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COLOSSIANS 2 AND 3

CAC The fact that Paul speaks of the Colossians as having died with Christ seems to suggest that they had taken up that ground — “If ye have died with Christ”, chapter 2: 20.

^[p. 310] It is a ground that christians have to take up; it is not a mere statement of doctrine. It would answer to what Joshua did when he put twelve stones in the bed of Jordan where the ark had been: it is rather striking that there was no command from God as to these twelve stones being put in Jordan, but Joshua did it. There was a command about twelve stones being taken out of Jordan and being set up at Gilgal, but none as to stones being put in Jordan. This seems to suggest that it is something that has a typical reference to what the saints do under spiritual leading. It is as the result of spiritual leading that the saints take the ground of having died with Christ. Then the stones are there to this day; they were put in the bed of Jordan and never taken out. That suggests that if christians have been spiritually led to take the ground of having died with Christ, it is never to be gone back from. All christian life depends on this: it is not exactly a matter of faith but of spiritual leading.

Ques Who is the spiritual leader?

CAC Joshua is a figure of Christ as the spiritual leader of His saints; we have to come under the leading of Christ. If as believers we surrender ourselves to the influence and leading of Christ, we shall be brought to see that Christ has died, and to take up the ground of having died with Christ. It is not a matter of doctrine, but what the saints are brought to by spiritual leading. It is something we do not come to at the outset of our career; we do not come to baptism in the Colossian sense at the outset. The question is, Have many of us come to it at all? We should not be free to seek the things above, or to set our minds on those things, if we have not taken the place of having died with Christ from the elements of the world. If I have been spiritually led by Christ, what do I want with the elements of the world? Being under ordinances, taking the pledge, etc., will not do me any good if I have died with Christ. Of course we have not actually died; it is what we come to in mind. “If ye have died with Christ from the elements of the world, why as if alive in the world do ye subject yourselves to ordinances? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch”. Such things have nothing to do with the christian because they all apply to man as alive in the world, and make something of him as a man to be corrected, restrained, improved, even through harsh treatment of the body. Actually we are living as men and women in the world, but how do we take account of ourselves spiritually? As under spiritual leading ^[p. 311] we have died with Christ from the elements of the world. If a man has died no one would think of correcting or improving him; that is all done with if he is dead. If you could draw up the most excellent and most perfect set of ordinances which set forth exactly what a man ought to be, what is the value of it in its application to a dead man? If one is dead with Christ, the improvement of man in the flesh and the world are absolutely valueless; a thousand things which believers are occupied with are set aside at one stroke.

The stones taken out of Jordan represent the whole of the people as having come out of death with Christ — we are risen with Christ “through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead”. But then we have to be spiritually led to take up the ground of being dead with Christ; we have to come to it spiritually each one for himself. No amount of teaching could bring people to take that ground. Do we know Christ as answering to Joshua, the spiritual Leader? It is not lordship. Moses was the type of Christ as Lord, but Joshua was the type of Christ as Leader.

The stones were put where the ark of the covenant had stood in the midst of Jordan. It is marvellous for us to consider that Christ has been in the place of death. That wonderful Person, who has been magnified before our eyes in chapter 1 of this epistle, has been in death for us. It moves our affections profoundly to consider that glorious Man, that divine Person, as having been in the place of death.

Ques Do the stones left in Jordan mean that we should carry always the stamp of death?

CAC Saints are brought under spiritual leading to take that place in their minds and affections; they have died with Christ so the elements of the world have nothing more to do with them. It might be said to me that I ought to take the pledge. That is all right for a man living in this world, but that is where I, as a christian, am not. There are many things very nice for the improvement and correction of a man alive in the world, but a christian does not so regard himself; he accounts himself as having died with Christ, so ordinances do not apply to him. There could be no thought of trying to improve or correct oneself by harsh treatment of the body; that could not apply to those dead with Christ.

It is as Christ is established in our affections that we take up the position of being dead with Him. We do not want morally ^[p. 312] the place where He has died; if we love Him and know His love we do not want to live where He has died. It is christian privilege to take up in mind and spirit the position of having died with Christ: it is a question of the true nature of christianity, and it is wholly unknown in the religious world. The position is a puzzle to the natural mind, and inexplicable to reason. Christ has actually died and risen, and as led by Him we can take the ground of having died with Him from the elements of the world, so that in heart and mind we are outside the range of ordinances.

Rem It is the true sphere of life for the christian.

CAC The simple fact is that Christ is our life. It is said plainly in verse 4 of chapter 3: “When the Christ is manifested who is our life”.

B Is it the same as living on account of Him in John 6?

CAC It is in appropriating Christ as the living One, and as He becomes spiritually life to us, that we know anything of this. The truth of Christ’s headship underlies the whole of John’s gospel; He is the source of everything. “If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above, where the Christ is sitting at the right hand of God have your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth”. We need to ponder the gospel of John to get an idea of the things above, the gospel leads us to the thought of life — “that believing ye might have life in his name”, John 20: 31.

Ques What is the difference in the thought of death and resurrection in Romans and here?

CAC One is in view of righteousness and the other in view of life.

Rem It says He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.

CAC That is in view of a new kind of life morally here in the place where we lived the old life; where we were bondmen of sin we have become bondmen to God and to righteousness. But that is not the life in the Colossian sense: there it is a risen and heavenly Christ who is the life of the believer, and it is hidden with Christ in God. You cannot show it to anybody. It is important that we should be set right in the place where we were all wrong, but it is in the mind of God to give us another kind of life connected with heaven. Romans answers to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and Colossians to the ^[p. 313] children of Israel over Jordan: it is another stage of spiritual life and progress.

Ques What is the meaning of Christ sitting at the right hand of God?

CAC Everything turns on the place where Christ is. If He had a place on earth, that would be the place for us, but if He is sitting at the right hand of God, that is the centre of interest for the saints. It is a question of where the life of the saints is. In chapter 3 the saints have come to regard themselves as dead and risen. If I have, my outlook is on things above.

L What is involved in, “Have your mind on the things that are above”?

CAC It is what is before you. We know what it is in the world. We sought certain things and had our mind on them, and they constituted our life. Every person in the world has something which is life to him and which he sets his mind on; it may be place, wealth, glory, or self-gratification in some form; but there is something he sets his mind on. In contrast to that the christian seeks the things above and sets his mind on them. We have come into line with what God has cherished in His heart and mind for us. The mind is controlled by the object. Practically it comes to this — just as the world is everything to the worldling so is Christ everything to the christian. The world is the life of a worldling; take the world away from him and you take his life. He would say, If you take away the world and all its things, I have nothing left. But a christian is perfectly independent of the world and all in it because Christ is his life.

Ques Does Mary at the grave illustrate that?

CAC Yes, it is just that. When Christ had gone, everything had gone out of this world for her. He was practically the life of her heart and affections. It is all foolishness to the natural man. We could not explain it; it is inexplicable to reason that a risen and glorified Man should be the life of a people in this world now. The most learned man could not grasp such a thing. There are people in this world who have, under spiritual leading, taken up the ground of being dead and risen with Christ, and Christ at the right hand of God is their life. No one could understand it except by spiritual leading, but that is christianity and nothing else is. It is an enigma to men of the world.

It is a matter of spiritual leading, not faith. The line of spiritual leading is the influence of Christ; it is not believing ^[p. 314] a testimony but the influence of a living Person. There is a great difference in Scripture between faith and sight. It says, “We see Jesus”; that is not faith, it is spiritual perception. “The world sees me no longer; but ye see me; because I live ye also shall live”, John 14: 19. That is Colossians. Seeing Him is different from believing on Him. Thousands of people believe on Him but have never seen Him; that is, they have no spiritual perception of a heavenly Man at the right hand of God. It is a question of being spiritually-minded and spiritually led. If we accept the testimony of Scripture there is such a thing as seeing.

Ques Is it feeding on the old corn of the land?

CAC They fed on stored corn or old corn. That is, everything in the mind of God for His people is stored in a risen and glorified Man at God’s right hand; that is the reason we cannot show anyone our life. We eat and drink and mind our business and walk about like other people, but a risen and glorified Man in heaven is our life. You cannot see it, it is hidden with Christ in God.

Rem It makes one a different man.

CAC Yes, people cannot help seeing you are a different man. If a christian knows what it is to have Christ as his life, he is able to put on the beautiful qualities of Christ, and they come into evidence down here, but the life is hidden.

Ques Are we raised by faith?

CAC Yes, that comes first — faith in the operation of God, the divine working carried on in the sphere of resurrection.

In Romans we have faith in God, as the One who raised up the Lord Jesus, in view of our justification, but in Colossians it is in view of our living in association with Christ — quite a different thing. A brother once said, ‘I am a justified man down here on the way to glory, selling buttons along the road’. But it is another thing to live in association with a risen Christ in the sphere of resurrection. Faith is presented in many different connections in Scripture; the crown of faith is Christ dwelling in the heart by faith; we reach the pinnacle of faith there. Faith comes in in many connections, but then we get something else — spiritual sight. Christ says to the church of Laodicea, “Anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see”. That is not faith but spiritual perception. It is wonderful to see that the life in the mind and purpose of God for us is the life of a glorified Man in heaven; it is hid in God. If you want to know what ^[p. 315] your life is, it is hid in God: there is only one place where you can learn it — in the heart and mind of God. We have to leave behind everything connected with ourselves and the world in order to travel to the heart of God; and there we find His thought is that Christ is to be our life, and that our life is hid with Christ in God. What a change it would mean for us if we were moving through this world with the spiritual perception of Christ as our life, our only life in God’s mind! That is the stones coming out of Jordan. There is another set of stones which are put in the bed of Jordan; that is the people represented as dead with Christ. The same people come out of Jordan with Christ to have Christ as their life. We are spiritually led to take the ground of having died with Christ, but it does not finish there; we are risen with Him.

Ques What is the difference between headship and leadership?

CAC They come closely together, because it is the personal influence of Christ. We all feel we need the personal influence of Christ more. Joshua suggests leadership in view of possession. People say, What are the things above? They are contrasted with what is on earth. They are really the features of the heavenly Man. When the Lord was on earth He could say, ‘I am of these things which are above, ye are of those things which are from beneath’. That is the contrast. One man belongs to things beneath, the man after the flesh; and we were once identified with him. Another Man is of the things above, the heavenly Man. These things are great realities. I am certain that those who set their minds on them, get them.

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