«　WEEK 2　DAY 4　»

　　Phil. 1:20-21 According to my earnest expectation and hope that 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. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

　　We need to be partners with [Christ] in His human living, especially in His emptying Himself, humbling Himself, and in His not grasping equality with God as a treasure….He did not insist on holding onto the form of God, but was willing to empty Himself by laying aside the form of God and putting on the form of a slave. We all should be partners with Christ in this self-emptying…. Instead of grasping what we have, we should lay these things aside and empty ourselves. (Life-study of Philippians, pp. 429-430)

　　We have not only a pattern for our constant salvation but also the standard for this salvation. The pattern includes Christ's experience from incarnation through crucifixion; the standard includes His experience from resurrection to exaltation. Daily we need to enjoy a salvation which has such a pattern and standard.

　　Suppose the wife of a certain brother gives him a difficult time. The way for him to be saved in this situation is not to insist on his headship or on her subordination. He should not regard himself as a king and her as a subject. Neither should he use Ephesians 5:22 to insist that she submit to him. To do this would be to grasp his headship, his “husbandship.” This would not be in keeping with the principle that the Lord did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. Although it is difficult for one who has the headship to lay it aside, this is just what the brother must do in order to experience the Lord's constant salvation. Of course, the brother can be saved by the inward operation of God. However, [Philippians] 2:5-8 comes before God's operation, which is in verse 13. Surely God will operate in the brother to save him. Nevertheless, he must be willing to empty himself and lay aside his headship according to the pattern in 2:5-8. However, in most cases, a married brother grasps his headship and refuses to lay it aside. This may give rise to murmurings, reasonings, and bitter exchange of words. The brother here should contact the Lord Jesus and say, “Lord, You did not grasp equality with God, and I do not grasp my headship. Neither do I insist on my position as a husband. By Your gracious mercy, I lay aside my headship.” Simply by doing this, he experiences the first step of God's constant salvation. Now he must go on to experience the rest by humbling himself, even unto death. Instead of feeling resentment toward his wife for having to lay aside his headship, he should humble himself before her. This is to experience the pattern of constant salvation from incarnation to the death of the cross. If the brother experiences this, God will come in to raise him and exalt him. Then the brother will also experience the standard of God's instant salvation. As a result, his wife may be humbled, troubled by the fact that she has been giving him a difficult time. Instead of reacting to her in a negative way, her husband emptied himself and humbled himself. Now she realizes that in his experience of Christ he is exalted and enthroned. He has experienced constant salvation with its pattern and standard.

　　To follow the Lord Jesus according to Philippians 2, we need to have God operating within us. In ourselves we are not able to follow the divine pattern or reach God's standard. Praise the Lord that God is working in us! The very God who became incarnate in the Lord Jesus is now in us. This God is the infinite God, the eternal God, the One who created the universe by His word. Through incarnation, this eternal God came to live in the Lord Jesus. He made Jesus a pattern and uplifted Him according to the divine standard. Now this same God is operating in us….Because God is operating in me, I am now a God-man. All genuine believers in Christ need to see that, as Christians, we are God-men. No longer need we live according to our fallen humanity, for God is now operating in us. (Life-study of Philippians, pp. 430-432)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Philippians, msg. 49