Part 3
In this segment of Scriptural historical reporting Peter preaches and as it were paints a wonderful portrait of the Christology of the Son of God in words of power and fills the scene with colours of sheer brilliance. He uses the Sword of the Spirit, with agility and deftness a master artist would use a pure sable watercolour brush in his work.
The ex-fisherman implies Christ’s deity in 2.27 ‘Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.’ Here he calls Him God’s ‘Holy One’, which in the setting of Messianic prophecy, has this force.
Peter focuses on his death in 2.23 ‘Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain’. The focus continues in 2.36 ‘Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ’.
The preacher then refers to the Resurrection in 2.30-32 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; 31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
The gravity defying Act of the Ascension in 2.33-36 states Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
The Second Coming of Christ is mentioned by Peter in his next sermon, in the record of Acts 3. 20-21 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began
This truth can be compared with the statement of the apostle Paul in Acts 17. 30-34. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath
given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
The relation between the Jesus of History and the Christ of Faith has being our subject and assessment with material from various sources especially the published work of H. Brash Bonsall, M.A., B.D. Late Principle of the Birmingham Bible Institute.
Briefly, we have discussed the nature and the reason of the revelation of the Bible regarding the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world. The Scriptures quoted, unfold the extraordinary intervention of God in the course of the world’s sinful development for the salvation of humanity lost in transgression.
It is a supernatural revelation, and a supernatural intervention, the general revelation of God through creation and history have led us to the special revelation through Christ.
Jesus the Messiah of Israel makes this given knowledge of God to the world, intelligible, credible and operative to all men. However there are problems and associated difficulties.
THE TENSION OF TRUTH We note with interest the difficulty experienced by Our Lord’s own immediate disciples in comprehending all that was involved in the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah. But after all, the constitution of Our Lord’s Person in body and mind and consciousness is a matter of revelation, and not of human thought, and taking note of all predictions of the Old Testament, it is in fact a revelation of the New Testament, not the Old Testament.
SINGLE MOVEMENT AT A SINGLE STAGE The New Testament is all the product of a single movement, at a single stage of its development, and therefore presents in its fundamental teaching a common character.
The whole of New Testament was written within half a century and if we except the writings of John, it was written within the narrow bounds of a couple of decades.
STAMP OF A SINGLE MIND. The entire body of writings are of such a piece, such a unity, that it may be plausibly stated they all bear the stamp of a single mind. The Mind of the Messiah our Lord Jesus Christ.
START FROM THE CLEAREST STATEMENTS. We shall better penetrate its essential meaning and message by looking at its clearest and fullest statements, and permit their light to be focused on its more incidental allusions. Particularly so in the case of speaking about such a matter as the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. In all the New Testament Scripture the Saviour is referred to chiefly incidentally, as a thing already understood by all, and needed only to be alluded to rather than formally explained and expounded.
The common conception of Jesus, at the time is clearly seen in the allusion of the apostle Paul the most didactic of New Testament writers in his tremendous statement in which he most fully reveals his conception of the person of his Lord.
Philippians 2.5-9 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.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY COMMENTARY of Jamieson. Fasusset and Brown provides a helpful insight in to the above Scripture.
5. The oldest manuscripts read, "Have this mind in you," &c. He does not put forward himself (see on Philippians 2:4, and Philippians 1:24) as an example, but Christ, THE ONE pre-eminently who sought not His own, but "humbled Himself" (Philippians 2:8), first in taking on Him our nature, secondly, in humbling Himself further in that nature (Romans 15:3).
6. Translate, "Who subsisting (or existing, namely, originally: the Greek is not the simple substantive verb, ‘to be’) in the form of God (the divine essence is not meant: but the external self-manifesting characteristics of God, the form shining forth from His glorious essence). The divine nature had infinite BEAUTY in itself, even without any creature contemplating that beauty: that beauty was ‘the form of God’; as ‘the form of a servant’ (Philippians 2:7), which is in contrasted opposition to it, takes for granted the existence of His human nature, so ‘the form of God’ takes for granted His divine nature [BENGEL], Compare John 5:37; 17:5; Colossians 1:15, ‘Who is the IMAGE of the invisible God’ at a time before ‘every creature,’ 2Colossians 4:4, esteemed (the same Greek verb as in Philippians 2:3) His being on an equality with God no (act of) robbery" or self-arrogation; claiming to one’s self what does not belong to him. ELLICOTT, WAHL, and others have translated, "A thing to be grasped at," which would require the Greek to be harpagma, whereas harpagmos means the act of seizing. So harpagmos means in the only other passage where it occurs, PLUTARCH [On the Education of Children, 120]. The same insuperable objection lies against ALFORD’S translation, "He regarded not as self-enrichment (that is, an opportunity for self-exaltation) His equality with God." His argument is that the antithesis (Philippians 2:7) requires it, "He used His equality with God as an opportunity, not for self-exaltation, but for self-abasement, or emptying Himself." But the antithesis is not between His being on an equality with God, and His emptying Himself; for He never emptied Himself of the fulness of His Godhead, or His "BEING on an equality with God"; but between His being "in the FORM (that is, the outward glorious self-manifestation) of God," and His "taking on Him the form of a servant," whereby He in a great measure emptied Himself of His precedent "form," or outward self-manifesting glory as God. Not "looking on His own things" (Philippians 2:4), He, though existing in the form of God, He esteemed it no robbery to be on an equality with God, yet made Himself of no reputation. "Being on an equality with God, is not identical with subsisting in the form of God"; the latter expresses the external characteristics, majesty, and beauty of the Deity, which "He emptied Himself of," to assume "the form of a servant"; the former, "HIS BEING," or NATURE, His already existing STATE OF EQUALITY with God, both the Father and the Son having the same ESSENCE. A glimpse of Him "in the form of God," previous to His incarnation, was given to Moses (Exodus 24:10, 11), Aaron, &c.
7. made himself of no reputation, and … and—rather as the Greek, "emptied Himself, taking upon him the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men." The two latter clauses (there being no conjunctions, "and … and," in the Greek) expresses in what Christ’s "emptying of Himself" consists, namely, in "taking the form of a servant" (see on Heb 10:5; compare Exodus 21:5, 6, and Psalm 40:6, proving that it was at the time when He assumed a body, He took "the form of a servant"), and in order to explain how He took "the form of a servant," there is added, by "being made in the likeness of men." His subjection to the law (Luke 2:21; Galations 4:4) and to His parents (Luke 2:51), His low state as a carpenter, and carpenter’s reputed son (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3), His betrayal for the price of a bond-servant (Exodus 21:32), and slave-like death to relieve us from the slavery of sin and death, finally and chiefly, His servant-like dependence as man on God, while His divinity was not outwardly manifested (Isaiah 49:3, 7), are all marks of His "form as a servant." This proves: (1) He was in the form of a servant as soon as He was made man. (2) He was "in the form of God" before He was "in the form of a servant." (3) He did as really subsist in the divine nature, as in the form of a servant, or in the nature of man. For He was as much "in the form of God" as "in the form of a servant"; and was so in the form of God as "to be on an equality with God"; He therefore could have been none other than God; for God saith, "To whom will ye liken Me and make Me equal?" (Isaiah 46:5), [BISHOP PEARSON]. His emptying Himself presupposes His previous plenitude of Godhead (John 1:14; Colossians 1:19; 2:9). He remained full of this; yet He bore Himself as if He were empty.
8. being found in fashion as a man—being already, by His "emptying Himself," in the form of a servant, or likeness of man (Romans 8:3), "He humbled Himself (still further by) becoming obedient even unto death (not as English Version, ‘He humbled Himself and became,’&c.; the Greek has no ‘and,’ and has the participle, not the verb), and that the death of the cross." "Fashion" expresses that He had the outward guise, speech, and look. In Philippians 2:7, in the Greek, the emphasis is on Himself (which stands before the Greek verb), "He emptied Himself," His divine self, viewed in respect to what He had heretofore been; in Philippians 2:8 the emphasis is on "humbled" (which stands before the Greek "Himself"); He not only "emptied Himself" of His previous "form of God," but submitted to positive HUMILIATION. He "became obedient," namely, to God, as His "servant" (Romans 5:19; Hebrews 5:8). Therefore "God" is said to "exalt" Him (Philippians 2:9), even as it was God to whom He became voluntarily "obedient." "Even unto death" expresses the climax of His obedience (John 10:18).
9. Wherefore—as the just consequence of His self-humiliation and obedience (Psalm 8:5, 6; Matthew 28:18; Luke 24:26; John 5:27; 10:17; Romans 14:9 Ephesians 1:20–22; Hebrews 2:9). An intimation, that if we would hereafter be exalted, we too must, after His example. now humble ourselves (Philippians 2:3, 5; Philippians 3:21; Philippians 2:3, 5, 1Peter 5:5, 6). Christ emptied Christ; God exalted Christ as man to equality with God [BENGEL].
Matthew Henry’ Commentary is also enlightening:
Here is a gospel pattern proposed to our imitation, and that is the example of our Lord Jesus Christ: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, v. 5. Observe, Christians must be of Christ’s mind. We must bear a resemblance to his life, if we would have the benefit of his death. If we have not the Spirit of Christ, we are none of his, Romans 8:9. Now what was the mind of Christ? He was eminently humble, and this is what we are peculiarly to learn of him. Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, Matthew 11:29. If we were lowly-minded, we should be like-minded; and, if we were like Christ, we should be lowly-minded. We must walk in the same spirit and in the same steps with the Lord Jesus, who humbled himself to sufferings and death for us; not only to satisfy God’s justice, and pay the price of our redemption, but to set us an example, and that we might follow his steps. Now here we have the two natures and the two states of our Lord Jesus. It is observable that the apostle, having occasion to mention the Lord Jesus, and the mind which was in him, takes the hint to enlarge upon his person, and to give a particular description of him. It is a pleasing subject, and a gospel minister needs not think himself out of the way when he is upon it; any fit occasion should be readily taken.
1. Here are the two natures of Christ: his divine nature and his human nature. (1.) Here is his divine nature: Who being in the form of God (v. 6), partaking of the divine nature, as the eternal and only begotten Son of God. This agrees with John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God: it is of the same import with being the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), and the brightness of his glory, and express image of his person, Hebrews 1:3. He thought it no robbery to be equal with God; did not think himself guilty of any invasion of what did not belong to him, or assuming another’s right. He said, I and my Father are one, John 10:30. It is the highest degree of robbery for any mere man or mere creature to pretend to be equal with God, or profess himself one with the Father. This is for a man to rob God, not in tithes and offerings, but of the rights of his Godhead, Malachi 3:8. Some understand being in the form of God—en morpheµ Theou hyparchoµn, of his appearance in a divine majestic glory to the patriarchs, and the Jews, under the Old Testament, which was often called the glory, and the Shechinah. The word is used in such a sense by the Septuagint and in the New Testament. He appeared to the two disciples, en hetera morpheµ—In another form, Mark 16:12. Metemorphoµtheµ—he was transfigured before them, Matthew 17:2. And he thought it no robbery to be equal with God; he did not greedily catch at, nor covet and affect to appear in that glory; he laid aside the majesty of his former appearance while he was here on earth, which is supposed to be the sense of the peculiar expression, ouk harpagmon heµgeµsato. Vid. Bishop Bull’s Def. cap. 2 sect. 4 et alibi, and Whitby in loc. (2.) His human nature: He was made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man. He was really and truly man, took part of our flesh and blood, appeared in the nature and habit of man. And he voluntarily assumed human nature; it was his own act, and by his own consent. We cannot say that our participation of the human nature is so. Herein he emptied himself, divested himself of the honours and glories of the upper world, and of his former appearance, to clothe himself with the rags of human nature. He was in all things like to us, Hebrews 2:17.
2. Here are his two estates, of humiliation and exaltation. (1.) His estate of humiliation. He not only took upon him the likeness and fashion of a man, but the form of a servant, that is, a man of mean estate. He was not only God’s servant whom he had chosen, but he came to minister to men, and was among them as one who serveth in a mean and servile state. One would think that the Lord Jesus, if he would be a man, should have been a prince, and appeared in splendour. But quite the contrary: He took upon him the form of a servant. He was brought up meanly, probably working with his supposed father at his trade. His whole life was a life of humiliation, meanness, poverty, and disgrace; he had nowhere to lay his head, lived upon alms, was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, did not appear with external pomp, or any marks of distinction from other men. This was the humiliation of his life. But the lowest step of his humiliation was his dying the death of the cross. He became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. He not only suffered, but was actually and voluntarily obedient; he obeyed the law which he brought himself under as Mediator, and by which he was obliged to die. I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again: this commandment have I received of my Father, John 10:18. And he was made under the law, Galatians 4:4. There is an emphasis laid upon the manner of his dying, which had in it all the circumstances possible which are humbling: Even the death of the cross, a cursed, painful, and shameful death,—a death accursed by the law (Cursed is he that hangeth on a tree)—full of pain, the body nailed through the nervous parts (the hands and feet) and hanging with all its weight upon the cross,—and the death of a malefactor and a slave, not of a free-man,—exposed as a public spectacle. Such was the condescension of the blessed Jesus. (2.) His exaltation: Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him. His exaltation was the reward of his humiliation. Because he humbled himself, God exalted him; and he highly exalted him, hyperypsoµse, raised him to an exceeding height. He exalted his whole person, the human nature as well as the divine; for he is spoken of as being in the form of God as well as in the fashion of man. As it respects the divine nature, it could only be the recognizing of his rights, or the display and appearance of the glory he had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5), not any new acquisition of glory; and so the Father himself is said to be exalted. But the proper exaltation was of his human nature, which alone seems to be capable of it, though in conjunction with the divine. His exaltation here is made to consist in honour and power. In honour; so he had a name above every name, a title of dignity above all the creatures, men and angels. And in power: Every knee must bow to him. The whole creation must be in subjection to him: things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, the inhabitants of heaven and earth, the living and the dead. At the name of Jesus; not at the sound of the word, but the authority of Jesus; all should pay a solemn homage. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord—every nation and language should publicly own the universal empire of the exalted Redeemer, and that all power in heaven and earth is given to him, Matthew 28:18. Observe the vast extent of the kingdom of Christ; it reaches to heaven and earth, and to all the creatures in each, to angels as well as men, and to the dead as well as the living.—To the glory of God the Father. Observe, It is to the glory of God the Father to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; for it is his will that all men should honour the Son as they honour the Father, John 5:23. Whatever respect is paid to Christ redounds to the honour of the Father. He who receiveth me receiveth him who sent me, Matthew 10:40.
What a heritage of enlightened insight we have in the works of the old masters of Biblical Commentary.
The depth and scope of their work, now available to all serious Bible students on Libronix Digital Scholar’s Library, as well as the printed books in circulation provide a wealth of teaching for preacher’s of this generation. The quality of their work and ministry, when compared to some modern day commentaries shines as a light from Heaven against the current superficial trivial thoughts and ideas held forth by some teacher’s today.
Like those great men and woman of earlier years we need the mind that thinks God’s thoughts and is directed towards God’s great plan and purpose. Paul in Romans 8.1-17 speaks about that mind with great authority
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnallyb minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnalc mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
To be spiritually minded is life and peace and is the Will of God for each believer, minds which are stayed on Him as was the actuality of the entire ministry of Jesus whilst on His way to the cross.
There was never a moment in time when the reality of the cross suddenly crystallized in his mind. He did not wake up one morning with a start with inarticulate thoughts; incoherent emotions and sensitivities and a million thoughts running in His mind. Jesus was never mixed up in a concoction of convictions and contradictions. He was ever conscious of the outcome of his Life, from the cradle to the cross. Jesus did not say to His generation - ‘There is no truth only points of view’. He was the truth and had only one point of view to fulfil the decreed Will and plan of the Trinitas in Unitate, (Three in One) formulated before the world was actually created. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate Deity.