Ephesians Lesson 33 of 39 part 3

Philippians 2:5-6

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus*: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:"

*do you see how close that brings Him? We can get to the place that we think as He thinks. This is to be our understanding and only that for we can never be as He is.(Jesus is speaking in both of these, Matthew 10:24-25, Luke 6:40)

This sounds likes a play on words of some sort, but what it really means is, that Christ did not feel or think that He was robbing something from the Godhead. Because after all He is God! He just counted the cost, which He by the way established in the counsel which meet long before the universe came into existence.

Philippians 2:7

"But made himself of no reputation*, and took upon him the form of a servant (bond slave), and was made in the likeness of men;"

*He emptied, to make one appear vain, worthless, Himself of His “self”, all "self-will" in other words He was selfless. (Psalm 22:6, Isaiah 50:5-6) And by doing this He establishes the required standard for us all to gain entry into His kingdom. This He said by parable as the taking up our cross daily.

When we come to understanding of the parable of the taking up of our cross and see that not to do so is vanity.....that is to say, evil, worthless because self still rules. Remember back when we were studying the unsearchable riches of Christ? We tried to get people to think in those terms, because it is beyond mere human comprehension to think that the Eternal, Sovereign, Creator of the universe lowered Himself, of all self-will, to such a place that He went the Way of the cross. Without resistance. Then with His teaching Paul that we were counted as in Him through it all, including His Last Supper (with its hidden meaning of a marriage meal where two parties become as one). This is and was the reason for the Passover meal when Israel was still in Egypt even though it was veiled from their understanding and remains so to this very day to many unlearned, who twist or wrest the scriptures as Peter stated. It is beyond thinking, but we can take it all in by faith. 

Philippians 2:8

"And being found in fashion as a man*, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

*Christ had all the attributes of a man (self-willed, self ruled) although He was still God, we could say that He restored mans humanity. This is known as the Salvation of all things.

Christ humbled Himself and permitted the Romans and Jews to do what they did. Oh goodness, have you ever stopped to think that as they were laying Him on that wooden cross, He could have destroyed the whole lot of them, couldn’t He? Then there would not have been anything left except He Himself, but He did not. Why? Love! Love kept Him on the cross, and so He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death on that tree made a cross.

You know the Romans crucified the Jews by the thousands. We read an account, that there were 2000 Jews hanging on crosses along one of the Roman roads all at one time, so it wasn’t just the death by crucifixion that made it so extraordinary, but that in His death, He took upon Himself all the sin of humanity. This means that He acquires to Him the self of humanity. That’s what makes his death so unique as Paul speaks of it here, "even the death of the cross." It was not the matter of the fact that He was crucified, as bad as that was, but that all the sin of self-will, self-rule for the whole human race from Adam until the last person that will be destroyed at the end of the Kingdom Age. All their sin of self-will, self-rule were laid on Christ! Not only the sin of self-will, self-rule was laid on Him but also God's wrath. Because the spirit of self-will, self-rule (because self is a familiar spirit, this simply means that it is common to all) is enmity toward God. The same wrath which man has been storing up until the day of wrath which we feel is not far off.

You see that could have never even been a thought in our mind, had He been anything less than the Creator God. If He’d been anything less than the all powerful, Sovereign God, He could have never taken all the sin of self and the self-ruled, and the wrath due the self of the world on Himself, but He did, and we have to take that in by faith. If Christ did not do that, then we might as well fold the Bible up and go home, but He did, and we can place all our trust in it and believe Him.