Philippians:THE UNIQUENESS OF OUR SAVIOR

The Lord Jesus is both fully man and fully God. Christ is very God and very Man. He is the God/Man. He is human and yet without sin. He is God the Son, deity, who has always existed. He has always had a relation with God the Father, and with God the Holy Spirit. He never sinned, never would, never could, and never will! His very person is deity, sinless, perfect, and holy. Jesus exists presently in His human natural body and yet He is also omnipresent. His spirit is everywhere. He dwells within believers, and yet He is presently confined to His eternal physical body in glory. The Word of God is consistent with these facts from Genesis to Revelation. There are not three Gods in the Godhead. There is only One God, who exists in three Persons! Jesus came into the world of humanity, was God's only unique born One. Mysteriously, in order to prevent Him from being sinful, He was born of a virgin. Apparently, the human sinful nature was not passed down to Him. He took on all the qualities of humanity, and yet without sin. His deity and humanity were somehow joined or co-mingled. Sometimes His humanity was evident and then at other times His deity dominated what He did and what He said. This is a great mystery that we cannot figure out. It is a paradox, two parallel teachings (parallel doctrines) that do not conflict but in some way operate alongside of each other. Having translated the entire book of Philippians, I saw these great truths in 2:5-11. Paul starts the passage by saying that believers should have the same "attitude" of humility of Christ, though He was very God and could have exalted Himself above His fellow human beings. (2:5) We are to have "this attitude" which was also in Christ Jesus. Better reads: "You are to be thinking this way ..." Christ becomes our example of how we are to think in our Christian walk. (2:6) Christ "existed" in the "morphe" or "form" of God. "Existed" means that He lived this way. It is the "to be" verb. "He is being in this form." He continually is now existing this way. Everything that can be said of God the Father can be said of Christ. He is the reflection of all that God is, and He has always been thus! (2:6b) He "did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped." Or, "He did not think He needed to take advantage of this equality with God." Since He is God there was no need to prove anything in the heavens. He already is God! (2:7a) But He "emptied Himself." This is an Aorist Tense. It is the doctrine of the Kenoses, "to empty." By this Christ "self-humiliated" Himself by His incarnation and voluntary death on the cross, then, were the way in which He showed that "being equal to God" was for Him not a possession to be exploited for selfish ends, instead, it led Him to deprive Himself and serve others. He took on the form of a slave despite His status of equality with God. He gave up the equality with God to take on the form of a slave! He humbled Himself to serve His people. This included His incarnation and His act of redemption. (2:8) "He was found in an outward appearance (skimatics) as a man." As you looked at Christ, everything conformed to the appearance of humanity, except with sin. He was the perfect Son of God! "He humbled (tapeinoo, Aorist Tense) Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Tapeinoo means to reduce oneself to a lower circumstance. "To afflict the soul," or "assign to a lower rank." That is, as the Son of God now in a human body. He did not throw away His deity. He is still very God! (2:9) Therefore, "God highly exalted Him, and bestowed upon Him the name which is above every name." God granted to Him the extreme name. This is the only way we can be saved. Christ had to become part of the human race in order to save us. Without this new state, He could not represent us before the Father! There never was such a perfect, sinless man, who could substitute for us under the wrath of God! We are blessed by what the Lord did with His Son! – Dr. Mal Couch (9/10)