Those who are the reproduction of the God-man should also live Christ as the God-man (Phil. 1:20b, 21a). Christ lived on earth as a God-man for thirty-three and a half years. Today we, His reproduction, should live Him as the God-man.
Christians often quote Philippians 1:21a: “For to me to live is Christ.” Paul’s life was to live Christ. Christ was not only his life within but also his living without. He lived Christ because Christ lived in him (Gal. 2:20). He was one with Christ both in life and in living. He and Christ had one life and one living. They lived together as one person. Christ lived within him as his life, and he lived Christ without as His living.
An important matter for us to realize is that the Christ in Philippians 1:21 is the God-man. This can be proved by Paul’s word in chapter two of Philippians. In 2:5 Paul says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Then Paul goes on to say in the following verses that Christ subsisted in the form of God, but did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. Instead, He emptied Himself taking the form of a slave and becoming in the likeness of men (vv. 6-7). In verse 8 Paul continues his description of this God-man: “And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of a cross.” From this description we see that the Christ in Philippians 1 is the God-man in Philippians 2. Therefore, to live Christ is to live the God-man.
We live Christ as the God-man by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19). We have seen that the Spirit of Jesus Christ is not merely the Spirit of God before the Lord’s incarnation, but the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit with divinity, after the Lord’s resurrection, compounded with His incarnation, humanity, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. The Spirit of Jesus is mainly for the Lord’s humanity and human living; the Spirit of Christ is mainly for the Lord’s resurrection. To experience the Lord’s humanity, as illustrated in Philippians 2:5-8, we need the Spirit of Jesus. To experience the power of the Lord’s resurrection, as mentioned in Philippians 3:10, we need the Spirit of Christ.
If we would live Christ as the God-man, we need to take His mind. In Philippians 2:5-8 Paul encourages us to take the mind of Jesus Christ, the God-man. This is the mind that was in Christ when He emptied Himself taking the form of a slave, and humbled Himself, being found in fashion as a man. To have such a mind requires us to be one with Christ in His inward parts (Phil. 1:8).
In Philippians 2:12-13 Paul goes on to say, “So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only as in my presence, but now much rather in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” The salvation in verse 12 is not salvation from hell. Salvation from hell is not something that can be worked out by us. The salvation here is a subjective salvation, an inward salvation that requires our cooperation with God. We cooperate through our obedience. Our obedience is our cooperation.
To work out our salvation is to carry it out, to bring it to the ultimate conclusion. We have received God’s salvation. Now we need to carry out this salvation, to bring it to its ultimate conclusion, by our constant and absolute obedience with fear and trembling. We have received this salvation by faith. Now we must carry it out by obedience. To receive salvation by faith is once for all; to carry out salvation by obedience is life long.
The word “for” in verse 13 gives the reason we need to obey always. We should obey because God operates in us. We have God operating in us both the willing and the working to carry out our salvation. It is not that we by ourselves work out our salvation, but that God operates in us to do it. The only thing we need to do is to obey God as the One who operates in us the willing and the working for His good pleasure.
In Philippians 2:14 Paul says, “Do all things without murmurings and reasonings.” Murmurings are of our emotion, and reasonings are of our mind. Both frustrate us from experiencing and enjoying Christ. Can you say that in your daily living you have no murmurings or reasonings? Perhaps you have experienced a considerable change in life, but you still need to be saved from your murmurings and reasonings. We certainly need to be saved from murmurings and reasonings by the living Christ, by the living God-man.
Paul was an experiential person, and he wrote the Epistle to the Philippians according to his experience. From experience Paul knew that we may be saved from many things but not yet from murmurings and reasonings. We are not saved from murmurings and reasonings by a divine arm that reaches us from the third heaven. What, then, is effective to save us from murmurings and reasonings? We are saved from these things by the indwelling Christ, by the indwelling God-man. Today this indwelling God-man is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit with the bountiful supply. By the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ we are saved inwardly from our murmurings and reasonings. This is related to living Christ. To live Christ is to live the God-man, who is now the pneumatic Christ.