is the grand cause of every grace in a converted sinner's life. And in our verses today, the apostle directs our thoughts specifically to Christ's humility and lowliness of mind. This is the particular element or aspect of Christ's nature that he is directing us to for our obedience. And the Apostle Paul particularly reveals this aspect of Christ's nature, his humility and lowliness of mind, in the context of Christ leaving his glory and coming into this world to redeem his people from their sin. And what an immense alteration of state that is when we pause to consider what Paul is talking about here.

He is telling us about the fact that the eternal God, our Savior, undertook this change from His glory to the meanness of his life upon earth as a man. He is telling us that the infinite God became a dependent infant child. He is telling us that the Lord of glory became the crucified Christ. He is telling us that the eternal Son became a torn and battered corpse. How far the Saviour stepped down. How far He descended in coming to earth as a man. How low He stooped in death to lift us up to life.

He who is God and equal with God, in the highest eternal majesty, humbled himself by assuming our human nature. In describing the Savior's humility, the Apostle Paul expresses beautifully, if almost incidentally, his divinity. Paul's message here, Paul's purpose in this is to encourage the Lord's people to humility and lowliness of mind. And he does so, he encourages us thus, by opening up and expounding something of the most immense and wonderful and awesome Description.

The translation of the eternal God to the cross at Calvary. Our Lord Jesus Christ is himself God. He is God the Son, co-equal with the Father, God the Father, and with God the Holy Spirit. The phrase, being in the form of God, means being God. That reference to the word form in there, it's not in any way detracting from the essence and nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. It means being himself God, wholly and completely, as Christ was and is by nature and essence from all eternity.

And the Apostle Paul here gives the Philippian believers a clear statement and full declaration of the essential divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I say, that wasn't perhaps his immediate purpose. He's speaking here about humiliation in the life or humility in the life of a believer.

But the way in which he expresses and explains that shows this beautifully, the nature of Christ's divinity most beautifully. In fact, it has been said, if there were no other passage in the word of God to express Christ's divinity, then this passage alone would be sufficient to expel all doubt about Christ's divinity and withstand every contradiction against it. And goodness knows that is where all the heresies and all the sects and all the opponents of the gospel of Jesus Christ find their ammunition. They always invariably attack either the divinity or the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what the Apostle Paul is speaking of here. The Apostle's language carries great depth and meaning.

As we've said, by describing the Lord Jesus as being in the form of God, it shows his essential nature and his Godhead. telling us that Jesus thought it not robbery to be equal with God, shows us that divinity is Christ's rightful and natural state. He didn't reach for something that was outside of his grasp. He didn't extend beyond something that he was. Paul is describing Christ as being truly God in his own underrived nature, in his own right. And he was so from eternity.

And that confirms Christ's existence and being before his incarnation. And it teaches us that he dwelt independently as a distinct person, yet one with his Father and one with the Holy Spirit. And Paul continues, from this sublime state of majesty, in the settled contentment of the eternal three, our Lord Jesus willingly took the form of a servant. out of love for his church, Christ undertook to represent and redeem his people. He stood forth in eternal councils as substitute and surety for all those given to him in electing grace by his Father. Now note this, Christ did not lose his reputation.

He gave it up. Though he is a king, yet he did not come to earth as a king. Though he is a governor, with the government of the world and the upholding of the universe upon his shoulders, Yet he did not come to earth with the trappings or status of office. He made himself of no reputation and he came to minister and to serve his people. He was truly God because he was in the form of God. He was truly man because he came in the form of a servant.

And here we have this manifestation given to us of the lowliness and humility of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Paul continues that being found in the likeness of men, the Lord Jesus Christ humbled himself again. He had humbled himself in his coming. He humbled himself in taking flesh and being found in the likeness of men, He subjected Himself to the death of the cross. Though immortal and eternal, our Saviour Jesus Christ learned obedience by the things He suffered and submitted Himself to death freely, happily, voluntarily.

And astonishingly, this is the pattern, this is the likeness, according to Paul, which you and I ought to aspire to. Paul says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. The lowliness, Christ began when he made himself of no reputation, when he joined himself to the human nature of man for the salvation of his elect.

And here begins the outworking of the eternal covenant of grace, the covenant of peace. This is how it was effected. This is how it was put into place. This is how it was manifested and revealed and how it accomplished the purposes for which the eternal God established it. This is the outworking of the covenant of grace.

Our saviour was revealed as a servant. He was made and fashioned in the likeness of man to serve his church and redeem his people. The humiliation he incurred was intentional and voluntary. He sustained personal dishonour, shame and pain in order to secure the great blessings of divine love and accomplish the great purposes of grace. All Christ's life was lived in low and humble circumstances. At birth, he was laid in a manger. In life, he worked as a carpenter, as a general labourer. He owned no home. He possessed no worldly wealth. He had not where to lay his head.

Christ's whole life is a study in humility and poverty. And then there's the cross. the very means whereby he died was cursed and reserved for slaves and criminals. The death of the cross was designed to epitomise disgrace and communicate dishonour in the Roman world. Everything about the Saviour's life spoke of submissiveness and humility.

And there's a difference, of course, between humility and humiliation. Humility is an attitude of heart and mind. It comes from having a true and accurate view of one's self. And all believers ought to have humility when we know what we are by nature and from what we have been saved and delivered. Humiliation on the other hand is usually something done to us although sometimes we do it to ourselves by our foolish words and our foolish actions. And it's often a painful experience where our pride and our self-righteousness is stripped away Christ's humiliation was different.

He had no pride to strip away. It was all inflicted by the wickedness of man and it was all endured for the sake of his people. Luke, the gospel writer, who also wrote the Acts of the Apostle, he speaks of Christ's humiliation in Acts 8, verse 32. We read there, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth.

This is the account of the reading by the Ethiopian eunuch in his chariot, in his carriage, as he travelled home from worshipping in Jerusalem. And I'm sure you remember the story how Philip was taken by the Holy Spirit and caused to run alongside the chariot. And he heard the man reading. The conversation unfolded, and he says, who is the prophet speaking about here in Isaiah chapter 53? And Philip began, and he preached Christ to that man, that eunuch. And ultimately, he was converted, he was baptized, and he went back to Ethiopia rejoicing in his heart as a believer in Jesus Christ. He wondered of whom the prophet spoke and Philip was able to preach Christ to him.

And this is the humiliation of the judgment that Christ endured. But do you see what Paul has done here in drawing this application to the minds of the Philippians. In order to teach the Philippians and in order to teach you and me about submission and humility, he has taken us from the realms of glory to the cross of Calvary. The great object of the incarnation was the death of the Lord Jesus. And step by step, our Saviour humbled himself until he became obedient unto death. And it is here at the cross, at the point of our Saviour's sacrifice and death, that the Church finds its great example and inspiration.

If you and I have been to the cross of Christ, we know something of what he suffered and endured for our sakes. If we have been to the cross, we know we have no righteousness of our own. If we have been to the cross, we know we have no grounds to boast. and a journey to the cross will strip away our self-importance, our vanity and our conceit.

And it is this like-minded attitude that Paul is advocating for the church. When our personal ambitions have come to an end, When we see the Lord Jesus Christ suffering and dying on the cross and our personal ambitions come to an end, when we are willing to be the least amongst our brethren, when every one of us desires to be placed below our brethren and to see our brothers and sisters higher than ourselves, It is then that there will be an end of strife and division. Believers should be willing to stoop with our Saviour to serve His people. Believers should be willing personally to be abased for the good and honour of our Lord and for our brethren.

This was the mind of Christ. It is the example of our Lord and it is what he has left us to follow. Paul doesn't lean upon the statutes of the Old Testament or insist on ordinances in order to enforce Christian life, walk and conversation. He doesn't make this the standard of our life. He simply points the church to the saviour. He points us to the cross and he says, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. May we all, in learning Christ, learn to do just that. Amen.

Equal With God

What does the Bible say about the humility of Christ?

How do we know that Christians have the mind of Christ?

Why is Christ's humility important for Christians?

How does the idea of being conformed to the image of Christ relate to Christian living?

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Equal With God

What does the Bible say about the humility of Christ?

How do we know that Christians have the mind of Christ?

Why is Christ's humility important for Christians?

How does the idea of being conformed to the image of Christ relate to Christian living?

Sermon Transcript

About Peter L. Meney

Comments

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