Scripture Reading: Phil. 1:19-21; 2:12-16
Although Philippians is a short book, it is rich and profound. No other book in the New Testament reveals salvation in such a practical and experiential way. We know from the first chapter of Matthew that Christ became a man named Jesus and Emmanuel. Jesus means “Jehovah the Savior,” and Emmanuel means “God with us.” After I was saved, I treasured these names. However, I did not know their meaning in an experiential way until the Lord brought me into the reality of the book of Philippians. In this book we have the details of God’s practical, experiential, subjective, and constant salvation. Philippians presents God’s salvation in a way that is more practical and experiential than the way it is presented in Romans. Romans speaks of salvation more in a doctrinal way, but Philippians speaks of it more in an experiential way.
God’s salvation in Christ is not only eternal, but also constant and practical. In a sense, eternal salvation is rather remote. We need a salvation that can be applied to our daily situations, especially to our married life and family life. Married life can be compared to a prison. Our spouse is the jailer, and our children are guards. For such a situation, we need a salvation that is practical, constant, and experiential. The book of Philippians reveals a salvation that we can experience day by day, a salvation that we can enjoy in the “prison” of married life.
We need to experience a present salvation not only in our family life, but also in the church life. In the church there are saints of many different nationalities and with all kinds of dispositions and personalities. In order for us to stay together in the church life, we need a present and practical salvation. This is especially necessary if we are to experience the church not only locally, but also as the new man universally. Hence, we need salvation for our family life, for our local church life, and for our life in the one new man.
Suppose you plan to visit churches in different parts of the world. As you come in contact with saints of different cultures, nationalities, and dispositions, you will realize how much we need to experience God’s salvation in the church life. If we are to practice the church life with so many different brothers and sisters meeting together as one, we need the constant salvation revealed in the book of Philippians.
In 1:19 Paul says, “I know that for me this shall turn out to salvation.” As a prisoner in Rome, Paul needed a practical salvation. Suppose someone spoke to him about eternal salvation. Paul could have said, “Brother, don’t talk about something so remote from my present situation. I am a prisoner in chains. I need a salvation that can be applied to this situation.”
In 2:12-15 Paul speaks of working out our own salvation in relation to murmurings, reasonings, blame, guile, blemishes, crookedness, and perverseness. This indicates that we need a salvation from all these negative things. If we are still crooked in some way, then, whether or not we are Christians, we are part of today’s crooked generation. To be saved from the crooked generation is to be saved from crookedness. We all need a salvation for today, the salvation revealed in the book of Philippians.
In this message we shall see that we may have constant, daily salvation through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the inward operation of the indwelling God. Salvation requires power. This means that a certain power is necessary to afford us a constant salvation. God’s means for the accomplishment of this salvation are unspeakably great. According to Philippians, the means are two: the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the inward operation of the indwelling God. Daily and even hourly we may be saved by these two means.
Please notice that the means of our daily salvation are not the bountiful supply of the Spirit of God and the operation of the visiting God. They are the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the inward operation of the indwelling God. The God who saves us is not one who merely visits us; He is the One who indwells us. On the one hand, Paul could say that his circumstances would turn out to him for salvation through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, he charged the saints to work out their own salvation according to the inward operation of God. Thus, the bountiful supply of the Spirit and the inward operation of the indwelling God are the two means whereby we are saved in a practical way day by day.
When we believed in Christ, an organic union took place between us and the Triune God. We have actually been joined to the Triune God, united with Him. By believing in Christ we were born of God, and God was born into us. This divine birth makes the organic union possible. We were born of God when the Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, came into our spirit. This transaction took place at the time we believed in the Lord Jesus, even though we probably did not realize it and were not conscious of it. Having come into our spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit remains there with His bountiful supply.
We need to see what the bountiful supply of the Spirit includes. First, the bountiful supply includes the divine Person with the divine life and nature. Thus, the bountiful supply includes divinity, and divinity includes the divine life, nature, being, and person. In other words, it is God Himself. In the bountiful supply we have God with His life, nature, being, and person.
The bountiful supply also includes an uplifted humanity, a humanity with a proper life, living, nature, and person. The Lord Jesus is both God and man. Within Him there are both divinity and humanity. Thus, when He was on earth, He lived as God and also as man. All that the Lord passed through in thirty-three and a half years of life on earth is now in the all-inclusive Spirit. Therefore, divinity and humanity, including the human living of the Lord Jesus, are in the bountiful supply of the all-inclusive Spirit.
On the cross the Lord Jesus died a wonderful death. The all-inclusive death of Christ dealt with every negative thing in the universe. By His death all sinful things were terminated. This wonderful death is also included in the bountiful supply of the Spirit. Christ’s resurrection and ascension are included as well. Now in the bountiful supply of the Spirit we have Christ’s divinity, humanity, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.
The bountiful supply of the Spirit also includes the divine attributes and the human virtues. God is love and light, and He is holy and righteous. These are some of His attributes. Furthermore, as a man Christ has all the human virtues. Both the divine attributes and the human virtues are in the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ.
The submission and love we need day by day are also found in the bountiful supply of the Spirit. Although the Bible commands a wife to submit to her husband and a husband to love his wife, actually in ourselves we do not have either genuine submission or love. Instead of submission, we have rebellion. Instead of a proper love, we have an unbalanced, twisted love. True submission and love are in the bountiful supply of the Spirit.
As we enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit, we partake of the ingredients of this supply without being aware of it. For example, we may love others without being conscious of the fact that we are loving. In like manner, we may be submissive without realizing that we are submissive. However, if we deliberately try to love or submit, our love or submission will not be genuine. True love and true submission are always spontaneous and not something of which we are conscious. A sister who is genuinely submissive to her husband has no consciousness of being submissive, for her submission comes out of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Sometimes sisters submit purposely and intentionally. A sister may think that she must submit to her husband in order to be spiritual. This kind of submission is political. Other sisters may submit for the purpose of setting a good example for their daughters to follow. This submission is also political and even hypocritical. It is a performance rather than something spontaneous. I repeat, real submission is spontaneous; it is the issue of enjoying the bountiful supply of the Spirit.
Whenever we try to behave ourselves apart from enjoying the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we are political and hypocritical. Actually, every kind of religion teaches people to act in a political way. Under this influence, we may think that for the sake of our husband or wife, for the sake of our children or relatives, and even for the sake of the church, we should behave in a particular way. Such behavior is political, hypocritical.
The source of true virtue is the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. When Paul was rejoicing there in prison in Rome, he was not deliberately trying to act joyful. His rejoicing was not the result of his own effort, and it certainly was not a performance. Because Paul loved the Triune God, opened himself to the Triune God, and communicated with the Triune God, the Triune God had a free course to infuse all He is into Paul. As a result, Paul could realize that with this Triune God there is the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Because he experienced this supply, he could rejoice in the Lord even while a prisoner in chains.
The Spirit today is not merely the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, or the Holy Spirit. Having passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, the Spirit is now the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Within Him there is a living supply which includes all kinds of divine, spiritual, heavenly ingredients. Through this bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, Paul’s circumstances turned out to his salvation. He was saved constantly and instantly through this bountiful supply. Thus, the source of his daily salvation was the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
In Philippians 1 Paul was saved from a particular situation through the bountiful supply of the Spirit. In chapter two he goes on to point out how the believers may experience a constant salvation in the ordinary things of daily life. For example, 2:14 says, “Do all things without murmurings and reasonings.” Murmurings and reasonings are things we experience daily. We may not experience hate or anger every day, but we certainly reason and murmur every day. In married life, the wives are especially given to murmuring, and the husbands, to reasoning. In a sense, the natural married life is a life of murmurings and reasonings. If a brother lived alone, without a wife as his companion, he might have little occasion for murmuring and reasoning. Married life, however, affords him ample opportunity for both. Likewise, before a sister is married, she may not murmur over minor frustrations. Now after she is married, she may murmur over the slightest frustration. Her husband may react to her murmuring by reasoning with her, vindicating himself and accusing her. There may be murmurings and reasonings over such things as a bed that is not made, a brush that is out of place, a burned-out light bulb, or a room that is not clean. Should a husband come home from work and find the house not in proper order, he may find it difficult to be silent. Even if he manages to be quiet, he may not be silent joyfully. Our murmurings and reasonings over matters such as these reveal our need for constant salvation. Oh, how we need to be saved daily from murmurings and reasonings!
What can save us from our murmurings and reasonings? In 2:12 and 13 Paul charges us to work out our own salvation, for “it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” However, the matter of God operating in us may be merely a doctrine. When we face certain situations at home, we may not have the reality of the inward operation of God. Instead, we may be fully in ourselves. Nevertheless, if we are to experience constant salvation, we need to realize that this salvation is God Himself operating within us.
For years I was bothered by the fact that in 2:13 Paul speaks of God and not of Christ or the Spirit. Paul deliberately speaks of God in this verse in order to indicate that our constant salvation is nothing less than God Himself. However, there is a difference between the God revealed in 2:13 and the God revealed in Genesis 1:1. By the time we come to the book of Philippians, God has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. According to Isaiah 9:6, the child born to us was called the mighty God. The One who was born in a manger in Bethlehem and who lived in a carpenter’s home in Nazareth was the mighty God. By this we see that the living God experienced human life. In a man, the mighty God lived among human beings for more than thirty years. Then for the accomplishment of redemption, He was crucified, entered into death, took a tour of Hades, and came forth in resurrection. Furthermore, our God, Jesus Christ, ascended to heaven and was made the Lord of all. Now He has the lordship, the kingship, and the headship. Today our God is not only the Creator, the Redeemer, the Savior, and the Lord. He is the all-inclusive One. The word God in 2:13 points to this wonderful, processed, all-inclusive God. This indwelling God is now operating in us. The indwelling and operating God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, He is our pattern, the word of life, and the all-inclusive Spirit.
This indwelling One is not passive; on the contrary, He is active and energetic, moving, working, and operating in us. The Greek word rendered operates in 2:13 means “energizes.” The English word energize is an anglicized form of this word. The indwelling God energizes us from within to be the source, power, strength, and energy for our constant salvation.
To be saved from murmurings and reasonings is not an insignificant matter. Apart from the indwelling and operating God, we have no way to be saved from these things. We also need to be saved from crookedness and perverseness. In certain ways we all are crooked and perverted. To be perverted is to be warped, twisted. It is not easy to be saved from these things in a practical way.
In Philippians 2 Paul refers to murmurings, reasonings, blame, guile, blemishes, crookedness, perverseness, and darkness. By contrast, in Romans 1 he speaks of gross sins such as idolatry, fornication, and murder. Actually, to be saved from gross sins is relatively easy, but to be saved from murmurings, reasonings, crookedness, and perverseness is very difficult. We may not commit gross sins, but day by day we are still bothered by the negative things listed by Paul in Philippians 2. We need salvation not only from gross sins, but also from sins that may be considered somewhat refined, such as murmuring and reasoning. If we would be blameless and guileless, we also need a constant salvation.
The only one who can possibly save us in this way is the Triune God who has been processed to become the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit. Today our God is such an all-inclusive Spirit. This wonderful God now indwells us and is working, energizing, operating, within us, looking for the opportunity to rescue us day by day.
When I was young, I heard only two aspects of God’s salvation. First, I was told that Christ died on the cross to save us. Second, I learned that, as the almighty One, He is in the heavens, able to save us to the uttermost if we trust in Him. For years I did not know specifically how the Lord Jesus saves us in a practical way. Now in the book of Philippians we see that we have a constant salvation both for particular situations and for ordinary daily life. The One who saves us is not merely the almighty One in the heavens; we are saved through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and by the inward operation of the indwelling God.
Today our God is subjective. He has become our inward supply to support us in any particular situation with His riches, all of which are now our portion in the bountiful supply of the Spirit. As we enjoy this bountiful supply, we are spontaneously saved from our particular situations. Furthermore, this Spirit is the God who dwells in us to operate within us to save us from the common situations of daily life.
During the years I have been in this country, I have continually ministered to the saints the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit and the processed God. In Philippians 1 we have the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit, and in Philippians 2 we have the processed God. Today our God is no longer merely the object of our worship. As the processed One, He dwells in us. God is no longer unprocessed, no longer “raw.” Having passed through the steps of a process, He now dwells in our spirit for our experience and enjoyment. Hallelujah, we have the processed God as our portion! He is operating in us to save us day by day. Eventually, He Himself becomes our constant salvation.
Actually, the indwelling God who operates in us is the all-inclusive Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Because He is such, we simply cannot systematize Him. This God is Christ and also the Spirit. The source of our constant salvation is the processed God who is the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit. With this Spirit we have the bountiful supply, and with the processed God we have the inward operation. The supply and the operation are the source of our constant salvation. By means of this wonderful source we are saved from our particular situation and from the common situations of daily life. In this way we can be saved from murmurings, reasonings, crookedness, and perverseness. This is not a theory; it is practical and experiential. When we enjoy this constant salvation, we live Christ. We live Christ by enjoying constant salvation in our daily life.
