Christ in His Three States

Driving home: To change the figure this passage is an ocean of mysteries in which one can easily drown himself if he tries to touch the bottom or to reach any shore or to change the figure.

The passage is compared to Mount Everest, an ocean of mysteries, a burning sun, and a labyrinth, to convey its majesty, depth, difficulty, and potential to overwhelm, emphasizing the need for careful study.

of Christ operated in true humility and self-forgetfulness. How did the disposition of humility and self-forgetfulness in our Lord express itself in the life history of our Lord? And as we come to this passage in which the Apostle describes humility and self-forgetfulness manifested in the attitude, in the deeds of our Lord Jesus we stand before a passage that in a very real sense is a Mount Everest of Christian truth. It is a passage full of majesty and grandeur and like Mount Everest a passage that is difficult to scale in terms of grasping the whole of its teaching. To change the figure thi...

6:36 - 8:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: To change the figure this passage is an ocean of mysteries in which one can easily drown himself if he tries to touch the bottom or to reach any shore or to change the figure.

Martin recommends Professor Donald McLeod's tape series on Philippians 2 as an excellent resource for understanding the passage's distinctions, highlighting its richness.

This passage in many ways is a labyrinth, a maze of exegetical difficulties and distinctions which can become a path which seems to have no outlet if we try to track down every one of the paths that is before us. Now for any of you who did not have the privilege of sitting under Professor Donald McLeod's exposition of this passage some years ago at the family conference I would urge you to invest a little money in this passage. And the tapes that contain those expositions on the person and work of Christ from Philippians chapter 2 and you will have what in my estimation is the most helpful ope...

8:01 - 9:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: To change the figure this passage is an ocean of mysteries in which one can easily drown himself if he tries to touch the bottom or to reach any shore or to change the figure.

Martin imagines Epaphroditus reading Paul's letter to the Philippian church, emphasizing the immediate, overall impression the passage would have made on the original hearers regarding Christ's humility.

Something that what I imagine was the mentality present when this letter was first read. When Epaphroditus came back from Rome holding the parchment on which these very words were written and probably on a given Lord's Day stood in a congregation such as this congregation and said, Brothers and sisters I have a letter from our beloved brother and our esteemed Apostle Paul from Rome and then the people of God sat and listened as these words were read out to them. Now obviously they could not pause to track down the fine distinctions that are contained in those words by the very inspiration of t...

9:03 - 10:31 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the sermon's framework: understanding Christ's humility and self-forgetfulness through his three 'states' or sets of circumstances: pre-incarnate glory…

The analogy of a man moving from a 'state of need and poverty' to a 'state of wealth' after inheriting a fortune is used to explain the meaning of 'state' as a set of circumstances or conditions.

Now when I use the word state I mean a set of circumstances in which one finds himself or puts himself. A man who has no food little clothing and no means of getting the same we say is in a state of need and of poverty. Now what do we mean by a state of poverty? Well we mean he is in a condition marked by poverty.

11:03 - 11:32 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Think of it upholder of the universe sustained by the umbilical cord of Mary think of it he who brought worlds into being himself brought into the world amidst the blood and the cries and the groans of Mary's birth susta…

The profound contrast of Christ, the upholder of the universe, being sustained by Mary's umbilical cord, and infinite wisdom learning the Hebrew alphabet, illustrates the depth of his self-emptying and dependence in human form.

that which is conceived in thee could not God have given to the eternal word a true humanity in terms of a fully developed fetus in the womb sure he could have but he didn't he chose rather that the eternal word ever existing in the form of God worlds and galaxies having spit as it were into existence from the word in his mouth should become that tiny speck in Mary's womb think of it think of it existing in the form of God did not think that existence in the form of God a thing to be selfishly retained but emptied himself taking, taking what the very form of a servant being made in the likenes...

27:54 - 29:20 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon continues to describe Christ's humiliation as 'humbling by obedience,' specifically to the 'death of the cross.' Martin emphasizes the ignominy of crucifixion for a…

Martin reminds the audience of Paul's Roman citizenship and the illegality of crucifying a Roman citizen, emphasizing the extreme ignominy and degradation associated with crucifixion, which was reserved for slaves and outcasts.

step than being God in the form of God to taking the form of a slave being made in the likeness of men but no there is a further step being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself he is to stoop yet lower and what is the depth of that stooping look at the text he humbled himself becoming obedient up to the point of death the emphasis being at every point to the very dismissal of his spirit there was voluntary deliberate obedience he was not overcome by his captors death did not come and grab him by the scruff of the neck and take it away no no his obedience was carried right up to and thr...

30:46 - 32:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon continues to describe Christ's humiliation as 'humbling by obedience,' specifically to the 'death of the cross.' Martin emphasizes the ignominy of crucifixion for a…

A quote from Cicero is used to underscore the Roman abhorrence of crucifixion, highlighting the shocking impact of Paul's phrase 'the death of the cross' on a Roman colony like Philippi.

citizen was immune to was death by crucifixion it was illegal to crucify a Roman citizen and among the Romans only slaves and outcasts and people of no standing were crucified one has said among the Romans also by whom our Lord was crucified this punishment was regarded as utterly ignominious and degrading in their use it was all but exclusively limited to slaves a class by them as generally by slave holding nations looked upon with the utmost contempt is scarcely at all possessed of the rights or titles or sympathies of human beings bus in being condemned to the cross Jesus was held off as an...

32:14 - 33:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And in that way, everyone who passed by would see symbolically that man died under the curse of Almighty God. And so God engineered the whole place of crucifixion under Roman law.

The Old Testament practice of hanging a dead body on a tree for public disgrace is used to explain how Christ's crucifixion made it evident that he died under the curse and judgment of God.

It means that one is identified with the slaves and outcasts of society. And then for our Lord, it was a death of insufferable spiritual agony. For it was a death calculated in the purpose of God to make it evident that he died under the curse of God. The Old Testament law said, Cursed is anyone who hangs upon a tree, and when you wanted to make it evident that a man was dying for capital crimes that brought upon him the judgment of God, you would take the dead body that may have been executed by another means, and you'd hang it up on a tree for public disgrace.

35:35 - 36:16 Read in full sermon

Driving home: the only one who ever lived, who had a right to assert his rights, relinquished his rights for our salvation.

The contrast between Christ's royal dignity and his birth in a 'stinking cow barn' and life as a 'humble, poor peasant' illustrates his conscious relinquishment of glory for a state of servitude.

I say again, not to relinquish his godhood, that he cannot do, but to relinquish that state of pre-incarnate glory, consciously and deliberately to take upon himself the form of a servant, not humanity in a state of royal dignity. He did not come with flowing royal robes and a scepter. He came into the midst of a stinking cow barn. He lived the life of a humble, poor peasant, laboring with his own hands in his father's carpenter shop.

37:49 - 38:32 Read in full sermon

Driving home: the only one who ever lived, who had a right to assert his rights, relinquished his rights for our salvation.

A terse statement, 'the only one who ever lived, who had a right to assert his rights, relinquished his rights for our salvation,' powerfully summarizes Christ's self-denial.

There was no exertion of his rights. One has tersely stated, the only one who ever lived, who had a right to assert his rights, relinquished his rights for our salvation. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And then there is this abrupt change, beginning with verse 9.

39:41 - 40:12 Read in full sermon