COLOSSIANS 3
CAC In verse 5 we see what man is apart from the influence of heaven. The saints as having died and been raised with Christ are to seek the things above and have their minds set on them; they are under the influence of heaven. Apart from that, regarded as on earth, there are our members and they have to be put to death.
Ques Is this different from mortifying the deeds of the body in Romans 8?
CAC In Romans the deeds of the body are put to death by the Spirit; the Spirit is the power. But in Colossians the [p. 316] saints are viewed as having power in themselves. As having come under the influence of Christ they have been spiritually led to take up the position of being dead with Christ, and being raised with Him. They are formed in the divine nature, so are viewed as capable of putting to death their members which are upon the earth, and putting off the habits which do not belong to what is of God.
The apostle had spoken of Christ being our life, so it would be a very serious and solemn thing if the saints took the place of living on earth, living in these things.
Ques Would the putting to death be continuous, or is it what has been done?
CAC It supposes what has been done effectually, so that no quarter is to be given to these things. The thing is done in such an effectual way that it abides. The saint is to have his members on the earth in the place of death.
Ques What is the difference between circumcision and the circumcision of Christ?
CAC The circumcision of Christ is what has been effected in the death of Christ; the flesh was cut off there definitely and for ever. The saints have to come into the intelligence of that and the practical result of it. But circumcision is something carried out in one’s spirit, it is not exactly what we do. Here it is something we do. We put to death certain members, and put off certain habits. Circumcision is that, in the light of what was effected in the death of Christ, we are prepared in spirit to let go every thought of flesh as anything which could be improved or corrected. We must come to it in our spirits.
Rem There are two categories here, and the first is more wicked.
CAC The first are things that belong to the nature of man as fallen and alienated from God on earth; they are indigenous to his nature. They are all glossed over in the world, but they are just what man is. There is a difference between things to be put to death, and those to be put off. The last are habits: anger, malice, blasphemy, vile language. These are habits we may drop into, but they are to be put off.
Rem The first list is part of ourselves, but the other things are habits. For instance, a child brought up in a christian household would not have such habits, but the other things are part of him.
CAC Yes, such habits as “blasphemy and vile language”.
Everybody is not in the habit of using vile language, but if there has been such a habit, it is to be put off. So with things like anger and malice, they are easily acquired; it is easy enough to give place to anger and wrath, and the more we give place to them the less ability we have to control them.
Rem These things come out of the mouth.
CAC Peter could say that nothing common or unclean had entered his mouth, but he could not say that nothing of that kind had come out of his mouth! Then the saints have to be told not to lie one to another; this is not a needless exhortation. Lying is serious, because it indicates that the old man has been retained. The object of lying is to present something more favourable to oneself than is really true; or else to present something more unfavourable to another than is true. There is no object or reason for doing such things, no tendency, if we have put off the old man and put on the new. Some people have the greatest difficulty in saying neither more nor less than what is true. They must add a little touch to make it more impressive or telling — they must colour the picture, even when there is no motive for doing so save the desire to make an impression on the hearer.
Ques What is the force of the word ‘new’?
CAC I think it supposes freshness and energy of youth.
Ques What is being renewed?
CAC There is a continual renewal connected with the new man. It seems to suggest that it is in apprehension, a continual renewal in spiritual apprehension — “renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him” (verse 10). The new man is continually renewed in a new kind of moral apprehension according to the image.
Ques Then what is “renewed in the spirit of your mind”, Ephesians 4: 23?
CAC That is Ephesians. That is a kind of top-stone to the subject of renewing. We get the renewing of the mind in Romans and the renewing of the spirit of your mind in Ephesians: here it is renewed into full knowledge. There is a constant need for renewing; it is a present and continual thing by which features of an entirely new kind are brought in and developed in the saints. In Ephesians it is the moral character of God in righteousness and holiness. In Colossians it is God who has been imaged in a Man, so renewal there is a continual renewing in spiritual apprehension of what has been seen [p. 318] perfectly in that One in whom God is imaged. “Renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him” supposes Christ is before the soul as the blessed Man in whom God is imaged. One loves to think of the work of renewing going on continually in saints.
We are never told in Scripture to put off the old and to put on the new man: it is always assumed that the christian has done it, because, as F.E.R. said, all the epistles suppose the complete work of God in the soul. Saints are in Christ, and have the Spirit; and as being so they have put off the old man and put on the new. Everyone on that ground has put off the old man, he could not think for a moment of going on with the old man which is after Satan and not after God or Christ. How could anyone who knows what it is to be in Christ and have the Spirit think of going on with what is after the devil! He has put off that, and put on the new; it is the ground on which he stands as a saint. It is just like a man becoming naturalised as an Englishman. He was a German and has been naturalised as an Englishman. He has put off the German and put on the Englishman. He may have to acquire the tastes, habits and ways of an Englishman, but the moment he is naturalised he has put off the German and put on the Englishman. This is the position the christian has taken up; if he has not put off the old man and put on the new he is not a christian in the proper sense of the word. He is false to the position if he goes back to the old man: it is like a man who is naturalised using his position to favour his original country.
Rem If I am heavenly and appear earthly it is really lying.
CAC It is an exercise to come out in one’s true colours. It takes a lot of renewing to bring us to a spot where we are outside all natural, religious and social distinctions. The idea is that we come to a spot where Christ is all things and in all. If Christ is all things — that is what it is literally — what does it matter if a man is a Greek or a Jew, if he is circumcised or uncircumcised, a nobleman or slave? It is a question of what is in the new man — nothing at all but Christ. So one leaves everything connected with man as alive on earth — “Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman” — if we come to another region and touch the region of the new man, Christ is all things and in all.
Christ is our life. Christ has become to the christian all that the world is to the worldling; if you take the world away from [p. 319] the worldling you have taken his life. Christ is the life of the believer; it is hidden, we cannot show it. A worldly man can show you his life — the race-course, picture-house, theatre, ball-room — but the christian’s life is a Person actually in heaven at the right hand of God; He has become the life of the affections of the saints down here.
If Christ is all things, nothing is of any account but the features of Christ. No matter how noble a man may be, or how exalted or degraded in the social scale, it is of no account if Christ is all things: the features of Christ are all that counts. Arriving at this in the apprehension of our souls has tremendous practical results; it results in the putting on of all the heavenly features of that blessed Man.
Rem Male and female are spoken of in Galatians 3, but not here.
CAC Here the christian circle is in view, and we do not get beyond natural distinctions. We are still male and female there, but national, religious, and social distinctions disappear from view as being of no account whatever. One could fancy a king being converted and coming in among the saints; and one could imagine a crossing-sweeper being there. All the greatness of the king and the littleness of the crossing-sweeper would be gone, and they would be valued in the assembly according to what was of Christ in them.
The new man stands in relation to the place where the old man was. There is no new man in heaven, because there never has been an old one there.
Then all the beautiful features of Christ have to be put on, that the saints may appear, as carrying the beautiful features, as the elect of God. It is wonderful to come into God’s view as the elect of God; it is not what we are before men but what we are before God. The saints come out under God’s eye as the continuation of Christ, holy and beloved.
The result of the renewing in apprehension is a very practical one. It results in the saints appearing as the elect of God as having put on the character of Christ. “Bowels of compassion”. God loves to see tender feelings in regard of suffering or need or infirmities of any kind, and even over the sad state of man, as when Jesus wept over Jerusalem. ‘Kindness’ is the disposition to benefit another because it gives one pleasure to do so, irrespective of any claim which the other may have. ‘Lowliness’ will give all honour to others, while ‘meekness’ declines to assert its own rights. ‘Longsuffering’ always wins, and it is what pleases God. ‘Forbearing one another’ indicates that it would be needed on both sides. I have only to consider my past for a moment to realise how I have been borne with. I have to mete out to others the same kind of thing which I have so often experienced. Then “forgiving one another”, it is really ‘yourselves’ here. You look at your brother as part of yourself; you cannot hold anything in your heart against him. I do not think it is here the administration of forgiveness, but what marks your spirit as under the eye of God — that you do not think of holding your complaint as a charge against your brother; you dismiss it from your spirit in the generosity of Christ’s grace. “The Christ” is the blessed Man whom the gentiles so gratuitously sinned against, but He forgave us!
Then to all these we are to add love, which is the divine bond to hold saints together in the perfectness of those relations which pertain to the body. The presence of the Holy Spirit is known by what He forms. Love would really bring about perfectness — that is, relations between the saints which could not be improved upon.
The peace of Christ is the unruffled calm of one who only considers for God — in whom nothing has place but the will of God. It is to ‘preside’, as if all the varied activities in the heart were to be controlled by a supreme influence — the peace of Christ. What is contrary to the peace of Christ is not to have place in the counsels of the heart. We have been called to this; it is a specific object in the call of saints and it is a corporate thing. It has to do with the counsels of our hearts in reference to our corporate relations. We are often controlled by agitated feelings, but they are not the peace of Christ.
Then thankfulness is to abidingly fill the heart. If you do not find yourself ‘thankful’ it is a danger signal to which you should take heed. Murmurings, discontent, fretfulness, are like canker in the soul. They do not honour God or His goodness.