Part 5

This is the twenty-second verse of the twenty-second Psalm, the Crucifixion Psalm. But the twenty-second Psalm is more than a crucifixion Psalm; it is a resurrection Psalm as well. This twenty-second verse that the Spirit uses to prove that Jesus is one with us is the first verse of the resurrection half of the Psalm. When our Lord rose from the dead he said, “Go unto my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God” (John 20:17). This was the first time that our Lord linked those words “my Father and your Father.” For in his resurrection he was in a new way “the firstborn of many brethren.” “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee,” was not spoken of the eternal generation of the Son of God, the living Word who was not begotten on a day but was before all time. Neither do the words refer to the glad day when the babe was born of the Virgin. They refer to that glad resurrection day when in a new way he declared God’s name unto his brethren. This is made clear in Acts 13:32, 33: “And we bring you good tidings of the promise made unto the fathers, that God hath fulfilled the same unto our children, in that he raised up Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”

We are one with our elder Brother, then, in death and resurrection, and here is the death-blow to Satan’s lie of universal brotherhood and universal fatherhood. The firstborn of many brethren is brother only to those who share in his death that they may share also in his new birth.

One With Our Lord as Witnesses

The third word from the Old Testament quoted in the second chapter of Hebrews which attests the humanity of our Lord is this: “Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me.” These words from Isaiah 8:18 were originally from the lips of Isaiah, who said: “Behold, I and the children whom God hath given are for signs and for wonders in Israel for Jehovah of hosts.” Dr. W. J. Erdman once remarked that when Isaiah’s two sons walked along the streets of Jerusalem they were living sermons for the children of Israel to read. The name of one was “Mahershalal-hash-baz,” and whenever an Israelite looked upon this son he heard God saying to him “the spoil speedeth, the prey hasteth.” If he believed God he knew that this was a prophecy of the terrific judgment of God that was to fall on a sinning nation. Isaiah’s other son was “Shear-jashub,” or “the remnant shall return,” and the discerning Israelite who could read this sermon aright saw in it the glad hope of God’s grace in the day of judgment saving a remnant of those who put their trust in him. The name of the father of these two sons, “Isaiah,” means “the salvation of Jehovah.”

Evidently the thought is that our Lord and we, his brethren, are still for signs and wonders in setting forth the salvation of Jehovah in its two phases, of terrific judgment that is to come upon a disobedient world and the glad message of salvation to the remnant who shall believe.

The second quotation from the Old Testament used in the second chapter of Hebrews to prove our Lord’s true humanity is in these remarkable words: “I will put my trust in him.” How can this quotation have any bearing on the fact that he is our brother and that he lived down here as a man?

The Heart-Throbs of Our Human Lord

The quotation is from the second verse of Psalm eighteen: “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust.” These originally are “the words of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.” But, as a noted Bible teacher has pointed out, the Holy Spirit put into the mouth of David words that went infinitely beyond his own experience, words that could only be fulfilled in their true meaning when the greater Son of David came and met the forces of evil that were faintly foreshadowed by the enemies David met.

Read through the eighteenth Psalm as the words of the Lord Jesus. It is an inspired description of the awful conflict of the powers of darkness against the Son of man, when he tasted death for every man. Have you ever wondered why there were not given to us in the four Gospels more intimate glimpses of the human heart-throbs of Jesus? Have you wished that you might enter somewhat into the meaning of Gethsemane, rather than to have him go into the garden alone? Read in the eighteenth and other Messianic Psalms the human heart-throbs of the Son of man.

“I love thee, O Jehovah, my strength. Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; My God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge; My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower. I will call upon Jehovah, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from mine enemies. The cords of death compassed me, And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The cords of Sheol were round about me; The snares of death came upon me.”

HIS Secret of Victory

Read on in the Psalm the description of this conflict with the supernatural powers of evil, and find in it the secret of our Lord’s victory over them. _He did not count upon any strength in himself. He looked to another._ He was a man, and if there was to be any strength in him for victory over that supernatural enemy, that strength must come from another. The secret of our Lord’s victory was just this: “I will put my trust in him.”

The Holy Spirit made no mistake in his selection of Old Testament passages when he wished to show that it behooved this Saviour of ours “in all things to be made like unto his brethren,” and that “in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted” (Heb. 2:17, 18).

Jesus lived the Victorious Life, not because he was God, but because he was perfect man; he lived as God planned that man should live. In a very true sense (though the statement would need certain qualification), our Lord took to himself no more advantage in the matter of winning victory over temptations than have we, his brethren.

Why He Emptied Himself

But _he_ was _God_. Yes, all the fulness of the Godhead was in him, or he could not have made atonement for the sins of his brethren. But remember that Christ Jesus emptied himself. This does not mean that he ceased in any sense to be God. But there was something that he had as God, in glory with the Father, that he did not have as the God-man living here on earth. He was rich up there; he was poor down here (2 Cor. 8:9). Of what did Jesus empty himself? He emptied himself of the glory that he had with the Father before the world was. The full meaning of that none of us can fathom. But here again there is a very practical application to our everyday living of this profound doctrine of the humiliation of our Lord:

He emptied himself of that which would have prevented him, in the days of his suffering on earth, from being a true Son of man.

Jesus voluntarily gave up that inherent power that was his as God, and lived his life as God intended that man should live his life, _in utter dependence on a power not his own_.

When man fell, his sin was a declaration of independence of God. He thus made impossible the living of a true man’s life, for an essential part of a man’s life is to live moment by moment in utter dependence on another, his Maker.

That is why our Lord constantly pointed _away from himself_. “The Son can do nothing of himself” (John 5:19). “I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 5:30). “I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I speak these things” (John 8:28). “The words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works” (John 14:10). Our Lord here speaks as the Son of man, not coming in his own name, or living in his own name, but in the name and by the power of Another dwelling within him.

The Son of Man’s Watchword

The secret of the Son of man, plainly written across the record of his earthly conflicts, is surrender and faith. “Not I, but the Father.” And “as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:21).

The Son of man’s watchword is, “I will put my trust in him.” Only man can say that. Glorified God cannot say that.

Whenever man says, “I will put my trust in Him,” and means it, all the omnipotence of the risen and indwelling Lord of resurrection life is available for him, and victory is certain.

SERVING WITH “THE MIND OF CHRIST”

“Truly he was the servant of all,” said a friend of J. Hudson Taylor’s as he concluded a narration of some incidents in the life of the great missionary in China. Hudson Taylor was like his Master. Only in so far as the service of any of us Christians is after the example of our Lord is it real service.

In the study of “How Jesus Lived the Victorious Life,” it was seen that Christ emptied himself in order that he might live as a man and open the way for his brethren to win the victory _in the same way that he won it_. Jesus lived down here as God intended a man should live――in utter, moment by moment, dependence upon Another, and in the last study it was pointed out that our Victory motto must be the motto that Jesus lived by: “I will put my trust in _Him_.” It is our purpose now to view this truth in particular relation to the service of a Christian, and to examine more closely the meaning of Christ’s “emptying” that we may know wherein he was our example in service.

It is not primarily the acts in the life of Jesus that furnish us our example in service. Many of the recorded activities of Christ, the things he did and the things he said, are by their very nature,――their uniqueness,――deeds and words that we cannot imitate. It is the mind of Christ we are to have. Then shall we have the secret of the spirit and the power of his service.

The great passage in the second chapter of Philippians on the humiliation of our Lord deals with profound mysteries of the eternal world, yet it touches in the most vital way the everyday life and service of the Christian. It concerns the sending of Christ Jesus out of Glory with the Father into the world of men and sin. How startling, then, that our Lord should take such a sublime event, which goes too deep for utterance, and bring it to our very doorsteps, when he says: “As the Father hath sent me into the world even so send I you into the world.”

“Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus,” the Apostle enjoins. What is “this mind”? How are we to have it? Paul goes on to describe it: “Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:5-8).

The Mind of Satan

Something of the significance of this sublime passage and the verses that immediately follow, will be seen if we place beside it another picture which also concerns the mysteries of the eternal world and the throne of God. It is found in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations! And thou saidst in thy heart, I WILL ascend into heaven, I WILL exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I WILL sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north: I WILL ascend above the heights of the clouds; I WILL make myself like the Most High” (Isa. 14:12-14).

This is a portion of “a parable against the king of Babylon.” In it we have undoubtedly the picture of the great Adversary of the Lord Jesus Christ, Satan, the highest of created beings; here is a glimpse of his fall and the secret of it. So striking is the contrast that it is hard to escape the conviction that the Spirit intended this to be related to the passage in Philippians that tells of our Lord’s emptying. This contrast is one that runs from beginning to end through the Scriptures, which are, indeed, the record of the conflict between these two beings, the Son of God who became also the Son of man, and the “son of the morning,” who became the son of uttermost darkness.

Pride Incarnate and Humility Incarnate.

The Son of God was the Word, who was in the beginning with God, and was God. But though he possessed that equality he did not esteem it a thing to be grasped after, but he emptied himself of the glory that was his own. The other glorious being, exalted though he was among the hosts of God, was not in the form of God; he was but a creature of the Most High. But he essayed to grasp the equality that was not his: “I will make myself like the Most High.” Mark now the terrific climax in each of these descriptions. The Son of God in becoming the Son of man took step after step in his humiliation, lower and lower, until he touched the bottom in the cursed death of the cross: “becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross.” Then immediately follows this word: “Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Satan sought to climb higher and higher until his ambition reached after the Godhead: “I will make myself like the Most High.” Immediately follows this word: “Thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the uttermost parts of the pit.”

There is more in the passages, however, than these two tremendous contrasts of humiliation and attempted exaltation, and then of exaltation and uttermost destruction. Jesus told his followers that he was sending them into the world as the Father sent him. His great Adversary likewise sends men into the world to carry out the spirit of his ambition. So he came to our first parents in the garden, and the temptation was that they should imitate him in seeking to be like God. They fell before the temptation and the sin was, essentially, a declaration of independence of God. From that day on every sin, whether the sin of an unbeliever or the sin of a born-again Christian, has resulted because of this independence of God. The conflict of that eternal world has thus been projected into the world of men. The Son of God and the Prince of demons are contending for this world, and the principles underlying the conflict are clearly set forth in these passages that have been before us.

Satan’s Coming Man

This conflict is to have a climax. The sin of man will head up in the Man of Sin. This is he who shall come in the spirit and power of Satan, the false Messiah. Jesus forewarned of his coming, when he said: “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive” (John 5:43). The Isaiah passage describes not only the scene in heaven when Satan reached after the throne of God, but it foreshadows the Man of Sin on earth, “the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God ... even he, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thess. 2:3, 4, 9-11).

Man’s Final Religion

The spirit of Satan, then, finds its climax in the worship of man, rather than the worship of God. Here is the heart of all sin. This is the central lie of Satan by which he deceives men. The final religion of man, before the coming of the Lord Jesus to earth again, will be the religion of humanity, the worship of man as the only deity. Paul brings all men who reject God’s revelation under this condemnation: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.”

We have been speaking of the great conflict of the ages between Jesus and his Adversary, the conflict that underlies the raging of the nations to-day, as Satan works out his plan to put the creature in the place of the Creator, to send that one, inspired of Satan, who will come in his own name and who will be received because he comes as man. But this same conflict goes on in each individual life.

Every man, because God has given him free will, must make his choice as to which of these he will follow, the Son of man, or the Man of Sin. Even the Christian, who has made his choice, will find constantly before him the possibility of serving in the spirit of his Lord or in the spirit of Satan.

When the Christian is not serving after the example of the Lord Jesus, let him ponder this well,――that he is serving after the spirit of Satan. How startled must Peter have been when the Lord not only told him he savored of the things of men (the spirit of Satan), but actually addressed him as Satan, knowing that it was the great Adversary he was meeting again in one of his loved disciples. Very often is it true of Christians that “ye know not what spirit ye are of.” Is it too much to say that much of the service that is being offered to-day in the name of Christ, by followers of His, is mixed with the spirit of the evil one?

Testing Our Service

What is that spirit of the evil one? It is written large in the two words that stand out in that Isaiah passage: “I WILL.” Set these words against those other words: “Not my will, but thine.” Now let us set these words against our own Christian service and answer the question as to whether it is after the example of the Son of man. What is it to have the mind of Christ?

In three respects is there danger that our Christian service shall lack the mind of Christ. We may work zealously _in the energy of the flesh_. The old self-life is not reckoned dead, crucified with Christ. If we have the mind of Christ we must become conformed to his death, even as he was obedient unto the death of the cross. There are thousands of Christians who are doing good things but doing them in the energy of the flesh, without the Spirit of God. If we would have the mind of Christ we must have that old self-life crucified, for Christian service done in the flesh cannot please God.

Consecrated Christians who have really surrendered the old self-life may work zealously _in the energy of the soul_. There is the danger of forcing results that look good but are really not the product of the Spirit of God. Service after the example of Christ is done wholly by the power of Another. He said “not my will, but thine,” and was ready to hold to this when the following of the will of God seemed to mean failure. There is the danger that Christian workers to-day, lured by the example of the success of the children of the world in their undertakings, will go after the same sort of great, showy results in the eyes of men, in their spiritual matters. This is not after the mind of Christ, but partakes of that other mind which says “I WILL.” The mind of Christ will care for no results except those that are the product of the Spirit. And in securing these the eyes will not be upon results but upon the Master, to seek his will in every matter of service, leaving with him the results and the rewards.

Defilement of the Spirit

The third danger, most subtle of all, and pervading all, is pride, the exaltation of the human. And this is the temptation that Satan often successfully uses upon the spiritual Christian who has gotten beyond serving in the energy of the flesh or in the energy of the soul. We must cleanse ourselves of all defilement of flesh _and of spirit_. Serving “in lowliness of mind, each counting other better than himself,”――this is to have the mind of Christ. Serving in love that envieth not, that vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, that _seeketh not its own_,――this is to have the mind of Christ. It is at the other pole from pride.

How are we to have the mind of Christ? Not by looking at him as an example and trying to imitate him. There is real hopelessness in singing

Trying to walk in the steps of the Saviour, Trying to follow our Saviour and King, Shaping our lives by his blessed example....

For that is just what we cannot do――shape our lives by his example. When we are ready to stop “trying” to do this, and will yield ourselves that we may be conformed to his death, then our trying may be changed to trusting, we can “leave the miracle to him,” and returning to the beautiful hymn whose first verse makes a bad start, we can sing with new meaning the opening lines of the third verse:

Walking by faith in the steps of our Saviour, Upward, still upward, we’ll follow our Guide.

THE SECOND COMING AND VICTORY

The next great event in God’s program for the redemption of the world is the coming again to the earth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The last chapter of the Old Testament points forward to his second coming. The last recorded words of the Lord Jesus are his words of promise, “Surely, I come quickly,” in the last chapter of the New Testament. The last recorded prayer of God’s people in the Word is the answer of their heart to this promise, “Even so come, Lord Jesus.”

The last word of the Old Testament is the word “curse,”――“lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” The central word of the last verse in the New Testament is “grace.” He will come with the judgments of his curse and with the revelation of his grace.

Are You Ready for His Coming?

Among the many signs that seem to point to the nearness of his coming there is none more striking than the movement of the Spirit in separating the children of God from the things of the world and making them hungry for the things of eternity. There are many sad evidences of falling away, and of increasing worldliness on the part of large masses of professing Christians, but these make all the more notable that deep hunger for victory in Christ and conformity to his likeness which increasing numbers of Christians are sharing. Is this the work of the Spirit in making a little flock ready for his coming? Are _you_ ready?

The coming of Christ is the great incentive to holiness that is held before Christians in the New Testament. “Every one that hath this hope [the hope of his coming] set on him [set on Jesus] purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).

There are many motives by which the Lord lovingly urges us to seek complete victory in him. We long for a life of joy and peace that we do not have. We long to be rid of a life of struggle against “besetting sins.” Or we are eager to have power in service and get results for Christ that are largely absent in our experience. By this or that motive the Spirit leads us to an earnest seeking of God’s secret of the life of faith. But beyond all these motives is that supreme desire to be well pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming” (1 John 2:28).

Boldness Before Him Then and Now