COLOSSIANS 2
ALM What was the immediate cause of the apostle writing this epistle?
CAC It appears from verses 4 and 8 that there was some danger threatening, an effort to take them away from Christ so that God might not any longer have His pleasure in them.
ALM The great object of the Spirit’s work in us is that God might have pleasure in His people.
CAC A good deal in the Colossians was very beautiful as far as it went. The apostle could speak in verse 5 of “rejoicing and seeing your order”. I suppose that would mean that they stood in the good of 1 Corinthians — that is the epistle of order.
ALM The danger lay in the object of the enemy, which was to get them occupied with another object rather than Christ.
CAC Yes, it is necessary not only to receive Christ but to walk in Him.
ALM What does that mean?
CAC Receiving the Christ is the commencement of an entirely new kind of movement. It is receiving the anointed Man, the Man who is pleasurable to God; and now the great thing is that all the movement among the saints should be in Him. If we made everything of what makes much of Christ, there would be no room left for the intrusion of what pertains to any other man.
Ques Why is it “the Christ”?
CAC I thought it was that they had received the Christ, not only the Saviour. They had received the Christ as the One in whom all God’s pleasure is centred: it is not only all blessing for themselves but all the pleasure of God is in the anointed One.
ALM “As therefore ye have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord”. We have come now to a new order of man, a new power and a new authority, everything complete in Him. It is not their eternal security, but the saints are put on the line of a new order of being down here.
CAC They were to continue on the line of the work of God. It had brought them to firm faith in Christ; they had been rooted in Christ, firmly fixed by the divine work in the truth of the Christ as the object of divine pleasure, and now they were not to be turned aside from that: they were to continue to walk in Him. The danger was that elements of philosophy, vain deceit, traditions of men and the elements of the world might be brought in. The enemy would tell them that there were wonderful things to be learnt besides Christ, and additional to Him; that Christ was all very well, but they must have room in their minds for other things; in that way he would rob them of Christ.
Ques Had they understood something of the church in the wilderness and now the apostle is seeking to show them the heavenly position?
CAC Yes, they were in the good of the two epistles to [p. 291] the Corinthians. The first is the epistle of assembly order in the wilderness; and in the second epistle the saints are looked at as firmly attached to Christ by divine power. The apostle says, “I am ... rejoicing and seeing your order” that is the first epistle — “and the firmness of your faith in Christ”, that is like the second epistle. Now the object of the Spirit of God in this epistle to the Colossians was to bring them to the truth of being risen with Christ, a new position with God. It is not a wilderness position but a position over Jordan. It is a wonderful thing to be not only rooted in Christ, but built up in Him; it is the proper gain of the assembly. ‘Rooted’ is what has been done; it is the soul firmly fixed in Christ by the work of God; something like the ‘firmly attached to Christ’ of 2 Corinthians 1: 21, New Translation note. Then there is the being built up in Him — a present or continuous thing. That is the normal gain of saints as in divine order, and as having faith in Christ. Our meetings, our intercourse, our reading, our prayers, all further a continuous building up in Christ, and thus we are confirmed in the faith, so that souls are firm in what they have been taught, and there is abounding thanksgiving. When thanksgiving fails, the enemy gets his chance. When you see the saints with miserable faces, and full of complaints, you may depend that God is not getting much in the way of thanksgiving.
There is a continual acting of divine power and grace building up the saints in Christ: that is the Man we are to be built up in. It is not the man here, who is the Adam man, but the Man at the right hand of God. As built up in that Man we are prepared to be severed from the man here — that is in circumcision and baptism. There is circumcision, burial, resurrection and quickening — all in the light of Christ and being built up in Him; so we find we are entirely independent of the world and of every man that is in it.
ALM Would you say something about the corporate character of this epistle?
CAC It speaks of the saints as the body, that living organism in which every part is appreciative of Christ. There is a company of persons in this world, a great living organism, the product of divine work, and every one forming part of it appreciates and cherishes Christ. He is the object of desire to every one in the body. It is a corporate idea because every saint who has the Spirit forms part of the body. Christ is [p. 292] rejected by this world but there is a company by whom He is cherished and valued, and who have a true thought of Him “the riches of the glory of this mystery ... which is Christ in you the hope of glory”. That is the place Christ has, a place in the affections of the saints.
The danger is that the enemy may bring something in which would steal our hearts from Christ. It does not matter how good it is if it is not Christ. Whatever influence there may be of this kind is exposed in this one fact that it is not according to Christ.
ALM If we look around we do not see much appreciation of Christ in believers.
CAC I think there may be many believers in Jesus who have not received the Christ. The majority of converted people in the world have not received the Christ: they believe in Jesus, they know He died for them, and bore their sins, and trusting in His merits they believe they will go to heaven when they die; but receiving the Christ is another thing altogether. The saints in Colosse had Christ ministered to them as God’s anointed, the object of His pleasure: all God’s pleasure centred in that Man. No other man but Christ is of any value to God; the most religious man in this world, the best man, is a complete moral wreck. Christ is the Man of God’s delight, and if Christ has a place in the heart there is something for God: that is a delight to God, not what man is in himself. The body is made up of those who appreciate Christ, attach value to Him and make much of Him, and think nothing of any other man. “The body is of Christ”. There is a company of persons in this world by the powerful working of God who do think something, if not very adequately, of the preciousness and worthiness and sufficiency of Christ; and that company is the body. It is an immense thing to receive the Christ: it is another order of man altogether. Christ, the anointed Man, is the great contrast to Adam. We all know the kind of man Adam is; we have all derived from Adam. All the moral qualities of men of this world — the natural qualities, intelligence, ability — are derived from Adam, but that man has fallen and been rejected of God. Now there is another Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came into this world as a man: He has been to the cross, and has gone as the risen and glorified Man to the right hand of God. He is the object of God’s pleasure. God has made Him known and given hearts [p. 293] in this world to receive Him: many have received Him as the object of divine and eternal pleasure, and those who have received Him constitute His body. Now the great thing is to be built up continuously in Christ, and not to be diverted from Him by religious traditions, or any elements of this world. We are to be continually built up in Christ — that is the saints walking together in Christ. We walk together as christians that we may build each other up in Christ. I trust we are walking in Him tonight as we sit together over the word, and that there is a desire in every heart that we may think, and learn, and know more of Christ, and be built up in Him. If we are walking in Him tonight let us keep it up. We have to do our work at home or in the office or shop, but all the inward movements of our souls are connected with Christ, we walk in Him.
Ques Why does it say, “Jesus the Lord”?
CAC That brings in lordship as well as headship; we need Him as Lord as well as Head. We have to take up everything here in the Lord; business and natural relationships are all to be taken up in the Lord; they are only carried out rightly as the Lord is before us. The great standard of conduct for this world is that we should all have the Lord before us and be in subjection to Him. If I have the Lord before me I have to be in subjection to His will. I have to be concerned that the way I do things is to stand the test of the Lord’s presence, for I am a servant under lordship. If not right in lordship, I shall not know much about headship.
We are tested in going on together as to whether we desire to make everything of Christ and to walk in Him. A thousand and one things can easily come in so that the object practically ceases to be Christ.
Ques Is the thought of being descriptive of Him in chapter 3?
CAC Yes, the order of it is that in chapter 1 Christ is in the saints; that means He has a place in their affections. Chapter 2 comes in as a warning against being diverted from Christ by some moral or religious influence which is not Christ. Chapter 3 brings us to being descriptive of Christ; the saints are to put on the beautiful features of Christ. They are looked at as dead and risen with Christ; they have put off the old and put on the new man, and they are to clothe themselves with the beautiful features of Christ for the pleasure of God. Then they [p. 294] become descriptive of Christ. It is all the result of divine operation; there would have been nobody here if there had not been divine operation. On this line saints can abound in thanksgiving: they become confirmed in faith and abound in thanksgiving (verse 7). There is a constant stream of thanksgiving to God because of Christ.
The Spirit hides Himself in this epistle behind His work. His work is to magnify Christ, to make everything of Christ. This epistle is full of Christ.
Ques What is holding the Head?
CAC The most essential thing in Christianity is to hold the Head. If we do not hold the Head we do not know anything about Christianity.
ALM How is all this worked out practically?
CAC The first chapter brings before us the greatness of the Head; and holding the Head is to preserve a firm grasp of all Christ is as presented in this epistle. We have a firm grip on it, and constantly look up to Him with reverence and affection as the source of supply to the body. There is no source of supply to the body but the Head; He is the source of all nourishment and direction for the body. To hold the Head is to hold that in our affections all the time. Think of the statement here, “For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”. What a marvellous statement — all the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in a Man with a human body at the right hand of God! All the fulness of the Godhead is in that Man; nothing will ever be discovered about the Godhead through all eternity which is not expressed in that Man. What a wonderful Person to get before the soul! Think of all the blessedness of the Father, Son and Spirit, all that is adequate to set forth the Godhead — subsisting in that glorified Man in a body! It takes away from any vague thought of a spirit — it is a Man with a body.
Then we are filled full in Him who is the Head. What can saints who are filled full in Him want from any other source! There is no knowledge of God outside Christ; there is no expression of God in His universe outside Christ — the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. You cannot add anything on that line: there is no addition to Christ. On the other hand how are we set up in presence of the Godhead? “Complete in him who is the head of all principality and authority”. The Head is an infinitude of blessedness, and the saints as deriving from Him are filled full in Him. We have to learn that fulness; it is all there for our appropriation. It does not say He is Head merely for us, but Head of all principality and authority. There is not a dignity in the moral universe which will not derive everything from Christ; He is our Head. God’s universe is an ordered system; it is marked by rule, authority, and various dignities. All this is for the pleasure of God, and Christ is Head of all. The most exalted dignities in the universe will take character from Christ — all will have to draw their dignity and character from Christ. He is going to fill everything so that it will be fully for the pleasure of God. He is great enough to do it. It is striking that this aspect of His headship should be brought in here. It is to give the illimitable scope of His fulness as that in which the saints are filled full, and it is brought in to prepare us to accept circumcision — the complete cutting off of the flesh. No one will accept circumcision if he does not know what it is to be filled full in Christ. Circumcision means the putting off of the body of the flesh; that is, everything that belongs to me as a man in the flesh living in this world has to be put off not actually, but in mind and spirit. All has to be cut off that has been cut off in the death of Christ. It is very blessed to see that we come at it from the side of being filled full in Christ; if I have a sense of that I do not want a single thing connected with myself. If filled full in the glorious Man at God’s right hand, what do I want with the things belonging to a man down here, the wisdom and abilities of a man in the flesh?
ALM We can sit at His feet and drink it in as Mary did.
CAC Yes, and we are welcome to it, it is for the whole church, and for the world if they would have it. The fulness of Christ is for everybody if they will have it. “Whom we announce, admonishing every man, and teaching every man ... that we may present every man perfect in Christ”. That shows the scope of it; it is for every man.
Rem As to the order here, Gilgal is put first, but it was the other side of Jordan.
CAC Yes. We should have perhaps expected baptism to be put first, but Paul puts circumcision first and then burial with Christ in baptism. When we have learned that we can do without the flesh — that it is a hindrance and must be cut off, and that it has been cut off in the death of Christ, then we can enter [p. 296] into what it is to be buried with Him in baptism. It is that we go in mind out of the world as completely as if we were buried, in view of being raised with Him. I think we only get the full spiritual import of baptism in the light of circumcision. It is striking that not till the people were circumcised at Gilgal was the reproach of Egypt rolled off. It suggests they were not clear of Egypt till they were circumcised; and if so they had not entered into the import of being baptised to Moses in the Red Sea. When God brought His people out, what He had in mind was to bring them in. The Red Sea is what answers to baptism, and Jordan is connected with their going in.
In Romans baptism has to do with the new place which we take up in relation to this world; it is in view of being dead to sin and walking here in newness of life; we are to walk in a new kind of life morally in the old place. But in Colossians it is not that; it is in view of living with Christ in a new place as risen with Him.
It was when Israel got to Gilgal that the reproach of Egypt was rolled off. In circumcision they accepted the truth of baptism. The people had to follow the ark of the covenant over Jordan; it was a question of the attraction of the ark.
In Colossians it is a question of the attraction of Christ. We have received a Person who is so known and precious that we are prepared to follow Him in order to live with Him, and that is outside human life here altogether. Everything is to be taken up here in the light of Christ known in the heart. One gets a sense that everything I could boast in as man in the flesh has been cut off in the death of Christ. If we see that we are prepared to enter into what baptism is. As a matter of fact very few of us had any knowledge of what our baptism meant till long after we were baptised. We were baptised at the start but we have to come to it in mind, to realise that in our baptism we were buried with Christ. We are not actually buried, but we have to come to it in mind. If I come to that, my mind is not to live in this world, but to live morally and spiritually with Christ. He lives as a risen Man, God operated and raised Him from the dead, and we are raised with Him “through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead”. It is a question of faith.