总题：经历基督
Message Three
Experiencing Christ as Our Constant Salvation
Scripture Reading: Phil. 2:12-16
I. The salvation in Philippians 2:12 is not eternal salvation from God's condemnation and from the lake of fire but the daily and constant salvation that is Christ as a living person:
A. This practical, daily, moment-by-moment salvation results from taking the very Christ whom we live, experience, and enjoy as our inward as well as outward pattern:
1. The main elements of this salvation are Christ as the crucified life (vv. 5-8) and Christ in His exaltation (vv. 9-11).
2. When this pattern becomes our inward life, the pattern becomes our salvation.
3. To work out our salvation is to work out this pattern and to become in experience a reprint of this pattern—cf. 1 Pet. 2:21.
B. The constant salvation in Philippians 1:19 is one in which a particular believer is saved from a specific encounter in a particular situation, whereas the constant salvation in 2:12 is one in which any believer is saved from ordinary things in common situations in his daily living.
II. To work out our own salvation is to carry it out, to bring it to the ultimate conclusion—v. 12:
A. We have received God's salvation, which has as its climax our being exalted by God in glory as the Lord Jesus was—v. 9.
B. Now we need to carry out this salvation, to bring it to its ultimate conclusion, by our constant and absolute obedience with the inward motive of fear and the outward attitude of trembling—v. 12, cf. v. 8; 1 Sam. 15:22.
C. The inner operating God Himself is our salvation, and obedience to Him is the working out of our salvation—Phil. 2:12-13.
III. The reason we need to obey always is that God operates in us—v. 13:
A. It is not that we by ourselves carry out our salvation but that God operates in us to do it; the only thing we need to do is to obey the inner operating, energizing God—cf. Col. 1:29.
B. The God who operates in us as our subjective salvation is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—the very God who is Christ in us (2 Cor. 13:3a, 5) and the Spirit in us (Rom. 8:11).
IV. God operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure—Phil. 2:13:
A. The willing is within; the working is without.
B. The willing takes place in our will, indicating that God's operation begins from our spirit and spreads into our mind, emotion, will, and eventually into our physical body—Rom. 8:4, 6, 11.
C. The good pleasure of God's will (Eph. 1:5) is to operate in us so that we may reach the climax of His supreme salvation—cf. Rom. 5:10, 17.
V. Murmurings and reasonings frustrate us from carrying out our salvation to the fullest extent and from experiencing and enjoying Christ to the uttermost—Phil. 2:14:
A. Murmurings are of our emotion and come mainly from the sisters; reasonings are of our mind and come mainly from the brothers.
B. Murmurings and reasonings are due to disobedience to God; obedience to God slays all murmurings and reasonings.
C. We should do all things without murmurings and reasonings in order that we may become blameless and guileless, children of God without blemish—v. 15:
1. Blameless describes our outward behavior, and guileless our inward character; to be guileless is to be simple, artless (not political), or innocent—Matt. 10:16.
2. As children of God, we have God's life and nature—John 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:4.
VI. In the midst of the dark and corrupt world, which is usurped by Satan (1 John 5:19; 2:15-17), our function is to shine as luminaries, holding forth the word of life—Phil. 2:15-16:
A. Christ is the sun, with the church as the moon and the believers as the planets to reflect Him by holding forth the word of life.
B. To hold forth the word of life is to apply it, to present it, and to offer it to the world by living out Christ—Acts 5:20.
VII. Philippians 2:12-16 is a definition of living Christ in 1:19-21:
A. The God who operates in us (2:13) is the supplying Spirit (1:19).
B. To shine as luminaries (2:15) is to magnify Christ (1:20), and to hold forth the word of life (2:16) is to live Christ (1:21a).
C. The only way to live Christ is to be saturated with the word of life:
1. The word of life is the living breath of God (2 Tim. 3:16), the Spirit who gives life (John 6:63).
2. We need to pray-read the Word, receiving the word of God by means of all prayer and petition—Eph. 6:17-18.
3. We need to sing-read the Word, letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom by singing—Col. 3:16.
4. If we are filled with the riches of the living Word day by day, spontaneously we will hold forth the word of life; this is to live Christ that He may be magnified in us.
VIII. Philippians 2:5-16 reveals the divine and rich provision for our constant salvation:
A. We have the Lord Jesus as our pattern—vv. 6-11.
B. We have God operating in us—v. 13.
C. We are God's children, having God's life and the divine nature—v. 15.
D. We are luminaries qualified to reflect the divine light of Christ—v. 15.
E. We have the word of life to hold forth, to present, to others—v. 16.