The Redeemer of the world is in one sense infinitely above us; but in another sense He is actually beside us. His sympathy is as true as His sovereignty.
I. Try to understand what the sufferings of Jesus were. “He suffered in the flesh.” No one can read the Gospels without seeing indications of those sufferings.
1. There can be no doubt that Jesus was exempted from many of the physical ills from which we suffer. We can only think of Him as healthy, not only because of His birth, but because the exacting nature of His self-forgetful work required a perfect physique. Besides this, we must remember that many of our physical sufferings we bring on ourselves. Idleness, self-indulgence, artificial modes of life, irregularities, are the causes of many of the ills which flesh is heir to; but the life of Jesus was exquisite in its simplicity and unstained by a single vicious propensity. And this reminds us further that He could not have suffered, as we do, from a sense of personal sin, from the remorse which follows after our utterance of an unkind word, or the indulgence of an evil propensity, or from the tumult of passion which rises up within a sinful heart. Yet He was a sufferer. “He was a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” “Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.” But besides these His whole life was a martyrdom. His sensibility, not only to physical pain, but to mental and moral agony, must have been exquisite.
2. Think, too, of His utter loneliness. His was the solitude of a holy soul surrounded by sinners; of a heavenly spirit in contact with things earthly and sensual; of a mind whose higher thoughts not a single being on earth could appreciate; whose truest objects in living and dying as He did none could comprehend.
3. That expression, “in the flesh,” reminds us of His uncongenial surroundings. He lived and died among a despised people, and was regarded as an outcast even by some of them! Often must He have felt as the Jews did when, exiled from home and fatherland, they hanged their harps upon the willows, and wept as they remembered Zion, saying, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
II. How these sufferings were endured by Him.
1. It is evident that He accepted them as God’s appointment for Him here. “The cup which My Father hath given Me shall I not drink it?” indicates His attitude to trouble right through. If a day’s ministry brought Him no result, He did not repine; if His own nation rejected Him, He meekly accepted the result, though with unutterable sorrow over the issues of it to them; if the Cross was to be faced, He went forth willingly to Calvary, there to die-the just for the unjust-to bring us unto God.
2. Notice also that our Lord never allowed Himself to be absorbed in His own sorrows. He was always ready to enter into other people’s joys and griefs, whatever His own sorrows might be. He is not so absorbed in the joys of heaven that He will not listen to the faltering cry of the lowliest penitent. I have known some sufferers who have been armed with the same mind. Their unselfishness has been sublime. Their couch of pain has proved the centre of joy and peace to those who circle round them.
III. But how can we do this?(A. Rowland, LL. B.)
Christ’s sufferings
I. Christ suffered in human nature. His sufferings in the flesh were-
III. Christ suffered with a spirit which men should cultivate.
1. Profoundly religious.
2. Self denyingly philanthropic.
IV. The possession of this spirit is the power to deliver us from moral evil. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Sin pierced
Use sin, as Christ was used when He was made sin for us; lift it up, and make it naked by confession to God. And then pierce-
1. The hands of it, in respect of operation, that it may work no more.
2. The feet of it, in respect of progression, that it go no further.
3. The heart, in respect of affection, that it may be loved no longer. (J. Trapp.)
Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.-
Conformity with Christ
I. The high engagement to this conformity. “He suffered for us in the flesh.” We are the more obliged to make His suffering our example, because it was to us more than an example; it was our ransom. This makes the conformity reasonable in a double respect. It is due that we follow Him, who led us as the Captain of our salvation; that we follow Him in suffering and in doing, seeing both were for us. What can be too bitter to endure, or too sweet to forsake, to follow Him? Were this duly considered, should we cleave to our lusts or to our ease? Should we not be willing to go through fire and water, yea, through death itself, yea, were it possible, through many deaths, to follow Him? Consider, as this conformity is due, so it is made easy by His suffering for us. Our chains which bound us over to eternal death being knocked off, shall we not walk, shall we not run, in His ways?
II. The nature of this conformity, to show the nearness of it, is expressed in the very same terms as in the pattern; it is not remote resemblance, but the same thing, even “suffering in the flesh.” But that we may understand rightly what suffering is here meant, it is plainly this, “ceasing from sin.” So that this “suffering in the flesh” is not simply the enduring of afflictions, which is a part of the Christian’s conformity to His Head, but it implies a more inward and spiritual suffering. It is the suffering and dying of our corruption, the taking away of the life of sin by the death of Christ: the death of His sinless flesh works in the believer the death of sinful flesh, that is, the corruption of His nature, which is so usually in Scripture called “flesh.” “Ceased from sin.” He is at rest from it, a godly death, as they who die in the Lord rest from their labours. Faith so looks on the death of Christ, that it takes the impression of it, sets it on the heart, kills it unto sin. Christ and the believer do not only become one in law, so that His death stands for theirs, but one in nature, so that His death for sin causes theirs to it (Rom_6:3).
III. The actual improvement of this conformity. “Arm yourselves with the same mind,” or thoughts of this mortification. Consider and apply the suffering of Christ in the flesh, to the end that you with Him suffering in the flesh, may cease from sin. Think that it ought to be thus, and seek that it may be thus with you. “Arm yourselves.” There is still fighting, and sin will be molesting you; though wounded to death, yet will it struggle for life, and seek to wound its enemy; it will assault the graces that are in you. You may take the Lord’s promise for victory in the end; that shall not fail; but do not promise yourself ease in the way, for that will not hold. If at sometimes you be undermost, give not all up for lost; he hath often won the day who hath been foiled and wounded in the fight. But likewise take not all for won, so as to have no more conflict, when sometimes you have the better in particular battles. Now the way to be armed is this, “the same mind.” How would my Lord Christ carry Himself in this case? And what was His business in all places and companies? Was it not to do the will and advance the glory of His Father? Thus ought it to be with the Christian, framing all his ways, and words, and very thoughts, upon that model, the mind of Christ, and studying in all things to walk even as He walked; studying it much, as the reason and rule of mortification, and drawing from it, as the real cause and spring of mortification. (Abp. Leighton.)
Cardinal truths
I. The cardinal truth of Christianity Christ hath suffered for us.”
II. The Christian’s cardinal duty-“Christ having suffered for us, arm yourselves with the same mind.”
1. Arm yourselves with the same mind as to the method of conduct.
2. Arm yourselves with the same mind as to the purpose in view.
III. The Christian’s daily course of life-that we should no longer live, etc.(J. J. S. Bird.)
Christ the grand necessity of man
I. Christ’s “mind” is the weapon with which man is to fight his way on to moral perfection. His moral perfection is here taught. But to reach this what a battle man has to fight! By the “mind of Christ” we are to understand, of course, not His mere intellect, great as it was, nor His conscience, sublimely pure though it was; but the moral spirit that inspired and directed all His intellectual and moral powers. By His “mind” we mean, in one word, His moral character. Now this is the weapon by which alone man can win victories over evil, and obtain the crown of life, namely, conformity to the “will of God.” Doctrines will not do it, however Scriptural; religious rites will not do it, however studiously observed. Who is the man in our world the most successful in putting down wrong? Not the legislator, however just the laws he enacts; not the moralist, however cogent his arguments and powerful his rhetoric; but the man who has the “mind of Christ” as his armour.
II. Christ’s “sufferings” are the argument for the employment of this weapon. First, the sufferings of Christ were “in the flesh.” He was in the flesh, but not flesh. Secondly, Christ suffered “in the flesh” in order to establish human holiness. “That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will of God.” (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The rest of his time in the flesh.-
“The rest of his time in the flesh”
Who can tell how long that may be for any one of us? The sands run swiftly through life’s hour glass. The shadow hastens to go down upon the dial. The waves eat away so quickly the dwindling shoal of land which crumbles beneath us. The Christian finds nothing in such thoughts to make him sad. Every milestone marks the growing nearness of his home. The waves cannot be crossed too swiftly by the eager traveller. Before us lie the ages of eternity, filled with a blessedness of personal enjoyment and rapturous ministry which defy tongue to tell or mind to picture. But the blessed future must not divert our thoughts from the duties to be discharged during the rest of the time which we are to spend in the flesh. We must not be dreamers, but warriors. To arms! Arm yourselves with the same mind; and when we ask, “What mind?” we are told to arm ourselves with the mind that took Jesus to His death. In a venerable old church at Innsbruck, famous for containing the tomb of the great Emperor Maximilian, there is a magnificent bronze statue of Godfrey of Boulogne, the illustrious crusader. His head is covered with a helmet, and on the helmet rests a crown of thorns. Of course, there was a meaning in the mind of the artist other than that with which we now invest the strange conjunction. He doubtless designed to represent the sacred cause for which that helmet was donned. But we may discover an apt symbol of the teaching of our apostle, who unites in these verses the armour of the Christian soldier, and the recollection of Christ’s suffering in the flesh. This witness of the sufferings of Christ first takes us to the Cross; and after gazing reverently on that spectacle of love, we are brought to a point where two ways diverge. And the only way of discovering and maintaining the right path is to imbibe the spirit of that wondrous death; nay, to bind it around us as a talisman of victory. “In hoc signo vinces.” (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The right use of the residue of our time
I. Negatively. “Not to the lusts of men!” This does not mean that we are to neglect our bodily interests. What are the lusts? Animal instincts grown to a dominant force.
II. Positively. “To the will of God.” This implies-
1. That God has a will.
2. That God has a will concerning men.
3. That God’s will is revealed.
What is the will of God concerning men? First, it is His will that we should believe in Christ (Joh_6:29; 1Jn_3:23). Secondly, it is His will that we shall be purified from sin. “This is the will of God, even your sanctification” (1Th_4:3). Thirdly, it is His will that we should cultivate a practical gratitude for all the blessings of life (1Th_5:18). Fourthly, it is His will that every man shall be saved (1Ti_2:4). (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The time in the flesh
I. Our time in the flesh is chequered.
II. Our time in the flesh is short.
III. Our time here is uncertain.
IV. Our time here is important. (Homilist.)
To the lusts of men.
Men’s lusts opposed to God’s will
1. To live after the lusts of men and to the will of God are opposite each to other as light and darkness.
2. We cannot at one and the same time both walk after our lusts and live to God’s will. One lust loved, sufficient to condemn.
3. In the course of sanctification, we must begin at renouncing our own will, and the lusts of men. None sow a plant till weeds be pulled up; none put on new apparel till they have put off their rags.
4. It is not sufficient that we renounce our lusts and evil, except we yield obedience to the will of God.
5. It is not one action or two whereby a man is discovered what he is, but his constant course of walking or living. (John Rogers.)
The flesh rightly used
The flesh itself, under the calm subduing influence of your purer spirit, will become a dignified servant in waiting on its superior. Good gardeners know a better way of conquering the wild thorn than by uprooting and destroying it. They set it in their garden. They graft it on some queenly rose. Then the wild thorn expends its energy not upon itself, but upon that which is above itself; and as a reward is crowned with a glory which itself could not possibly produce. (G. Calthrop.)
To the will of God.-
Will of God
1. It is a good will.
2. A holy will.
3. A just will.
4. An impartial will.
5. A practicable will.
6. A supreme will.
7. An obligatory will. (John Bate.)
Living to God’s will
I. This is the lesson of man’s past evil life.
1. Sadness.
(1) Enough of sin, because of its-
(2) Degradation to self.
(3) Injuriousness to others.
(4) Rebellion against God.
2. Hope.
(1) Forgiveness for time past.
(2) Deliverance from time past.
II. Notwithstanding bad men’s wonder at good men’s conduct, what Peter said two thousand years ago is true today. The thoroughly corrupt man finds it impossible to understand the Christly man.
1. He thinks his conduct strange, and so, perhaps, ignores him altogether.
2. Or he thinks his conduct strange, and is aggravated by it.
3. Or he thinks his conduct strange, and it leads him to inquire. This is the good effect.
III. Both Christ’s judgment and Christ’s Gospel are for all. (U. R. Thomas.)
God’s win
The perfection of a man’s nature is when his will fits on to God’s like one of Euclid’s triangles superimposed upon another, and line for line coincides. When his will allows a free passage to the will of God, without resistance, as light travels through transparent glass; when his will responds to the touch of God’s finger upon the keys, like the telegraphic needle to the operator’s hand; then man has attained all that God and religion can do for him, all that his nature is capable of.
The will of God
What a glorious contrast to the will of the flesh is “the will of God”! This was the food of Jesus. To do this He came to earth. It was the fire cloud that lit His pathway, the yoke in carrying which He found rest, the Urim and Thummim, which dimmed or shone with heavenly guidance. There is no course more safe or blessed than to live in the will of God. God’s will is good will. Where the will of God lies across the wilderness pathway, there flowers bloom, and waters gush from rocks of flint. Sometimes the flesh rebels against it, because it means crucifixion and self-denial, but under the rugged shell the sweetest kernel nestles, and none know the ecstasy of living save those who refuse the broad, easy road of the lusts of men, to climb the steep, upward path of doing the will of God from the heart. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
