The Nature of God. Philippians 2:6. “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:” The Lord Jesus was not seeking to gain an advantage over others. There was eternal equality with the Father and the Holy Spirit in His very nature. Being found in the form of a man wasn’t something He assumed temporarily to pass from heaven to earth. The nature of God was always in Him, for He is eternal in His deity. There is unity in working toward eternal purposes with the Father and the Son. Any work they did was always done together. Some of God’s work continues; other work is finished. The work on the cross is complete, and redemption’s work will be finished when the Lord Jesus Christ reigns.
What the Father knows, the Son knows equally. The Father raises the dead, and the Son restores life as well, as was demonstrated when He was here. Both are able to judge, but the Son’s role is to judge in fairness churches, nations, and individuals before He is finished. The Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son. Both Father and Son are equal in the honor they deserve. Honor is inherent in them, and honor to them should be given by every “family” on earth and in heaven. Both can give new life to those who need it by regenerating them and enabling them to go to heaven as partakers of the divine nature.
The essence of God lies in the Lord; He exists within Himself. He had the power to relinquish His spirit and take it back again. There is no doubt that He is God and was God when He came to earth as a man. The only thing He temporarily set aside was the glory that surrounded Him when He came from heaven. Christ willingly laid aside His rights and privileges to do for us what we could not do ourselves. It is our choice to do that for the benefit of others. The conduct of a believer begins in the mind. If we have the mind of Christ, we will behave as He did. Christ died so we could have eternal life. We live to serve others in a way similar to how our Lord served us. He took mankind into deity without compromising anything. We can transform the divine qualities into human actions and minister to others when we have the mind of Christ. Christ glorified God through His obedience to the Father's will. We can glorify God by obeying Him.