CHRISTIANITY AS CHARACTERISED BY MYSTERY (2)

CHRISTIANITY AS CHARACTERISED BY MYSTERY (2)

1 Corinthians 2: 6 - 12; Colossians 1: 24 - 29; Colossians 2: 1 - 10

AJG We were remarking this morning that the thought of mystery in divine things, as far as our entering into it is concerned, involves the presence of the Spirit, the Lord having told the disciples, “I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him nor know him,” John 14: 16 and 17. So that the coming in of the Spirit evidently involves, for those who have the Spirit, that they are set up in the possession of things that are entirely outside the range of this world. I think this passage in 1 Corinthians enlarges on that in that the apostle intimates that he had wisdom to speak of. He had just said that he renounced entirely man’s wisdom, but the Corinthians were to understand he had wisdom to speak of. It was necessary, however, that there should be a certain state in the saints in order to receive it, and that state, alas, was lacking with the Corinthians. In writing to the Corinthians the apostle does not proceed to develop what it is he has to speak of, but just says sufficient to induce interest in these things on their part. He says, “we speak wisdom among the perfect,” and then at the beginning of the third chapter he has to tell them they are far from being perfect in that they were babes, and hence the point in this passage in Corinthians I think is just to stimulate our interest in the hidden wisdom which Paul has to make known to us, and to make it perfectly clear that only in the Spirit can this hidden wisdom be entered upon. On the other hand, as we were saying this morning, it is to show its that there is no limit to what can be entered on in the Spirit. The Scripture says, “for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God,” so that, no doubt, while the apostle had in his mind the mystery, he does not call it the mystery in Corinthians but simply says, “But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, that hidden wisdom which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory.”

Then if one may just intimate what is in mind in the passage in Colossians, he definitely introduces ‘the mystery’ and introduces it as something that is extremely great, speaking of it as “the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations” then showing that his great exercise was that the saints should be knit together in love; for unless we are united in love, there is no power to enter upon the mystery however much we may think we understand it objectively. Then finally, he introduces what is the kernel of it, that is, in Christ “dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” so that nothing outside of Christ is needed by the assembly.

AHS Is it a challenge to us then in the use of this word perfect? Is there a link with the way he speaks of it in Corinthians and in Colossians where he desires to present every man perfect in Christ?

AJG I would say that. I think the idea of perfect in Corinthians does not go so far as Philippians 3 where the apostle says that he does not regard himself as being yet perfect. I think in Corinthians what he has in mind is that we have come to recognise the import of the cross of Christ and are ourselves in accord with it. We recognise that man in flesh has been set aside judicially in the cross and that everything now for God in us is in the Spirit. It is only as the Spirit is thus recognised that the deep things of God can be taken up.

RHG Does fruitfulness for God also depend on the Spirit? Referring to the first parable this morning the seed was sown in good ground and brought forth some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty fold. Is what we bring forth dependent on our making room for the Spirit?

AJG Yes, everything in the way of subjective results in the saints is dependent on the Spirit. In Matthew, which has in mind the position publicly and dispensationally, it says, “one hundred, one sixty, and one thirty,” chapter 13: 8, showing that there is decline and that the dispensation closes with what is outwardly very small. But in Mark the similar parable says, “one thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred,” chapter 4: 8. Mark being the servant’s gospel and showing that the servant is to aim at a full measure of result. Then Luke in the corresponding parable says, “bore fruit a hundredfold,” chapter 8: 8, which again would link with our own state of soul, “an honest and good heart, having heard the word keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience,” verse 15. That is our side of the matter, not the servant’s, that we on our part should not have anything less before us than the full measure of fruit.

WCB Would the knowledge of the mystery in Corinthians have the effect of disentangling us from everything that was connected with the princes of this age, and would Colossians give rather the positive side linking us up with “Christ in you the hope of glory”?

AJG Yes, I would say that. It is remarkable the nots we get in this passage in 1 Corinthians 2. It says, “we have received, not the spirit of the world,” verse 12, then it goes on to say, “which also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit,” verse 13. Previously in verse 6, “we speak wisdom among the perfect; but wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world,” so there are nots running right through this passage - it is to exclude this world and the whole course of things.

JNG Does the thought of the mystery enter into the way things are communicated as well as the way things are received?

AJG Yes, I believe that is very important and, therefore, those who would minister should be concerned not to make undue effort to make the truth simple. It is quite right to minister according to the need - some may need milk and some may need strong meat. But it is a mistake to attempt to make the truth of God too simple. The point is that it is to be communicated by the Spirit and it is to be apprehended in the Spirit.

LGL Is that evidenced in the contrast that is suggested in the scripture in Corinthians referring to the princes of this age, “for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”, but, lower down, there are things which God has prepared for those that love Him and He has revealed them unto us by His Spirit, suggesting that there are things which are hidden from the princes of this world which are known to the saints as communicated by the Spirit?

AJG Yes, I think so, and the fact that it says, “Things... which God has prepared for them that love Him” is very striking, raising a challenge with us, not only as to whether we are perfect, whether we have accepted the setting aside of the first man and are on the lines of recognising the Spirit, but whether we really love God, so that our hearts respond to the thought that God has prepared certain things for those who love Him. Great wealth is opened to us if we are among those who love God.

CPP Is that just a suggestion of what is unfolded in the epistle to Ephesians that could not be unfolded to the Corinthians?

AJG Yes, I believe the point in this passage is that the apostle is seeking to stimulate the Corinthians to spiritual energy and self-judgment so that they may be able to lay hold of God’s hidden wisdom, as much as to say, There are great things before you if you will only learn self-judgment and yield yourselves to the Spirit.

JE Is it not interesting in the typical part of Scripture, that after the lesson as to the brazen serpent and the recognition of the Spirit in singing to the well, you have a man taking up his parable and wondrous thoughts that God has prepared for His people come out?

AJG Exactly. Then you get Moses given a view of the whole extent of the land, that goodly land which God had prepared for those that love Him, you might say.

Ques Does this involve the knowledge of the assembly?

AJG I have no doubt it does. I have no doubt that is what the apostle was labouring for; so in Colossians he introduces the thought of Christ’s body which is the assembly. He only says sufficient in Corinthians to enlist their interest and stresses that there is no possibility of their entering upon these things save in the Spirit. But then they are for us; they are prepared for those who love God, and there is no limit to what we may enter upon. Indeed the chapter ends with the remarkable statement as to those who have the Spirit that we have the mind of Christ, which is really the thinking faculty of Christ.

VD What are we to understand by the depths of God?

AJG In Ephesians 3 the apostle speaks of the breadth and length and depth and height, so that there is a great scope of things and a scope of things that is varied in character. Proverbs 8, which speaks of wisdom, refers to a time when there were no depths,

“When there were no depths, I was brought forth,” verse 24. I think the depths have come to light in the death of Christ, and the Spirit of God would enable us to become increasingly conscious of the depths that have now come into expression in the death of Christ; whereas heights have come into expression in the heights to which Christ has gone and the immensity of blessing and glory which God has for us in Christ.

RMY Why does it say that the hidden wisdom is for our glory?

AJG I think it is just to stimulate our interest in these things. If we belong to the world, we glory in the things of the world, but the Spirit of God is urging us to take account of the fact that there is an entirely new world, an entirely different system of glory in which we are to glory. It consists of things which God has predetermined before the ages, which really links on with Ephesians. Here, because of the state at Corinth, the apostle cannot open it out. He has just to give them enough to get a taste for heavenly things.

CPP Does the reference to the ignorance of the princes of this world suggest that they did not realise God was working out these eternal thoughts, and that we should reach His end by these means?

AJG They crucified the Lord of glory. How thoroughly they were exposed as devoid of wisdom. As we see how the wisdom of the world has been exposed at the cross, we become all the more ready to yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, that we may enter into the things that God has prepared for us as among those who love Him, and that involves the assembly.

JE It speaks of Hebron as built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. Does a man like Caleb in the Spirit’s power really take possession of that as he is found on the line of searching out?

AJG Yes, exactly. Zoan, I understand, was a seat of learning, so that Hebron stands in contrast with the learning of this world.

JNG Do you think as things are presented in ministry, perhaps difficult for us to understand, it becomes a test how much we love God as to how far we will pursue in our enquiry?

AJG I think that is good, because God’s love to us has come out in that He “sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh,” Romans 8: 3, so that we might receive the Spirit. Hence if I am careless as to the import of the death of Christ, if I am still going on allowing that which God has dealt with judicially in the death of His Son, others may well question whether I love God. The love of God towards us has come out in that way; He sent His own Son, the great expression of His love, in likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, and condemned sin in the flesh in order that we might receive the Spirit.

TRY The thought of mystery is singular in these scriptures. In Matthew it is plural. Is there any significance in that?

AJG “God’s wisdom in a mystery.” I think the apostle really has in mind the mystery which we come to in Colossians. There is that which Scripture speaks of as the mystery. I think the passage we had in Matthew, and other passages which may come before us in a later reading, will show there is an element of mystery in God’s ways which goes beyond the mystery. What is spoken of as the mystery is, so to speak, the cream of what God has in His wisdom reserved and kept secret until this present day, the day of the Spirit, and that is that Christ should have a body, that He should have the assembly as His body, and that that body should be composed of those secured by the gospel from all the nations.

JM Are the Corinthians being initiated, and is this the beginning of their initiation, and have they to become accustomed to the idea of things on this line of a mystery?

AJG I think so, and it is a challenge to us as to how far we lay ourselves open to apprehend the things of God. We have the Spirit given to us for that express purpose, “we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things which have been freely given to us of God.” So there, is no credit in ignorance of divine things. Not one of us ought to remain content to be ignorant, for we have received the Spirit of God in order that we may know the things freely given to us of God.

JE The treasure as it came before us this morning would allude to persons would it not, whereas the thought of wisdom here would rather allude to resource, the wondrous system of divine resource that becomes available to us in the Spirit, to be drawn upon in His power?

AJG Yes, I think so, and I think too that the apostle is speaking of wisdom in this way, “God’s wisdom”, because wisdom is such a feature of the world. That is to say, it is not true wisdom of course, but man vaunts himself in wisdom, that which the natural mind is capable of. Hence the apostle is seeking to show us that in the assembly there is that in which true wisdom is to be found, which entirely eclipses and displaces the best the world can produce; and the best the world can produce in the way of wisdom has no ability even to begin to understand God’s wisdom.

RHG Is that because the wisdom of the world has in mind the glory of man, whereas the hidden wisdom has God’s glory in view?

AJG Exactly, the wisdom of the world is really part of the mystery of lawlessness; it is a great system which Satan is building up in opposition to what is of God.

LGL In chapter 1 it says, “Since Jews indeed ask for signs... but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews an offence, and to nations foolishness; but to those that are called... Christ God’s power and God’s wisdom.”

AJG Quite so. He is God’s power for the setting aside of man, that is setting him aside amongst the saints, and He becomes God’s wisdom so that indeed He is made wisdom to us, and He is everything to us in Colossians.

LGL So that it is a contrast to see that the Greeks seek wisdom and, in all their seeking along the lines of the wisdom of this world, they are unable to find it, and as you have indicated, do not enter upon it even at the commencement.

AJG No, that is so. So that each of the four gospels tells us there was a time in the history of our Lord when they came to the place of a skull. Each of the four gospels records that. There are not many things which all the four gospels record, but this is one. They came to the place of the skull; that is, that man in his vaunted wisdom is exposed and utterly devoid of wisdom, for there is nothing so barren and empty as a skull.

CPP You referred this morning to the thought of the temple. Does this work out in a local collective setting as in the next chapter in connection with the presence of the Spirit, the temple light shining as to the things of God?

AJG Yes, I would say that, but I think when we come to Colossians the apostle is concerned that we should have an apprehension of the greatness of the mystery; that is, in the assembly, Christ has a body. His body, and the more we think of that, the more wonderful it will become, because it means that the assembly is intended to be a vessel in which all that Christ is as a Man can find expression; and hence the possibilities in the service of God are immense. The service of God is something that the Lord is stressing at the present time; and that we should understand that in the assembly there is a possibility of Christ’s own affections God-ward, and His own intelligence of divine things, of divine glory, finding expression in the saints, is very wonderful and ought to stimulate us to desire the Lord’s help to move into these things.

JE One was thinking of Proverbs 8 on that line, how early in the creation the quality of wisdom was presented, “Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from eternity,” verses 22 and 23. When the Lord Jesus was here on earth, wisdom had a residence in Him fully. Now that residence is the assembly. Is it not so that the full thought carries through from eternity and finally it will go into eternity?

AJG That is it. Proverbs 8 is a very profitable study because it shows that, before God began any of His operations, He had committed Himself to wisdom. Wisdom was set up or anointed: that is to say, God was moving in wisdom and had the whole plan before Him before He commenced operations, and then all His operations from creation onwards have had in mind the working out of the plan He had already formed in wisdom. It is well to see that.

WHG Is it important for us to have in mind always that the Spirit of God is a divine Person and, therefore, all that is of God is with Him?

AJG Indeed it is. Like the servant in Genesis 24: 10, “all the treasure of his master was under his hand.”

JNG In the passage read in Colossians the Spirit is not prominent, would you tell us why?

AJG The Spirit’s function is to glorify Christ and to take of the things of Christ and show them to us, so that in the epistle to the Colossians, Christ is magnified before us - Colossians 1 particularly setting Christ before us in His glory, indeed in His varied glories, typified in Joseph, I think, in his coat of many colours.

AHS Would you mind enlarging on what you said as to the possibilities of Christ’s affections God-ward finding expression in assembly service?

AJG That is involved in the fact that the assembly is the body of Christ: that is, she is the vessel in which all that is found in Christ as a Man is to be expanded and find expression for the pleasure of God. In 1 Corinthians 2 it says, “we have the mind of Christ,” the thinking faculty of Christ, showing that we are capable, in the Spirit, of having Christ’s own thoughts and His own intelligence, and then it says also that we have the Spirit of Christ, which is character. But we have the Spirit of God’s Son, showing that we are capable of the same affections God-ward as Christ has, so it says, “but ye have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father,” Romans 8: 15. It is the exact expression which the Lord Jesus used in a time of greatest pressure, and expresses the most holy relations between Himself and His Father.

RMY You are viewing the body then not simply as the expression of the life of Jesus here man-ward, but the expression of that life God-ward. Is that right?

AJG Yes I think so; I think it leads to that. The, other side is also true, and I believe works out ultimately in the holy city, that is to say, the assembly, the body of Christ is really, as I see it, the extension of the mediatorial idea, that God has been pleased to place Himself in touch with men in the Person of Christ, Christ become Man, but then Christ has His body, that is to say a vessel in which all that He is as Man can find expression and expansion, nothing added to it, but expansion, and that will work out in a day to come in the heavenly city coming down out of heaven from God. She is identified as the Lamb’s wife.

JE Hence we can understand the figure used, “the tabernacle of God is with men,” Revelation 21: 3; the assembly being equal to this position.

AJG Exactly. It is also very important to see that when Christ became Man, God had in mind to secure man for His pleasure, not only in a mediatorial way to express Him towards the creation, but to secure man for His pleasure, and Christ as a Man becomes the standard of that, and that also is to find expression in His body, involving perfect response God-ward. Men are brought into sonship. A divine Person became Man and has taken up that relationship of sonship because that was in God’s mind for men. Wisdom’s delights were with the sons of men.

JM I would like to ask a question as to glory. In the first scripture the apostle speaks of that which was “predetermined before the ages for our glory: which none of the princes of this age knew, (for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;)”. Then in Colossians he speaks of “the glory of this mystery”. Did you intend to say a word as to the thought of glory connected with it?

AJG Well I believe the Lord would open our eyes to see that Christianity is a great system of glory. It will eventually be displayed in glory, but already it is a great system of glory and the Lord is the Lord of glory; He is over it, that is, He is in control and disposes of the glory how He will. So, for instance, He allows Stephen to be stoned. Why did He do that? He could have preserved him from it, but He did not. He did it because the feature of glory shone out in the stoning of Stephen. Stephen turned to the Lord of glory and he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” Acts 7: 59, and then he knelt down and prayed for his persecutors. That was glory shining out, and the Lord was there disposing of it. He could easily have saved Stephen from the persecution, but He did not; that feature of glory was to come out into expression. And then with Saul of Tarsus, the glory of grace in its supremacy came into expression when the Lord spoke to Saul of Tarsus. Christianity is a great system of glory unfolding in varied ways, and the Lord is Lord of it.

JE I was going to ask whether the ray of glory shining in the martyr Stephen was not used as a means of introducing Saul of Tarsus into the system of glory?

AJG I think it is extremely likely it was, because we are told the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet whose name was Saul, and later on he tells us that he told the Lord that, when the blood of His martyr Stephen was shed, he was there holding the clothes, so evidently the stoning of Stephen had made a great impression on Saul. I have no doubt the pricking of conscience were prompted by what he saw in Stephen.

JE Is that why he speaks, as he does in Colossians 1: 24, of the acceptance of suffering on his part, and of his being prepared to go beyond his own personal measure, as it were, to fill up?

AJG Exactly. I suppose there was perhaps a little unreadiness on the part of the assembly to accept suffering, a little danger perhaps of evading it, and Paul was personally filling up what was lacking so that there should be no lack in the full measure of the sufferings of the body of Christ.

WHG Is that because the glory resulting from it for God is in view; Paul, in that sense, carrying on what shone out in Stephen, as you have said?

AJG I think so, so that there is glory shining in Paul and Silas in prison, and when the jailor says, “what must I do that I may be saved?” Acts 16: 30, they point him to the Lord of glory. They say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house.” There was real glory shining in the prison in Philippi, the glory of a system that could not be overcome by the greatest power in the world, for the Philippian jailor represented the power of the empire of Rome. There were two servants of the Lord that could not be overcome; they were completely superior to it. So it is a great system of glory into which we are introduced.

AHS What is the meaning in the end of verse 27, “the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you the hope of glory”?

AJG Christ had a place in the affections of the nations. Christ has a place in our affections. We can thank God that here in Australia, and in various parts of the world, Christ is held in the affections of the saints; that is a wonderful thing. Christ is held in our affections too in this way that we know that we are bound up with Him, and that when He is glorified we shall be glorified with Him. That is what the third chapter shows; when He shall appear we shall appear with Him in glory. So that it is not only that He is the hope of glory in the sense that we are going to be in heaven, but the fact is that He is the hope of glory because we shall share everything with Him; when He comes in glory we shall be with Him. And it is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations that such a portion should be known among the nations.

WHG That involves the utter displacement of man after the flesh, does it not?

AJG It does indeed.

RMY How are we to understand “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations,” when we read the Old Testament types? Are we entitled to read the mystery into them?

AJG Yes, because the Old Testament saints could not understand what the types represented. It waited for Christ to come to whom all the types pointed forward, and then the Spirit to come. Hence the truth was there in the types; as for instance in Adam and the woman brought to him, but who could understand it? No one could understand it until now; the truth was there, but it was hidden from the past generations, and is now made known.

JE Does the type in Joseph fit into these two sections? In the Corinthians setting He is the power and wisdom of God, and now here it is a matter really of Joseph in his glory among the nations?

AJG I believe Joseph fits in particularly with the epistle to the Colossians; and the exercise of the final part of Jacob’s history, when Joseph sends to him to come down into Egypt, is just to stimulate him to set his mind on things above. It is to stimulate him to move away from natural moorings in which he was living, and living in discouragement, and to find his life in the system of things which was headed up in Joseph; as he did move he became a changed man, and for seventeen years lived in spiritual dignity and contentment and power. Before that, he had been a discouraged man saying all things are against me, and so on. It is just the difference that results as we move away from finding our life in natural things to find our life in Christ’s things, that is, in the assembly.

JM Is that part of the teaching of the epistle to Colossians; to use an expression, that we might cut our anchor ropes in relation to the earth? Has it not heavenly mindedness in view and what is connected with that scene?

AJG Quite so. Hence the importance of our realising that we are part of the assembly, which is Christ’s body, intimately bound up with Christ, and hence we are to set our minds on things above where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. But there is another thing of great importance that comes in in this passage in Colossians, the apostle says, “I would have you know what combat I have for you, and those in Laodicea... to the end that their hearts may be encouraged, being united together in love.” It is a most essential feature of the truth of the assembly that we should be practically united together in love, because the idea of the body of Christ is an entity functioning, not a lot of individual brethren taking part, but an entity functioning, and therefore we must be first of all united together in love or else there will be that which will hinder the functioning of the body.

JWH Does the thought of presenting every man perfect in Christ underlie this thought of being united together in love?

AJG I think presenting every man perfect in Christ is an individual side of the truth - presenting every man would involve that. It would involve that we learn to walk in the Spirit; the first-fruit of the Spirit is love.

RHG Does not the truth of the assembly largely remain a mystery to us unless we are united together in love?

AJG I think it does. We may perhaps apprehend it purely objectively, but there is no realisation of the actual working out of it save as we are united in love, as it was remarked at the meetings in London last July that unity body-wise underlies union. That is, before we can enter into what is distinctly the assembly’s portion in union with Christ, we must be united with one another in love. The Lord will not unite with Himself what is disunited in itself.

JM Is there wisdom in the way the apostle speaks to the Corinthians? He would encourage them and then he would tell them of the moral side; they were not really up to it. Is it not the same in Colossians, he is instructing them further now, and in chapter 2 he is suggesting the way it works, the vital spring of it, would you say?

AJG Yes I think so. He refers to the mystery of God in Colossians 2: 2. The true rendering is “the mystery of God; in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge.” That is, the Spirit of God is stressing the greatness of the mystery, and that in the mystery are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

CS Does the love of the Spirit come into this matter of being united together? It is spoken of in the end of Romans 15 where Paul beseeches them by the love of the Spirit. Would that come into this matter of being united together in love?

AJG I would say that “your love in the Spirit” which we have in Colossians 1: 8 enters into it. Love in the Spirit certainly underlies our being united together in love.

CPP Does the place that Christ has in the affections of each saint come into it as the first chapter would bring Him before us as you have said?

AJG I think so, and I think we have to recognise that we are taught of God to love one another. It is innate in us to love one another. It is the divine nature working out, but sometimes things are allowed that interfere with it, interfere with the expression of love and interfere with the development of love, and hence we are to guard against those and to refuse everything that would interfere with the practical development and expression of love, so that we are united together in love.

LGL There seems to be a suggestion in connection with the range referred to in chapter 2. The apostle has combat for those at Colosse and those at Laodicea, and as many as have not seen his face, and then he goes on to the thought of being united together in love. Would there be an indication at the present time, in the measure in which that is developing among the saints universally, that these things are working out in our day in perhaps a fuller measure than we had known them previously?

AJG Yes, I would say that thoroughly. It is a most encouraging feature the way the Lord is binding the saints together, and we are to take account of that as a feature of our day, and to strain every nerve, so to speak, to guard against Satan bringing in anything that would interfere with it.

JE If we laid hold of the thought that in the assembly all this resource resides, it would deliver us from every other system that might exist, would it not?

AJG It would indeed, and though the Colossians were very considerably advanced in spiritual stature the apostle sees a very real danger with them, and that was a danger of turning aside to human wisdom, what he calls philosophy and vain deceit, and hence, in order to meet that, he presents the greatness of Christ in a striking way - “in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell”. The assembly has as its Head a divine Person in Manhood, and all the fulness of the Godhead is in Him, so we do not need to go outside of Christ for anything. Questions arise amongst us; where do we turn for wisdom? We are to understand that all wisdom for every matter is available directly in Christ and there is no reason why we should be turned aside to any other resource, because the assembly is set up in fulness of resource in its Head.

Ques In that way does the mystery of God involve all dispensations?

AJG The mystery of God is an expression which we get in Revelation and which we may touch on at a subsequent reading. I think the mystery of God does include all dispensations; that is, it has reference, I think, to God’s ways all down the ages, but I would connect it here with the truth set out in this epistle.

JNG Does the fact that there appears to be no direct quotation from the Old Testament in Colossians emphasise how this mystery was hidden in past ages?

AJG That is very interesting and suggestive. It is quite clear it was hidden in past ages but is now made known. That is another thing that should greatly stimulate us to go in for these things, because God has now opened up in our day what He deliberately hid from past generations, that is to say, there are things now available to us that were not available to such great men as Abraham and Moses and David and others, and God has given us the Spirit that we may know the things that are freely given us of God, and hence we ought to be stimulated to really go in for these things.

RHG Apart from the revelation of the mystery, the Word of God would be in large measure at least a matter of history of God’s dealings with men, would it not?

AJG Yes. I have no doubt there was some wisdom in God’s ways all down the ages as to which one cannot say much, and that He was preparing the ground. I think the more the Lord throws light by the Spirit on the Old Testament, the more we see that all that He was working out in past centuries, in the lives of men or in nations, really had our day in view and had in mind illustrating the truth of the assembly for us.

LGL So that Peter’s first epistle refers to those who sought out these matters and enquired into them in a past dispensation in order to arrive at the truth of what was being presented, but it is for the saints of this dispensation to move into the good of it. Does it suggest that we might be diligent in this matter of enquiry?

AJG Yes exactly. Peter’s epistle says, “Concerning which salvation prophets, who have prophesied of the grace towards you, sought out and searched out; ...the Spirit of Christ which was in them pointed out, testifying before of the sufferings which belonged to Christ, and the glories after these.,” 1 Peter 1:10,11, so the whole of the Old Testament really has been written for us.

WHG So the same Spirit we have been speaking of in Corinthians is the One who indited the Old Testament Scriptures.

AJG Quite so.

RHG And is it a fact that what is hidden in mystery, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, become available as we are united together in love?

AJG Yes, I think so, and as together we learn how to depend on the Lord. That brings in what we were referring to earlier as to the temple, what is possible in virtue of the Spirit being with us, the light that can be thrown on divine things.

ABJ Do you think an increased apprehension of these things including the mystery would greatly enrich our service of praise and worship?

AJG I do, because I think there is not only the riches of divine grace in our portion in the assembly and that is wonderful, but the riches of divine wisdom too. I think the more we see what wisdom there is in the very conception of the assembly as the body of Christ, what it has in mind, how perfect the response God-ward can be when the vessel of it has Christ as its Head, and how perfect, in a day to come, the representation of God toward the creation can be when the vessel of administration is one who is united to Christ and deriving from Him, the more we are impressed with divine wisdom, which is a feature of the glory of God.

WHG Does the truth of the body of Christ underlie the whole service?

AJG Yes I would think so.

WCB Does the fact that the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are said to be hidden indicate that to get the gain of them there must be a certain state with us?

AJG I think so, and I think involves that they are not to be known by us without being searched out. It says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the glory of kings is to search out a thing,” Proverbs 25: 2. They will not be known by us if we are dilatory. They are to be sought out.

JM Would you give a little more help as to the expression “the full knowledge of the mystery of God”? What is involved in the word “mystery of God”?

AJG While we get the expression in Revelation 10, I think there it is wider than what is brought in here. It is clear here that “the full knowledge of the mystery” evidently refers to the mystery, that is the truth of the assembly, which Colossians has in view.

JM That is what I wanted some help on and I am sure the brethren too, giving us some impression of the value of this vessel. Is it not something of the pearl, the precious beauty of the pearl coming to light?

AJG Yes, but I think it is even more than that because the pearl is, I think, particularly the assembly in its beauty under the Lord’s eye as undivided in her affections for Him and held thus under His influence. But here “the full knowledge of the mystery of God;

in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge” I think shows it is the great vessel in which divine wisdom in its fulness finds expression.

RHG How does that differ from what you have in verse 10, “ye are complete in him”?

AJG “Ye are complete in him” is just to set before us that we do not need to go outside of Christ for anything. If it is a question of ability to serve God acceptably, we need to derive impulse and affections and intelligence from Christ and if we bring in anything else, natural sentiment or anything of that sort, or human learning, it will only spoil it. On the other hand, if it is a question of meeting things that arise (because we are in the presence at present of hades’ gates and all sorts of things may arise) we do not need to go outside of Christ for wisdom as to how to meet what arises.

JE To make it practical, for instance, if an issue arises anywhere and the saints look to the Lord to come in, does He not really make use of what is already there in the assembly? Does He not draw upon this resource to meet any exigency that might arise at any time?

AJG That is what I understand. There is no reason why we should find ourselves nonplussed or overcome by anything that arises if only we are in the faith of what we have in our Head and are content to look to Him for wisdom and guidance.

JE Then on the other hand, in the service of God we have the thought in Hebrews 2 of Christ hymning God’s praise in the midst of the assembly. That would be impossible apart from this thought, would it not?

AJG Yes it would. It must be a great thing to the heart of Christ, and very gratifying to the heart of God, that in the assembly Christ has a vessel that is capable of expressing His own praises.

WHG The responsible side of the assembly is the woman of worth at the end of Proverbs, the summation of the whole book?

AJG Yes, I think so. I think she is the product of divine wisdom in this world because Proverbs contemplates this present world and how the sons are to go through the world; they are to find their life and interests in the assembly, and the last chapter is the great product of wisdom.

TRY It has been said that ‘response is equal to revelation’. Is that because it all centres in Christ?

AJG Exactly. Response is equal to the revelation; that is, God has come out in perfect revelation in Christ, a divine Person become Man; but response to it is equal to revelation because that same divine Person become Man, you might say, heads the response and gives character to it, and He has in the assembly a vessel in which that response can find expression in His own intelligence and affections. The response being equal to the revelation could only be true in Christ.

CPP Is the thought of the fulness of the Godhead connected with revelation in that way? What is the force of that expression for us?

AJG I would rather think it was connected with wisdom and resource; and all that is presented in God as revealed, is now to be found in Christ as a Man. Hence the assembly is set up, whether it be all that God is toward us as made known in Christ, or all that we are toward God as set out in Christ - so that we may be filled by it and take character from it.

JE Is this not unique to Christ personally? You could not exactly say the fulness of the Godhead was in the assembly?

AJG No, it is in Christ bodily, but then it is there available to the assembly, to His body. There is no object, so to speak, in Christ becoming a Man save that God has in mind to make Himself known to men and secure a perfect response from men; and response in the highest degree of intelligence and affection is secured in the assembly, the body of Christ.

AHS Does that wisdom have to be arrived at assembly-wise rather than merely individually?

AJG Yes surely. It is not exactly with a view to what is available to us individually. It is a question of what is available to the assembly in its Head.

JE Does the fulness of the Godhead become understandable by us as we see it in bodily expression in Christ? Is that not the idea that what no creature could possibly compass otherwise has been brought into expression in Christ personally?

AJG Yes, but then I think it is not only that it is in expression in Christ personally, but it is available to us. I think this passage has in mind to show what is available to the assembly in its Head. In the first chapter we have “all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to itself, having made peace by the blood of his cross - by him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.” That refers to Christ as a Man here, that all the fulness was pleased to dwell in Him, and by means of the blood of His cross to reconcile all things to Itself, that is to the Fulness. Christ in virtue of redemption will take up all things and all things will be headed up and held by the One in whom all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell. In that way all things will be reconciled to the Godhead. But then the assembly has as its Head One in whom all the fulness of the Godhead is pleased to dwell bodily. That is to make us feel that in our Head as Man we have every kind of resource that is necessary, and that as we draw upon it there is no reason why we should not be perfectly filling out our intended position, whether it be God-ward or toward the creation.

There is a note at Colossians 2: 10 on the word complete, which reads ‘or filled full, referring to all fulness being in him. The fulness or completeness of the Godhead is in Christ, as towards us; and we, as towards God, are complete in Him.’ That is, we lack nothing because everything is in Christ, and hence there is no reason why the service God-ward in the assembly should not be fully worthy of God because we can derive impulse, affection and intelligence from Christ in whom “dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”.

JWH Why do you think the matter of being Head of all principality and authority is brought in here?

AJG I think to show how completely we are in immediate touch with One who eclipses and supersedes all others.

Rem We are hid with Christ in God, so that all these attributes must be available to us.

AJG Our life is hid with Christ in God, but then chapter 2 is to show us how completely we are set up in our Head, that we have as Head One who is no less than One in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily. It shows therefore there is no reason why we should be lacking in wisdom or in intelligence or in anything God looks for in His people, because all that will perfectly answer to what the Godhead is, is there now in Christ bodily.

CPP Is it right that all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge hid in the mystery are dependent on the assembly’s link with Christ?

AJG Yes I am sure of that. Hence the apostle says, “As therefore ye have received the Christ... rooted and built up in him, and assured in the faith ... abounding in it with thanksgiving.” The apostle is concerned that we should not be diverted from Christ and that we should be continually growing in the knowledge of Christ and of the fulness there is in Him.

RHG Was it the sense of that in his soul that really led to the combat he speaks of?

AJG Yes I think so, because he could detect there was at work an influence in Colosse that was turning them away from Christ, and therefore there was real combat in his prayers; he was conscious in his prayers that he was up against Satanic opposition that was working in that way to divert the saints from Christ.