Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::
Does God only want to save us from perdition? Or does He also want to save us moment by moment and day by day? Salvation from eternal perdition is wonderful, but after we’re saved eternally, we need a daily practical salvation.
We’re going to have some practical fellowship today to help us in our christian walk every day. We’re going to focus on the pattern Christ setup for us and it’s described in Philippians by the apostle Paul (Phil 2:5-11).
This book of Philippians is a book on the experience of Christ. And in this book there is such a portion that shows us the very Christ as our pattern. If we are going to live Christ. If we are going to experience Christ, surely we must firstly see a pattern. A pattern is setup in this book right in front of us, and we all have to be impressed with this pattern.
Well, have you realized that in all the 66 books (of the Bible) there is not such a page that gives us such a wonderful picture of Christ. In a short way. Who is He? He is God. He is nothing less than God. God is He and He is God. He’s just God. But, listen…He emptied Himself. What does this mean? This simply means He didn’t consider His equality with God as something that He has to grasp.
He didn’t grasp His equality with God. Rather, He put that aside. But this doesn’t mean He became no more God. It doesn’t mean that. It means He put His equality with God aside. In other words, He put His outward expression of God…the form of God…He put that aside. You see. He put the form of God aside to become a man.
When He put away the excellent form of God, at that time He didn’t have the human nature. It was after that He got incarnated and He put on the human nature and He brought the human nature to the cross. To shed His blood for our redemption. And He accomplished that and He was buried and He was raised up and He was uplifted to the third heavens. To be brought back to the form of God in glory.
Now this is our savior, and this is the pattern of our christian life. What kind of pattern? This pattern of our christian life is a god-man savior. Self-empty, self-humbled and God exalted and God glorified. This is our Savior. And this is the pattern of our Christian life.
At the beginning of verse 13 (Phil 2) you have the word “for”. “For it is God…” And this little word “for” connects the two verses together. And it gives the reason why and how we can work out our salvation. Why? Because God is operating in you. Salvation is just the pattern; now God is the operator of the salvation. And I have to say this…salvation is the pattern and God is the operating salvation.
This salvation is just God Himself operating in you. The operating God in you is your real salvation. Nearly this is the only place in the New Testament that tells us God is working within us. But in all the other portions, always it says either Christ or the Spirit. It is only here that says it is God who operates in you.
For years, I was not clear why Paul used this type of God…not the Spirit. Now I understand. Paul rendered this way with a purpose to show us that the very Christ who is the pattern of our salvation is the very God who is operating in us. When Christ setup something there as our pattern…He is our pattern. When He comes into us…operating within…He is the operating God.
Here He is God. On the cross He is Christ. On the cross He was Christ. Within us He is God. He was Christ on the cross setting up an example…a pattern…for us. And He is God within us to carry out that pattern. How does God operate in you…how doe God work in you? God works in you by His word. God operates in you by being the Word of life. What is the Word of life? That is the operating God. And where is God? God is embodied in the Word of life. The Word of life is just the embodiment of the operating God. You can never separate God from His word. God is embodied in His word.
And the Bible is just the embodiment of God. Where is God? It’s hard for us to apprehend. God is too mysterious. But thank God He has embodied Himself in the Bible. The Bible is the embodiment the condensation of the invisible mysterious God. I can testify from my experience that whenever I open myself and come to this Word…to the Bible…I touch God. When I come to the Bible, God works within me. What is this? This is the practical salvation.
