COLOSSIANS 2
Ques You spoke last week of ‘over Jordan’ referring to the forty days. Will you explain that?
CAC I was referring to the forty days when the Lord was seen by His disciples as risen, before His ascension; it was not heaven but an entirely new sphere of life.
All this part of the chapter hangs on being complete in Him; it can only be taken up spiritually as we have the sense of being complete in Him. If we are filled full in Christ we are independent of everything that is not Christ. But then the Christ in whom we are complete is a Christ who is not alive in this world at all. He was once alive here, but His life here was terminated by death, and He has been raised by the working of God; it is in that One that we are as saints filled full. Being in the sense of that prepares one to accept circumcision, and to be really in the true value of baptism, and to come in faith to being raised with Christ.
Rem In the sense of being complete in Christ we can touch the truth of baptism.
CAC I think so, in the Colossian sense. In Romans baptism does not quite suggest being raised with Christ; Christ’s resurrection is in view, but not ours. “We shall be of his resurrection”; “we shall also live with him”. It is all included, but viewed as in prospect rather than as present. But in Colossians baptism is regarded from the standpoint of being complete in Christ, and of being circumcised in Him. His death is seen as “the circumcision of the Christ”. In Romans we are buried with Him in order that we may be found living a new kind of life here. Walking “in newness of life” is a new kind of life, not a new sphere. Instead of doing one’s own will one does God’s will — that is Romans. I hope we understand a little of that: we have all heard of the little servant maid who knew she was converted because she swept under the mats; now that is a new kind of life. But in Colossians what is in view is a new sphere of life, and it is the privilege of the saints to live in that new sphere for the pleasure of God. We have to reach that sphere spiritually, and to leave behind everything connected with what we are as alive in this world. If the saints are filled full in a Man who is no longer alive in the world they do not need to carry with them into God’s presence one jot or tittle that is connected with them as alive in the world. They can dispense with it all as being without value. If I were the best man alive in the world, or if I had the purest genealogy from the most distinguished or august ancestors, if I had royal blood in my veins, or could claim the pedigree of a Saul of Tarsus, of what value is it if I am filled full in a risen and glorified Christ? It is only, at best, a useless encumbrance; however good it might be, or desirable, if measured by human standards, it is absolutely without value to me. I am independent of it; I can do without it. To retain it would be only to retain a competitor or a rival to Christ. I am willing to be circumcised, though it involves suffering in the flesh, because it is in Him that I am circumcised, and in His circumcision. It is a positive relief and satisfaction to see it all go in the death of Christ, because until it is gone the reproach of Egypt is not rolled away. Until that moment is reached there is an element left in the soul of being “alive in the world”.
When we speak of circumcision we are not referring to anything outward such as conduct before men, but to something which is true inwardly in the heart and spirit — something under the eye of God (see Romans 2: 28, 29). You come to it in your spirit; circumcision is of the heart and spirit. The only One — Christ — who had a title to live on earth has gone into death. There was a most wonderful circumcision in His death. The only Person who had a title to live is dead — that is the circumcision of Christ. The body of the flesh has been cut off in His death. When that is apprehended in our spirits we are glad to be severed from things we might have boasted in, and which would have given credit or place to us as alive in the world. Till we come to circumcision we have not done with Egypt. No one has done with Egypt till he is circumcised. The children of Israel had been forty years in the wilderness under divine education with all kinds of discipline, but they had not known circumcision; and they had not done with Egypt till they came to Gilgal. The reproach of Egypt hung about them until then, and it hangs about a good many of us! Even after reaching Gilgal we have continually to return there the camp was there; it is the place of power for victory and for taking possession.
Ques Why is the Head of all principality and power brought in here?
[p. 299] CAC It is to show the wonderful character and greatness of the Person in whom we are complete. He is not only Head of the assembly but of all principality and power. He is so great that every position of dignity in the universe of God will be filled out of Him. There is not a dignity or splendour in God’s universe that will not draw its dignity and blessedness out of Christ: and we are filled full in Him! It is just the simple truth of christianity, and we have to come to it and learn what it means. C.H.M. once illustrated it by a boy being sent to school with a box in which everything was put that he could possibly want until he came home again. If he wanted a pencil it was in the box; it he wanted a book, it was there; or an article of clothing, or anything, he had only to look in the box. It might take him all the term to learn what was in the box, but it was all there for him. Thus everything the saints can ever need or desire, in regard to spiritual needs and relation to God, is all there in Christ. We are complete, filled full in Christ. It will take all eternity to learn what is in Christ.
It has often been pointed out what serious error has got into the text in verse 11 by the word ‘sins’ being put in; it is not sins but the man, the body of the flesh, that is put off; “the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Christ”. The exercise of Gilgal needs to be maintained in the soul; we never reach a point when we do not need to keep up the character of Gilgal. Here it is in view of a new sphere of life, being raised with Christ. Faith comes in in connection with that; we are raised with Christ by faith.
Ques How do you connect faith with the operation of God in raising Christ from the dead?
CAC I thought it was the soul’s apprehension of the sphere and character of the working of God. The sphere where God is operating is the sphere of resurrection; the soul has to come to the apprehension of it. It is the mind of God for all the saints to be risen with Christ, just as much as it is His mind for them to be justified. In Romans faith is connected with justification — faith in God as having raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. But in Colossians faith is in the working of God; He is working in the sphere of resurrection, and that takes one entirely outside all connected with life in this world. He has raised Christ from the dead, and everyone who has the faith of that working [p. 300] is raised with Christ.
Ques Is it the soul accepting that Christ is raised?
CAC There is a little more than that in it: the fact of God having raised Christ would be assented to by all orthodox Christendom. I suppose all believers would accept the fact; but it is different to get the faith of the working of God, to see the character of divine working. Christ’s life in this world terminated by His death. He has been buried, and He will never live in the world again. But there has been a wonderful working of God; He has raised Christ from among the dead. If we have the faith of that working we apprehend the will of God that we should be raised with Him. If we are filled full in Him we are prepared to disappear from the place from which He has disappeared, but then it is in view of appearing where He appears by the working of God. We apprehend that the working of God is outside the whole course of this world; it is known to us in the raising of Christ. Every one who has the faith of it is raised with Him. It is not merely assenting to it as a fact, but there is faith of the working of God; the soul is really with God as to the sphere of His working. If you have the faith of that working it does not leave you as one “alive in the world”, or even as dead and buried as to the world; it gives you the divine light of being raised with Him. This is the will of God for all saints.
As faith grows exceedingly it moves from Roman faith to Colossian faith — a distinct move. It is one thing to see that God has raised Jesus our Lord from the dead for our justification. A risen Man is my righteousness, and therefore I have peace with God; that is Roman faith. But Colossian faith goes further; it apprehends the character of divine working in view of God’s pleasure. God’s pleasure is found in a Man who is risen from the dead, and in the saints as risen with Him. That is the platform on which the pleasure of God places us; we have to come to it in faith, but it is there to come to. We do not touch Christianity in its proper character till we come to that.
By faith we are raised with Christ, but then in verse 13 quickening power is spoken of. We have saints not only raised, but quickened. Capacity depends on quickening. There is a mighty operation of God by divine power in the saints that enables them to live in their affections with Christ. To be risen with Christ is a question of faith, but quickening together with Him is what God has done. He has made the saints to [p. 301] live, and live together with Christ. There is a company of persons who have been made to live with Christ, so that their thought of life is all bound up with Christ. The working of God in raising Christ from the dead can be apprehended by faith; but quickening is a divine operation in saints, it is not a question of faith; we are quickened by the mighty power of God. Quickening is spoken of in Scripture in connection with a resurrection order of life. Where resurrection and quickening are spoken of together, resurrection is always first and then quickening. The reason for that is that resurrection is connected with what we are brought out of, but quickening is in relation to what we are introduced into. Resurrection brings me out of death, but quickening enables me to live in all that is new.
Ques Is quickening different in Ephesians?
CAC There is this difference. In Ephesians the whole thing is looked at in its completeness; it is the complete work of God there. In chapter 1 we have the purpose of God; and in chapter 2 the mighty working of God by which He carries out His purpose. Quickening there is in view of the full result of divine power — saints being made to live in spirit with Christ in heaven. They will be made to live there actually. The truth is looked at in its completeness without dwelling on detail.
Ques What about the quickening in Psalm 119?
CAC There it is a people so quickened that the law can be written in their hearts and they can fulfil responsibility; we need quickening for that. They feel the need for it as the law, commandments, statutes, ordinances, judgments and testimony come before them. They take up one thing and another, and pray to be quickened that they may answer truly to the law and the ordinances. Israel will answer to it all livingly when the dry bones come together, and the Spirit of the Lord puts life into them. They will be quickened; and when quickened they can take up all the commandments and answer to them perfectly, and fulfil their responsibility. They will be a quickened company on earth. Colossians is a quickened company to live on the platform of resurrection with Christ, and Ephesians is a quickened company for the full height of the heavenly position.
We get all three aspects of quickening in John 5. In the beginning of the chapter the man had been thirty-eight years lying by the pool and someone always got in before him — the [p. 302] Lord raises him up and he carries his bed. It is a figure of moral quickening — power to carry out the will of God in practical life here. This answers to Romans. Then the Father raises and the Son quickens: that is rather spiritual quickening to live in a new sphere spiritually. Then finally there is actual quickening: “all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth”. In each case it is out of death — three aspects of quickening.
Ques What about the Lord breathing into His disciples?
CAC The Lord had in view a people who could be sent into the world in testimony; and it is in view of that He breathes into them — “As the Father sent me forth, I also send you” — “Receive the Holy Spirit”. They are made to live in relation to testimony.
As quickened we live in relation to Christ. We may have to do many things in this world, earn our living perhaps, and we have human and family relationships, but these are not the things which the saints live in: the spiritual life and affections of the saints are all bound up with Christ, and we enjoy it when we come together. We have nothing to speak of then but Christ, one Person before every heart; and those who are quickened can enjoy that. He has made us live together with Christ. If God has quickened us, it involves the leaving behind of all questions; our trespasses are forgiven, the handwriting of ordinances is blotted out, principalities and powers spoiled; there is a complete divine settlement of every question that could be raised in relation to what we were as alive in the world.
Ques Is that where the Supper comes in?
CAC We come together because we are under the power of the name of the One who is no longer here. I know no reason for coming together to break bread, but because we have received the Christ, and He is not here, we have come under the power of His name, and He has proposed to us to do a certain thing while He is absent. When we come together it is a scene of divine suggestion: everything helps to suggest Christ, the bread and cup and everything else. That is why we are so happy when we come together for the breaking of bread, because there is not a single suggestion brought before us of any person but Christ. I speak of course of the divine side. There is no self-judgment there; all that is settled before we come; everyone comes as self-judged. There is not a suggestion [p. 303] of any kind save of Christ. A people quickened are thoroughly at home where everything speaks of Christ. We gladly embrace the privilege of just looking at ourselves as subjects of the love of Christ. We need to be quickened in affections to enjoy such a circle.
These chapters are not to be hurried over; they contain the essence of christianity in its spiritual power.