Biblestudy: Philippians (Part Four)

Philippians 2:1-13
#BS-PH04
John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 08-Aug-89; 83 minutes

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If you will turn back to the book of Philippians, we will get started there right away. We left off at the end of verse 4 of chapter 2, so I am going to go back to the beginning of the chapter and get a running start before we pick up in verse 5.

Paul at the very beginning of this chapter is beginning to address the reasons why they should be able to resolve the one problem that he addresses in this epistle, and that is that there was some division, some disunity in the congregation. We have no idea what the problem was over. We do not know who was causing it except to know that there were two ladies involved, and somehow or another these two ladies, I guess, had talked in the congregation. They each one gathered some friends to their side, and there was a problem then, but we do not know exactly what the problem was over. We can only guess at that and no guess I am sure would turn out to be very authoritative.

But Paul is is teaching here how there might be unity in the congregation. And in the first couple of verses here, Paul gives four reasons why we should be able to have unity among us. Now if these things are going to be of any use to you, you are going to have to apply them where there might be some disunity in your family or within the church family. They ought to work. I am not going to guarantee you that they are going to produce unity everywhere because everybody has their own mind and they can set their will not to obey God, but if there are people with the Spirit of God, both have the Spirit of God, then there ought to be able to be unity produced, and here are reasons why.

The first one was "if there is any consolation." We probably would not use that word today. If there is any encouragement is what he meant, any incentive, anything that would kind of motivate you in that direction. The sense is that if there are any grounds for there being unity, it was because they were in Christ. See, if there is any encouragement in Christ. Now what this did was it places obligations on you and me to yield to the commands that he has given. And one of those commands appears in the book of Ephesians that we are to endeavor to make sure that there is no disunity. We are to work in that direction. So if we are in Christ, and have His Spirit, then there ought to be something there that would make us move in that direction, to yield to his command that there be no disunity.

The second one is "if there is any comfort of love." Now again, the word comfort does not mean to you and me exactly the same thing any longer. The word has changed in its usage over the years, and again it is a word that means something closer to the English word incentive or encouragement. Now in this particular case, it is different from the first one in that if there is any incentive that comes from the sense of knowing that Christ's love is in you, the Spirit of God. Now, if it is there, then there should be something to impel you to be at peace with the other person.

The third thing is "if there is any fellowship of the Spirit." This may have two possible meanings or it means both of them at the same time. It means fellowship by means of the Spirit, that is, using the Spirit as a tool. That is, the Spirit would be a tool that would tend to impel you together. Or it means fellowship motivated by the Spirit. In this case, it means that the Spirit would be giving you the incentive to make the move to humble yourself. (We will get to that next.)

The fourth thing is "if any affection and mercy" or tenderness or sympathy. Here he is appealing to our emotional attachment to each other. What we would call today family love, if there is any affection for one another.

There are four distinct and separate reasons why there should be unity in the Body of Christ. We are in Christ, we have Christ's love, we have fellowship together, and there should be an affection for one another. Interesting, I did not think of this till now, how he separates love from affection.

I mentioned to you the last time that this is a good congregation. There is no indication that this was a congregation that was riddled with all kinds of problems like the Corinthians were. I mean, that was a congregation that had trouble. I believe if you would make a careful reading, you would probably turn up with about 21 different problems that the apostle Paul directed himself to just in the book of I Corinthians. And they were clearly divided, as it says in the very first chapter. The division in this congregation apparently was just something that was maybe either just beginning, or was not a very great problem at all by comparison to the Corinthians.

But it goes to show that even the best of congregations can experience something like this, and there is a reason why, and that is that when you get people who are zealous you are going to rub people the wrong way, especially if they happen to be zealous in a misdirected, misguided way. I think we have to give these two ladies the benefit of the doubt that their zeal was misdirected. Maybe there was some selfish ambition or conceit within it. He certainly indicates that in verse 3.

But nonetheless, we will give the ladies the benefit of the doubt that they were both zealous for what they perceived to be the right point of view. That was their perception of it. So the zeal of this congregation would tend to make them knock heads. However, if they were zealous for the right things, the problem would quickly be resolved. And the reason why is that both of them would humble themselves. I say that because I want you to understand that even in the best of congregations there can be cliques that might arise from time to time and it does not mean that the congregation is necessarily bad. So you do not want to just leap to the conclusion just because there might be a clique, that clique might be wrong, but it does not mean that the whole congregation is bad as a result of that one little clique that arises.

Philippians 2:3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, . . .

That seems to be at the basis of most division. That the zeal that is used is not used in a godly way, it is used in a selfish way, in a way to put oneself in a good position or a good light, and unfortunately that is the way human nature is. People who advance themselves always take advantage in the use of others and they use people to their own end. That is, to get ahead.

Philippians 2:3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

Now Paul does not mean that we should disregard our abilities or gifts. God has given everybody gifts. He tells us that in I Corinthians 12. He tells it in the context there that He has given those gifts for the service of the whole church. He expects us to use those gifts. But he is saying here that our consideration of others must precede concern for self.

Philippians 2:4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

That is pretty clear.

Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you which which was also in Christ Jesus.

He has been with the first four verses leading up to this section, which begins in verse 5 and ends in verse 11. Lowliness of mind is the way to produce unity in a congregation. Now what he is going to give is the single most outstanding illustration of humility that exists. And that is the humility that Christ exhibited in becoming a man. And not just becoming a man but carrying His submission to God all the way to the point of death. I should say maybe not just His submission to God, but also submission to man as well, because that was involved.

Now he is going to show you how great that self-condescension was. Con means with; dissension meaning with descending. In other words, Christ put Himself down. Now He did not neglect His gifts. Everyone knows that He used the gifts that He had, but yet He did not exalt Himself, you see, through conceit or selfish ambition. Even though He had the power, and even though we are going to see here that maybe He had the right to do it as well, but He did not.

So here we have the outstanding example of humility and selflessness. And what Paul is saying is that our attitude ought to be like this. OK, you ready?

Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.

That is very interesting. Oh, wait a minute. I want to back up just a little bit because I think that this might be necessary to help understand humility the way the Bible approaches it. Turn with me back to James the 4th chapter, verse 7. Now, here comes a series of commands.

James 4:7 Therefore submit to God.

That is a choice that you and I have to make. God has set before us life on the one hand, death on the other, and He has commanded us to choose. Submission to God plays a part in choosing the right, that is, choosing life. And so that is a choice we have to make. The next one is

James 4:7 Resist the devil. . .

That is another choice. We can either submit to him and give in to his blandishments, or when we feel our mind being played with, why, we can resist it. That is a choice.

James 4:8 Draw near to God. . .

That is another choice that we have to make. We can decide not to pray, not to study, not to fast, not to meditate on God's Word, or we can decide to do it. We choose how to use our time. Then he tells them to,

James 4:9 Lament and mourn and weep [and so forth]!

Now we get to verse 10 and he says,

James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

In that context, it becomes very clear that humility is also a choice. It is something that we choose to do. It is not a feeling, it is not a look on a person's face. It is not the way a person walks around. It has nothing at all to do with the kind of clothing. It is a state of mind, let us say, which leads or motivates a person to make certain choices in his life. And that state of mind is prompted by a comparison between himself and God—and it has to be God. As long as we compare ourselves to men, there is going to be reason for elevating ourselves because we can always see flaws in other people. So we will exalt ourselves by looking at men and say, well, I am better than he is. After all, look what they do. But nobody can stand an honest comparison with God.

So the comparison that leads to humility, you see, which is the choice, has to be between the person and God. And because the person correctly sees his position in relation to God, then he chooses to humble himself. And if he humbles himself, he is open to the advice from God. He is then open to making the right choice. He is open to living by faith. He is open to a lot of the good things that will make his relationship with God so much the better. So humility is a choice.

Go to I Peter chapter 5, verse 5, Again, you see a series of commands, things to do, things that present us with with choices.

I Peter 5:5-6 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Therefore humble yourselves [it is a choice, it is something that we choose to do] under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

And now back to Philippians 2. You are going to see this in action here, where Christ chose to humble Himself. It was a choice that He made, evaluating circumstances, and He chose then to put Himself under God's hand. Back to verse 6 again. Now we see here that He was

Philippians 2:6 . . . in the form of God [and He] did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, . . .

Now, the word form is the Greek word morphe and it means form, it means outward appearance that conforms to inward essence. That is its formal definition, outward appearance that conforms to inward essence. To give you an example of what morphe is not: You could have a person of a very evil nature, a murderer, thief, rapist, somebody who is always preying on other people. But he puts another face on. He puts a mask on. And he looks on the outside a great deal different from what he is on the inside. That is not morphe.

With a person who had the form of God, as it says here, the outward appearance of Christ exactly conforms to the inward essence. Therefore, His nature on the inside was exactly what He was on the outside. What was He? He was God.

What Paul is saying in essence then is that Jesus Christ, in verse 6, was God through and through, inside out, everything was God. He was God in nature, and He was God in form. So, His form was as a spirit being. But in nature, you see, that which drove Him, that which motivated Him, was God. God is love. And so in this case He was everything that He appeared to be, both inside and out.

Now it says that "being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." Some Bibles will translate that, "did not consider it a thing to be grasped at" or to reach out and hang on to for dear life, as though He did not want to let it go. The word means a prize or a windfall. Like something would come your way and you would latch onto it because you knew if it came, it would never come by again, like the brass ring.

But that is not the way Christ was. It is saying here that He was not tempted by a chance that nobody else could have resisted. In other words, it is telling you that He was perfectly willing to give it up. He did not have to hang on to it. Now He did not have to hang on to it because He was humble. That is the point. There was something else in mind that needed to be accomplished and so the giving up of being God was not something that He was going to cling to as though it was something that He just could not do without.

Now what are we saying here? In human terms we are saying that He refused to seek His own glory.

Let us compare this to somebody who did something entirely different: Adam and Eve. When they were created God gave them the whole story. At least enough of a picture to make the decisions that that they needed to make. But somebody came along, the Serpent, and he said to them, "Why, if you just eat of that tree, you're going to be as God." *whoosh They reached out and grabbed it. They could not resist what Christ did. "You shall be as God." That is exactly what Satan wanted. So it tells you there in Isaiah 14, he said, "I shall be like the Most High." From what I understand, the Hebrew says, "I shall be God."

Now look at the difference between the minds here. Christ did not think being God as a thing to be grasped at. Satan wanted it until it was bile in his mouth. And Adam and Eve wanted it so badly they could not resist it.

Let us carry it a little bit further.

Philippians 2:7 . . . but He made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

Where do I want to begin? "He made Himself." This is is very interesting. I need to read this a little bit further. "Made Himself of no reputation, taking. . . " That verb taking is very interesting. Now you and I, looking at this situation from the standpoint of the English language, if I take this glass, what am I doing? You see, I am adding something to myself. That is what Christ did. Now, looking at it in the English though, we have a tendency to think that there was an exchange that was made. Do not be misled. There was no exchange here. And it has to do with the word form once again.

Remember in verse 6 the word form was morphe and it means that the outward appearance corresponds to the inner nature, the inner essence. What you see was exactly what He was. The word form here, Paul did not use morphe. He used schema. And schema can be used in a situation that allows for differences between the outward appearance and the inward nature.

Now what did Christ take on in addition to what He was? He was God, and what He took on was the schema of man. When He did that, what was He? What was He on the inside? What was His nature? God. What was He on the outside? Man. So you see, what was on the outside was not what He was on the inside. And so on the outside, He gave the appearance of a man. But he was God! Through and through, He was God. And if He was not God, then you and I have no Savior. When He died, that was God who died. That was His nature. But His life was the life of a man. I might say the life that carried the nature around.

"He made himself of no reputation." Some Bibles say that He emptied Himself. Now what did He divest himself of? He certainly did not divest Himself of His nature because He was God; in the beginning was the Word. . . And the same was in the beginning with God, and He was God. He was God in the flesh. So, He did not divest Himself of God. What He divested Himself of was all of His glory, His power, His authority. He divested himself of all of the privileges that came with being God. So what He emptied Himself of was the manner of existence as an equal of God.

Mark Twain wrote a story one time that is somewhat similar to this, at least similar in them. It is "The Prince and the Pauper." You might remember the story, where one of the sons (princes) of King Henry the 8th divested himself of all of the princely majesty and power that went with the office of being a son of the king. But that did not change the inward reality. He still was the prince. But on the outside, he looked like a pauper. So he divested himself of that glory, the existence of living like a prince or living like a king.

So "He came in the likeness of men."

Turn with me back to the Hebrews 2 where Paul repeats here, in different words, what actually occurred there.

Hebrews 2:14 Inasmuch then as the children [that is you and me] have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil.

Hebrews 2:16 For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.

He did not take on the form of an angel. He took on the form of a man, the schema of a man, though inside, in His nature, He was still God.

Christ's attitude then, we are going to find in verse 8, it was that of a servant.

Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man [Interesting wording there, found in appearance as a man. That is what He looked like.], He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

So, here He was outwardly in the form of a man but within was the nature of God. Now His condescension, His self-putting-down, His self humiliation, did not end there. He did not just become a man, but it carried all the way through to where it says He humbled Himself. That was the choice that He continued to make. So His choice did not begin and end with His taking on the form of a man. It was just the beginning of a long series of choices that lasted 33.5 years till He was perfectly obedient to God and humbled Himself all the way to death.

Now it was not an ordinary death, but it was the cruelest form of capital punishment that the world had at that time.

Let us go back to Hebrews again, chapter 5, verse 8, where Paul again reiterates the same principle.

Hebrews 5:8 Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered [including death].

So Christ we can see here laid aside, of His own volition, He humbled Himself. He made the choice. He laid aside all of His rights, all of His privileges, all of His personal ambitions; He laid aside His self-will, all of His impulses, everything that might have come with being God and continuing in that way, and subjected Himself to the nature of men.

We will come back to Hebrews in a little bit, but let us go back to Philippians.

Philippians 2:9 Therefore [see, here is the result] God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name [Interesting, the specific article there, the, not a name, but the name.] which is above every name.

Now, where it says here "highly exalted," it can mean super exalted. In more modern English that is what it means. The implication is from the verse that He has greater exaltation than He had before His humiliation. I do not mean His humiliation on the cross. I mean His humiliation when He voluntarily subjected Himself to being emptied of all of the rights and privileges that go with being God. Now if it would be possible to have a higher exaltation than that, that is the implication from the verse.

What is the implication here, not only for Christ, but also for you and me? Well, it is that the way of self-denial is what won Him His sovereignty. (We will get back to that in just a little bit because it has to have practical applications to you and me because Paul is writing practical advice to Christians here. He is not just shooting off his mouth, he is trying to help these people solve a problem.) There is division in the Family of God, and he is showing them ways that that division can be healed. And so he has used the supreme example of humiliation of a person, a being, in this case God, making the choice to do that. And so we have to understand that making the choice to humble ourselves is a major portion of settling differences within the Family of God, producing the kind of unity that will make that Family an enjoyable place to be and an instrument that will really accomplish a great deal of work. So self-denial is the root that produced the exaltation that He now is entitled to and was actually given.

Now what is the name? Well, nobody knows for sure. But I will tell you what the best guess is. That He was given a name that is the equivalent of the Hebrew Yahweh. Now that word is translated Lord in the Old Testament. Christ was called Lord in the New Testament. His disciples called Him that. But it seems to have been used only in the sense of being their Master, their superior, their boss, their supervisor. They had information every once in a while that He was God. Peter confessed it in Matthew the 16th chapter, that He was the Son of the living God. But it did not have a great deal of impact until after the Day of Pentecost. And by that time He was resurrected, and by that time, the exaltation to the meaning of this name had been given to Him. He has not ascended to the throne yet, but the title is already given.

Turn with me back to Acts the 2nd chapter. One of the things that Peter focused on in his prayer there on the Day of Pentecost.

Acts 2:32-36 "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool."' Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."

The title seems to be Lord, which is the equivalent of Yahweh in the Old Testament.

Back to Hebrews again.

Hebrews 1:3-4 who, being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

The name, Paul says, in Philippians 2:9. Now one difference that there is between the Yahweh of the Old Testament and the Lord of the New is that the Lord of the New carries with it the kingship that Yahweh did not. He was still God, but Lord as it is used here, has Him now at the right hand of God and sitting there waiting for the coronation of being King in the Kingdom of God.

Philippians 2:10-11 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

See, the time is going to come when all of creation, and it seems to be primarily intended here that it would be all of mankind, all of that creation which is able to communicate verbally; it talks about confessing, that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord. There is that title again. All of mankind is going to bow and confess. Bow means submit. They are going to submit to Him. And what it indicates is a submission that was similar to the submission that He gave to His Father.

What it means then in practical fact is that there is going to be universal submission to Christ, that is, to His sovereignty, even by His enemies. Now that does not mean His enemies are going to like what they are going to have to do. They may not be happy about it, but they are going to have to do it. They are going to acknowledge that He is the sovereign Ruler and Savior. He is Jesus the Messiah. He is Savior, He is Christ, He is King.

Now, what does that mean to you and me, this whole section here from verse 5 on? Well, the whole section in practical applications can be summed up in, I think, just a series of verses. This illustrates it very well. Turn with me back to Matthew 16. I mentioned this before.

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me. . .

Do you want to follow Christ? That is what it is implying, coming after. Christ is the leader, we are following in His footsteps and those footsteps will follow a certain course of action, a way of life. And that life eventually will lead into the Kingdom of God. I think that I have gone over before that eternal life, in the biblical sense, not only means length of time, which is endless, but it also means a way of living. God lives a certain way, and only those who live that way are going to be given length of days that will be without end. That is why we have to come to know God. Eternal life is to know God, and knowing God implies that one is living in the same way that God is living. Not on the same level in terms of the glory of God and the exaltation of God, but we are living the same way in our human existence here.

Those who follow Christ are then going to follow in His footsteps, and they are going to live the way He did, and eventually that path will lead into the Kingdom of God. And the same kind, though not to the same degree, of exaltation. Now, if you want to follow Christ, what do you need? He tells you, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself." That is exactly what Christ did. Being equal with God was not a thing to be grasped at, held on to for dear life. Instead, what He did is He submitted to the will of God. He denied the rights and privileges that go with being God, He denied those things to Himself, and emptied Himself of His glory. And He not only emptied Himself of His glory, but He continued to deny Himself what humanly He would have liked to have done, but which was against or contrary to the will of God.

Matthew 16:25-27 "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. [Exaltation, you see, will come.] For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works."

Right in this context, the works of denying the self.

Back to Philippians 2, verse 12. Here comes another summary. In the light of all this, what are we to do?

Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

I think we need to begin by saying here that Paul is not rebuking these people, like they have not been working, have not been submitting—because they have been. I think that is evident from the entirety of the book. He is actually encouraging them to continue to pursue after eternal life without an undue dependence upon his being there. In verse 27 he encouraged them to let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. And he did that in the light of his circumstance of being in prison there in Rome. Of course, they were wondering whether they would ever see him again. And it is quite possible that this was a weakness that they had, that they needed to be jacked up by him every once in a while by his personal appearance. But that is something that is encouraging to all of us, to see in person someone that we lean on and depend on, and to get some encouraging encouragement from that. So he is encouraging them to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.

This is very interesting. Most of us have come out of a Protestant background and even if we did not come out of a Protestant background, we came out of a Protestant nation, one that thinks in Protestant ways, even though there are Catholic churches. No less of an authority than Pope John Paul II said that the Catholic Church in America is Protestant in its thinking. They are protesters. Not only protesters, but they have been imbued with the spirit of Protestantism and they think much the same way.

Now Protestantism very frequently harps on the theme of no works being necessary for salvation now that we are saved by grace. It has a good sound to it and it is something that appears to be biblically based. But notice I said "appears." Because there is a great deal of work required by us.

Remember, I think it was two Bible studies ago, I mentioned to you that salvation is presented in the Bible in three different ways. That it is a process that has a past, a present, and a future. And the process begins with God's calling of us leading us to repentance. We become baptized. We have hands laid on us. We receive the gift of God's Holy Spirit and we are impregnated with eternal life by the Spirit of God. And even in that sense, salvation is looked upon by the Bible as an accomplished fact. And it is doing that on the basis of the fact that God is able to finish what He starts. God is confident that He is able to save us. And so if all things continue as they are or were at baptism, then we will be saved.

Now there is a present in salvation as well and that is what Paul is talking about. When we are called, we have obligations laid upon us as a result of taking the blood of Jesus Christ. And that obligation is to submit ourselves in obedience to God and that is something that has to be worked at. Because human nature, especially in the form of habits, still dwells with us. And overcoming human nature is something that even someone as great as the apostle Paul, as he shows in Romans 7, struggled valiantly against. Trying to keep it corked, as it were, like a spring that if you do not keep it suppressed, it is going to come leaping right back out at us again. And it is going to show itself in the way that we behave, the way that our attitudes react to things, and lead us.

So we have the obligation laid upon us to obey Christ as our Lord. But one thing you never want to forget is that this working out of your salvation with fear and trembling is not working for salvation. There is a difference there. If we were working for salvation, then that implies that it is something that we can give ourselves just by being good. But it is not something that we can give ourselves. But we are working out, that is, we are performing the obligations laid upon us by God as a direct result of acceptance of the blood of Jesus Christ, and that obligation is to obey God, to submit to Him. But that will not gain us salvation even though it is necessary for us to do so.

What Paul is talking about here is making our beliefs operational, that is, putting them into practice, making them a part of our life, and gaining experience in this way of life. You see, actually living this way. Not earning salvation but gaining experience in living this way. Now how does this work? Let us go on to verse 13 and then I am going to come back to verse 12 and explain some of that. Now verse 13 is the continuation of the sentence.

Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

Now when we put that in context with verse 12, he says, work out your own salvation whether I am here or there. Whether I am in prison or whether I am there in Philippi. He is saying in effect that you cannot depend on me. Do not work out your salvation depending on Paul, but depend on God. We were told to work out our salvation but we are also told that it is God who is working in us both to will and to do. How is this done? Now there is a practical way that this is done. How does He do it? Well, He does it by His Spirit.

Let us go to II Peter. We are going to spend a little time on this because I think it is very important.

II Peter 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God [put that in your mind] and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life [meaning life here and now and eternal life] and godliness [that means living life in a practical way like God would], through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us [Christians] exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature. . .

Just think about that for a second. We spent a lot of time in Philippians 2:6-7 about morphe and about schema. How that Christ was morphe. He had the form of God. His nature on the inside was that of God, and on the outside, He was God. But when He became a man, He was still God by nature on the inside but He was man on the outside.

Now you and I did not start out that way. We started out with human nature on the inside and humanity on the outside. We are human so our outward form was the same as our inward nature. However, when God called us, when He led us to the knowledge of Him, when He led us to repentance, when we submitted our lives to Him, when we were baptized for the forgiveness of our sins, and when we had hands laid on us, and we received the Holy Spirit, *zap! The divine nature came into us. So that on the outside, we have the form of man but on the inside, we have both. This is one of the things that makes it so hard to work.

But, you see, that divine nature is planted in there and if the course continues that divine nature will keep on growing, gaining the upper hand over top of human nature, and it slides into the background. What I want to get at right here, now, is that we have been made partakers of the divine nature. We are led by His Spirit. He works in us both to will and do by His Spirit. We are begotten by His Spirit. The divine nature is in us, and it is working there.

Let us go to another scripture back in John 16. Let us begin in verse 7. Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit.

John 16:7 "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper [the Holy Spirit], will not come to you; . . .

There would be no way to be partakers of the divine nature according to the plan that God was working out. So Christ had to go back in order to send the Holy Spirit.

John 16:7-8 . . . but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come [now look what the Holy Spirit is going to do], He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment."

This is not all the Holy Spirit does. He is just giving us an overview of how the divine nature is working in us. Remember what Peter said about the knowledge of Him, the knowledge of God, the knowledge of Christ. Notice it did not say the knowledge about God or the knowledge about Christ. It is talking about Christ's knowledge, it talks about God's knowledge. Now here are specific areas in which God is giving us knowledge that is coming out of His mind. It is coming out of His mind into our mind. Now, what do you expect that He wants us to do with knowledge? What are you supposed to do with knowledge? You use it! You think, you meditate on it, you reason as to its use, and then you put it to use. You use it for analysis.

Well, that is what He expects us to do: to arrive at decisions. Decisions that are no longer made solely on the basis of human reason, of human experience, of human knowledge. But now decisions that can be reached based on the knowledge of God. Boy, I will tell you, if that does not give us an advantage.

Now look, there are three things that the Spirit will convict the world of. It does not mean that this is going to happen all at once. It is a process. We were once part of the world, and while we were in the world, we became convicted of these things. Now what did you do with the knowledge that came? You made a decision. God was working in you and you set your will on the will of God. His will was, "I want you." And so He started to give you knowledge and then the first thing you know, your will begins to become in harmony with His will, and you start making decisions His way. But it is coming through knowledge. Now here is specific areas.

He says here that He will convict the world of sin. Now what is He getting at here? What He will convict the world is that the root of sin lies in the desire of mankind to live their life in self-centered independence of God. All I have to do to prove that is go back to Adam and Eve. They are the representative human beings. They did not want to submit to God and be dependent on Him. They wanted to be as God, they wanted to be independent of Him, and so their desire to be independent of God and not have to submit to Him led them to sin. That is the root cause of sin that is at work in every one of us. The self-centered desire to be independent of God and not to be, as Satan would describe it, under His thumb. But to be master of your own destiny, be independent. "You shall be as God."

He also said He will convict the world of righteousness. Well, righteousness is simply right doing. And what He is talking about here, you have to consider the speaker and the speaker was Christ, and that God through His Spirit is going to convict the world that what Jesus said was right. Now the proof was in His resurrection. God resurrected; that justified what Christ said. He said, "I am God."

The next one; He says He is going to convict the world of judgment. That is, that all mankind is going to have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. There is a judgment and that Satan already stands judged and condemned. Now we are not judged and condemned but judgment is now on the household of God, and we are standing, as it were, before Christ. We are in our judgment.

Can you see the pattern that is here? God begins the process of conversion, the process that will end with us being born into the Family of God by convicting us of our sin, convicting us of our independence of God, so that we come to the place where we desire to be under His authority. We become convicted that indeed Jesus was right in what He said, not just that He was God, not just that He would be resurrected, but all of the things. This whole Book, you see, is the mind of Jesus Christ and what is in this Book is right. And it comes to convict us that judgment is on us. We better do something. Not working for salvation, but doing the works that are necessary as part of the work of God.

There is one more verse here in John that I want to go back to in John 1.

John 1:9-13 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own [meaning the Jews. In a broader sense, He came to mankind.], and His own did not receive Him. [He did not preach to the others, but He did preach to the Jews, so the Jews was more specifically correct there.] But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right [or some translate it privilege, some translate it authority, some translate it power. To what?] to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

It is God who works in us both to will and to do. Now it was God's will that we be sitting here tonight. And God has given you and me the knowledge necessary to make decisions that are relative to eternal life. A tremendous advantage we have over other people because they are in bondage, they cannot do that. But you can see that God is working through an educational process. Jesus said, "The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life." Now by those words, by the Spirit of God, you are moved, motivated, prompted to set your will to conduct your life in a certain way. It is not going to earn you salvation but it is going to earn you conformity to the will of God.

Now, what about this thing of God working in us? We are going to carry this one step further. Because He does not just work in us in terms of knowledge. There actually is a power there. We will see another aspect of this. Let us go to I Corinthians 15.

I Corinthians 15:9-10 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God [hang on to that word grace] I am what I am [What was he? He was an apostle but he says right here], and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored [work out your own salvation] more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Oh, that is interesting. Paul labored; "yet not I." And now let us think of this again in the light of Philippians 2:13. We have four things there. The will and working of God and the will and working of man. Now everything would be simple here if we could just assign certain categories or certain parts to God and certain parts to you and me. In other words, we do this and God does this. I mean, we go 20% of the way, God goes 80% of the way. It would be nice if everything was just segmented in a way that we could grasp very easily. But that is not the way that God has ordered it. He has determined that we have to live life by faith.

Now what we have going for us here is the grace of God. Grace means to most of us in this Protestant world as God's free unmerited pardon, forgiveness of sin. But it means more than that. It is that. Now where we get that is from what grace really means. It means a gift.

This grace is more than graciousness. We talk about people having charisma and that is where the word grace comes from, charisma. They have a personality that is magnetic and it seems to induce people to do something. Well, grace in the biblical sense means a gift which we cannot do without and which we cannot supply ourselves. Now that is where they get the idea of the forgiveness of sin. We cannot supply that ourselves. It comes from without. It is not something that we can work out. It is not something that just comes out of the goodness of our heart. But rather it is a gift from God. But it is more than just forgiveness.

Maybe I can explain it this way or illustrate it. In one sense, all the powers of nature are like the grace of God. We cannot work them up. They are there and we can use them. We can have knowledge of them and use them in the right way, but they are something that is given and it is something that we can work with. For example, our Y.O.U. kids are thinking of going sailing sometime in September, I think it is. Now on a sailboat you have to have a sail, you have to set your rigging, you have to steer a course. You see, you are working. But what makes the boat go? The wind. It is the gift of God. If there was no wind, the boat does not go. No matter how much work you do, if there is no gift from God, the boat does not move.

How about planting seeds in your garden? You have to go out and till the soil. You prepare it for the receiving of seed. Maybe you dung it about a bit, put some rows in there. You put the seeds in the ground. You are working. Does that make it grow? No. It is the gift of God. You see those natural forces that are working within the seed within the ground, which actually cause it to grow. The power to grow actually comes from God.

So it is with the grace of God. It is something that comes from the outside and works with the work and energy, reasoning processes, and decisions of the human. It is very similar to a tide, let us say, a fairly strong tide that is moving through the sea. And you are swimming. If you are swimming, the tide will carry you along in the direction that it is going. But swim you must. If you do not swim, you sink. And it is the same way with the grace of God. It is a tide, as it were, that is moving you to the Kingdom of God, but it is requiring that you and I work. And the combination of us working to stay afloat combined with the power of that tide, the grace of God that is moving toward the Kingdom of God is going to ensure that we get there. Without the combination of the two, we will not arrive. So it is going to take the two of them working together.

Now where does the grace of God come from? It comes with the Spirit of God. From the time of our calling, the grace, the Spirit of God is working with us. Remember how Jesus told them that the Spirit is with you but shall be in you. He differentiated. When God began to call them, they were not begotten of the Spirit of God, but the Spirit of God was already beginning to work with them. It was beginning to convict them of sin, beginning to convict them of righteousness. It was beginning to lead their mind toward the decision processes that would make them make the right decisions. They were being moved along in a current toward the Kingdom of God, but they still had to make the decisions and they had to make effort on their own to go in that direction.

Christianity is a moral religion. But there are a lot of moral religions. Buddhism is a moral religion. But Christianity is a moral religion that has something those other moral religions do not have. It has the Spirit of God. The others have the spirit of Satan the Devil and they are counterfeit. And so the spirit of those religions cannot carry those people toward the Kingdom of God and it is something that they cannot work up themselves. It is a gift that has to come from without. It is something that we absolutely need, but we cannot supply from our own inner reserves. And what this thing does, once you begin to understand, it puts absolutely the kibosh on all these psychological ploys that you hear from psychologists that you can, you know, pick yourself up by your own bootstraps and you can become the great, better you.

Now people can make changes based on those things, but they will never make changes relative to the Kingdom of God. I guarantee you that because the wrong spirit is in those things. You have to understand that. You have to be connected to the right source, one that is working toward salvation in the Kingdom of God.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace. . .

This spiritual aspect that we have, that Christianity has, is the result of a relationship established by means of faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. Brethren, this relationship we have with God by faith in Christ's blood is everything! Without it, there is nothing. If we do not have access to God, we do not have His Spirit. It is the source of all power to be able to get into the Holy of Holies and communicate with Him, to be in His presence so His Spirit imbues us with the gifts that we need, the powers to carry on. Without prayer and Bible study, brethren, we are going to die on the vine.

Romans 5:2-3 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. [That is our hope, to be born into the Family of God and have the glory of God.] Not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, . . .

And we can now see them in their proper light, in their proper perspective. There is a great God, a great Creator who is leading and guiding the things in our lives so that we come to the place, combined with His creative efforts that enable us to be in the Kingdom.

Romans 5:3-5 . . . knowing that tribulation produces perseverance [or steadfastness or stability or constancy], and perseverance, character [tried, true, tested integrity]; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Well, this relationship that provides the grace of God is established by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. And then that relationship is carried forward by continued belief, faith, trust, reliance; experience in living this way.

You are working out your salvation when you live by faith, submitting your life to God in obedience to His commands. But you see, all the while it is God who is leading you forward, helping you to set your will, and giving you the strength to stay afloat and keep on going. And carrying you toward His Kingdom.

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