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Scripture Reading: Phil. 1:19-21; 3:10a; 4:13; 2:12b-13; 4:6-9
In the previous chapters we saw how to experience Christ as our life and how to live out Christ in our human virtues. In general, Christians consider human virtues as the so-called ethics. However, from the Word of God we have seen that we are not speaking about ethics. Rather, we are speaking about Christ as our life being lived out of us, that is, Christ being lived out in our human virtues and becoming the expression of our perfect living. Therefore, we should not confuse Christian good behavior with man’s ethics. Christian virtues are altogether different from the conventional ethics taught by the Chinese people.
The book of Philippians is a book on experiencing Christ. This book speaks about how to magnify Christ in our body. In 1:20 Paul says, “In nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death.” Paul’s desire was that Christ, in whom he believed, after whom he followed, on whom he depended, and in whom he lived, would not only be expressed but also be magnified in his body. Eventually, he could say, “To me, to live is Christ” (v. 21a). The perfect living of Paul was the expression of Christ; therefore, for him, to live was Christ. However, do not for a moment think that we have deified Paul. Paul was not God, but he was able to express God. We do not deify ourselves; rather, we have Christ as our life, and He is lived out and magnified through us.
For the past few decades I preached about the truth concerning living Christ, but because I was still greatly influenced by my traditional background, I did not have the boldness to connect the matter of living out Christ as our life with the matter of our human virtues. However, for the past few years, after I had thoroughly studied the book of Philippians, I realized that, on the one hand, this book speaks about the Triune God as our life operating within us to be our everything, and on the other hand, it speaks about human virtues. From 4:8 we see that what things are true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of, as well as any virtue and any praise, all constitute our human virtues. However, these virtues are not the result of our own work but the issue of our experience of the Triune God as our life. Thus, the book of Philippians covers two aspects: one aspect is that the Triune God is our life and is lived out through us; the other aspect is that the good behavior that is lived out from us is our virtues.
We have said that our God is the Creator of the universe and all things. He was incarnated to be a man, the Lord Jesus, who died and shed His blood for us to be our Redeemer and was resurrected to become the pneumatic Christ to be our life. Such a God is love and light, and He is also holy and righteous. God is love, and this love is transcendent and powerful. He can love the unlovable; He can love beyond what man can love. Not only is He the Giver of love, but His very nature is love. God’s nature consists of both love and light. Love is inward, and light is outward; love is hidden, and light is expressed. When God’s nature is hidden, it is love; when it is expressed, it is light.
The Bible also says that God is holy and righteous. God is not only holy, but He is holiness itself. God is not only righteous, but He is righteousness itself. Holiness is His inward nature, whereas righteousness is His outward expression. Holiness and love belong to the same category; both are the inward nature of God. Righteousness and light belong to the same category; both are the expression of God’s nature. God is holiness; this is in relation to Himself. God is light; this is in relation to man. Love expressed is light; holiness expressed is righteousness. These attributes are what God is. Our God is love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Thus, love, light, holiness, and righteousness constitute God’s being, God’s image.
Genesis 1:26 clearly tells us that God created man in His image. Here, the word image refers to what God is. That God created man in His image means that He created man according to what He is. He is love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Therefore, the man that He created had the image of love, light, holiness, and righteousness.
Upon hearing these words and after examining yourself, you may say, “I do not have love. I strike and scold people; how can I love? Furthermore, I am not in the light; rather, I have done many things in darkness. Moreover, I am not holy; rather, I am impure, my heart is unclean, and my whole being is filthy. I am not righteous; my conduct is improper, and I like to take advantage of others.” Your assessment of yourself is correct in that your conduct is altogether the conduct of a fallen man. However, in the silence of the night, when you examine yourself, you will sense that in the innermost part of your being there are love, light, holiness, and righteousness. You hate to be corrupt; rather, you like to be pure, holy, and noble. You do not like to do evil, to cheat, or to act craftily; rather, you desire your conduct to be upright and full of righteousness. This is reflected in the theory of “men being born naturally good.” According to man’s created nature, this is correct. Indeed, within man there is the God-created goodness.
God created man in His image. Just as God is love, so there is also love in man. Therefore, man does not like to strike or scold people. Just as God is light, so there is also light in man. Therefore, man does not like to do the things of darkness. Just as God is holiness, so there is also holiness in man. Therefore, man does not delight in being corrupt. Just as God is righteousness, so there is also righteousness in man. Therefore, man likes to be just and fair. The love, light, holiness, and righteousness in man are all created according to what God is. Therefore, human virtues are a picture of God’s image. However, although a picture shows the appearance of the object, it is not the real object itself. In the beginning, man was created perfect, having the image of love and light but without the reality. Man was only an empty shell. God had not yet entered into him to be his content and reality.
God’s original purpose in creating man was for man to contain and express Him. But before man took God in, he was tempted by Satan and became fallen. Because of man’s fall, God gave the law to expose man’s true condition. The law was enacted according to what God is. Hence, the law is a portrait of what God is. If you carefully study the Ten Commandments, you will realize that the essence of the commandments is love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Because God Himself is love, light, holiness, and righteousness, the law that He made is the expression of love, light, holiness, and righteousness.
Due to the fall, man’s condition no longer corresponded to that which was portrayed by the law. Therefore, God in Christ had to become a man. In other words, Christ is the God of love, light, holiness, and righteousness who put on man.
In the four Gospels we see that the life which Christ lived on earth may be represented by four words: love, light, holiness, and righteousness. His walk on earth was the expression of love, light, holiness, and righteousness. He became a man to fulfill the law. Therefore, as a real man, He lived God completely. God was fully expressed through Him, and the image of a true man was also manifested, thereby fulfilling, and even exceeding, the requirements of the law.
In order to enter into us to be our life, Christ died for our sins to resolve the problem of our sin and then resurrected from among the dead to become the life-giving Spirit. When Christ enters into us as the life-giving Spirit, it is God entering into us. Since God is love, light, holiness, and righteousness, when He enters into us, it is love, light, holiness, and righteousness entering into us. However, as fallen people, we are corrupt and unclean. Therefore, even though we have a little measure of love, light, holiness, and righteousness within us, it is distorted and deficient. Hence, our expression of Christ is so inadequate. Although we have been saved, we are still so unbecoming. We still need to let Christ grow in us daily that He may be completely lived out through us. Thus, within us Christians, not only do we have God and Christ, but we also have the human virtues that correspond to the law.
In Romans 8:4 Paul says, “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.” Because all the requirements of the law have been fulfilled in Christ as the life-giving Spirit, when we walk according to the spirit, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled. However, some Christians, even though they have Christ in them, revert to religion just as the Galatians did. Once religion comes in, it confuses people so that instead of the expression of God as love, light, holiness, and righteousness, all they have are rituals, practices of worship, and ordinances. Religion cannot express God; rather, it is a hindrance. Moreover, like the Colossians, some Christians pursue philosophy. Religion plus philosophy bring in even more confusion.
We must be clear that we are not speaking about the moral principles in human relationships commonly taught among the Chinese people. Rather, we are speaking about the biblical virtues that God desires. The virtues that God wants are God Himself lived out through us as love, light, holiness, and righteousness. The morality that we work out is at best that which Paul refers to as “the righteousness which is out of the law” in Philippians 3. We know that before Paul was saved, all he pursued was the righteousness which is out of the law. The ancient Chinese sages taught people to practice filial piety, brotherly subordination, honesty, shamefacedness, benevolence, justice, propriety, and prudence, all of which are tantamount to the righteousness which is in the law that Paul pursued after. Paul pursued the righteousness which is in the law according to the law, whereas the Chinese pursue the morality taught by the ancient sages according to the philosophy concerning human relationships. Both have the same results; both are not what God wants.
Therefore, the virtues that we speak about are the expressions of God in humanity. They are not the ethics taught by the Chinese. Rather, they are Christ revealed in the Bible. Christ is our life within, and He is also our living without. In this way what we live out are our virtues. Therefore, we should use the word virtues instead of ethics. When we mention ethics, we always correlate it to the conventional ethics taught by Confucius and Mencius. But the virtues of Christians are the expression of God as love, light, holiness, and righteousness.
Philippians 4:8-9 mentions a total of eight virtues. The first six items include the things that are true, the things that are dignified, the things that are righteous, the things that are pure, the things that are lovely, and the things that are well spoken of. The last two items include any virtue and any praise, which are a summary of the first six items. Actually, these six items are just love, light, holiness, and righteousness. That which is lovely is love; that which is righteous is righteousness; that which is pure and well spoken of—that which is honest and upright—is light; that which is true and dignified is holiness. If you carefully analyze these six items, you can categorize them under four big items: love, light, holiness, and righteousness. According to the entire book of Philippians, the things that are true, dignified, pure, righteous, lovely, and well spoken of are the living out of God through us as love, light, holiness, and righteousness. These four items are not only virtuous but also good; hence, they are excellent. The Greek word for virtue denotes a lovely condition manifested through struggle and endeavor. Several times in the Chinese Union Version this word is rendered “moral act,” implying something powerful and manifesting brightness. This is not the conventional ethics taught by the ancient Chinese sages. Rather, this is God being life in us and expressing what He is—love, light, holiness, and righteousness—according to the image by which He created us.
We were empty vessels created in God’s image. Although we had love, light, holiness, and righteousness in our humanity, these virtues were empty because there was no real content. However, after we are saved, Christ fills us as our reality, and He is lived out of us. Thus, the love, light, holiness, and righteousness that we live out are no longer empty virtues; rather, they are virtues that have been enriched by God. This means that God has enriched and magnified the virtues, which include love, light, holiness, and righteousness, in our humanity with His divinity. This is the lovely state that results from the struggling and striving of the divine power within us. This condition is what the Scriptures refer to as virtue.
In such a short book as the Epistle to the Philippians we can also see the revelation of the Triune God. First, we see “the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (1:19). Today the Holy Spirit is not only the Spirit of God but also the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Second, we see “the power of His [Christ’s] resurrection” (3:10a). Christ, the second among the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is now the resurrected Christ with the power of resurrection. Third, we see “the God of peace” (4:9) operating within us to give us peace. This God who gives us peace is not outside of us but is inside of us. God can only be in us after the resurrection of Christ. The God who is in us is the Father. Therefore, in the book of Philippians we clearly see that first there is the Father, second there is the Son, and third there is the Spirit. The Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ; the Son is the resurrected Christ; and the Father is the God in resurrection as our peace operating, restricting, and guarding within us. This is the Triune God for our experience and enjoyment.
The title of the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—was not clearly disclosed before the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Although the revelation concerning the Triune God has been implied in many places both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, it still requires human inference. For example, Genesis 1:1 says, “God created the heavens and the earth”; the Hebrew word here for God is plural. Then verse 26 says, “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” The God in verse 1 becomes “Us” in verse 26. Hence, by inference, we conclude that God is triune. We still cannot see this clearly in the plain text of the Old Testament. However, when the Lord Jesus resurrected from the dead, He told the disciples, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). The process of the Trinity was completed after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. At that point in time, the Father became the Father in resurrection, the Son became the Son in resurrection, and the Spirit became the Spirit in resurrection. In other words, God is triune, but it was not until after the Lord Jesus resurrected that the Triune God was consummated in the Spirit. After the Lord Jesus resurrected, the Spirit became the life-giving Spirit, the Son became the resurrected Christ, and the Father became the God who indwells man.
We have said that the book of Philippians is a book on the experience of Christ; it speaks about living out Christ in our daily life. Living out Christ in our daily life means that God in Christ enters into us to be our life and reality and that He is expressed through our humanity in our human love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Therefore, this book speaks about how Christ in us becomes our life and how we are empowered to live out Christ. To summarize all that we have covered previously, we can see that the Spirit of Jesus Christ is here, the resurrected Christ is here, and the God in resurrection is here. The Triune God is in us. All three of Them—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—are in us. Yet They are not three Gods but one God. The one God is triune so that we can experience Him. This is truly a great mystery. It is a mystery that cannot be explained adequately with human words. This wonderful Triune God lives in us to be our life and life supply.
Philippians 1:19 refers to “the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” The phrase the Spirit of Jesus Christ shows us that Jesus Christ is the Spirit and that the Spirit is Jesus Christ Himself. When we experience Christ, we experience Him as the Spirit, because Christ can be in us only by being the Spirit. Therefore, Jesus Christ is truly a wonderful One. He is God who became a man, Christ who became Jesus, the One in whom God and man were united and mingled. He is God and He is also man. This is Jesus Christ. When He is experienced by us, He is the Spirit. This Spirit who is in us is Jesus Christ, the God-man, with the bountiful supply.
Today the Lord Jesus is the Spirit in us, and this Spirit has a bountiful supply. He supplies whatever we need. Furthermore, this Jesus Christ has the power of resurrection, and this power is inseparable from the Spirit of Jesus Christ; the two are one. Concerning His supply, He is the Spirit of Jesus Christ; concerning His power, He is the resurrected Christ.
Ephesians 1:18-20 says, “That you may know...what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength, which He caused to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies.” The Lord Jesus was resurrected and released from the detention of death and the grave. Furthermore, He ascended to heaven and was enthroned. This is the power of His resurrection. Is there any other force in the universe that is greater than the power of resurrection? The Spirit with the bountiful supply, who is in us, has the power of the resurrected Christ.
In Philippians 4:13 Paul says, “I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me.” Christ is the One who empowers us. The word empowers here and the word power in Ephesians 1:19 come from the same Greek word for dynamic or dynamo. Christ as the source of all power is inexhaustible; His power is unlimitedly great. In the Chinese Union Version, the Greek word for power is translated in some places as great power, in other places as strength, and in still other places as power. Regardless of whether it is great power, or strength, or power, we have it because we have Christ in us as the driving force. When the resurrection power of Christ operates in us, we become empowered. Today there are many toys that are electrically powered. For example, there is a toy dog that has batteries installed in it. If the switch is not turned on, the dog cannot move, but when the switch is turned on, the dog begins jumping around. The electricity from the batteries is what empowers the dog. Likewise, without Christ operating in us, we do not have the driving force. When the power of Christ’s resurrection operates in us, we are made alive and empowered. Christ is the resurrected One. Once the resurrection power begins to operate in us, it enables us to break through death and transcend everything.
Philippians 2:13 says, “It is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” The willing is within; the working is without. When a person has the inward willing, he will have the outward working. Our willing and our working are the result of God’s operation in us. The word operates may also be rendered “energizes,” which is derived from the Greek word ergon. This word does not mean to operate outwardly; it means to energize from within. The Spirit with the bountiful supply and the Christ of resurrection are God Himself who operates and energizes in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.
God not only energizes us within but also guards and protects our hearts and our thoughts. We have a great deal of worries in our mind. Perhaps we are able to temporarily set aside our worries at night when we go to sleep, but as soon as we wake up, our mind begins turning again. We worry about our job, our business, our health, our homework, and many other things so that our whole being is full of anxiety and without peace. But Philippians 4:7 says that the peace of God, which surpasses every man’s understanding, guards and protects us. This peace is God Himself. When we have outward difficulties, God guards us from within so that our hearts are not troubled.
We who are lovers of the Lord can testify that many times problems come to us and we do not know what to do, yet if we would just turn our hearts to the Lord and offer praise and thanksgiving to Him, immediately there is an unspeakable peace that calms us so that we do not have any anxiety. Without peace, we cannot enter into the enjoyment of Christ. Hence, we must let God be the peace in us to guard our hearts and our thoughts. This is what the resurrected Christ is doing in us today. As the God of peace, He not only operates and energizes in us but also guards and protects our mind that we may have peace in our entire being. In this way we can then enter into Christ to enjoy Him.
In summary, the Triune God is in us not only as our life but also as our bountiful supply. Moreover, He is the power that overcomes death. He has ascended from Hades into the third heaven, far above all rule and authority. This power empowers us from within; moreover, the resurrected God operates in us and energizes us. Our thoughts and actions come from His energizing us within. When we have difficulties, He guards and protects our mind so that we can enjoy peace. A person who truly loves the Lord and lives in the Lord must necessarily be a man of peace. Although he is troubled with a lot of difficulties outwardly, he has the inner peace. In such a peaceful state of mind, what he lives out is love, light, holiness, and righteousness. This is God in Christ expressed in human virtues.
The subjective salvation of the Triune God is greatly different from human ethics. Human ethics teach us merely to have good behavior, but what we are speaking about is God being lived out in our humanity as love, light, holiness, and righteousness. When we live out these virtues, God is expressed. This is why Paul says, “To me, to live is Christ,” which also means that “as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body.” These words are not mere doctrines or exhortations but a revelation of the truth for us to truly know that the salvation which we have received is the Triune God being our enjoyment and experience in our daily living and becoming our subjective salvation.
