Pastoral Letter 09 Apr 2023

My dear readers,


The Mind of Christ – the Believer’s Mind!

Philippians 2:5-8: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Humility is one of the most needful marks of a truly born-again child of God. However, it is also one of the most difficult marks to experience and see in believers’ lives. The primary reason is the pride of life in man. This pride of life should no longer dominate every believer’s life because of Christ’s finished work at Calvary; for every believer has been crucified with Christ, i.e. the sinful nature in him has died. He is no longer in bondage to sin. He has been given a Christ-centred nature. That is why God calls believers His children. With this new Christ-centred life, believers are called by God to exercise their Christ-centred mind which is the mind of Christ!

Philippians 2:5-8 is known as the Kenosis Theory because of the Greek Word “ke-no-o” translated in the KJV Bible as “made … of no reputation” (Phil 2:7). No believer is able to fully comprehend the fullness of the Son of God’s act of self-humiliation when He came down from heaven’s glory to walk on this sin-filled earth. Though we can never fully comprehend it, we are commanded by God to experience it. This mind helps the believer to obey God: “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Phil 2:3-4).

What is this mind of Christ?

  • Philippians 2:6 -- Christ was fully God when God the Father called Him to become the Saviour of the world. To accomplish this, Jesus Christ, who is equal with God in all His essence and glory, agreed. While in this state of equality with God, Christ did not think it was “robbery”, i.e. usurpation of this equality because Christ would become man, i.e. fully God and fully man! The humanity and deity of Christ did not diminish the deity of God the Father who remains only in Spirit, for God is Spirit! Christ was very careful that what He did when He became fully God and fully man did not impact His holy Father at all.
  • Philippians 2:7 – Christ then became fully man. He became a man of no reputation as He deservedly could have allowed humanity to see His glory of being fully God and fully man. But that would mean salvation would be by sight and not by faith! Christ made Himself of no reputation, i.e. He emptied Himself of His external glory only. He did not empty Himself of His incommunicable attributes that only God possesses. These incommunicable attributes include His immutability in His omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence! If Christ emptied any one of these incommunicable attributes, He would cease to be God!

From the time Christ began to exist inside the virgin Mary’s womb till His adulthood on earth, Christ was always fully God and fully man! Upon His death and resurrection, He received back His glory and the disciples were able to see the glorious Christ after His resurrection when He appeared to them for 40 days before His ascension. He did not come to be a king or any great individual. He became a servant, i.e. a slave. He became a mere ordinary poor mortal but without sin because He was born of the virgin Mary. His humanity was seen by the people.

Regarding His deity, they needed to believe by faith, for without faith it is impossible to please God. Thus, with Christ’s claim that He was the Son of God incarnate, He manifested His omnipotence that only God the Creator of heaven and earth alone could do! By this demonstration of His miracles, He evidenced His claims of Godhood. Every sinner needs to exercise faith to be saved. For everything that is not of faith is sin (cf. Rom 14:23) and without faith it is impossible to please God (cf. Heb 11:6). Salvation has always been by grace through faith in Christ – from the fall of Adam to the present and till Christ’s return.

  • Philippians 2:8 – While in His state as fully God and fully man, the Lord Jesus Christ could experience death. His obedience to God to be the substitutionary atonement for the sins of the world required Him to not only live a perfect life according to God's laws, but also to suffer persecution unto death as a lamb led to the slaughter! That was why John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus Christ walking toward him to be baptised, testified, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

All sinners who sin against God must be punished by death. This is God's justice from the beginning when God made the covenant of works with Adam, the representative man in Genesis 2:15-17: “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” [Emphasis added] The moment Adam ate, he sinned against God. He died spiritually. Nine hundred and thirty years later he died physically. If he believed in Christ as his Lord and Saviour before he died physically, he would have been spared the second death which is to be cast into the Lake of Fire to suffer and be tormented day and night and be separated from God forever.

Christ died only the physical death to save sinners from all three deaths! Christ did not die spiritually, for to die spiritually means that Christ became a sinner like Adam and all of us! That is why the Bible says it was the death of the cross which refers to only physical death! The cross by crucifixion is able to kill only the physical body.

Summary -- The mind of Christ is the greatest demonstration of humility that the world has ever known. Christ gave up the glory of heaven to take on flesh and blood to save sinners from death and hell! This mind of Christ has been given to all believers. It is the mind of forgiving one another. It is the mind whereby the spiritual and physical well-being of others comes first before our own. It is the mind that enabled the Apostle Paul and enables all of God's children to say: “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you” (1 Cor 9:19-23).



Yours faithfully in the Saviour’s Service,
Rev Dr Quek Suan Yew
Advisory Pastor


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