We need to know who we are because when you know who you are you'll be able to submit yourself,
you'll be able to move freely because when you're looking for other people to tell you who you are
you'll be subject to their opinions.
Welcome back to a deeper dive into Philippians. Today we'll be talking about the deity of Jesus
So let's just jump into this because we have a lot of things to talk about.
Go with me to verse 5 and to 7 of chapter 2 of Philippians 2.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God did not consider
it robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant
and coming in the likeness of men. In this generation and in since the day Jesus came
people have been questioning is Jesus God? That is the foundation of Christianity.
If Jesus is not God then Christianity is not what it claims to be. We are our whole belief system
is hinged on the fact that Jesus is God and so if people are questioned the Godhood of Jesus
then they're by default questioning the value of Christianity and the whole Bible because the whole
Bible will be useless if Jesus is not God and so that's what I want to tackle today. I want to
prove to you that he is indeed God that the Bible is true that you need to be a Christian that you
need to worship him because he is God and but before we jump into Philippians let's go to
1st John chapter 4 verse 3. I'm actually going to read from verse 1 and 3.
And this is the spirit of the antichrist which you have heard was coming and is now already
in this world. Surprise surprise people are questioning about the deity of Jesus
because the antichrist is already here and his purpose is what? It's very simple to convince
people that Jesus is not God and so from those days of the Bible people have questioned. So the
goal for us today in this episode is to give us a solid foundation of understanding that Jesus
is God and a beautiful thing about this chapter about this verse in 1st John is it gives us a
great rubric of testing the hearts of people. If they claim God the son has come in the flesh
then they are of God. If they say otherwise then we begin to question them. Look at this verse in
Proverbs 4 7. Wisdom is a principal thing therefore get wisdom and in all you're getting
get understanding. Understanding is very important because it helps us discern what is of God
versus what is of what is not of God. So we must be able to understand the scriptures that's why
God gave us God the Holy Spirit so that he can help us understand this sometimes complicated
truths that we read in the Bible. This is why every believer needs to learn to hear the voice of God
because it's in that that he will begin to explain and give you revelation and give you understanding
because this is spiritual truths that sometimes you can't get until God Holy Spirit reveals it
to you. With that said I want to now jump into this verses and the main thing I want you to be
be mindful of is depend on God the Holy Spirit to speak to you. Don't just take my words but as
you're listening and you're looking at the verses you're going to look at be listening in your heart
for God the Holy Spirit to confirm my words and to reveal more because it's only through him that all
this works. Now let's reread the verses and I'm going to read in the complete Jewish Bible just
because I like how he says some of the words.
He took the form of a slave by becoming like human beings. The way I was able to understand and wrap my mind around about how Jesus is fully God and fully man is by understanding
Spirit, soul, and body.
And I'll explain that so you can have the same foundation as me.
In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23, it says this,
So in that verse we see that we are spirit being,
we have a soul, and we live in this physical body.
That we are triune being.
And then in Ecclesiastes 12, 7, it says this,
So there you see that we have a spirit and we have a body.
And in 1 Thessalonians, it adds the soul.
So in Ecclesiastes, it says,
Let's go to Genesis chapter 1, from verse 26 to 27.
Let us look at the creation of man and we'll get some insights from there.
I'm going to read that last section again.
God created man in his own image.
In the image of God, he created him.
Male and female, he created them.
And what I want you to see there is God created man, the spirit,
and male and female is a type of body that the spirit called man inhabited.
I'm going to say that again.
God created man, which is a type of spirit.
And male and female is a type of body that hosted the spirit.
In chapter 2 of Genesis, we see the details of the creation of man and woman.
And the first person that God created was the male.
And the male was called Adam.
And the female's body came from the body of Adam.
But the spirit, because it's the spirit of man,
that is in both the man and the woman, came from God.
And before the fall, this is an interesting thing that I saw.
In Genesis 5.2, He said,
So before the fall, they were both called Adam or man.
And this shows the unity that you see with the Trinity,
because the fall has separated us.
And so now we see each other as separate.
But before the fall, we were of one spirit.
That understanding helps me because now we can take that into the Trinity.
Man is a type of spirit.
Male and female is a type of body.
So now, hopefully that makes sense.
Now let's go in understanding how Jesus is both man and God.
What makes us human beings is not just our body.
It's the kind of spirit we have.
And we have the spirit of man in our physical bodies.
What makes angels, angels?
It's this type of spirit they have.
Because in the New Testament, you see angels appearing.
And sometimes those angels look like men.
But why are they called angels and not men?
Even though they look like men.
It's the type of spirit they have.
Our spirits determine who we are.
We are mankind because we have the mankind kind of spirit in us.
Angels are angels because they have the angelic spirit in them.
Even when they look like men, even when they look like us.
And I'm sure many of you have had encounters with angels and you did not
know they were angels until they disappear.
And you're like, wait a minute,
was that an angel? Because they look exactly like you,
but they had a different spirit, which is an angelic spirit.
And it's the same thing with the Godhead.
They have the God kind of spirit.
The type of spirit, our spirits determine who we are.
We sometimes look at God and his majesty and his power.
And we see that as what makes him God. That's not what makes him God.
That's the fruit of who he is.
What makes him God is the kind of spirit that he has.
And he has a God kind of spirit.
And with that comes all these different powers, all these different things,
all the glory, all the power, because he has the God
kind of spirit.
So when Jesus came in the flesh,
He had the God spirit in a human body.
Does that make sense? I'm going to repeat that.
When Jesus came in the flesh,
He had a God spirit in a human body.
And that's why when you read the Gospels,
a lot of times you'll see demons or people demonized.
When they see Him, they're like,
Oh, wait a minute, you're the son of man.
They could tell that He was not just a regular human.
There was something different about Him
because the demons are looking not at His physical body,
but at the spirit inhabiting the physical body.
And that's how they could tell that is God,
that is not just man.
And there were a few occasions,
actually, I'm getting ahead of myself.
I almost jumped to the end.
I'm getting a little excited.
Let's go to verse 6 and 7 of Philippians.
And I'm going to read this from the complete Jewish Bible.
Though He was in the form of God,
He did not regard equality with God
something to be possessed by force.
On the contrary, He emptied Himself
in that He took the form of a slave
by becoming like human beings are.
How was Jesus in the form of God?
He had the God kind of spirit.
That's what makes God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit,
God, because they have the God kind of spirit.
He did not regard equality with God
something to be possessed by force
because He was God.
He didn't have to force
or try to be something that He already is.
And let's just take a little rabbit trail here.
We need to know who we are
because when you know who you are,
you'll be able to submit yourself.
You'll be able to move freely
because when you're looking for other people
to tell you who you are,
you'll be subject to their opinions.
But when you let God tell you who you are,
you'll only be subject to Him.
And that's the importance of understanding our identity
is because once your identity is built in Christ,
well, then if He tells you sell everything
and go live on the streets,
you'll do it no problem
because you're not going to worry about
what other people think about you.
You're not going to worry about
what other people try to say about you
because your God told you do this
and you'll be submitted to that.
That's the power of being comfortable in your identity.
In verse 7,
is where a lot of the different assumptions are made.
And I'm just going to read
in the verse 7 verse specifically,
I'm going to read about
is when it says,
and he made himself of no reputation.
I'm going to read that phrase in different translations
so that you can see what they all say.
In the complete Jewish Bible,
it says,
In the New King James,
it says,
he made himself of no reputation.
In the NIV,
it says,
he made himself nothing.
And my favorite translation is the NLT.
It says,
he gave up his divine privileges.
I'm going to read the whole verse 7 in the NLT.
Instead,
he gave up his divine privileges.
He took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being
when he appeared in human form.
Our spirits determine who we are.
The Godhead are not the Godhead because of their power.
They are the Godhead because of the God kind of spirit.
The power and the glory that the Godhead has
that you see when Elijah went to Mount Horeb
and God comes and it's the wind,
it's the earthquake.
All those different things are a result of who he is.
That was God the Father coming down.
And when God the Father comes down because of who he is,
he commands all this power.
He commands glory because that's who he is.
That's his identity.
So when Jesus came in the flesh,
he gave up the privilege that comes with being God the Son.
He never stopped being God.
He just gave up the privileges.
He was no longer omnipresent.
He was no longer omnipotent.
He was no longer omniscient.
He was bound or he became a slave and limited to human.
No human is omnipotent.
No human is omnipresent.
No human is omniscient.
Only God is.
Even no angel is omnipresent.
Only God.
And so when he came in the form of a slave, mankind,
he limited himself of the power that the Godhead has.
And remember, the power is not what makes him God.
It's the kind of spirit that he has made him God.
And throughout the gospels,
So you will see moments where we got a glimpse of His Godhead,
of how He looks on the Mount of Transfiguration.
We got a glimpse of that.
When the soldiers came to arrest Him,
we got a glimpse of His power when they asked Him,
Who is Jesus Christ?
And He said, I am, and everybody bit the ground.
We got a glimpse of the power that He had.
But because He came as a slave,
all those divine powers, He gave them up
so that He can function as a man.
He never stopped being God.
He's always God because the kind of spirit that you are
determines who you are.
I really hope that if you're not understanding anything,
I said, just go rewatch this and just take your time.
Don't try to rush through this because that understanding the Godhood of Jesus
is the key to our Christian life.
When you understand that He's fully God and He came in the form of man
so that He can be the perfect sacrifice,
then your whole Christian life will completely be changed.
He is God.
He never stopped being God.
And my last words are this,
the kind of spirit that we have determines who we are.
Join me in the next episode where we'll be talking about
becoming a mature believer.