HAVING THE “MIND OF CHRIST” II

Philippians 2:6-8
Bob Bonner
April 20, 2008

In his commentary on Philippians, J. Vernon McGee makes the following evaluation of the human race: It is unnatural for humans to willfully live humble lives. Or, to put it differently, every one of us possesses as our natural human bent the will to live arrogantly and pridefully, thinking of ourselves before others. This has been true of us ever since the fall of the human race. From that time, there has been an ongoing prideful war among human beings to see who could be top dog. Similarly, humans have conducted a prideful war against God, who has the sole right to be the worthy, sovereign, righteous ruler over His creation. As we learned last week from our first study of Philippians 2:5-11, God stands hostilely against human pride but gives grace and blessing to those who rightfully humble themselves before Him.

In addition, we saw last time that God’s work of transforming the arrogant into the humble is a lifelong process. At times it is even humiliatingly painful. Just ask the Apostle Peter about the shame he experienced as a result of his pride. But as personally painful as spiritual growth can be, we have consolation. We are able to look daily into the adoring eyes of Jesus, the One who takes pleasure in us in spite of our not-fully-eradicated arrogance. We are drawn lovingly back into His embrace and find comfort in His leadership over our lives. We have even come to learn that God’s ongoing discipline is really a good thing, because through it He does His work of transforming us more into the image of Christ. 

Last week we looked at the benefits of humility and the dangers of unchecked pride. This morning we are going to take a closer look at what real humility looks like, what having the mind of Christ is all about, by examining the life of Christ as spelled out in Philippians 2:6-8. These three verses are some of the deepest theologically packed verses you will find anywhere in Scripture. Although we will read all three verses, we will not get past verse 6 this morning.

For those who have not been traveling with us through this study of Philippians, allow me to give you a brief introduction. The readers of this letter are faithful followers of Christ and dear friends of the Apostle Paul. They have served the Lord faithfully in building up each other in the faith and in reaching out to others, introducing them to Jesus Christ. But as often happens with people who live together in close quarters, whether in marriage, dorm life, military barracks, the office, the farm, or the ministry, tensions arise due to personal preferences, personality differences, and varying cultural views. Those tensions become evil when Christians pridefully hold on to their points of view at the expense of the overall health, unity, and mission to which Jesus Christ has called them. When you don’t look closely at what is the core issue of that tension and deal quickly and properly with it in humility, pretty soon that tension can permanently damage the working/living relationships of the Christians involved. 

The Apostle Paul has received word that this was the case with his dear friends at the church in Philippi, and he is calling them to their senses. He is pointing them back to the basics of what their lives are all about and, most importantly, Whom they hold in common and Whom they are serving.

In 2:1-4, Paul exhorts the Philippians to quit being so self-centered and arrogant “…but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves” After this exhortation, He draws their attention back to Jesus, as though saying, “Look, my fellow Christians, at how the One we worship set an example of doing the will of God. Consider how He lived before us.” And then, he gives us this historic illustration of Christ’s humility revealed in His attitudes and actions prior to coming to earth to rescue each of us. In this peek into eternity past, we will see to what extent Paul meant what he said in verses 3b-4, “…regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”

Let’s read verses 6-8, which illustrate for us Christ’s humility. The first pronoun “who” refers to Jesus Christ. 

“⁶..who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality   

   with God a thing to be grasped,

⁷but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in 

   the likeness of men.

⁸Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming 

   obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Let’s begin breaking down verse 6, which reveals Christ’s attitude before coming to earth. The first significant grouping of words describes Jesus as “existing in the form of God.” That word “exist” in the original language takes on the meaning of “to exist originally.” Paul’s intent is to emphasize that our Jesus “really existed” in that “form of God” long before He came to earth in His incarnate state. This was not some fanciful myth created by man but was reality.

In my readings over the years, I have come across much written about this expression that Jesus existed in the “form of God.”  Some explanations of what “the form of God” means are incorrect because of a lack of understanding of its literal meaning. It does not mean what you might typically think of when you hear the English word “form.” The word for “form” is “morphe” in Greek. We have no one word equivalent in English to explain this word. This explains why some have reached wrong conclusions about the word in trying to make it simply understood.

First, let me explain what this term does not mean. It does not refer to a physical or spiritual form, nor does it refer to a visible or invisible form. Rather, it points to the essential quality or nature of something like, for example, water, a human, a dog, or a servant. Water’s basic nature or essence is H2O. Although water’s external appearance can and does change, its basic essence always remains the same.  A male dog’s basic nature is to mark his territory. A slave’s nature is to serve others. As this term “morphe” refers to God, one could say it is the nature of God to be sovereign and to rule or to be all powerful and all knowing. It points to the total collection of all His attributes. At no one time can He be or can He do anything beside Who all of His total attributes make Him to be. That is His “morphe.” 

This term “morphe” is only used here and in verse 7 in the New Testament.  In verse 6, it describes the nature of Christ’s preincarnate state, and in verse 7, a different aspect of God’s nature that He chose to demonstrate in His incarnate state, the nature of a humble servant. Whether in heaven or on earth, Christ remained the full embodiment or “morphe” of God. He lost nothing of His nature when He came to earth. God can be and is simultaneously a sovereign ruler and a humble servant in both places, but chose to reveal different aspects of His nature to us in these places.  Although Christ’s glorious preincarnate form could not be fully seen by us while He was on earth, the reality of it still existed. We know that from what John tells us in John 17:4-5, which we will turn to later.

The word “equality” in Greek is the word “iso”. We get our word “isometric” from it.  “Isometric” means “in equal measure”, like an isosceles triangle with two sides of equal length. “Equal”, as it is used here, refers to equal in essence.

Hence the expression “the form of God” parallels the statement “equality with God.” Paul uses both statements to drive home the truth that in every sense of the word, Jesus is the complete, total package, equal with God. God and Jesus are equals. God the Father glorifies the Son, and God the Son glorifies the Father. They are simultaneously sovereign, full of equal glory, and humble in fulfilling their purposes.

In Christ’s preincarnate state, he already was equal with God. He did not have to seek after that so as to seize it. He was and always will be fully God. It is inherent in Him. He could never lose it or divest Himself of any of it or He would cease to be God. But what does it mean that He “emptied Himself”? Could it indicate that He divested Himself of something? In short, no! It does not. But we will look at what that does mean next time.

But before we go there, let’s look more closely at what it means that Jesus did not “grasp” His equality with God. First, this word “grasped” does not mean “to take hold of something”, like searching for a fork, spotting it, and picking it up. Rather “grasped” means “to hold on to something that is already yours at all costs”, as in a death grip. This word literally presumes that this equality with God was something that already was a reality for Jesus, not something He needed to obtain. 

Secondly, this word “grasped” implies that Christ possessed the right to use His equality with God to His own advantage or for His own personal glory any time He wanted. No one could demand or stop Him from being equal with God.

Having said all of that, notice what the text clearly states that Christ deliberately chose to do with His equality with God. It states that He deliberately chose not to grasp his advantage of being equal with God to bring glory to Himself, but instead He chose to use His position for the benefit of others, without ever losing His full divinity.

Allow me to illustrate the significance of Christ’s not “grasping”. Suppose I have a sword grasped in my hand with a tightly closed fist. In this fashion, this sword is not only in my possession, but it is at the ready to be wielded at will. But suppose I choose to open my hand or loosen my grip. With my grip loosened, I still possess the sword, but I have simply chosen not to use it for the moment. My open or loosened fist is a sign that I have chosen not to take advantage of what is mine. I have lost nothing. I can at any time tighten my grasp and use it to defend or to attack at will. But for now, I simply don’t choose to take advantage of it.

When Jesus came to earth, fully God, He did not grasp His divine authority with a closed tight fist. He did not push for His rightful authority, yet He did not relinquish His authority either. But with an open fist or a loose grip, He came and lived among us as a humble servant. An example of this open fist divinity, choosing not to take advantage of what was fully His, is found in Matthew 26:53. When others came to arrest Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, His disciple Peter went on the offense to protect Jesus. He pulled out a sword and with his best attempt tried to split the high priest’s slave’s head in two by striking him dead center in the skull. Having no experience as a soldier wielding a sword, his swing almost missed the man’s head completely, barely clipping the soldier’s ear off. Jesus then rebuked Peter with these words, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”

The point is, Christ possessed divine power and authority, but He chose not to grasp it for personal use while on earth. He was never without it but just chose not to use it. For Christ, His coming to earth was never a matter of “selfish ambition” (2:3) or of taking advantage of His position. In fact, His coming the way He did was an act of humility, the very opposite of selfish ambition. It was a releasing of His rights for the betterment of others. For a brief 33 years out of eternity, Christ did not demand the personal privilege that came with being God. For the benefit of others who are well beneath Him, not His equals, He became as a servant.

This is the picture of “the attitude of Christ” that Paul has in mind here. It is the attitude to choose to do what is best in the end for the benefit of others. Humility means not demanding or grasping that we must always be understood. Instead, humility means that sometimes we will allow ourselves the pain of being misunderstood, wrongly judged, misquoted, treated ungratefully, dishonored, slandered, condemned, and reviled for the purpose that in the end, by doing so, it will be for the betterment of others.  Sometimes people call it willing to lose a personal battle or two, so that in the end, the war is won and the greater good is served.

Keep in mind to those Greek Christians who lived during the first century, this was a completely different concept than what they had previously believed about their Greek gods, who always fought to hold onto something. For them, Jesus, the only God who chose to regard the needs of others before promoting Himself, was unheard of.

Now why have we spent so much time on this “equality with God not a thing to be grasped”? If you are actively alert as God’s word says you are supposed to be, ready to give an answer as to what you believe about Christ, you need to know that there are many with whom you will come in contact who will freely admit that Jesus was divine “in the sense” that all people are divine. Many will call him the Son of God “in the sense” that we are all sons of God. But this is not the teaching of Scripture. There is no “in the sense of” written here or anywhere else in Scripture. Scripture clearly teaches that Jesus is equal to God, period!

There is a Biblical subject that emphatically points to the divinity of Jesus. It is the subject of “the glory of God”. The word “glory” has basically two meanings, often used simultaneously. First, the noun “glory” came to be used to refer to having a good opinion about some person. This developed into the concept of “praising someone” or giving someone “honor” due them. Kings possessed glory because they merited the praise of their subjects when they were honorable kings. It is in this sense that Psalm 24:8 and 10 speak of God as the mighty king of glory, worthy of His subjects’ praise. “Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle.... Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah.”

Hence with the first sense or meaning of this word “glory” we can see that as it refers to God, it points to God’s glory consisting of His intrinsic worth embedded in His character All that can be known of God is merely an expression of His glory. The worth of God is God’s glory. 

Consequently, when people are engaged in genuine praise of God, they are acknowledging his worth-ship. This concept grew into our term used today for “worship”. It is this glory, this equality with God, which causes us to worship Jesus. So when we declare His worth-ship, if we truly want to grant Him the glory due Him as the transcendent God, we might want to reconsider referring to Jesus as “our home boy”.

‘Glory” also is used to portray the idea of light or splendor. In Hebrew thought, any outward manifestation of God’s presence involved a display of light so brilliant that a person could not approach it. This brilliant outward manifestation of God’s presence was described by the word “shekinah” glory, like that bestowed upon Christ at the transfiguration, and that of Moses’ reflecting God’s glory on Mt. Sinai.  

With those two understandings of God’s glory, look at what we read in John 17:4-5. I want you to notice four things about this glory of God that is mentioned in this passage. Jesus is praying to God the Father. He says, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” 

First, Jesus possessed this glory before the incarnation. Second, this glory was God’s glory. Third, this glory, although possessed by Jesus in its entirety, was not fully recognizable to us during His incarnation  Oh, we saw glimpses of it on the Mount of Transfiguration and maybe elsewhere, but not in its entirety. Jesus in John 17 is looking forward to His return to heaven and being with the Father in His full visible glory, rather than on earth, where it had been hidden from our eyes. 

My final point about Christ’s divine glory takes us back to Philippians 2:9-11. Follow along as I read quickly read them. “Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” These verses strongly hint that one day, all will see Christ’s glory. While on earth, no human being, friend or enemy, saw Christ’s total glory; but, in heaven all, both saved and lost, will be awestruck by what they see for the first time.

You see, when you put these two meanings of “glory” together, and you look at passages like the one we have before us and John 17, you have a clear picture of Christ’s oneness with God, His deity as displayed in His glory, and His incredible voluntary humbling of himself when he became a man. He chose to hide His glory from us, for reasons I don’t intend to cover now. 

What difference does all this make to us today? If you are in Christ, one day the work that Christ began in you, to conform you to His glorious image, He will finish. How will you know when His work in you is complete? You will be in your glorified, brilliant, Christ-like body, declaring to all creation His unfathomable work in you, which began while you were yet a rebel with no hope of spending eternity with God.  He humbled Himself to rescue you, that you might spend eternity with Him in such delight. Knowing this about Christ, that He is equal with God, makes the foundation of our hope solid and guaranteed. If Christ were not equal to God, we would have no hope.

Secondly, knowing this about Christ was important for the Philippians and us to remember. If Christ felt it was important enough to humble Himself to save us, we must consider that it is equally important for us to humble ourselves before each other, so that together we can complete Christ’s mission of reaching out to others that they might know Him. We are to put aside personal preferences, sometimes even our rights, in order that others might come to know and grow up in Christ. 

Humility is a choice. As Christ chose to humble Himself to do the will of the Father, not grasping onto His equality and glory, so we should chose humility. We can work to make our agenda number one, or humble ourselves before Jesus Christ and make His agenda ours. We are to do this as individuals. We are also to do this as a church family, not merely looking out for our own interests, but also for the interests of others, that they might know and grow in Christ. Are we investing in each others’ lives? Are we encouraging growth and faithful following after our Savior Christ? Do we “have the mind of Christ”?

In verse 6, the Apostle Paul reveals that “the attitude of Christ,” that of humility, is illustrated by Christ’s choosing to do what is best in the end for the benefit of others, rather than for Him. In the past week or so, how have you humbled yourself to do that which benefited others? Can you think of an example you witnessed of another who illustrated “the attitude of Christ”? Can you think of a missed opportunity, where if you had to do it again, you could have humbled yourself to do that which benefited others and brought glory to Christ?