LECTURES ON COLOSSIANS
LECTURES ON COLOSSIANS
[p. 113] Chapter 1 My thought, beloved friends, is, as the Lord may enable me, to seek to bring out what one might call the leading features in this particular portion of Scripture, the epistle to the Colossians. In many ways attention has been called to it of late. And it has a peculiar importance, because the special line of truth developed in it is in view of the proper testimony and service of Christians as one body on earth. I will show this more distinctly presently, but it is the peculiar character of the epistle. In order to help, I will contrast Colossians with other epistles. As I have said, the epistle has a peculiar interest if you want to know the service and testimony of saints as one body; not in their individuality. There is a great deal of our pathway which is connected with our individuality; I have to tread my path individually through the wilderness; and wherever saints are looked at as in the wilderness, it is always in their individuality. I do not see anything collective or corporate in connection with the wilderness; if you want to come to what is collective or corporate you must get beyond Jordan.
The epistle to the Colossians, as has often been said, does not contemplate Christians as having gone up into the land, but as over Jordan; they are at Gilgal, that is, in the place where circumcision is realised; that is, they understand what it is to be dead and risen with Christ in the place of spiritual circumcision, and spiritual circumcision is realised. In connection with this, especially in the third chapter, you get the saints as one body (for that is the point of view), and the character of Christ coming out in them. It has often been said, and I fully go with it, that no [p. 114] one saint is adequate to express the character of Christ in its completeness; some feature or trait of Christ may be prominent in one particular saint, but if you want to get the character of Christ expressed in its fulness, you must have the whole body of saints in their relation one to another. And that is what we see in the third chapter.
Now before I pass on to what comes out in the epistle, I want to remark this: every epistle bears certain peculiar marks; and one mark which is stamped upon the epistle to the Colossians is, that it refers in a distinct way to Gentiles, it contemplates Gentiles. Other parts of the word of God, like the Hebrews, contemplate specially Jews, Jewish Christians; while the epistle to the Ephesians takes up in a peculiar way both Jew and Gentile; but the Colossians contemplates rather distinctly Gentiles. The proof of this is in the close of this first chapter, where the apostle says, “to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you” — Christ in the Gentiles — “Christ in you the hope of glory”. And it is perhaps on that account, as being addressed to Gentiles, that in the first chapter stress is laid upon reconciliation. If you go to other parts of the word of God, where the Spirit of God is addressing Jews, you will find other distinctive marks.
Now, in speaking of this epistle in contrast to other epistles in the New Testament, I will first notice what you do not get, before I tell you what you do get. For instance, you do not get, as in Ephesians, the proper heavenly relationship of saints. You do not find, as far as I am aware or have looked into it, in the epistle to the Colossians, the truth of sonship, and that is the proper full heavenly relationship of saints. And it is the leading point in the epistle to the Ephesians, “Chosen us in him”, we read there, “before the foundation of the world, that we should [p. 115] be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto” sonship “through Jesus Christ to himself”. What the epistle to the Ephesians opens with is the heavenly relationship to which we are called, that is, sons through Jesus Christ to God. But the epistle to the Colossians does not go on to that. Again, you will not find in it what you find in the first epistle of John. There the great point is the peculiar present relationship, as children, in which we stand. I do not mean to say but what sonship is a present relationship; but sonship in its scope and bearing refers to glory. We are predestinated to be conformed unto the image of God’s Son, that is Christ in glory, “that he might be the firstborn among many brethren”. That shows you the true idea of sonship. But what is peculiar to the first epistle of John is the relationship down here of children. I have no doubt there is the thought in both terms of association with Christ; but the thought of sonship is association with a glorified Christ; that of children is rather association with an unknown, rejected Christ. The latter is the peculiar truth which is developed in the first epistle of John; the calling of children, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God”, and in connection with this, the truth of eternal life. I do not think you will find either relationship brought out in the epistle to the Colossians. No doubt Colossians may touch John or touch Ephesians; but it has its own distinctive line, and that distinctive line is this — the reproduction of the character of a heavenly Christ in the saints as one body, and it is this which leads me to say that the great point of the epistle is the testimony and service of the saints looked at as one body. You get it brought out in chapter 3 in the exhortations, while chapters 1 and 2 contain the doctrine which leads up to it.
Now I want to bring out a little, as the Lord may [p. 116] enable me, the doctrine. I propose taking only the first chapter tonight, and I divide it into two parts. The first is the glory of Christ, which is the great introduction, the headship of Christ, if we may so say; and the second is the scheme of reconciliation which is in a way identified with His very being, and specially the reconciliation of persons which is going on at this present time.
In the second chapter the great leading thought is the suitability or correspondence of the saints to the Head. Then you come, in the third chapter, to the exhortations which show us the true character of the saints as one body down here.
Now, of course, all this demands death to the world. As long as people are hampered and hindered by worldly associations and so on, and take up the position practically of dwellers upon earth, the testimony is in measure marred. If you want to come out in this way, as part of the one body in which the character of Christ is displayed, you have to be set free from that which connects you with the course of things down here. Hence it is that circumcision comes in: we have put off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ to be vessels for the display of the character and life of Christ. But if that is to be the case you must have a practical breaking of the links which connect you with the course of things here.
Just one word more by way of introduction. You will find it peculiarly interesting to connect the epistle with John 17: 20, of which it is the practical accomplishment, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”. There it is, if I understand the verse aright, that the unity of saints here was to be the testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son. In Colossians the [p. 117] point is the testimony of saints as one body. But then what it amounts to is this, that they become a testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son; that is, that if all the saints were walking together perfectly according to the mind and Spirit of God, the result would be a present testimony to Christ; and that is the object of this verse of the Lord’s prayer in John 17, “That the world may believe that thou hast sent me”. All turns to that; the more you look into it in the word of God, the more you see that the carrying out of Christian obligations all results in testimony to the Son, that the Father sent the Son.
I do not purpose dwelling on the first part of the first chapter, as my points are, first, the glory of Christ, and secondly, in connection with it the great work of reconciliation. I do not think we attach quite enough importance to reconciliation. We have to remember that it is the purpose of God to put everything on that ground; and I think I might go so far as to say that it was the eternal purpose of God. I do not doubt for one single instant that God perfectly well knew everything which would come in in connection with creature responsibility; and I think it was in eternal purpose that everything should be based upon reconciliation; that is, upon peace having been made by the effective work of Christ. To go back to Leviticus for a moment, I quite admit that the day of atonement, which might perhaps be rendered the day of reconciliation, does not come out until the failure of the priesthood. It is after Nadab and Abihu had offered strange fire and died that God brings out the idea of reconciliation. But then, although it comes out in that way in the course of the testimony of God, I doubt not that it was in the eternal purpose of God. Psalm 40 is a proof of it to me, because there it was in eternal purpose that Christ should become man, should take the body prepared for Him, and by the offering up of Himself lay the foundation of the will of God being accomplished [p. 118] on that basis. Still it comes in in Leviticus strikingly, that after the failure of the priesthood, God reveals the great truth of reconciliation. Hence the day of atonement is the pre-figurement, the bringing out in type and shadow of the scheme of reconciliation; and that is what we have here in the first chapter.
And this has begun, although the time has not yet come for the reconciliation of things. Yet peace has been made and therefore God does not delay; and what is going on at this present moment, though not the reconciliation of things, is the reconciliation of persons. That is the great point of the present moment, so that the apostle can day, “You now hath he reconciled”. The same thing is found in other parts of the word of God; in 2 Corinthians 5 the apostle speaks of the ministry which God had committed to him as the ministry of reconciliation, the basis of it being that “He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him”, and what the apostle was carrying out was this ministry, preaching the word of reconciliation. In Romans the same occurs, “By whom we have now received the reconciliation”.
But I will refer for a moment to verses 12 and 13, in which is beautifully interwoven the thought of the Father and the Son. It says in verse 12, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light”, for counsels belong to the Father; the accomplishment of counsels is the part of the Son, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love”. Thus we have a blessed unfolding of the Father and the Son; and further, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins”. Now we come to the unfolding of the glory of the Son, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born [p. 119] of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, [p. 121] whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is [p. 122] the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father”, or, as the verse might be read, “For in him all the fulness was pleased to dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven”. Now I would impress upon you one very important point in connection with the Lord, namely, that when He is presented to us in the epistles He is in general presented according to what He now is. There is plenty of unfolding in the word of God of what He was; but the point in the epistles is what is true in Christ now, what is true in Him as the risen glorified Man. If you want to understand the epistles, this is an important point to bear in mind. There is plenty in the epistles to tell you what He was; for instance, if I go to the second chapter of the epistle to the Philippians, I find what He was; that He existed in the form of God, and that He emptied Himself and took a servant’s form, and became in the likeness of men; but in general where the epistles speak of the Lord Jesus Christ, they present Him to us according to what He is now, and they tell us what is true in Him now. For instance, in the next chapter: “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”; it could not, of course, be said that the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily until He became a man. Now that He has become Man, and is as man in glory, what we are told is that in Him dwells all the completeness of the Godhead bodily. John speaks also of what He is now; Jesus Christ “the true God and eternal life”; that is what He is now as Man risen and glorified.
I only make that remark by way of preface before I pass on to speak of verse 15. What we find here is this, He is “the image of the invisible God”. Beloved friends, He was eternally God; “the Word was God”. Scripture takes uncommon care to guard the Person of the Lord Jesus; more care in regard to Him than in regard to any of the divine Persons, because He has become Man; and therefore Scripture is most tenacious of and careful to maintain His glory, the glory of His Person; “the Word was God”. He existed as God, but when He existed in the form of God, you would hardly say He was “the image of the invisible God”; but now as Man He is, “the image of the invisible God”; for the invisible God is the invisible God, that is, He cannot be seen. But there is nothing of the invisible God that is not represented in that risen glorified Man, in whom dwells “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”. ‘Image’ is one of the strongest terms used in Scripture; Scripture uses both ‘likeness’ and ‘image’; and ‘image’ is by far the stronger term of the two. There is no feature of the invisible God which is lacking or unrepresented in Him. But then it is all there in a man; He has taken the form of a servant, and become in the likeness of men, and is highly exalted as man, and remains man for ever; and in that Man dwells “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”; He “is the image of the invisible God”.
And then, more than that, He is “the firstborn of every creature”. That is His relation as to creation. He is the ‘firstborn’, the One pre-eminent; just as God could say of David’s son, “I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth”. Firstborn of every creature is what He is in regard to creation: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers; all things were created by him, and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist”. They all stand together by Him; apart from Him and without Him the whole fabric of the universe would fail; all subsists by Him. But the point of the passage is His pre-eminence in regard to things, that is, that no throne, or dominion, or principality or power, however exalted, can raise its head in the presence of Christ. They were created by Him, whatever they were. I could enumerate some of them, things that come out in the Old Testament, such as the king in Israel, the head of the Gentiles, the universal dominion of Adam; whatever it might be, “all things were created by him”. Now mark another word, “by him and for him”, that is, that He has a proper personal pre-eminence, a proper personal supremacy, in regard of every created thing. When the apostle speaks here of created things, he tells you what he means; he means thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers. “Thrones” and “dominions” refer perhaps more to what has been constituted and set up on earth; “principalities” and “powers” to what has been constituted in heaven. “All things were created by him and for him”. That is His headship in regard to things.
But His headship would not be complete, if one might say so, if this were all; and we get another headship, and that is not in relation to things but in relation to persons. Now I want to call your attention to this. It says, “He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence”. Here it is another character of headship altogether, and specially connected with the fact of His being man. He is the Head of the body; that is not a relation in which He stands to things, but to persons. The body is composed of persons. “He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead”. He is morally the beginning of everything; that is what He is in His own blessed Person in this connection. I believe that in the working out of God’s ways in new creation, everything starts from the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ as man. He is “the beginning”, in the virtue and excellence of His own Person. And not only the beginning, but He is “the firstborn from the dead”; He is pre-eminent among those who rise from the dead; “that in all things”, as it says here, “he might have the pre-eminence”; that is, that He might be pre-eminent in regard of things, and pre-eminent in regard of persons. There is a double headship, as it were, brought out here, in order to pave the way for reconciliation; because it was according to the purpose and counsel of God that He should stand pre-eminent in regard to things and to persons. And so when the church thinks about Christ, He is “the beginning”; the church derives its life from Christ; and what is more, He is “the firstborn from the dead”. And that is the truth which is unfolded to us in connection with this blessed risen glorified Man. Nothing, I believe, is more important for us as the starting point — and it is the starting point of the epistle — than to get the Lord distinctly before us in the glory of His Person. If anyone wants to help me, and I would wish to be helped, I would like him to inform me about that glorified Man. I want to know what He is, and what is the title He has as man to be there; because His glory there is the answer to what He effected here. The One that went “into the lower parts of the earth” has “ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things”. But His ascending up “far above all heavens” is the answer to the going down to “the lower parts of the earth”; the exaltation is equal to the humiliation. The greatest reproach is to be put in “the lower parts of the earth”; and the exaltation [p. 123] corresponds to it. And not only that, but I would like to know what He is in the moral qualities of His being; what that Man is that is in heaven. You may depend upon it, it is a study of eternity to know the truth of that heavenly Man; “the living bread out of heaven”, as the Lord speaks of Himself in John 6, “I am the living bread which came down out of heaven”. I would like to know the grace of His Person, and to maintain in my soul, at the same time, His own proper dignity and glory as the eternal Son, equal with the Father.
But now I turn to the other point which comes out here, namely, the reconciliation — what Christ is in reference to reconciliation. It says, “In him all the fulness was pleased to dwell, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven”. Now, beloved friends, here we get a statement which witnesses to us the essential deity of Christ: “In him all the fulness was pleased to dwell”.† This verse tells us what was, that is, that nothing was lacking there that is of the completeness of God, neither morally, nor in attribute, nor in anything else. “In him all the fulness was pleased to dwell”. The point is this — that the Son having become Man, the Spirit of God carefully maintains the glory of His Person.
†In the reprint of these lectures the following words which appeared in the first issue have been omitted, namely: “I do not know when-that is not the point; and it does not say here ‘bodily.’” Also a subsequent sentence: “It is not what is peculiar to the Son, it is only maintaining His essential deity, because all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in the Father; and so, too, in the Holy Spirit.” The reason for the omission is that it has been represented to me that the Greek form of the words “to dwell” would connect the clause “In him all the fulness was pleased to dwell” with the Son as become Man. I had regarded it rather in the light of what was eternally true in Him as a divine Person.
[p. 124] But now I find another point which is exceedingly important; and that is how the great truth of reconciliation is connected, as it appears to me, with His eternal being. Look how the thought is carried on in verse 20. I do not know how otherwise to speak of the passage except as stating to us what the eternal good pleasure was. It does not say whose good pleasure. “All the fulness was pleased to dwell in him, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself”. That is the great thought there, as it appears to me, connected with the Person and the glory of the Son, that in Him and by Him everything was to be reconciled to the fulness of God; everything was to be put on such a footing as that it might be for the good pleasure of God, the glory of God, that God might have His pleasure in it. It was all purposed in the Son, as far as I can see, and connected with His Person. It was He that was to make peace by the blood of His cross, and not only to lay the foundation in that way, but all things were to be reconciled by Him, “whether they be things in earth or things in heaven”. It is not only a basis of reconciliation, but it is the carrying out of the reconciliation in effect, which He will do. Like the high priest, after he had sprinkled the blood on the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat, had to come out to reconcile things in detail, that is, to put everything on the basis of redemption; and that is what Christ will do. I believe He will take up everything in His own Person: He will take up the thrones, and the dominions, and the principalities, and the powers; everything is to be headed up in Him, gathered up in one in Him for God’s eternal glory. It is in that way, as I understand it, that everything is put really on the basis of redemption, and everything held for the glory of God.
I can understand, too, the suitability of it. He held everything for God down here in humiliation. Nothing [p. 125] could be more wonderful than the pathway of the Lord Jesus through this world; standing alone, without any kind of support from man — for He never got any, He had to support man, but He got no support from man — standing alone in His solitary path here, tried by every possible kind of pressure and temptation, and yet maintaining all here for the glory of God, so that nothing was let slip, nothing was lost. There was one Man stood here completely in all His pathway for the glory of God, so that at the close He could say, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”. He stood solitary; but He stood solitary in devotedness and faithfulness to God. Everything was secured; the glory of God was secured in His pathway as man down here; and God was completely glorified, even in regard to the question of sin, in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore I can understand the suitability, not only of everything being reconciled on the basis of the blood of His cross, but that He should hold all things to the glory of God.
I will come now to the present application of reconciliation. “And you, that were some time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death; to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight; if ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister”. Now, beloved friends, reconciliation is a very important truth to us; because if everything is to be put on the footing of reconciliation, we must be reconciled. You could not now be in any relationship at all with God except on the basis of reconciliation. God has revealed His purpose to put everything on that footing. Peace having been made by the blood of His cross, if you are to be in relationship to God, it must be on the basis [p. 126] of reconciliation. But the time has not yet come for the reconciliation of things, and therefore we get the thought introduced here of the reconciliation of persons. If God had taken in hand at once, as it were, to reconcile things, you could not have had the church; but God has made room for the forming of the church, while the time has not yet come for the reconciliation of things. If you are not reconciled you do not stand in any present relationship to God at all; and, more than that, you are not justified. Reconciliation comes out, I think, prominently in connection with the Gentiles on account of their previous position: forgiveness of sins is more prominent in connection with the Jews, because they were under the law, and their sins were proved. Gentiles, as to their moral state and dispensationally, were far away from God, like the prodigal in the far country; not but that they needed forgiveness of sins as much as Jews; but in dealing with certain classes of people certain truths obtain prominence.
Now as to reconciliation, he says, “You now hath he reconciled”. We have not got to wait for the reconciliation of things; if we had, we should not, as I have said, be in any present relationship with God. But, beloved friends, we are reconciled now; and I want to bring out, if I can, the character of reconciliation. “You now hath he reconciled”, now mark this, “in the body of his flesh through death”, that is what I want to bring out — that Christ has so wrought as to put us on a completely new footing before God, death having come in upon the old footing. It is “in the body of his flesh through death”. Manifestly I could not be reconciled by my death; but I am reconciled “in the body of his flesh through death”. As God created man, man could never have gone into the holiest. “The first man is of the earth, earthy”. The earthy man could never get into the holiest even as God made him; and to make a heavenly man out of [p. 127] an earthy man, would hardly be consistent with His glory. When God created man, He made him earthy; He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul; and God saw all that He had made, and pronounced it very good. To alter that work would scarcely be suitable or consistent with the glory of God; and therefore the earthy man could never come into heavenly privilege. The fact is that God in His counsels of grace foreknew what has come in upon man. Sin has come in, and in the death of Christ God has brought in death upon the first man’s state; and now we get the position of man completely altered before God. What is it here? “You hath he reconciled, in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight”. It is virtually boldness to enter into the holiest. We have here suitability, personal suitability, for the fulness of God. I can dare to stand before God, dare to enter into the holiest, because I know that I am, by the grace of God, personally suitable. Christ has reconciled me by death coming in upon my first condition; and the purpose of God, in bringing in death upon it, was to present me “holy and unblameable and unreproveable” in the presence of the fulness of God. There you get heavenly footing, and not only heavenly footing, but the thought of heavenly condition; just as you get in Ephesians 1, only in a different connection there — eternal purpose — “He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love”. Reconciliation is thus a wonderful thing in its application to us! I look forward to the time when the glory of Christ will be displayed. Thank God, I know what the glory of His Person is; I know the relation in which He stands to all things, and the relation in which He stands to persons; I know God will fully vindicate Him, and that everything will be bowed under Him: I know, too, the part which He has in the [p. 128] carrying out of the great purpose of reconciliation; and I know, too, the part which He has given to us. I bless the Lord Jesus Christ from the bottom of my heart that He was content to bring in by Himself death upon my first condition; not that I might be reinstated here — He will reinstate His earthly people here — but that I might be put on the footing of heavenly privilege, and might have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus”. There it says not only “by the blood of Jesus”, but “by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh”. I get the same truth here: “You hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight”.
Now that is your position, beloved friends, and mine. What better service could the Lord do for you than to instruct your hearts in the knowledge of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, that your faith and mine might be in that blessed Man who sits at the right hand of God; that you might know all that is true in Him there; and then that you might see what He has effected for you, to present you in the presence of the fulness of God and to present you perfectly suitable, so that you can be before God in peace, having boldness to enter into the holiest? Everything that is contrary has been removed from before God by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and now His thought is to present us “holy, unblameable and unreproveable”. Of course, He puts it here, “If ye continue in the faith”, because we have to continue in the faith as long as we are down here, and “not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven”.
As I have said, we get in this first chapter the glory of Christ, and the great work of reconciliation which it is His to carry out; and our own part in connection with it, as reconciled by His death.
[p. 129] Chapters 1: 24 - 29; 2: 1 - 19 I read as far as I did, beloved friends, because that closes what one might call the doctrinal part of the epistle. The following verse carries us to the hortatory part. What I want to bring out tonight is what I referred to last time as being the substance of chapter 2, and that is the correspondence morally between the saints and Christ, looking at Christ as the Head. He is presented in that way in this epistle, because the apostle feared for the Colossians that they should fail to hold the Head. He does not charge them with “not holding the Head”, but he warns them against the teaching of those that did not hold the Head. There was a class of persons that he speaks of here who were doing their own will in “humility and worshipping of angels”. They were the people who were “not holding the Head”; and his fears were for the Colossians lest these teachers should gain influence over them; and the practical effect would be that they would fail to hold “the Head”. Evidently the truth of “the Head” has a great place in the epistle. There are two passages in that part of the chapter which I read which show it. One is, “the body is of Christ”. There is a great deal in that; it gives the character to the body. You would call it a truism to say that the body is of the Head; of course it is. But when you say the body is of Christ, that means a great deal. You cannot understand the character of the body if you do not receive that. Then the other truth that comes out is that the Head is for the body. You will say there is nothing very strange in that. No; but they are two very important things to understand if you want to know anything at all about the “calling”; the body is of Christ, and the Head is for the body.
[p. 130] I have rather anticipated, because I purpose coming to that more at the close; and I must go back a little to the end of the first chapter.
The apostle introduces in the first verse which I read the subject of his ministry, the second ministry. There are two ministries. At the close of verse 23 we have the first ministry; he speaks of the gospel “which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made minister”, not ‘made a minister’ — that is a misapprehension — nobody else was made minister of the gospel in the sense in which Paul was. Then he goes on to say, “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body’s sake, which is the church; whereof I am made minister” — again, not ‘a minister’, but “minister” — “according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints; to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily”.
Now last time, beloved friends, I was speaking of the double Headship of Christ as unfolded in the first chapter; and also of reconciliation. Tonight, by the very necessity of what comes before us, I must speak about “the mystery”; and I want to show you an important difference of idea in the two. Reconciliation has to do with the person, the mystery brings in the truth of the order. I do not know whether everybody will understand this; but what I mean is that the mystery involves a new order; that is, that those who have part in the mystery are of a new order. I do not [p. 131] see that this is so much involved in reconciliation, because reconciliation refers to my person; that is, that I personally am reconciled; and the climax of it is, that we become in Christ an expression of divine righteousness, because it is all based on this, that “He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him”. As Christ was made sin, and forsaken of God, in the presence of the universe, so the saints in Christ are the display of that divine righteousness in which the answer to what Christ has suffered for them is given. Paul was reconciled, or I am reconciled; as the apostle speaks about himself in connection with the gospel, “who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation”. That is what I mean by saying that reconciliation — like justification — has to do with the person. But when I come to the mystery it brings in another truth, and that is the order. Another passage will explain it. The apostle says, “the first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is out of heaven”. There is the order of the two men; because each is viewed as the pattern of the rest, the first man out of earth, earthy, the second man out of heaven. They are the heads and the patterns too. Then it goes on to say, “As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy” — that is the order; “and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy” — that is the order — “we shall also bear the image of the heavenly”. There are two orders, the earthy and the heavenly: the first man, out of earth, earthy, could not go beyond earth, because God had created him out of earth, and he was for earth. That is the first order. The second man, in contrast to that, is “out of heaven” — the word should not be ‘from’, but “out of”.
Now that brings me to the truth of the calling of God; and the calling of God, if I understand it, takes [p. 132] two directions. One part of the calling of God is, that He calls man to glory; and the other part is, that He blesses man from glory. There is nothing at all new about that; but the distinction is important. The first calling is that He calls man to glory. If you want a confirmation of that, you will find it in Romans 8, where it says that He has predestinated us “to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren”. And I get the same thing in Hebrews 2, “It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory”; that is, that God calls to glory, and I can understand it; for, supposing it were otherwise, supposing there were no call to glory, there would not be fruit of redemption in heaven. There must be fruit there, as there will be fruit on earth; and therefore the call of God takes that direction, He calls to glory, and He calls to glory according to eternal purpose. That is unfolded in Ephesians 1. But then there is another call of God, an earthly calling in which He blesses from glory. That is when Melchisedec comes forth, when the priest and king comes forth from glory. Just as Moses and Aaron, when they came out of the tabernacle at the consecration, blessed the people, so when the true Moses and Aaron comes forth — in the Person of Christ, because Christ sustains both characters — then will be made good the blessing and calling upon earth, the earthly calling. We are the subjects of the heavenly calling; that is, God is calling to glory. Christ, the second Man, is there; the pattern is there; and all are predestinated to be conformed to His image, “that he might be the firstborn among many brethren”.
I can understand it being said, ‘But the Old Testament saints will be in glory’. So they will, for we read in Hebrews 12: We are come “to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect”. And another passage which refers to them is [p. 133] still more explicit; that is, they are “the sons of God, being the sons of the resurrection”. So, too, I find that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are to sit down in the kingdom of heaven. They have their part in the heavenly glory. And in the beginning of the unfoldings in the Revelation we find no distinction between saints in heaven, for the whole company of the heavenly saints is brought before us under the figure of the twenty-four elders; there is no distinction of the church seen there, though it is seen in the latter part of the Revelation, where we get the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
All this is true, but there still remains the distinction of the church. Why is the church so distinguished? I think there are two things that God purposed about the church, though I feel I know very little indeed about the church, and hesitate to speak about it. I am quite familiar with the usual dogmatic statements but as to the truth involved in the church, the meaning of it in the word of God, that is another matter. But I do see two things about the church: one is, the purpose of God that there should be a company in heaven who should share the exaltation and acceptance and grace of Christ, the Head; and the other, that there should be a vessel in which the character and moral beauty of the Head were to be displayed down here. I see the one in Ephesians and the other in Colossians. In Ephesians I see the saints “raised up together and made to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ”. What for? “That in the ages to come, God might show forth the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus”. The idea there is of a company in heaven in the exaltation and grace and acceptance of the Head. Beloved friends, how little we are up to it! The great thought in Ephesians is the church in the Head, the saints in the Head, the saints in Christ; we are “blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ”; He has made us “accepted in the Beloved”. And therefore I can well understand that in Ephesians the church is viewed in heaven. It cannot be blessed as on earth. I do not know whether the thought is plain. We could not be blessed as on earth: we are blessed while on earth, but we could not be blessed in that connection as on earth, else we should have an earthly calling. If our calling is heavenly, we are blessed in heaven; and if you want to find the heavenly calling fully unfolded, you must go to Ephesians, and there it is that in the sight of God and before God the saints are raised up together, not only quickened, but raised up together and made to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ, that in the coming ages God might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. He will have a company which shall be there in the favour of the Head. That is one thought of the church.
Now, beloved friends, the other is the thought which comes out here in Colossians, and that is, that the church should be a vessel in which the character and the moral features of the Head should be displayed down here. This may hold good to a certain extent even in the future. I suppose that the church will be the special vessel even in eternity in which the character of the Head is displayed. I believe one thought about the church is this — it is of the Head, and every member of it moves in concert with the Head. That is in the idea of the body, every member moving at the will of the Head. I want you to bear these two things in mind in regard to the church.
But there is another thing in connection with it, which will bring me to the scripture before us, and that is this. If what I have spoken of be true, that there is a company in heaven blessed in the Head, and the vessel down here for the display of the character of the Head — it involves this much, they must be of a [p. 135] new order, because the earthy order will not do for heaven. Make up your minds to that, beloved friends. I do not mean to say that we have done with the earthy yet; I am sure we have not, because we still bear the image of the earthy; but this I do say without hesitation, the earthy man will not do for heaven. He would not have done for heaven even as God made him; pure and innocent and good as he was, the earthy would not do for heaven. Therefore you must have a new man; and the second Man is out of heaven. You must receive that if you want to understand what Christianity is; the second Man is out of heaven. The first man was out of earth, earthy, and never could go beyond earth as he stood; and I venture to go further than that — that if the first man had not failed, I believe it would not have been according to the glory of God that he should be recreated. But recreated he must be if he is to have part in the heavenly; and therefore when we come to Ephesians — and so, too, in Colossians — I get the great truth of a new creation brought in.
Now the truth I want to dwell on tonight is that the character of Christ is to come out here on earth. There are two things, blessing and character; we are blessed in heavenly places; the blessings are there, and in a sense we are there, but the character — that is, the character of Christ — is to come out here on earth. The character of Christ can come out in a foreign country in the saints. And the two important lessons to this end which I want to bring before you are, I must be of His order, and in moral correspondence to Him. So that what is actually true in Him is morally true of the saints. Because one great point which the apostle has in view in bringing before them the truth of chapter 2 is that they may be liberated from the power of things here. He takes up, one by one, a variety of things to which people are exposed here; opinions, philosophy, religiousness and superstition;
[p. 136] and brings before them a revelation of truth in order to effect their liberation from the influence of these things. That is the object of chapter 2, so that they may be at liberty; and in order to bring that about he shows to them their correspondence to Christ. I will just explain it. They are circumcised, buried with Christ, that is one point of correspondence. They are risen with Christ, that is another point, and they are quickened together with Christ; that is another. Then He goes on to show them that the body is of the Head, and the Head is for the body. He had already shown them at the close of chapter 1 that they were of His order. Look at chapter 1 verse 27; “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily”. Then in verse 6 of the next chapter, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving”. Then after that, he goes to warnings.
Now, beloved friends, it was a very wonderful thing for the apostle to be able to tell the Colossians that Christ was in them. He says, “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you”; that is the new order. What would a Jew have thought if you had told him that Messiah was in him? A Jew could understand in a certain sense what it would be to be blessed here upon earth under the rule of Messiah; but I do not think it ever entered the mind of a Jew that Messiah should be in him. But that is the very thing he brings before the Gentiles,
[p. 137] the truth of the mystery; and that involves a new order; not simply that I am personally reconciled, but that Christ is in me the hope of glory; Christ is my life. Is not that a new order? Here you find, so to say, the heavenly Man, Christ, is in me; and, he adds in the next chapter, “As therefore ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord”; and that is true of every Christian. It is not a question of attainment, but it is the peculiar form in which the gospel presents itself to the Gentiles, as the apostle says in Galatians 1, “When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him as glad tidings among the heathen”. I have thought that the peculiarity of Paul’s ministry is this, that not only are we forgiven through Christ, but that Christ becomes the life of those who are forgiven, and that therefore it is “Christ in you the hope of glory”. It is the way in which the mystery presented itself specially to the Gentiles, “Christ in you the hope of glory”. It is a blessed thing to think that Christ is my life, Christ is in me. It is not only that I am in Christ — that is a question of acceptance, and favour, and blessing; but Christ is in me. You get John running quite parallel with it, for he says, “He that hath the Son hath life”. There may be a distinction between Christ and the Son, but Paul and John run on parallel lines. “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life”. Christ is our life; as the Lord said in John 6, “He that eateth me, even he shall live by me”. And I see the wonderful grace which was manifested in His incarnation, in His becoming Man in order that we might live by Him. You may say, I could never live by Him if He had not died for me. I quite admit that; “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you”. But I see, too, the grace of His incarnation; that He became man that we might [p. 138] eat Him and might live by Him; as another has expressed it, that He might be digested by faith into the life of our being. It is Christ in me the hope of glory. I have exchanged my order. I am quite alive to the fact that I am here on earth, and that you cannot bring the things of the new order into the old order; but still the fact remains that I am of the new order; Christ is in me. And another truth is that Christ is to rule, even in the things of the old order. Christ is to rule in the details of my life down here, even in those things which I shall have to drop when I die, all human relationships and responsibilities, and everything of that kind. There are many things, such as human relationships and relative duties, and so on, that I cannot connect Him with directly, because He is out of them all. But as long as I am in them, as long as any Christian is in them, Christ is to rule. I have to carry it out in the appointments and details of my house and everything else. In the very way in which I adorn my house, I would like to raise the question, ‘Is that morally suitable to Christ?’ In all the detail of life Christ is to rule, because though I have not yet actually done with the old order, yet I am of the new order, and Christ is in me the hope of glory.
Then another important point comes in, and that is, the ministry of Christ to the soul; that the soul may grow up into Christ; as the apostle says in the last verse but one, “Whom also we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus”. It is not exactly here a question of the body, but of “every man”; the apostle concerned himself in regard to every individual saint, in that sense, that every one should grow up unto perfection in Christ. That is, that all the moral qualities of Christ, as it were, should be formed in us in the power of the Holy Spirit. A full grown man, to my mind, is a man who [p. 139] not only has all the faculties, but where all the faculties are in exercise. And that is the idea, I think, of a full grown Christian; not simply that all the faculties are there — the faculties are there in everybody who has received Christ — but that all should be in exercise. I think that is the idea in “That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus”. It has often been said that that verse does not refer to glory, but to the effect of ministry down here.
There is just one word more in this connection in verses 8, 9, 10 of the next chapter: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power”. It is that which is now true, beloved friends, in the Person of Christ, that which characterises that Man in glory; for having become Man, He remains man for eternity. I am not going to attempt to explain to you what the completeness is, or what it consists of; the point of the passage is that the completeness of the Godhead is there, and it is in connection with that “you are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power”. Now I am sure you will agree with me that if you are of the order of the heavenly man there is nothing upon earth that can teach you or instruct you with regard to that. I meet with a very great deal here on earth that can instruct me in connection with the fallen man, and his ways, and what he is; but I can get nothing upon earth, no philosophy or anything else that can possibly instruct me with regard to the heavenly Man; and therefore I have to learn it all from Christ Himself. And that is what the apostle is teaching them here; “Ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power”; that is, you are independent of all else; that is the great thing: I have not to turn to [p. 140] any addition. I would take a great deal of pains in many things, would learn languages and the like, if I had the ability and time, to help me to understand all the unfoldings of Christ in the word of God; but I do not want anything additional to Christ. If I were to go the world over, and read all the philosophy and wisdom in the world, it would not help me to understand anything about the character and ways of the heavenly Man; I have to learn every bit of it in the unfolding which Scripture gives me of Christ Himself. The wonderful thing about Him is this, that while in Him dwells the completeness of the Godhead bodily, we are complete (the word is the same) in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power. I believe it is a great point for saints to be consciously independent of that which is here. I do not mind being accounted a fool in the world, though I may not be much more a fool than other people; but you cannot instruct me, you can give me no manner of help with regard to the heavenly Man; I can only learn that in Christ Himself and I say, Thank God I am complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power. I can give my whole attention, by the grace of God, to learning what Scripture unfolds to me of Christ.
I commend to your study John 6. There I get the great truth brought out of the wonderful grace, that heavenly grace, which has come down here, manifested in the incarnation of the Son. The blessed, eternal Son of God became man, came into the world, in order that He might be life to it; that is, that we might eat Him and live by Him. His death comes in for our deliverance, because His death was needed that we might be delivered from the flesh and its connections; but the great point is, “He that eateth me, even he shall live by me”. I appropriate and feed on the heavenly grace manifest in His having become man. People often think the incarnation merely refers to what Christ was here after the flesh. It is a great [p. 141] mistake. There is hardly a thought that is set before us in John’s gospel in regard to Christ which you cannot carry on to resurrection; and the incarnation not merely refers to what He was here as come after the flesh, but it refers equally to what He now is, because He is still man.
Now as to our correspondence to Him. That comes out here in verses 11 to 15: “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh” — omit the words “of the sins”, because they ought not to be there — “by the circumcision of Christ; buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it”. Now I want to touch on the three points which come before us here. The first is circumcision, which brings in the thought that we are buried with Him; the second is, we are risen with Him; and the third is, we are quickened with Him. The words “with him” are exceedingly important, because they give the character to the thing. If I were risen, simply risen, apart from risen “with him”, I should be raised to judgment; and I could not conceive the thought at all of being quickened except it were “quickened together with him”. It gives the character to it. The first is circumcision; and the point of the whole passage is, that what is actually true in Christ is morally true in us. What I mean is this; that for Him circumcision has actually taken place in the cross, and that He is actually cut off from everything after [p. 142] the flesh, in order that He might be exclusively unto God, “In that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God”. He is no longer known after the flesh. Then He is risen, that is, the bands of death are loosed; that is what I understand by resurrection. And more than that, He is quickened; that is, He is raised again from the dead in what I may call actual suitability as man for glory. Not but what even when here after the flesh He was morally suitable to glory; it has often been said He might have retired from the mount of Transfiguration to glory; the glory saluted Him; but He was raised again from the dead in a condition of power and glory suited to the place He was to take as man on high. Just refer to Psalm 21, “The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips; for thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness, thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head: he asked life of thee and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever”. I do not think anybody can question the application of that scripture to Christ personally; nor can I doubt it was made good in resurrection; that is, that, as a man down here, He asked life in view of death, and God gave it to Him, “even length of days for ever and ever”. That is what I should call the quickening of Christ; He is raised from the dead; in fact, the very word ‘quickened’ is applied to Him, so that you have not to go outside Scripture for it. We are told He was “quickened in the Spirit”. Not only were the bands of death loosed, but He was raised in glory. He is no longer in weakness and humiliation, as He was down here, when He came to accomplish the will of God; but He is quickened in the Spirit, He is raised in glory, He lives of the power of God.
[p. 143] Now there are those three things: circumcision, which cuts Him off from all here, and He lives unto God; the bands of death are loosed, because He is raised; and He is quickened, that is, He asked life and God gave it to Him, even length of days for ever and ever. That is what is actually true in Christ. Now I say the saints are in correspondence to Christ, and that is morally true of every saint. You are circumcised; every saint has accepted the cross. You are buried with Him in baptism, the putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. If you have not, you can never go into the holiest, because it is only on that ground you can go in. Flesh never goes into the holiest. You can only really enjoy Christian privilege as having put off the body of the flesh. Every real believer is on that ground, whether he realises it or not. Putting off the body of the flesh is that a Christian realises spiritually that which was formally expressed in baptism. What for? So that I can be faithful and for God. If I am ruled by the flesh — because the body of the flesh means the rule of the flesh — I am sinning; for if I am ruled by the flesh I follow the bent of the flesh: “The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”. No, I say I have put off the body of the flesh, the rule of the flesh, that is what I profess to have done. And what for? that I may be separate to God. That is the idea of circumcision.
Now I come to the second: I am risen together with Him, the bands of death are loosed for me. That is true morally of every Christian. I am no longer in terror of death. The bands of death are actually loosed in the case of Christ, He is actually risen; but for me they are loosed morally. Death is no penalty upon the saint; and now I can be with God, and death is not between. If death were upon me as penalty, I could not be with God; nor could you; nobody could be with God if there were a shred of [p. 144] penalty upon him. The bands of death are loosed, and death is no longer on the saint as penalty; he is with God.
Now I come to the third point, which is intimately connected with resurrection; and that is, I am quickened together with Christ, so that I might live according to God. I am actually by the quickening power of God made alive in a way which is suitable to God Himself; quickened in a heavenly life, in the power of the Holy Spirit, that is the meaning of it. That is the wonderful thing which has come to pass in every Christian. It is a most wonderful thing, because the words “with him” give you the character of it. You could not understand the character of it if it did not say “with him”. It could hardly say in an absolute sense that we are quickened, because we have yet to be quickened in regard to our bodies; but in regard to our souls we are actually made alive before God, so that we live in the order of Christ, “in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him”. That is the effect of being made alive in association with Christ by the power of God. What a thought it is! How far have you and I entered into it? That we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Jesus! It is not simply that I approach God, that I pray to God; but I have boldness and confidence like a son; boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Jesus; that expresses the result of quickening. I am brought to the blessed sense of this, that I am before God, the object of His love and favour, as a son in whom He delights, and I have the answer to it by the power of the Holy Spirit in me.
When you talk of all these things you must remember that what the apostle speaks of here is what will carry on to eternity. What I have as a condition of soul now, I shall have as an actual condition then. Christ has it as an actual condition now, and we have it now [p. 145] as a condition of soul by the quickening power of God. I believe many people have made great mistakes in regard to life, in viewing it as a something substantive which is communicated to us. I can understand life in God, because God is eternal; He lives, He is. But I live, and so does every saint, simply by the quickening power of God. I am made alive now in my soul together with Christ, after His order, and eventually I shall be made alive in body after His order: “As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly”. The point in this chapter is that the saints are placed in moral correspondence with Christ; and the point which comes out in the exhortations in the next chapter is that the character of Christ is to come out in us practically as one body.
I have only one word more to add as to what it says later on. “Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God”. I want you to bear two points in mind, because they are exceedingly important. The body is of Christ. You say, Of course the body is of Christ. Well, but the body is of the Head. My body is of the Head, and my body corresponds to the Head. And so, as to the body of Christ, the body must correspond to Christ, else it would not be the body of Christ. He warns them against shadows, because in following shadows they were in great danger of losing the substance. The words ‘body’ and ‘substance’ are the same, and you might read it ‘substance’, but that [p. 146] would mar the sense, because I have no doubt the idea is that “the body” is of Christ. The moral thought it conveys to my mind is that the body is of the same kind and character; and must be, or it would not be of the Head. Then on the other hand comes out the other truth, that the Head is for the body. My head is for the body. What cares for my body if the head does not? The body cannot care for itself; but the head cares for the body. You have not got to seek of Christ to care for His body. It is a great comfort in the present distracted state of Christendom that, after all, the Head is for the body. It is not simply because we are in the truth that Christ cares for us, but He cares for His body, and for every member of His body. Why? Because He is the Head of the body. But it is a great thing to hold the Head, and to know that what tends to the nourishment of the body really comes down from the Head, because the Head is for the body. The body is of Christ, and the Head is for the body; and, as brought out in the next chapter, the character of the Head is to come out in the body. And it is a great deal better that the character of the Head should come out in the body, than that our character should come out; that the features, so to say, of the Head should be seen in the body than that our moral features should come out, for they are not very attractive. But you cannot conceive anything more wonderful than that there should be a body of people upon earth, conscious of what they are in Christ and of what Christ is to them, and that they should manifest in this world the character of the Head; kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, putting on love, which is the bond of perfectness; all the blessed character and features of the elect of God, for Christ is the elect of God, coming out in the saints in one body down here. You may think these things in a certain sense are transcendental; but they are not so, they are the truth of Christianity. People say, ‘I do not come up to it’; but do not let us give up the truth because we do not come up to it. Whether we come up to it or not, let us have a right standard. The point is to see what our calling is, to see what the church is in the sight of God; accepted in association with and in the grace and favour of the Head, and the vessel in which the character of the Head is to come out down here. That is the divine thought of the church, the members in the Head for acceptance and exaltation, and the Head in the members for character down here. May God give us grace to bow to it that we may accept the great truth of the new order, that we may see the blessed reality of it, and what has taken place in order that it may be brought out — how that Christ humbled Himself; He that existed in the form of God has become a man, has died and is risen and is in us the hope of glory, and we are growing up unto Christ; for the point to be attained is the full-grown man, all the spiritual senses in exercise and activity. I commend the truth to you, and pray God it may be blessed to every one of you. As I said last week, if I had to wait till I could speak without defects I should have to wait long enough. I can only bring the truth before you according to my little apprehension of it, and commend to you, not so much what I have said, but the truth to your attention, and to your consciences and hearts.
Chapters 2: 20 - 23; 3: 1 - 17 I have said, beloved friends, more than once, in looking at this epistle, that it gives to us what one might call the proper testimony and character of the saints here, looked at as one body. Also, that the epistle does not, as the epistle to the Romans, contemplate saints in their individual path. We have to distinguish between things that differ. We know well [p. 148] enough that we all have our individual path and things connected with it. That is the path through the wilderness, and so far as I see what is connected with the wilderness is individual. But there is another character of things that has to be maintained among saints, which comes especially before us in the epistle to the Colossians; and that is the relation of saints one to another — their proper testimony and character as one body.
It is, I think, comprehended in the term which we get in chapter 3 — “the new man”. It says, “Ye have put off the old man and have put on the new”. That is what I want to come to tonight; how the truth is to come out in practice. In the first two chapters the apostle had unfolded the doctrinal groundwork of it all. The apostle gives us in these chapters what is true of the saints before God; that is the doctrinal basis, and then in the third chapter he gives us the exhortations, the practice in which it is to work out; so that in the character and walk of the saints down here as one body, Christ is to be reproduced.
But now I just refer for a moment to the substance of what has come before us on previous occasions. We began in chapter 1 with the glory of Christ, His double Headship; and with it reconciliation. And you must begin there, because God has seen fit to put everything on the basis of reconciliation, and if you are not reconciled, you are not in any relationship with God, because nothing has really any place before God except what is on that ground. Christ has made peace by the blood of his cross, to reconcile all things to himself; and I pointed out that the time has not yet come for the reconciliation of things, but that what is being effected at this time is the reconciliation of persons. And in connection with that, Christ comes out as the Head of the body. Persons are reconciled; “You now hath he reconciled”. Then in the latter part of the first chapter, and in the second chapter, we [p. 149] saw the new order, that saints now are of a new order — Christ is in them. Manifestly that is a new order; it never was true before, and I do not know that it will be true upon earth again; because as far as I can judge, it is peculiar to the church. “Christ in you the hope of glory”; that is the new order; and you are complete in Christ; and so it says, “As therefore ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him”.
Then in addition to that, we saw the correspondence of the saints to Christ, circumcised, buried with Christ, risen with Christ, quickened together with Christ. I was pointing out that the expression “with Christ” which is added to these terms gives to them their character; you could not understand what it is to be risen if you did not understand risen “with Christ” nor could you know the character of the quickening if you did not see it is quickened “with Christ”: that gives the character to it. And what it involves is this — association with Christ; we are risen with Him, in association with Him; whatever He is risen to we are risen to; whatever He is quickened to we are quickened to. Just as we get in Romans 6, “Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus”. Why? Because Christ “died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God”. Therefore you reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus. You are quickened together with Him; that gives the character.
I only say that much by way of preface, because it is the doctrinal basis of the epistle. Tonight I want to follow the course of the exhortations, and to refer especially to “the new man”. And here I may remark how the proper testimony of saints is marred by the existing condition of Christendom. The very idea of rivalry, or opposition, or antagonism, or anything of that kind is utterly contrary to the thought of “the new man”. And “the new man” is what we have put on. The way it is stated is remarkable. He says, “Having put off the old man, and having put on the new”. That is the truth in Jesus. I daresay there are many who have taken up the profession of Christianity that do not know very much about the new man; but still there it is; when he speaks in that way he speaks of the proper ground of Christianity. Of course, the putting on the new man involves a work of God, new creation. The new man is created; but as to Christian profession and character, we have put off the old man and put on the new. And you and I have no title to walk save according to the new. If you walk in the old you are inconsistent, because you have avowed to put off the old and to have adopted the new, and therefore your responsibility is to walk according to what you have adopted as having put on the new. I will come to what that is presently. I doubt if it is very much understood, else I think we should see a very different kind of practice on the part of saints, very different ways on their part.
But I must follow the course of the exhortations, the Lord enabling me. “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances (touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using), after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour, to the satisfying of the flesh. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God”. Now it is evident that what the apostle is urging on the Colossians he is urging on us, and that what applied to the Colossians applies to us. That is evident from what he says in chapter 2: 1 “I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as [p. 151] have not seen my face in the flesh”. We have not seen the apostle’s face in the flesh, and yet he had great conflict for as many as had not seen it. Now what he urges is consistency with our standing; that is the first thing; and he takes up in the exhortations what he had said in chapter 2: 11, 12: “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: buried with him in baptism; wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead”. He appeals to them at the close of chapter 2 as being “dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world”, and in the beginning of chapter 3 as being “risen with Christ”. He says, if you are so why are you inconsistent with it? Why, as though living (or alive) in the world, are you subject to ordinances? Beloved friends, the truth is this, that people who take the ground of being alive religiously in the world may be rightly enough subject to ordinances — may be content to be instructed without intelligence to do this and that, and to abstain from doing this and that. The idea of dogmatism is that I submit my will to ordinances; it is just what suits the flesh. It is very manifest how people are well content to surrender their consciences to spiritual directors; that is the history of Christendom to a large extent, and it existed before there was any Christianity at all, because it was the principle of heathenism, and even of Judaism. The difference was, that in Judaism there was the “shadow of good things to come”, and, of course, there was nothing of that in heathenism. Still, it is a remarkable fact that when Christianity came in, the apostle does not hesitate to describe Judaism as “the beggarly elements”. And yet in spite of this the mass of people are content to be subject to ordinances, to do what they are told to do, and to abstain from doing what they are told not to do, and that in face of the apostle’s warning, “why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?” If I were a high churchman, I should obey my spiritual directors and ask no questions; I should commit my conscience, in a sense, to their keeping, and what I was told to do I would do.
But that is exactly what the apostle will not have. He says, “If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world”, Christ is dead from the rudiments of the world; in a sense He came under them, for He was circumcised and the like, “made of a woman, made under the law”; but He died out from them, and we are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, so that all that character of things should have no application to us at all. That is what the apostle brings before them. I am outside all that which applies religiously to man in the flesh, whatever it may be, whether heathenism or Judaism or the corrupt Christianity of the present day; if it applies to man as being alive on the earth, it has not its application to me, because I am dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, and I am privileged to understand things as before God; to have intelligence of things spiritually before God is the very opposite of being dogmatised.
Now that is the first thing. Then he goes on to say, “If ye then be risen with Christ”. Now mark again here the expression “with Christ”, because that gives the character to it. I was saying last time that the force of resurrection is that the bands of death are loosed. But there is more than that in it, because you are risen together with Christ, and if you are risen together with Christ you are in touch with heaven. I am quite sure that Jesus was always as man, morally in touch with the heaven from which He came; that is clear enough from what took place on the mount of Transfiguration; but more distinctly still He is seen in relation to heaven when He rose again from the dead. His earthly path of faith was over; and when He meets Mary He says, “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go tell my brethren, I ascend to my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”. We are risen together with Christ, so that the bands of death are loosed; death is no longer upon us as penalty, and more than that, we are in touch with the scene to which Christ is gone: and therefore He says, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God”. That is a great thing to do, because one looks for everything to come forth from there. I do not expect very much to be effected here upon earth. I cannot say I am one of those sanguine people who expect to see any very great improvement effected here: it is a mistake to look for it; but I think that a very great deal will be effected from the right hand of God. Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; that is where man has gone in the Person of Christ, and everything will, I judge, come forth from thence. He is in the place of supreme honour, and power, the right hand of God, Now we are in touch with that blessed scene, as risen together with Christ, and the exhortation is, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God”. Remember, beloved friends, it is an exhortation; and mark this, it is an exhortation to be consistent. The apostle says, “If ye be risen”. He does not raise any question as to whether they were risen, for they were so; he tells them so positively in the preceding chapter: any more than he raises a question as to whether they were dead, for he tells them they had “put off the body of the flesh”. How can you have a more distinct figure of death than putting off the body of the flesh? If you die, that is what will take place, the body of the flesh will be put off. He does not raise any question as to their having died or being risen with Christ; but he takes [p. 154] them up as in Christian standing, and the exhortation is to be consistent with it; as much as to say, You have taken that ground, now walk and act in accordance with it: “Seek the things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God”. And what the expression “things above” presents to my mind is the whole scheme of what is to be accomplished in Christ. I think you will find the idea of it in Hebrews 12. I do not go into it now, but if you turn to it at your leisure you will find there the things about which God is now speaking to us from heaven. When God had brought Israel out of Egypt they were clear of judgment and clear of the enemy’s power, but they were not clear of the flesh; and therefore God spoke to them that which tested the flesh, and they mostly perished by the flesh in the wilderness. But in regard to Christians, the great truth is that God has no question of the flesh to raise with us at all; every question has been settled for God in the cross, and what He now speaks to us of are the things above. The contrast in Hebrews 12 is between what He spake on earth and what He speaks from heaven. He speaks now from heaven, and therefore speaks of the things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.
I sometimes think there is a tendency to regard the things above as being something for the imagination, but it is not so. You could not set your mind on things above if they were not revealed; but they are revealed, and what is more, there is an energy in the Christian — Christ is in him — by which he can “seek the things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God”. For if Christ is in me, in the very nature of things, the power in me will go up to its source. The power of the Holy Spirit in me must lead me in thought and feeling right up to the source; as it says in John 4, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into eternal life”.
[p. 155] Now we will go on to the next point. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry; for which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of [p. 158] disobedience: in the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man”. Now, beloved friends, this thought, “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God”, is also taken up from the previous chapter. In chapter 2: 13 it says, “You, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses”. I suppose that everybody knows that the meaning of the word ‘quicken’ is to make alive; that is, you hath He made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Now he says, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God”. The meaning of the expression I judge to be this — that our life, the proper life of the Christian (I am not now speaking of the life of the Christian morally) in its actual condition has not yet come out into manifestation. 1 John 3: 2 will explain it: “Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”. That is, what we are to be is yet hid, and I think that is the force of these words: “Ye are dead, and your life is hid ..”. And in the next verse we find, “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory”. Beloved friends, nobody knows really what [p. 156] we are going to be like; a man has never been manifested yet from glory. When Christ who is our life is manifested, we shall appear with Him in glory. I can understand anyone saying, Was not Christ seen after resurrection? Yes; but I think the great point of the scripture is this, that what we are to be is to be manifested from glory. To a large extent Colossians is, I think, a question of testimony; and that will be the testimony then, the accomplishment of John 17: 23, for it is not the same thought that you get in the Ephesians, “That in the ages to come he might shew forth the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us by Christ Jesus” — that looks at the church in the grace and favour of the Head; the thought here is that we are to come out in glory. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory”. In the meantime our life is hid with Christ in God.
And hence there is another side of the truth, and that is death, here. At the close of the preceding chapter it is death to what is religious, death from dogmatism and ordinances; here at the beginning of this chapter it is more absolute: it says, “For ye are dead”. It has often been said that this is the most absolute statement of the kind we have in Scripture. What it means to me is this, that I am dead to the whole course of things morally in the world. It is not simply I am dead to sin or dead to the law, but dead to the whole course and order of things in which flesh lives. For a confirmation of it I would turn to 1 John 2: 15, 16: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him; for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world”.
And here I would like to explain a difference in principle between John and Paul. John, as far as I [p. 157] can understand, gives you the character of things essentially; Paul gives you your position in relation to them; and I gather that here in the Colossians we are viewed as dead to the whole course of things in which flesh lives, all that goes to make up the world. In John the young men are taught to judge it; that is, to see that what goes to make up the world, is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That is just as true today as it was when John wrote; and it is all that is in the world. Paul says, “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God”. Supposing there was nothing in the world to minister to the lust of the flesh, or of the eyes, or to the pride of life, what would become of people? The mass of people live in these things, and could not get on without what tends to gratify the flesh and the eyes. And the pride of life is a tremendous factor in their existence. Everybody almost has an idea of getting on in the world, and there is the keeping up of appearances, and that sort of thing, “the pride of life”. And what the apostle John says is this, “All that is in the world ... is not of the Father”. It is all hard and selfish — there is nothing of real affection in it. And now we have the admonition to “mortify”, because you are dead; that is, I have to cut off the connection in myself. I look about me, and see on every hand what tends to minister to the flesh, and what pleases the eye, and what is a temptation to ambition and so on, and have to learn that the connection has to be cut, as it were, in myself. I am dead to it all, and my life is hid with Christ in God; that is the point, and therefore he says, “mortify”.
I do not want to dwell much upon it, but he says, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness” — that is, the lust of the flesh — “inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: in the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth” — here we get the emotions and tempers of the flesh more — “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man which, is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him”. Now this brings me to the old man and the new man. The character of the old man is given to us in Ephesians; and what I want to speak about is the character of the new man, and to show you how the whole order of things in professing Christianity is contrary and opposed to the idea of the new man.
Now I believe the thought of the new man is connected with testimony here; it is really a new creation. It is remarkable how certain things stand connected in Scripture. You will find that where the Spirit of God speaks about the body of Christ, the truth of quickening is introduced; while the new man is connected with new creation. So it says in Ephesians 2: 15: “For to make in himself of twain” — the word ‘make’ there should be ‘create’ — “to create in himself out of twain, one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby”. There you get two thoughts, the one new man and the body. The thought connected with the body is to reconcile unto God both Jew and Gentile in one body; but the previous thought is that He creates out of the two in Himself one new man. Then in chapter 4: 24: “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created” — there you get the thought of new creation again — “in righteousness and holiness of truth”. Now, as far as I can see, there is only one man now, properly, that comes under the eye of God. The new man has come in; and Scripture never speaks of an old until there is a new. The old man is the old,
[p. 159] because a new man has come in; and the new man is Christ, in what I may call His moral features and character. I think that is the idea of the new man, and is what a Christian has put on. “As many of you as have been baptised into Christ, have put on Christ”. We profess to have put off the old man and to have put on the new; to have put on Christ as to His moral features and character. You have to remember this, that Christ has come under the eye of God here upon earth; and even in regard to the future, in the millennium, I believe what will come under the eye of God will be Christ. It appears to me in that day everything will be covered, as it were, by Christ, everything is put under the hand of Christ; and all is headed up in Him. Now in the interval we have Christ in the saints. They profess, as I said, to have put on Christ. And that is possible, for Christ is in them. How could Christ come out if Christ were not in us? The thing would be totally impossible; but the character of Christ may come out because Christ is there. “Christ in you the hope of glory”. You have received Christ Jesus the Lord, and you are to walk in Him, and your testimony is to be, so to say, the character of Christ.
Now there are two great thoughts connected with the new man which I will dwell upon, unity and character. No such thing can be found in connection with the old man, except a very bad character. Look at what it says: “You have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision; Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all and in all”. If Christ is all and in all, manifestly it is unity, because it is one Christ in all the saints; it is unity because it is one new man, He makes in Himself out of twain one new man. It is not that there are so many new men; that is not the idea presented to us; but it is [p. 160] to make out of twain one new man. And so here, “Christ is all and in all”. Therefore, as he says, “There is neither Greek nor Jew”. In the new man all these distinctions are gone; there is no Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free. I forget all these things in the realisation of the new man: Christ is all and in all, and my mind is, so to say, withdrawn from distinctions which exist in the flesh. I may have to do with those distinctions in my individual path in the wilderness, but in the circle of the saints all those distinctions have to be forgotten. The great truth now is unity in the new man, because Christ is all and in all, and all the distinctions which existed in the flesh are abolished in what is connected with Him in glory.
Now look abroad for an instant on the state of Christendom. What a practical denial it is of the truth. When we see saints mixed up with profession, and separated into great professing bodies here upon earth, I say it is a denial of the truth of the one new man; because what marks them is rivalry, and opposition, and all that kind of thing. It only proves to me how Christianity has been degraded, and the idea of the new man completely lost. But here it is, and the first great thought connected with it is unity, that is, “Christ is all and in all”. If I think of myself, Christ is in me; but then if I think of another saint, Christ is in that saint, too, and it is only one Christ, and therefore you can have but one new man. If you want to understand anything about true unity, you must first understand the new man; nobody can have any right thought of unity without it. They try to bring unity about in other ways; to get a broad platform on which Christians generally can unite; that is very common in the present day, but does not realise the Scripture thought of unity. When I come within the sanctuary, as it were, and into the company and association of the saints, my mind has to forget the distinctions which exist in the flesh. I have to remember this, “Christ is all and in all”, not only Christ all, but Christ in all. As has often been said, He is “all” as object, and He is “in all” as life. And as I said before, it would be perfectly impossible to have put on the new man, to have taken that ground at all, if Christ were not in us.
Now there is the other point connected with the new man, namely, character. He says, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another; in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord”. Now, beloved friends, here you get character. There are three things on the face of it — and I do not mean to go beyond the surface — the first is grace, absolute forgiveness; the second is love; and the third is peace. They mark what is true in Christ now. He has forgiven us, and we are to forgive as He has forgiven us. Of course, it all refers here to our relations one to another; we are to forgive absolutely; as the Lord said to Peter, “not till seven times, but till seventy times seven”. Then the next thing is “love, which is the bond of perfectness”. And then you get peace, “Let the peace of Christ” — for everything here is of Christ — “rule in your hearts” — and that is to settle every question — “to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful”. Now you could not have a more beautiful picture of saints in unity, all entering into this truth, that they compose the one new man. It is the character of Christ reproduced [p. 162] in them, the moral character of the heavenly Christ; the blessed features of it as presented here being unlimited forgiveness, and love, and peace. How can you conciliate such things with rivalry, or opposition, or envy, or emulation, or anything of the kind? I think nobody can appreciate what we get here as to the character of the new man, without seeing what an utter condemnation it is of the existing condition of Christendom as we have it before our eyes. The fact is, the reason of the inconsistency is this, they do not know anything at all about the doctrinal basis, for they do not know anything at all about the truth of the church, hence I can well understand that they do not know what the proper testimony of saints ought to be. It appears to me there are plenty of Christians in the world, and good Christians too, who know many blessings, as the forgiveness of sins, and even the gift of the Holy Spirit, but have not the faintest idea of the truth of the church. In a sort of statement of faith which appeared recently, in which there was much that one could endorse, I was struck with the absence of two things, namely, all allusion to a glorified Christ, and to the union of the saints with Christ. Therefore, if people do not apprehend those points, in which really the essence of Christianity consists, I can very well understand that they do not apprehend what ought to be the proper character and testimony of saints down here, and if you do not understand the body, you cannot understand the new man. The body is of the Head, and the Head is for the body; I apprehend that; but I see connected with it the blessed truth which comes out in this chapter, that is, the new man, where “Christ is all and in all”.
Now, beloved friends, that can never be revived; but as I was saying a week or two ago, do not let us lower the standard. Even if practice may not come up to it, and even if it is impossible to bring saints back to the real standard, let us have the right idea.
[p. 163] It is a great thing to get the right idea; but then if we get it, let us expect that the Lord will give grace to walk according to the right idea, in the truth of it, even though you may not expect — and I do not expect — to see things restored to what they were when first established.
Now that is just what I wanted to come to in this chapter. I do not propose to go further. The apostle winds up with that one word, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another; in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him”. Beloved friends, just think of the place of the saints. “The elect of God”, an expression which is applied to Christ; as you get in verse 12, “Put on, therefore, as the elect of God” — that is what the saints are, “the elect of God”, in the place of Christ here, and the character of Christ to come out in them as one body. That was the divine idea; that was the thought of the Spirit of God in regard to the saints. And I thank God if He has given us to see what His thought was as to the testimony of the saints here. As I was pointing out last time, it is the practical accomplishment of the Lord’s prayer in John 17, where He prays not only for the apostles, but for those who should believe on Him through their word, “that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”.
May God, beloved friends, really give us, in the light of the truth here, to see the existing condition of things, that we may have a true estimate of what is about us here in the world; not expecting to see things restored to their original condition, but not evading our responsibility to seek grace to walk in the truth as it was given at the beginning.