Tuesday, February 2, 2010

February 2, 2010

"Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped," Philippians 2:6
Something significant is happening in this portion of Scripture. The great Apostle is appealing to unity in the Philippian church by focusing on the unity of the Godhead. In so doing he gives us a revealing insight into the nature of the Incarnation.
In my last post we learned that Jesus had "morphed" into a man. That signifies that He was in the flesh and form of a man but was in nature fully God.
Today's discussion builds on that fact. This same verse reminds us that Jesus was "equal" with God since He was God in His very nature. That truth strengthens both claims.
The word used to explain Christ's relationship to God is the word "isos". This word means "exactly the same, in size, quality, quantity, character and number". We use the word in English, for example, an "isosceles" triangle is a triangle with two equal sides. An "isomer" is a chemical molecule having a slightly different structure from another molecule but having identical elements and weight. In other words, it means that something is EXACTLY THE SAME - COMPLETELY THE SAME in every way. Jesus was exactly equal to God even though He had "morphed" into a man!
Jesus was equal to God because He WAS God in every way except He had "morphed" from a spirit into flesh.
That is good news! That means that every promise or claim made by or about Jesus is true! Everything we know to be true about God is also true about Jesus!
What does that say to us about unity?
It shows us that to be united with one another we need to be united with Christ like Christ is united with God! I proves that if we will - He can!
Will you?