THE MYSTERY OF THE CHRIST
[p. 151] THE MYSTERY OF THE CHRIST
Colossians 1: 24 - 29; Colossians 2: 1,2; Colossians 3: 1 - 17
I want to touch at this time upon the mystery of the Christ. It is evidently something great, for Scripture speaks of the riches of the glory of this mystery. Christ is in the saints, the hope of glory. Thus the glory is brought near to us. Glory is the consummation of everything which God has purposed to set forth. It is the climax and perfection. God is bringing many sons to glory, that is, to the consummation.
I see a certain line and progress of truth in Scripture. I refer to the principles of establishment, maintenance and display. Everything of God is established in Christ, maintained in the church, and is to be displayed in glory. Every divine thought has been established in Christ and is maintained in the way of testimony and hope in the church. The church is the connecting link between the coming of Christ in the past and the future glory. What remains is that all should be set forth in glory — seeing that all is established in Christ. In the meantime the truth of all is maintained in the church, but all is in mystery till the time of display in glory — there can be no mystery then because every purpose of God is manifest.
Now I take up the first point — the establishment of everything in Christ — and then pass on to shew how that all is perpetuated in the church, for the church is the body of Christ. There is a company here that bears the character of Christ, and has intelligence of all that is established in Him, for the word of Christ is to dwell in us richly.
Now we get from the gospels an idea of all that is established in Christ. In the gospel of Matthew we see Israel taken up afresh in Christ. When Christ [p. 152] came, Israel was nationally deceased, the ten tribes were lost, and there was a mere remnant of the Jews in the land, and they had virtually given up the hope of Israel. The practical result was that, when Christ of Israel came, His own received Him not, but in spite of that the truth of Israel was revived in Christ, and Israel in the future will come forth morally from Christ. A great point of interest in the Gospel of Matthew is this revival of Israel in Christ, and in that connection we get Christ taken down to Egypt, so that it might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt have I called my son”. On the same principle in John 15 we have Christ saying, “I am the true vine”. The truth of Israel is taken up again in Christ. The idea in the Lord’s charge to the disciples at the end of Matthew’s gospel is that they as a remnant of Israel should be the channel of blessing to all the nations. This is the true place of Israel.
In Mark’s gospel we get “the sower soweth the word”. There had been a dearth for many centuries of the word of God. Now we have the word of God revived in the glad tidings of Jesus Christ. In Him every detail of prophecy was centred. He was the reality of all. He was the Word, the consummation of all the prophetic testimony. Prophecy was a light shining in a dark place until the day dawned and the day star arose in the heart, that is, Christ, as the day star is the embodiment of all that is spoken of in prophecy. If I wanted to get light on prophetic testimony I should not go to a Jew, but to an intelligent Christian, because to him the day has dawned — he apprehends Christ as the spirit of every prophetic testimony, so the prophetic word was revived, not in detail, but in One who was the climax of all.
Now in Luke, in the song of Simeon, Christ is said to be a light for the revelation of the Gentiles as well as the glory of God’s people Israel. He is God’s salvation to the ends of the earth, that repentance and [p. 153] forgiveness might be preached in His name among all nations. Thus the nations are brought into view. The casting off of the Jews is the reconciliation of the world.
In John’s gospel we have another thing revived. Ezekiel had seen the glory depart from the temple, and by the fact of Christ becoming man He superseded the temple. He could say to the Jews in John 2, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up ... But he spake of the temple of his body”. Therefore in the presence of Christ here there was the true temple. In Solomon’s temple there was a cloud of glory, but in Christ all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell. And now in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
I hope you will put all these things together. You get in Christ the true Israel, and the Word in whom all prophetic testimony was centred. Then the ends of the earth find salvation in Him, and in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Christ came in order that in Him every divine thought and purpose might be established, He is the Sun of righteousness, the Centre and Head of the universe of bliss. If I think of Israel, I look at Christ — not at a few scattered Jews. If I think of prophetic testimony, again I look at Christ, who is the Word. If I think of the nations I see that He is set for salvation to the ends of the earth, and in Him the temple is established on eternal foundations. I wish I could impress upon all the enormous importance of these things, and convey some sense of the greatness of what is established in Christ.
Now all these things are maintained in the church, and the church in its true character is the body of Christ, and if it were not so I do not see how all that is established in Christ could be maintained there. The body of Christ fills up the interval between Christ and the glory. The hope of Israel is maintained in the church. The Jew does not maintain it — he does [p. 154] not care anything for it — he is set upon present worldly gain. The true Jew is found in the church — He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, and not in letter. And in the church the hope of Israel is cherished. Again, where is the word of God maintained? It is in the church. The glad tidings are there. So, too, in the church is realised God’s salvation to the ends of the earth. The Gentiles are grafted into the olive tree. In Acts 13, when the apostle turned to the Gentiles, he quotes, “For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth”. All these things are maintained in the church, because the church is God’s temple and the body of Christ.
But now to go a point further, all will be displayed in glory, Israel will be displayed as a nation and will come forth glorious by Christ. So too the Word of God (Christ) will come forth, the nations will be revived as life from the dead, and the heavenly city will be the temple. There is thus eventually the setting forth of every divine thought in glory. Christ came forth from God and every divine thought was established in Him, and now is maintained in the church, which is Christ in the Gentiles, the hope of glory, and all will be displayed in glory. The church is now the depository of every thought of God. The church was left here as a faithful wife in the absence of her husband, to maintain every interest belonging to Him: that is the true place of the church. If I have my proper place in the heart of my wife, she regards as her own every interest of mine in my absence. The Christ is to dwell in our hearts by faith. Now if what I have said be true it is most essential that the church should bear the character of Christ. If the interests of Christ are maintained in the church, then it is of all-importance that the church should bear His character. We find this thought in Colossians 3: 10 - 17.
[p. 155] The first thing (in verse 3) is you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God, but when Christ who is our life is manifested, we also shall be manifest with Him in glory. You have put off the old man with his deeds. You are said to have died, which means that the minds of the saints are in accord with the death of Christ. Christ died once unto sin and to the world. He had no part in sin, but His path was a continual conflict with sin, but now He has died to the whole scene — has passed out of it. In His death there was the condemnation of the old man for God. Now you are dead. If Christ can never have again to say to that to which He has died, so this is to be true to us; our mind is in accord with His death. We have put off the old man, and are thus separated morally from the scene of sin. The mind is the crucial point. We are all liable to be tempted and perhaps overcome, but if our minds are in accord with the death of Christ we quickly judge ourselves. And having put off the old man we have put on the new. Now the new man has no existence substantively, and therefore is really a divinely formed conception in the mind of the Christian, and that conception governs the whole course of his life. The new man will govern your practice. The new man is renewed unto full knowledge after the image of Him that created him — after Christ — then it goes on to say, Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free. The distinctions in the flesh have to give way to the force of spiritual affections. If you were to ask me to tell you what the new man is, I should say Christ in the saints formed there by divine power — there is thus the conception of the new man in the mind. Then it is that you get to the reality of the one body, that it is the vessel of Christ. Now look at the detail of the chapter. Contrast verse 12 with verse 8. The latter is what is characteristic of the old man: anger, wrath, malice; then see the marks of the new man: bowels [p. 156] of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, etc. A wonderful contrast. That is, you get all the heavenly graces of Christ coming out in the saints down here. The constitution of saints has been built up by living bread, and as a result you get the grace of heaven coming out in them. In verse 15 you get the true bond. The baptism of the Spirit does not necessarily bind saints together in practice, but the bond of perfectness will, and that is love. You get the reality of the one body. And then let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, and it adds “to the which also ye are called in one body”. You will let no fleshly sentiment which is inconsistent with Christ abide in the heart — sentiments of envy or jealousy can have no place in the heart because the peace of Christ is what determines all there. Further, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. It is the word of Christ because it is that in which Christ is expressed. When you come to the word of Christ you read Scripture in the light of Christ, and thus your knowledge of Christ is increased. The heart of the Christian is to be full of every interest of Christ. It says “in all wisdom” — that is what is to characterise the body. It would be poor to talk of the church being the depository of every divine thought of God if it were not characterised by Christ. We are down here that the character of Christ may find its expression in us. The peace of Christ resting in the heart, and the word of Christ dwelling in us — that is intelligence according to God — every divine thought as established in Christ. When He comes all will be displayed. There will be a world then in which God alone will be glorified. There never can be general happiness for man in the scene of man’s ambition and glory, but there is happiness and blessing for man unlimited in the scene in which God will be glorified.
Meanwhile Christ is in us the hope of glory.