COLOSSIANS 1
CAC It is a great thing for us to be moved away from the narrowness and limitations connected with ourselves to the great spiritual possibilities which are brought near to us when we have to do with God. I suppose we have to follow the line which is laid down in this chapter if we are to come into the presence of the blessedness of Christ as the Head.
Ques Would you say what the line is?
CAC The line of the kingdom. We have to move along a certain moral way to reach Christ as presented in the latter part of the chapter.
P Is lordship spoken of in connection with the kingdom?
CAC Yes, there must be that side. We must learn the kingdom and be in the good of it to be set free to contemplate [p. 260] the Head. It needs great liberty of heart to contemplate the Head. The kingdom is presented in a unique manner in this epistle; it is not seen anywhere else in the same way. It is a peculiar aspect of the kingdom which needs to be experimentally learned if saints are to be free in their affections to contemplate the Head. I would say that in the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love we are free in heart because love pervades that kingdom. It is a realm of divine affections; so the heart is liberated; we need to be there before we can apprehend what it is to be risen with Christ. It is no use to talk about being risen with Christ to a people who are not liberated in their affections.
Rem Sometimes the kingdom is touched in a legal way.
CAC Yes, the elements of legality cling very tightly to us; it is not easy to get rid of graveclothes! But the elements of darkness and bondage are eliminated from the heart in the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. I felt greatly touched as we sang: ‘O blessed living Lord, Engage our hearts with Thee’. I felt there was a power in the Lord to set us free for Himself. We asked Him to engage our hearts with Himself; there is a power in the Lord to set us free for Himself and that is the power of the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love.
We must gather up what we have had before us on previous nights. The apostle prays, and we are sure he does not pray for impossibilities. The fact of his praying shows that what he prays for is available. It supposes a people formed in answer to prayer, grown up in wisdom and spiritual understanding. It supposes growth to manhood; you do not expect to find wisdom and spiritual understanding in a baby. The result of being grown up is that we are able to walk worthily of the Lord; there is strength for it. In the kingdom the Lord is before every one; that is the standard for the youngest believer, and for all of us, as to practical life down here. As to what we eat and drink and wear, and how we carry ourselves about our work, there is the same standard for all; each is to have the Lord before him, and not to meddle with another. In that way each would be found walking worthily of the Lord.
Ques What is the difference between the kingdom in Romans and here?
CAC The kingdom in Romans is the end in view; in Colossians it is the starting point. In Romans we are justified, and we know God as the Deliverer to set us free from sin, the [p. 261] law and the flesh, so that we might become suitable subjects for His kingdom, and be found in a sphere here on earth in responsibility, filled with righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and in that sphere abounding in hope. That is the end in Romans, but that is the starting point in Colossians. We shall not understand Colossians if we do not know in some small measure what it is to be in the kingdom as seen in Romans. The aspect of the kingdom in Romans is in relation to what it delivers you from; in Colossians it is in relation to what it delivers you for. A wonderful vista is opened up in Colossians; the kingdom comes in to set us free for an entirely new order of things.
The apostle was encouraged to pray for the Colossians because there was something there to work on. Often with saints one feels that things are so immature that there is very little to work on, but it was not so with the Colossians; they had faith in Christ and they loved all the saints. The apostle was free to pray, and he prayed for possibilities, not impossibilities. Then the power of the kingdom comes in in connection with the strenuous character of life in the kingdom. Life in the kingdom is a very strenuous life, so strenuous that the natural man would break down as soon as he entered it. It is no good saying that christianity is easy; it is not. The Lord never misled anyone by making them feel that they would be in an easy path. It is a path where difficulties are great; there is a constant demand for endurance and long-suffering, and nothing will enable a saint to endure and suffer but “the might of his glory”. There is not one of us but would break down at once — and we all do at times — but for the might of His glory. It conveys to me the thought of a wonderful power-house at the right hand of God, and if you can only get connected with that power-house, you will get a supply of energy that will carry you through everything. The electric cars go along the level beautifully, but they go up the steepest hill just as beautifully because they have a link with the power-house. There is a positive source of power in Christ at the right hand of God, so that when a saint is doing the will of God and comes across difficulties and pressures and sufferings so great that they would be unendurable to nature, he is cast on that source of power, and, instead of escaping suffering by getting out of the path of God’s will, he is endued with power and is enabled to endure and suffer. Paul had proved it; he was not speaking [p. 262] of something he knew nothing about; it is in proving a thing that we learn its true value. Can you endure suffering and bear pressure? You find out you can, when “strengthened with all power”.
JRK Luther was sustained.
CAC That was in view of testimony, but this verse is not exactly testimony, but inward power that enables one to endure and suffer. The natural thought with every one of us is to get out of suffering if we can, but there is power to enable us to go on enduring and suffering with joy; that is the great point. Many a saint has gone through pressure which, if he had known it before, he would have thought impossible to go through. But they found they did go through it; the might of His glory carried them through.
Paul comes to the end of the prayer in the end of verse 11; the things that are to be found in verses 9, 10 and 11 are matters for prayer, but in verse 12 he passes over to thanksgiving, passes over to the region of the Father’s actings. When we do so we have really passed out of the world. The moment you touch the scene of the Father’s actings in your affections you are outside the world.
There are connecting links between the different lines of truth and teaching which are presented in different epistles by different writers; there are points of contact between them all because they all form one whole. What we get here has a point of contact with John’s writing. It is the Father who has done everything, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of saints in light. That is the line of John’s gospel. You do not carry many disciples with you through John’s gospel. Many disciples dropped off when the Lord told them everything must be of the Father, and unless the Father does it nothing is done; that leaves no place for man. Therefore when you touch the Father’s actings you are outside the world. If we were giving thanks to the Father in the spirit of this verse we should be in affection outside the world; we should be free in an out-of-the-world condition. A people entangled with the world could not be put together for one moment with those giving thanks to the Father outside the world in the region of the Father’s actings. We have no capability beyond the measure in which we are formed in the divine nature; that is the force of verse 12 — “made us fit”. It is not by washing us in the blood of Christ — not ‘fit’ from the point of view of righteousness. ‘Fit’ here is the same word as translated elsewhere ‘competent’ or ‘sufficient’. It is the same word as in “who is sufficient for these things”, and “Our competency is of God”. If the Father has made us sufficient, or competent, it implies a nature competent to enjoy and enter into these things. It is the line of the Father’s working. In John’s gospel the Lord refers to it again and again; He speaks of the Father drawing and teaching, and persons learning from the Father. He speaks of the Father’s sheep, and the men given Him by the Father. It is the Father’s side; it is the backbone of John’s gospel on the subjective side. On one side the Father is revealed in the Son, but on the other there is a divine generation who have their origin in the Father. That is the line presented here; that is the kind of people who come into view of Christ as Head.
The portion of saints in divine light is wonderful. Our portion is Christ, and that is the blessedness of the assembly. When we come together in assembly we are entitled to forget everything but the divine light in which we have our common portion. One would not like a thought of imperfection in a believer to come into one’s mind at the Supper. We are there in divine light, morally apart from blemishes or imperfections; bound up with all the perfections of Christ. We could not have the lofty note of praise proper to the assembly if saints were before us as involved in all kinds of imperfections; it would take all the music out of our hearts! We should not be sharing the portion of the saints in light; we should be away from the Father’s realm and from the spirit of thanksgiving.
It is a wonderful thing to have touched the circle of the Father’s activities and to look on saints according to what they are in divine generation. Some may be babes, young and feeble in the family, but all are there as members of the family. All are entitled to come there in the family atmosphere. I think we touch the family idea here: “See what love the Father has given to us that we should be called the children of God”. It is a question of what divine love has given. None of the saints did anything to get that place or to retain it; the Father’s love gave them that place. To partake of the divine nature is a fact, a blessed divine reality brought about by the Father’s love. If I partake of the divine nature I have capacity [p. 264] to enjoy things that belong to the sphere of light where the saints have their portion as bound up with all the blessedness of Christ. There is not a shade of imperfection or sign of blemish there in that light. If you could tell me there was a shade of imperfection there you would ruin my happiness. It does not follow that every saint enjoys the portion in the same degree. In the morning meeting everyone does not enjoy in the same degree what is said or done, but all have a common joy. The youngest babe has the capacity to enjoy, though not as great a capacity as a father. But it is well to see what the Father is doing, what the Father has done. He has a family of children; the children of God are a real generation in this world and I view the saints as being of that generation.
Nothing has any place in the assembly that is not the outcome of love, and what is the outcome of love edifies. The assembly is the place of divine intelligence. If a babe in Christ took part in the meeting and was sustained by the Lord, he would not go beyond his measure, and all would go with what he said. There is no excuse for people saying what is defective; there is no room in the assembly for that. The assembly is an intelligent company; what a babe said, if kept within his measure, would not be unintelligent. The youngest babe speaks of what he has found and known in divine Persons and everyone can go with it.
Rem I have never heard the kingdom pressed on the affection side before.
CAC The kingdom in affection is most blessed. It is no use to go on to consider Christ as Head if we have not liberated affections; the people who can give thanks to the Father and come into view of the Father’s actings are liberated in affections. “Giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light”. We share all the blessedness of Christ. Then the Father has delivered us from the authority of darkness. We are bound up with Christ for eternity; not a darkening element is left to obscure our joy in the love of the Father. We enjoy as those identified with the place which Christ has before the Father as the Son of His love. Every question is settled: we have redemption, forgiveness of sins, there is perfect liberty. We are brought to a circle where love predominates — the kingdom of the Son of His love — a beautiful aspect of the kingdom. It is the influence of love that liberates from every distraction. The Father sets [p. 265] us free, we are a divine generation, we are liberated from everything that would detain our affections. Now God is going to present a wonderful object, but it is to a people with liberated affections. That object is Christ as Head.
Ques Why is “through his blood” omitted in Colossians (verse 14)?
CAC Because the question of the Person is so much in view. In Ephesians His blood is brought in because it is a question of how we stand with God. Here it is what the Father has done, so the thought of the blood does not come in. Redemption subsists in all the value of the Person who is the Son of His love. The blood has infinite value with God, but the Person has infinite value with the Father. Redemption means that we are put outside the enemy’s power, and forgiveness of sins is the settlement of every moral question connected with our former history, so that not a single thing is left to hinder us knowing the blessed Christ as Head. It is the common portion of saints that they enjoy this blessedness. It is the subject of thanksgiving here because of the perfect liberation which is secured for the affections of the saints; the Father has wrought wondrously that we might be free for Christ. It is lovely to think that the Father would have us to be perfectly free for Christ. Is my heart so free and liberated that there is not a thing to distract me from Christ? If that is so I know what it is to touch the circle of the Father’s actings; my heart is full of thanksgiving. Every question has been settled. John says, “Your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake”. You are in the family of God with every question settled, that you may be free to enjoy the positive divine blessedness into which you are brought. You do not live on the fact that all questions have been settled. That would be like the woman trying to live on the fact that her creditors had been paid! She lived on the rest of the oil. Many saints can thank God that every question is settled, but they do not get farther; they do not know what it is to live on the rest.