“Barabbas, Part 20:” by Romans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUnDKD1NMH4
Last week we began a new and unexpected “rabbit trail” for this Series, namely, the phrase “we have.” Let's go on to also see other things that “we have” now... right now... as believers. We have already examined the phrases, “We have redemption,” “we have forgiveness,” and “we have peace with God, and we have the mind of Christ.” There are many more such phrases to review and examine. So, let's get started...
The first “we have” occurrence that we will look at is found in 1 Corinthians 2:16, where we read: “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” The mind of Christ is available for us to have, but I hasten to add that to have it, the Apostle Paul also instructs us, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).
Let's look at both of these verses in reverse order. But to fully appreciate the mind of Christ, there are follow-up verses to consider, so let's look at the entire thought: “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: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:5-8)
Alexander MacLaren tells us of this, “Philippians 2:5-8: THE DESCENT OF THE WORD: The purpose of the Apostle in this great passage must ever be kept clearly in view. Our Lord’s example is set forth as the pattern of that unselfish disregard of one’s own things, and devotion to the things of others, which has just been urged on the Philippians, and the mind which was in Him is presented as the model on which they are to fashion their minds.
This purpose in some measure explains some of the peculiarities of the language here, and may help to guide us through some of the intricacies and doubtful points in the interpretation of the words. It explains why Christ’s death is looked at in them only in its bearing upon Himself, as an act of obedience and of condescension, and why even that death in which Jesus stands most inimitable and unique is presented as capable of being imitated by us.
The general drift of these verses is clear, but there are few Scripture passages which have evoked more difference of opinion as to the precise meaning of nearly every phrase. To enter on the subtle discussions involved in the adequate exposition of the words would far exceed our limits, and we must perforce content ourselves with a slight treatment of them, and aim chiefly at bringing out their practical side.
The broad truth which stands sun-clear amid all diverse interpretations is—that the Incarnation, Life, and Death are the great examples of living humility and self-sacrifice. To be born was His supreme act of condescension. It was love which made Him assume the vesture of human flesh. To die was the climax of His voluntary obedience, and of His devotion to us.
I. The height from which Jesus descended. The whole strange conception of birth as being the voluntary act of the Person born, and as being the most stupendous instance of condescension in the world’s history, necessarily reposes on the clear conviction that He had a prior existence so lofty that it was an all but infinite descent to become man. Hence Paul begins with the most emphatic assertion that he who bore the name of Jesus lived a divine life before He was born.
He uses a very strong word which is given in the margin of the Revised Version, and might well have been in its text. ‘Being originally’ as the word accurately means, carries our thoughts back not only to a state which preceded Bethlehem and the cradle, but to that same timeless eternity from which the prologue of the Gospel of John partially draws the veil when it says, ‘In the beginning was the Word,’ and to which Jesus Himself more obscurely pointed when He said, ‘Before Abraham was I am.’
Equally emphatic in another direction is Paul’s next expression, ‘In the form of God,’ for ‘form’ means much more than ‘shape.’ I would point out the careful selection in this passage of three words to express three ideas which are often by hasty thought regarded as identical. We read of ‘the form of God’ (verse 6), ‘the likeness of men’ (verse 7), and ‘in fashion as a man.’
Careful investigation of these two words ‘form’ and ‘fashion’ has established a broad distinction between them, the former being more fixed, the latter referring to that which is accidental and outward, which may be fleeting and unsubstantial. The possession of the form involves participation in the essence also.
Here it implies no corporeal idea as if God had a material form, but it implies also much more than a mere apparent resemblance. He who is in the form of God possesses the essential divine attributes. Only God can be ‘in the form of God’: man is made in the likeness of God, but man is not ‘in the form of God.’
Light is thrown on this lofty phrase by its antithesis with the succeeding expression in the next verse, ‘the form of a servant,’ and as that is immediately explained to refer to Christ’s assumption of human nature, there is no room for candid doubt that ‘being originally in the form of God’ is a deliberately asserted claim of the divinity of Christ in His pre-existent state.
As we have already pointed out, Paul soars here to the same lofty height to which the prologue of John’s Gospel rises, and he echoes our Lord’s own words about ‘the glory which I had with Thee before the foundation of the world.’ Our thoughts are carried back before creatures were, and we become dimly aware of an eternal distinction in the divine nature which only perfects its eternal oneness.
Such an eternal participation in the divine nature before all creation and before time is the necessary pre-supposition of the worth of Christ’s life as the pattern of humility and self-sacrifice. That pre-supposition gives all its meaning, its pathos, and its power, to His gentleness, and love, and death. The facts are different in their significance, and different in their power to bless and gladden, to purge and sway the soul, according as we contemplate them with or without the background of His pre-existent divinity.
The view which regards Him as simply a man, like all the rest of us, beginning to be when He was born, takes away from His example its mightiest constraining force. Only when we with all our hearts believe ‘that the Word became flesh,’ do we discern the overwhelming depths of condescension manifested in the Birth. If it was not the incarnation of God, it has no claim on the hearts of men.
II. The wondrous act of descent. The stages in that long descent are marked out with a precision and definiteness which would be intolerable presumption, if Paul were speaking only his own thoughts, or telling what he had seen with his own eyes. They begin with what was in the mind of the eternal Word before He began His descent, and whilst yet He is ‘in the form of God.’...
It was the supreme example of not ‘looking on one’s own things.’ And what made Him so count? What but infinite love. To rescue men, and win them to Himself and goodness, and finally to lift them to the place from which He came down for them, seemed to Him to be worth the temporary surrender of that glory and majesty.
We can but bow and adore the perfect love. We look more deeply into the depths of Deity than unaided eyes could ever penetrate, and what we see is the movement in that abyss of Godhead of purest surrender which, by beholding, we are to assimilate. Then comes the wonder of wonders, ‘He emptied Himself.’
Unless He had willed to take the ‘form of a servant,’ He would not have had a body to gird with the slave’s towel. The Incarnation, which made all His acts of lowly love possible, was a greater act of lowly love than those which flowed from it. Looking at it from earth, men say, ‘Jesus was born.’ Looking at it from heaven, Angels say, ‘He emptied Himself.’
But how did He empty Himself? By taking the form of a slave, that is to God. And how did He take the form of a slave? By ‘becoming in the likeness of men.’ Here we are specially to note the remarkable language implying that what is true of none other in all the generations of men is true of Him.
That just as ‘emptying Himself’ was His own act, also the taking the form of a slave by His being born was His own act, and was more truly described as a ‘becoming.’ We note, too, the strong contrast between that most remarkable word and the ‘being originally’ which is used to express the mystery of divine pre-existence.
Whilst His becoming in the likeness of men stands in strong contrast with ‘being originally’ and energetically expresses the voluntariness of our Lord’s birth, the ‘likeness of men’ does not cast any doubt on the reality of His manhood, but points to the fact that ‘though certainly perfect man, He was by reason of the divine nature present in Him not simply and merely man.’
Here then the beginning of Christ’s manhood is spoken of in terms which are only explicable, if it was a second form of being, preceded by a pre-existent form, and was assumed by His own act. The language, too, demands that that humanity should have been true essential manhood.
It was in ‘the form’ of man and possessed of all essential attributes. It was in ‘the likeness’ of man possessed of all external characteristics, and yet was something more. It summed up human nature, and was its representative.
III. The obedience which attended the descent. It was not merely an act of humiliation and condescension to become man, but all His life was one long act of lowliness. Just as He ‘emptied Himself’ in the act of becoming in the ‘likeness of men,’ so He ‘humbled Himself,’ and all along the course of His earthly life He chose constant lowliness and to be ‘despised and rejected of men.’
It was the result moment by moment of His own will that to the eyes of men He presented ‘no form nor comeliness,’ and that will was moment by moment steadied in its unmoved humility, because He perpetually looked ‘not on His own things, but on the things of others.’ The guise He presented to the eyes of men was ‘the fashion of a man.’ That word corresponds exactly to Paul’s carefully selected term, and makes emphatic both its superficial and its transitory character.
The lifelong humbling of Himself was further manifested in His becoming ‘obedient.’ That obedience was, of course, to God. And here we cannot but pause to ask the question, How comes it that to the man Jesus obedience to God was an act of humiliation? Surely there is but one explanation of such a statement. For all men but this one to be God’s slaves is their highest honour, and to speak of obedience as humiliation is a sheer absurdity.
Not only was the life of Jesus so perfect an example of unbroken obedience that He could safely front His adversaries with the question, ‘Which of you convinceth Me of sin?’ and with the claim to ‘do always the things that pleased Him,’ but the obedience to the Father was perfected in His death. Consider the extraordinary fact that a man’s death is the crowning instance of his humility, and ask yourselves the question, Who then is this who chose to be born, and stooped in the act of dying?
His death was obedience to God, because by it He carried out the Father’s will for the salvation of the world, His death is the greatest instance of unselfish self-sacrifice, and the loftiest example of looking on the ‘things of others’ that the world has ever seen. It dwindles in significance, in pathos, and in power to move us to imitation unless we clearly see the divine glory of the eternal Lord as the background of the gentle lowliness of the Man of Sorrows, and the Cross.
No theory of Christ’s life and death but that He was born for us, and died for us, either explains the facts and the apostolic language concerning them, or leaves them invested with their full power to melt our hearts and mould our lives. There is a possibility of imitating Him in the most transcendent of His acts.
The mind may be in us which was in Christ Jesus. That it may, His death must first be the ground of our hope, and then we must make it the pattern of our lives, and draw from it the power to shape them after His blessed Example.”
With all of that in mind, let us who have let Christ's mind be in us, consider what it means to have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16b).
The Sermon Bible tells us of this: “1 Corinthians 2:6-16: Mystery Revealed: I. The redemption of Jesus Christ is a great mystery of the Divine thought and heart. The Apostle uses a singular term to designate those to whom the revelation is made. "We speak wisdom," he says, "among them that are perfect,"—among those who have qualifications for receiving the wisdom.
Spiritual religion is utterly incomprehensible to many intelligent people. They can understand theology as a science of God; they can understand religion as a theory, but they have no conception of its spiritual character; they have no conception of it as a spiritual sentiment, as a passionate affection, as a fellowship with God, a yearning and joy of the man’s whole consciousness.
This is what St. Paul means when he says—"The natural man discerneth not the things of the spirit"; they are discerned only by a spiritual faculty. This, then, is what is meant when it is said that the gospel of Christ is wisdom unto the perfect—that is, to the spiritual, to the susceptible, to the spiritual man with spiritual faculties.
II. The mission of Christ and the purpose of Christian teaching are to reveal this mystery to men—to men of spiritual faculty, to men whom the Spirit of God touches and teaches. Our poor human thoughts cannot compass infinite things. All religion runs up into the mysterious, and must do so.
Apart from Christianity, the mystery of the Divine Being is just as inscrutable as the revelation of Jesus Christ. Instead of adding to the mystery of God, Jesus Christ gives us our highest understanding of God. We understand more of God through Jesus Christ than we can on any other theory. And yet even so, how much remains that is impenetrable!
Who can fathom the mystery of the incarnation, the mystery of the atonement, the mystery of the quickening of spiritual life in men, the mystery even of moral feeling, moral principle, the working of moral life, the mystery of conscience, which is the consciousness of God? In the love of Christ, in the love of God, there are heights and depths that pass knowledge.
H. Allon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii., p. 97. Reference: 1 Corinthians_2:6-7.—W. C. Magee, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 257.
1 Corinthians 2:6-16: The Gospel and the Intellect: I. The natural man in Paul’s eyes is like an undeveloped organism. A man as he grows, in the true sense of growing, as he attains his full stature or perfection, becomes spiritual. The natural man is stunted; growth has been in some abnormal way arrested.
The natural man only exists to become the spiritual man, just as a chrysalis only exists to become a butterfly. Who are the natural men nowadays? (1) Those who tell us that matter can explain spirit—the people whom we call Materialists. They cannot apprehend the wisdom of the gospel. (2) Those who speak as of the understanding could answer all the questions and meet all the needs of the human spirit.
II. The wisdom which Paul speaks among the perfect is nothing less than the indwelling of the Spirit of God in the spirit of the Christian man. Just as consciousness alone can be aware of our own inward life, so God’s consciousness alone can understand the depths of God; and only by being made partakers of God’s consciousness can we search those depths.
But we, as believers in Christ, are partakers of that consciousness. A Spirit of God given to a man through faith in the incarnate Son of God takes all the things of the revealing Christ—His person, His word, His work—and slowly unveils them to the amazed and enraptured heart. He who is the Saviour is also the key to creation.
III. Paul found in the good news of the gospel a wisdom far surpassing the wisdom of this world. Many Christians do not exercise the reason, and have no special desire for its satisfaction. But those who dare not in honesty suppress or violate that master-faculty are permitted to have the thirst quenched, the reason satisfied.
In Christ, the manifestation of God, they find certain things which are revealed, they find a clue to God, a clue to life, a clue to the world. The mystery is an open mystery, though losing none of its charm.
R. F. Horton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 317. References: 1Co_2:9.—G. Huntington, Sermons for Holy Seasons, 2nd series, p. 23; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 249; Bishop Westcott, The Historic Faith, p. 143.
1 Corinthians 2:16: I. What is the mind of Christ? Is it some high intellectual attainment? Or is it some great moral victory over the affections? The expression is evidently a very full one; for you may take the words of a man and you may take the actions of a man, and still fall short of the mind of that man.
For the mind of a man is the spirit of a man. It is the motive which actuates him; it is the feeling which is unconsciously moulding his conduct every moment; it is the inner life which is continually giving the tone and the character to his outer being.
II. The believer is always striving after the mind of Christ. Nothing less will satisfy him, because nothing less will satisfy God. The soul of Jesus, infinitely stored with the Holy Spirit, becomes a fountain from whence again that Spirit is always pouring out into His own people; so that if ever we receive any grace of the Spirit, we are actually receiving a portion, however small, of the mind of Jesus Christ.
III. See, then, the way by which you are to obtain the mind of Christ. Every way you can, live close to Him, think of Him, meditate upon Him, hold communion with Him, lie at His feet, do constantly acts for His sake, suffer for Him, laud Him; talk of Him, lean upon Him, realise communion with Him, and invariably as you do this you are catching His mind.
IV. Note some of the advantages which belong to those who really have the mind of Christ. (1) No man can really understand the Bible who does not bring to the study of it the mind of Christ. (2) The possession of the mind of Christ is a wonderful clue to bear with us in the intricate windings of the daily labyrinth of life.
(3) They have the benefit of the mind of Christ who wish to pray rightly. Those who bring Christ in them to their knees, having the mind of Christian asking, know what is the mind of Christ in giving.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 144.
References: 1Co_2:16.—Homilist, vol. ii., p. 274. 1Cor 2—W. Simpson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 28.
1 Corinthians 2 — F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 197. 1Co_3:1.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 293. 1Corinthians 3:1-10.—F. W. Robertson, Lectures on Corinthians, p. 39. 1 Corinthians 3:3.—T. Binney, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 341. 1 Corinthians 3:6.—J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 383; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 409. 1Co_3:6-8.—Homilist, new series, vol. iii., p. 208. 1 Corinthians 3:6-9.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1662. 1 Corinthians 3:8.—G. D. MacGregor, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 269. 1Co_3:9.—E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, p. 339; F. H. Marling, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 255; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. viii., p. 329; Ibid., vol. xxix., p. 132; T. M. Herbert, Sketches of Sermons, p. 71; J. Stalker, The New Song, p. 38. 1Co_3:9-11.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 80. 1 Corinthians 3:9-17.—R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness p. 322. 1 Corinthians 3:10-13.—W. Morley Punshon, Good Words, vol. ii., p. 355.
To this Albert Barnes adds, “Our aim should be to commend our message to every man’s conscience; and to do it with humility toward God, and deep solicitude; with boldness toward our fellow man - respectfully toward them - but still resolved to tell the truth, (1 Corinthians 2:3).
The faith of Christians does not stand in the wisdom of man. Every Christian has evidence in his own heart, in his experience, and in the transformation of his character, that none but God could have made the change on his soul. His hopes, his joys, his peace, his sanctification, his love of prayer, of the Bible, of Christians, of God, and of Christ, are all such as nothing could have produced but the mighty power of God.
All these bear marks of their high origin. They are the work of God on the soul. And as the Christian is fully conscious that these are not the native feelings, of his heart - that if left to himself he would never have had them; so he has the fullest demonstration that they are to be traced to a divine source.
And can he be mistaken about their existence? Can a man doubt whether he has joy, and peace, and happiness? Is the infidel to tell him coolly that he must be mistaken in regard to the existence of these emotions, and that it is all delusion? Christians are influenced by true wisdom, 1 Corinthians_2:6. They are not fools; though they appear to be to their fellow man.
They see a real beauty and wisdom in the plan of redemption which the world does not discern. It is not the wisdom of this world; but it is the wisdom which looks to eternity. Is a man a fool who acts with reference to the future? Is he a fool who believes that he shall live to all eternity, and who regards it as proper to make preparation for that eternity?
Is he a fool who acts as if he were to die - to be judged - to enter on an unchanging destiny? And is not the sinner who is frivilous and thoughtless over the grave and over hell equally foolish and mad? And if there is a God, a heaven, a Saviour, and a hell; if people are to die, and to be judged, is he not wise who acts as if it were so, and who lives accordingly?
While Christians, therefore, may not be distinguished for the wisdom of this world - while many are destitute of learning, science, and eloquence, they have a wisdom which will survive when all other is vanished away. All the wisdom of this world shall come to nothing, (1 Corinthians_2:6)...
What will be the value of eloquence, and graceful diction, when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ? What will be the value of science in this world, when all shall be revealed with the clearness of noonday? How low will all human attainments appear in that world, when the light of eternal day shall be shed over all the works of God?
How little can human science do to advance the eternal interests of man? And how shall all fade away in the future world of glory - just as the feeble glimmering of the stars fades away before the light of the morning sun! How little, therefore, should we pride ourselves on the highest attainments of science, and the most elevated distinctions of learning and eloquence.
God has a purpose in regard to the salvation of people, 1 Corinthians_2:7. This scheme was ordained before the world. It was not a new device. It was not the offspring of chance, an accident, or an “after thought.” It was because God purposed it from eternity. God has a plan; and this plan contemplates the salvation of his people.
Christians have views of the beauties of religion, and have consolations arising from these views, which the world does not have, (1 Corinthians_2:9). They have different views of God, of Christ, of heaven, of eternity. They see a beauty in all these things, and a wisdom in the plan of salvation, which the people of the world do not see.
Christians are actuated by a different Spirit from the people of this world, (1 Corinthians_2:12). They are influenced by a regard to God and His glory. The people of the world are under the influence of pride, avarice, sensuality, ambition, and vain glory.
The sinner does not perceive the beauty of the things of religion. To all this beauty, he is blind. This is a sober and a most melancholy fact. Whatever may be the cause of it, the fact is undeniable and sad. It is so with the sensualist; with the people of avarice, pride, ambition, and licentiousness.
The gospel is regarded as folly, and is despised and scorned by the people of this world. This is true in all places, among all people, and at all times. To this there are no exceptions in human nature; and over this we should sit down and weep.
The reason of this is, that people love darkness. It is not that they are destitute of the natural faculties for loving God, for they have as strong native powers as those who become Christians. It is because they love sin - and this simple fact, carried out into all its bearings, will account for all the difficulties in the way of the sinner’s conversion. There is nothing else; and,
We see here the value of the influences of the Spirit. It is by this Spirit alone that the mind of the Christian is enlightened, sanctified, and comforted. It is by Him alone that he sees the beauty of the religion which he loves; it is by His influence alone that he differs from his fellow man.
And no less important is it for the sinner. Without the influences of that Spirit his mind will always be in darkness, and his heart will always hate the gospel... How could beings differ more in their moral feelings and views than do Christians and the people of this world?
There is a difference between Christians and other people. One is enlightened by the Holy Spirit, the other not; one sees a beauty in religion, to the other it is folly; the one has the mind of Christ, the other has the spirit of the world; the one discerns the excellency of the plan of salvation, to the other all is darkness and folly.”
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Barabbas, Part 20”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” August 24th, 2022.
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