Posted on Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 11:50 pm:

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Jesus' ministry began with a special anointing in which the Father gave Him the Holy Spirit and His gifts without measure. It was this constant presence of the Holy Spirit and His fruit that empowered and enabled Jesus to overcome sin.

Jesus is our best Example of how to live a Spirit-led life. His close communion with the Father shone through all aspects of His life. Tempted by Satan himself, Jesus showed self-control and remained strong (Matt. 4:1-11). Falsely accused and beaten, He was calm and gentle (John 18:1-11). Pleading with God in despair, He remained faithful (Mark 14:35, 36). Put to death by His own people, He forgave (Luke 23:33, 34).

Jesus manifested what it means to bear the fruit of the Spirit. He was so in tune with God that all these things became a natural part of His character (emphasis mine).

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Posted on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 5:35 pm:

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quote:

The entire passage in Phil. 2:6-8 deals with the humiliation of Christ for the purpose of dying. It is brought forth as an illustration of humility (v.3). This humility is expressed in thoughtfulness of others (v.4). And then comes the illustration of how Christ humbled Himself and in His death He thought of nothing else but others. Although He was God incarnate and He could avoid death, He did not do it for the sake of man. He allowed Himself to die in His manhood. A translation more expressive of the true meaning of the Greek text of this passage would be, "Who, Christ, being in the form of God." The word translated "existed" is the Greek huparchon, which means that He was in continuation of what He had been before. It is not the participle on, from emi (1510), but the verb huparchon from huparcho (5225), which in this context means "being what He was before." Being in His essential form as God (Jn. 1:1), He continued to be that when He became and continued to be man. And then the second statement is "... did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped." He did not consider being equal with God as something to be forceably grasped frm God. His essence of deity was not something that He took at any time, but it was something that He always had and never lost.

Then in v. 7 we are actually told what He voluntarily did in order to make possible His humiliation unto death: "But emptied Himself." The verb "emptied Himself" in Greek is ekenose, from the verb kenoo (2758) in the active form. Nobody took away from Him what He was, but being Himself God, He voluntarily emptied Himself. It does not tell us of what He emptied Himself. Jn. 17:5 provides the meaning in the very words of Christ Himself. Prior to His death, He was asking the Father to glorify Him in a position next to Him (that is the exact meaning of the Greek), with the glory which He had (imperfect tense eichon, which means from all the way back in the past, before the world was). The glory (doxa,1391)comes from the verb dokeo(1380), which means to think, to recognize. Doxa, glory, is the recognition which the Lord Jesus had with the Father before the world was even created and before He came to this world. The Lord Jesus lacked this full recognition by men on earth while He was the incarnate God, but He had never lost this recognition insofar as the Father was concerned and it was His to enjoy again after the resurrection. That is the meaning of Jesus emptying Himself. .... [[[There is more, but this is what the Bible ways this passage can be literally translated, "Who (Jesus Christ) being - having always been - in the form of God, He did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but Himself He emptied, when He took the form of a servant, when He became in the likeness of men and when He found Himself in shape as a man, He humbled Himself when He became obedient unto death or until death, the death of the cross." ... Christ was not half man and half God. He was wholly man and wholly God. We meet with incidents in His life which compel us o say categorically, "This is God; and we also meet with incidents which force us to say as emphatically, "This is man." Jesus prayed because He was a man. Human nature, even in Him, was a feeble, tender thing. He had to fall back upon the strength found in prayer. It is the uniform teaching of the N.T. that Christ, with regard to the Godhead, is equal to the Father, but with regard to His manhood, is inferior. Hence, when Christ says, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son" (Mt. 24:36), He meant that He knew it not in the sense of making it known, as it formed no part of that revelation which He was commissioned to disclose to the world. As the Messiah, He was the delegate of the Father and only delivered such doctrines and instructions as were in keeping with that mission. See Col. 1:15.

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