Philippians 2:5-8 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.
The mind which was also in Christ Jesus
thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
yet made himself of no reputation.
Notice that we are to let
this mind be in us. And that is not so easy. There is something within each one of us which recoils at both these thoughts —and that something
is our humanity (our belief that we are separate beings from God). If I really knew, as Jesus did —and as He prayed in John 17 that I would also know— that I and my Father are one
(John 10:30), I would not think it robbery to be equal with God. I would think it perfectly natural and normal.
Because I think I am a separate self that I must somehow protect and preserve (or pray to this God who is separate from me to do it for me), I am always striving to make a reputation for myself. I want to be known as spiritual
or successful.
It is therefore also very difficult for me, in my humanity, to make myself of no reputation.
But when I know, as Paul did, that I (my humanity) was crucified with Jesus so that there is no more Jackie, but only Christ who is living Its life as me, it becomes easy to let
the mind which was in Christ Jesus be also in me. Of course Christ is equal with God, and of course I have no reputation to make for myself.
- Colossians 3:3
- For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
- Galatians 2:20
- I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
I, too, become obedient unto death —the death of the persona called Jackie
— even the death of the cross
; for it was on the cross that my humanity died:
2Corinthians 5:14 … if one died for all, then were all dead.
To put it another way, we must develop the same consciousness (or awareness) that Jesus developed —if we are to be as He was in this world (1John 4:17) and do the works that He did (John 14:12). And that is the awareness that I can of mine own self do nothing
John 5:30.
Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God
(Matthew 19:17). Jesus knew (as we must also know) for a certainty that in His humanity He was not God and could do nothing.
But He also knew that His humanity (the man born of a woman) was not His true identity. He knew that His true identity was from above
and not of this world
(John 8:23), that He was one with the Father (John 10:30) which dwelt in Him and did the works (John 14:10).
When I come into this same awareness, I will have entered the rest that belongs to the people of God
(Hebrews 4:9) —the people who know that their true identity is of God, and not of man.