There are several Scriptures which tell us something about the Lord Jesus before He took manhood.\u00a0 Each passage looks at the matter from a different perspective, bearing in mind the context of the passage, and the consequence that is to be forthcoming as a result of what is written.\u00a0
\nEvery passage of Scripture may be looked at by considering first the Context, then the Content, and afterwards the Consequence, in terms of the truth it conveys, and also in terms of the practical response God is looking for from us.\u00a0 No passage of Scripture is without consequence, for God has said:<\/p>\n
“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven,<\/span><\/strong> It is the believer’s responsibility to have an intelligent grasp of the content of Scripture, considered in the light of its context and setting, so that the consequence God is looking for is achieved.<\/p>\n We now turn to the epistle to the Philippians chapter 2:5,6:<\/strong><\/p>\n “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:\u00a0 who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:”\u00a0 Philippians 2:5,6.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n THE CONTEXT:\u00a0<\/strong> the apostle is urging the Philippians to unity; to like-mindedness; to the love of the same things; to not act in strife and vain-glory; to be lowly in mind; to concern for others, verses 2-4.\u00a0 What better example can he give than that of the Lord Jesus?\u00a0 He had everything that would give Him reputation, yet made Himself of no reputation.\u00a0 He was not proud, needing to be humbled, but nonetheless humbled Himself even to death on a cross, the most shameful and ignominious death of all.<\/p>\n THE CONSEQUENCE:\u00a0<\/strong> “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”, verse 12.\u00a0 Of course the salvation of our souls is entirely of God, “for by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves:\u00a0 it is the gift of God:\u00a0 not of works, lest any man should boast”, Ephesians 2:8,9.\u00a0<\/p>\n The verse in Philippians 2, however, refers to the salvation from wrong thinking that the apostle discerned the Philippians needed.\u00a0 If they imitated Christ in their thinking and acting, they would be saved from their current faulty attitudes, and be enabled to live more Christ-honouring lives.<\/p>\n THE CONTENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n THIS MIND\u2026WAS ALSO IN CHRIST JESUS<\/strong> \uf076 To the apostle, the exaltation of Christ is a foregone conclusion.\u00a0 Just as Isaiah began his song in Isaiah 52:13-53:12 with a reference to the exaltation of the Servant, before he went on to speak of His humbling.<\/p>\n \uf076 The Christ is the one central to God’s purpose in eternity, and He became Jesus to carry that purpose out.<\/p>\n \uf076 The challenge comes to the believer- “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time”, 1 Peter 5:6.<\/p>\n THE FORM OF GOD<\/strong><\/p>\n \uf076 God, being Spirit, (John 4:24), has no physical shape or form.\u00a0 The word form, therefore, refers to that which is non-material and non-physical.\u00a0 The Greek word is “morphe”, and has been defined as “reality in manifestation”.<\/p>\n \uf076 In verse 7 we read\u00a0of Him taking the “form” of a servant.\u00a0 This is the same word “morphe”.\u00a0 Now the outward appearance of a servant may vary, but the form does not, for it relates to what he is by constitution, not appearance.<\/p>\n \uf076 In verse 8 the word “fashion” is used.\u00a0 This has more to do with outward display, and this may change as circumstances change.\u00a0 So, for instance, Christ’s fashion as a man changed from being that of a baby, to a young child, a young man, and a fully grown man.\u00a0 But His form remained constant.<\/p>\n \uf076 We may use the illustration of a tree.\u00a0 A tree is a tree; that is its “morphe”.\u00a0 But the fashion of a tree changes with the seasons.\u00a0 In winter, laden with snow, or sparkling with frost; in spring, bursting into life with fresh green buds and leaves; in summer, laden with fruits; in autumn, with leaves turning fiery colours, and then falling in the wind.\u00a0 The fashion has changed constantly, but the form has not.\u00a0 It has always been a tree, but sometimes it is leafless, at other times leafy, and so on.<\/p>\n \uf076 So in eternity the Son of God manifested Himself as He really was, as God.\u00a0 The only Ones to whom the manifestation was made then, of course, being the other Persons of the Godhead.<\/p>\n BEING:<\/strong> THOUGHT IT NOT ROBBERY TO BE EQUAL WITH GOD<\/strong><\/p>\n \uf076 The apostle has emphasised to the Philippians the need to have a right mind about things, and now the supreme example of Christ is set forth.\u00a0 If our mind is like His, then we shall be in line with the mind of God.<\/p>\n \uf076 Such was His confidence in His relationship with the Father, that to Him to share God’s attributes equally with Him was in no sense robbery, for they were His as the Son.<\/p>\n \u00a0\uf076 For Christ to claim equality with God in no wise robbed God of glory.\u00a0 When He was on earth the Jews implied that He was robbing God of His glory by claiming equality with Him, but they did this because they denied His Deity.\u00a0 He showed plainly by His works, words and ways, that He was equal with God, even when here as a man.<\/p>\n EQUAL WITH GOD<\/strong><\/p>\n To be equal with God means to have equal attributes to God.\u00a0 We may say three things about the attributes of God, as follows:<\/p>\n They are underived attributes:<\/strong><\/p>\n \uf076 He is the only Uncaused Being.\u00a0 “From everlasting to everlasting Thou art God”, Psalm 90:2.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \uf076 He is the Cause of all things that have come into existence.\u00a0 “For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen.”\u00a0 Romans 11:36.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \uf076 He is the basis of all reality, for He is the God of truth, and truth is that which corresponds to things as they really are.\u00a0 “The God of truth”, Isaiah 65:16.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \uf076 He is self-sufficient.\u00a0 “God that made the world\u2026neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needeth any thing, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things”, Acts 17:24,25.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n They are unchanging attributes:<\/strong><\/p>\n \uf076 He is perfect, so He never needs to change for the better.\u00a0 “As for God, His way is perfect”, Psalm 18:30.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \uf076 He is infinitely holy, so He will never change for the worse.\u00a0 “The seraphims\u2026and one cried unto another, and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts'”, Isaiah 6:2,3.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n They are unlimited attributes:<\/strong><\/p>\n God is of infinite quality, being essentially good.\u00a0 “Thou art good, and doest good”, Psalm 119:68.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 In other words, God is not simply good in theory, but good in practice also.<\/p>\n God is of infinite duration, being eternal.\u00a0 “Unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Timothy 1:17.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n God is of infinite presence. “Whither shall I flee from Thy presence?” Psalm 139:7.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong> God is “not far from any one of us”, Acts 17:27.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n He is of infinite power, being omnipotent.\u00a0 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for Me?”\u00a0 Jeremiah 32:27.\u00a0 “For with God nothing shall be impossible”, Luke 1:37.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n God is of infinite knowledge, being omniscient.\u00a0 “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world”, Acts 15:18.\u00a0 “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth”, 2 Chronicles 16:9.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 This knowledge is not limited to the past and the present, for God has foreknowledge of all things; He does not have to wait for them to happen before knowing them.<\/p>\n These, then, are the attributes, or qualities that Christ Jesus had eternally within the Godhead.\u00a0 He did not think it robbery to share them equally with the Father and the Spirit.\u00a0 Despite all this, and indeed because of all this, He was prepared to make Himself of no reputation, take manhood, and humble Himself to the death of the cross.\u00a0 What He is in Himself gives character and value to what He did at Calvary.\u00a0 It therefore gives us great confidence as we gather in His Name, for that Name is of utmost worth.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are several Scriptures which tell us something about the Lord Jesus before He took manhood.\u00a0 Each passage looks at the matter from a different perspective, bearing in mind the context of the passage, and the consequence that is to be forthcoming as a result of what is written.\u00a0 Every passage of Scripture may be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[244],"tags":[410,640,704],"class_list":["post-1080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-person-of-christ-his-pre-incarnate-state","tag-equal-with-god","tag-pre-incarnate-christ","tag-sharing-attributes-of-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nand returneth not thither,<\/span><\/strong>
\nbut watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud,<\/span><\/strong>
\nthat it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:<\/span><\/strong>
\nSo shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth:<\/span><\/strong>
\nIt shall not return unto Me void,<\/span><\/strong>
\nbut it shall accomplish that which I please,<\/span><\/strong>
\nand it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it”,<\/span><\/strong>
\nIsaiah 55:10,11.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\uf076 Christ Jesus is a title reserved until He had returned to heaven.<\/p>\n
\nIt is important to notice the meaning of this word, for it helps us to understand the whole phrase.\u00a0 Some verbs in English need\u00a0a form of the verb “to be” added to them, in order for them to make sense.\u00a0 For instance, we cannot happy; we have to say we are happy.\u00a0 We cannot ill, we say we are ill.\u00a0 But when the apostle writes “Being in the form of God”, he is not using a verb “to be in the form of”.\u00a0 Rather, he is simply using the word “huparcho”, (which means to exist in a certain way), and then describing what way of existing it was.\u00a0 “Huparcho\u2026always involves a pre-existent state, prior to the fact referred to, and a continuance of the state after the fact”, W.E.Vine, Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. The words may be rendered, “In the form of God subsisting”.\u00a0
\nSo we are being told here more about Christ Jesus than that He simply existed at any particular moment.\u00a0 He eternally existed is the thought, and what He eternally existed as was the form of God.\u00a0<\/p>\n