CHAPTER 2
[p. 423] CHAPTER 2
I have pointed out what I thought was the connection in the epistle, the progress in it of what is unfolded. It is not a doctrinal epistle; there is not the unfolding of the purpose of God; but it is essentially a practical epistle. Another thing is that it presents what is highly experimental, e.g., you do not get sin spoken of.
In chapter 1 we get the state of things existing when the apostle wrote. There is no attempt to gloss over the state of things which existed there. It was not encouraging, nor was the outward state of Christianity, as disclosed in the end of chapter 3, “enemies”, etc. And at Rome the testimony was bound by the world power. These points connect it with our time.
In chapter 2 we get the generation according to God — a divine generation — a circle according to God. I say ‘generation’ because children of God (blameless and harmless, without rebuke, etc.) are to come out here in that light. It is not their position, but their characteristics. The desire of the apostle was to see them answering to it. There is divine power here to give effect to that.
The Spirit of God cannot be bound. He will not work in channels which men have made for Him. You cannot bind “leviathan with a hook”. But He is here to effect what is according to God and He certainly will carry out what is for God’s good pleasure. There may not be much in display, but the mighty power is here and works according to God, and to promote what is suitable to God. But you cannot bind the Spirit of God, and there is no more important thing than for saints to be in the line where He works.
And what was there at Philippi? A handful of people of no account in this world, but great in the [p. 424] eyes of God, sons of God. That is a point of great encouragement. We are small enough in this day, despised and thought nothing of by man, nothing can exceed our smallness, and the Philippians were not much different.
In chapter 3 you get the race, which is individual, and answers to Hebrews 12. 1 Corinthians 9 shows the purpose of his running. The idea of a race must view the saints as individuals. Each seeks to reach the goal — you do not run as a company.
Now in chapter 2 there are three points:- (1) The mind which is in Christ.
(2) The exaltation of Christ.
(3) Divine generation (I use the word in its moral sense) down here.
You will see how these three points are connected.
(1) The mind of Christ.
(2) Is consequent on the first and (3) Follows that — the company here “blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation”.
Now my conviction is that all is based on the first part. The exaltation of Christ, and the formation of the Christian circle is based on the cross, on death, because death is prominent in the first part of the chapter. Death is emphasised — even the death of the cross.
The Christian company is the vessel of testimony, “Among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life”.
There is only one subject of testimony in Christianity. It has not always been that, God has had different testimonies at different times. Now, the only one is Christ, at the right hand of God. Our great anxiety should be whether we are morally according to it, so that there is no hindrance to the light of the Lord [p. 425] shining out here. The Lord will be displayed, but before that there is a testimony to the glory of the Lord. The Holy Spirit is here for that. The testimony of the church is, and was, for that. The vessel of testimony should be according to that glory. “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”, 2 Corinthians 3: 18. That is where people are not anxious enough. There are many who see what it is but are not anxious to be in accordance with it.
And death is the basis. Why? The great difficulty in the way was the man down here, and man owned of God, too. And by man I mean a certain order of man, a man of that kind after the flesh — under death and as under the law, under the curse.
The important point was to set aside that man — for God’s glory. God did not do so till man had first been tested in every way. He ran riot to the flood; after that he failed under law. He was tested by the presence of Christ, and then by the witness of the Holy Spirit. The point was to set aside the hindrance — that was the great difficulty with God. Now the Son of God comes out (in the first part of the chapter) a divine Person, and what we have in the passage is that He goes down into death.
There are two steps in order that man may be set aside completely and eternally for God’s glory. What Christ had to enter into really, we have to in mind. With Him it was death actually, with us it is very different, because the great obstruction to the work of God in us is ourselves. We have to come to the cross in order that the obstruction may be removed. As long as I allow anything of self, I am an obstruction to the work of God in me. There is nothing more important for us than to have that mind. It is beautiful to see how God reaches a result. Death was a result to reach and God had a short way of reaching it. We [p. 426] have a long way in reaching it. God could reach that end shortly, but we often take a long tedious way to reach it. But if you do not reach it you simply leave a great obstruction in God’s ways with you.
Verses 4 - 11. Now, beloved friends, you see two great steps in the course which Christ took. First in verse 7, the second in verse 8. The Spirit of God does not speak of humbling Himself till He has become man. In the first step He does not consider Himself, “Lo, I come to do thy will”, that is, before He becomes man. How often we assert ourselves in doing what we are appointed to! He “took upon him the servant’s form”.
The second step, “He humbled himself”, etc. Death meant the removal of the man which existed before the eye of God. He disappeared in the death of Christ. That death was the end of the man, and in it God was glorified. God might have set aside the man in judgment, but that was not God’s way, but God was glorified where man was set aside.
“Obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”. It is a great thing to know that the man who was the obstruction has so disappeared that God is completely glorified.
We have to come to death and the death of the cross. The apostle could say, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless”, etc., and “How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?” God could simply and quickly reach the point in the death of Christ, but it is by a tedious way that we have to travel. Do we desire to reach it? We must be as clay in the hands of the potter, content to let Him mould us. If so we should have to come to the mind of death, That man has gone for God and I can say he has gone for myself, I am crucified with Christ. I do not get the judgment of the cross, Christ took that, but to the mind of it. If you have not come to it, there is a [p. 427] great obstruction to God carrying out in you the purpose of His way.
The second point is consequent on the cross, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”. Everything shall be under the hand of man, but under the hand of the Man who glorified God. By ‘name’ I understand ‘renown’. “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow”. It is not a question of authority over those who believe, but it is universal authority based upon God being glorified in the death of Christ. “Every knee” shall bow. Now there is the possibility of the knee bowing in grace and faith. That is what the Christian does now; it is the condition of salvation. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”.
The authority of Christ is universal, “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man”, Hebrews 2: 9. The world to come is put under the Son of man because He has accomplished redemption. When Christ died, if I may say it reverently, God had a free hand. So God could make known His mighty power in resurrection. Everything begins from the right hand of God, and is therefore according to God’s pleasure. With Adam God began with the dust of the earth. Now everything begins from the right hand of God. The name above every name — that is the starting from which to carry out the purpose of God. Every one will have to confess; John 5: 21 - 27.
Notice two things: “The Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (verses 21, 22), and “as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself ... because he is the Son of man”. The authority is over all, in John 17, that He might act as a life-giving Spirit. Judgment is entrusted to Him so that all should honour the Son as they honour the Father. There will be a moment when His universal authority will be made good and all will bow. Christ takes in hand the solution of every moral question. The man who offended could not remove himself, but must be removed by another, the Son of God. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him ... that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow”. All judgment is entrusted to Him to secure His honour in the renown of His name. All will bow to Him and honour Him as they honour the Father.
The second consequence you see in verses 12 - 16. There should be a vessel of testimony here, a generation according to God, everything to be from the right hand of God — a totally different order from what was at the beginning. The new man is created after God in righteousness, holiness and truth, because God is working from His right hand. He is the life-giving Spirit, and what He operates is according to God.
That little company at Philippi! Who would have thought that the power of God was there? so that the apostle could say, “It is God which worketh in you”. People think that the power of God is here for the gospel. It is, but it is here that the divine generation may be here for God. In early days there was great power in the gospel — the church was in order. Now it is in ruin. We must not expect great display in the gospel. The first great activity of the Spirit is in the church, “builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit”. That is where God made known His mighty power.
Look at the character of it. That is practical (verses 15, 16). It is not a question of standing. But there is no reproach against you, children of God, i.e., a generation from God — morally that. Formed by the love of God, and the Spirit bears witness with their Spirit that they are children of God. Formed by the love of God, and they love God. “I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them”, John 17: 26.
How much the church has departed from it. The bulk are content with the knowledge of being saved and having the Holy Spirit. How few know what it is to be in the love of God. How much are we acquainted with the love of God? How far are we controlled by it? To love God is the description of saints. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him”, 1 Corinthians 2: 9. That is a proper description of Christians — their proper state. “All things work together for good to them that love God”. They are acquainted with God’s love and they love Him, a divine generation. “Among whom ye shine as lights in the world”.
Light only in the Lord. Christians are light because they bear testimony to the Lord. “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord”. I believe there is nothing much more important than to be in the light of the Lord. God gained the victory and has the Man who glorified Him at His right hand. All the promises are “Yea and Amen” in Christ.
Can you shine by your own light? Does the moon shine by its own light? It shines because it reflects the light of the sun. Christians are precious stones but precious stones have no light or brilliancy of their [p. 430] own. They reflect the light. You will never be lights in the world except as you are in the light of the Lord. Put a diamond in a dark place, and see how much of it you can see. So with a Christian in the dark, but, in the light of the Lord, then he will shine. “Sons of God”, etc. You are in the light of the Lord. No one who is in the light of the Lord will do anything wrong. There would be beautiful fellowship if all were in the light of the Lord. There is nothing crooked there. “Holding forth the word of life” — that is the testimony of life, because I can tell men how to get the water of life freely. We can show it to souls that the value of faith in Christ means, to reach the water of life, “Whosoever will, let him take”, etc. That is what saints can seek to make plain. That belongs to the divine generation; to shine and to hold forth the word of life. And this is the practical result of having reached the cross. There will not be much of either unless we have reached it in our souls. If we have we shall come out in the light of the Lord, and so our hearts will respond to the love of God, and we shall not be ashamed to say I love God. Being in the light of the Lord we shine as lights, that is the simple result.
May God give us to see the great reality of these things. The point we want to reach is the cross, and that means deliverance. God has got rid of that man on the cross, and we want practically to get rid of him too. Suppose the Spirit is always beating against the flesh — what progress shall we make? None. That is not the proper work of the Spirit, but “to will and to do of his good pleasure”; not simply setting aside the flesh, but the more positive making us acquainted with the love of God, so that we may come forth in the light of the Lord.