THE GLORY OF CHRIST (3)

THE GLORY OF CHRIST (3)

Romans 5: 15 - 21; Colossians 1: 14 - 29; Ephesians 1: 19 - 23

SMcC We are considering together the subject of the glory of Christ as it is intended to affect us, especially on the eve of translation as reference was made to the words of Rebecca to the servant, “Who is the man that is walking in the fields to meet us? And the servant said, That is my master! Then she took the veil and covered herself”, Genesis 24: 65. I think the Spirit of God would help us to understand more and more what that means, the veil to cover herself, and these passages have been suggested for consideration this morning because of the way in which they advance on our view the glory of Christ, particularly bearing on His headship. The mystery of iniquity is working already in view of the great apostasy when the world will set up a rival head to Christ. The apostasy will fully set in when that head is set up. It is the great object of the enemy to produce a rival to Christ, and he operates in the world with this in mind, and he operates in the assembly too insidiously all the time, affecting the public body as he has, so that we find a rival head even in that which bears the name of God publicly, and therefore the need of coming under the Spirit’s power and influence so that we should be delivered from the influence of every head that is rival to Christ. The unnamed woman in the ending of the synoptic gospels by her act at the end of the pathway of Christ, makes clear where she stands, so I think in the assembly at the present moment there is to be a clear sense of where we stand in relation to Christ, over against all that is operating to move athwart the great thoughts and rights of God. Matthew and Mark and the unnamed woman in Simon the leper’s house, would link with the public position, but in John’s gospel Mary comes in a little bit earlier, we might say, from one point of view, and she is named. She anoints the Lord and she names Him, and it makes way for the wonderful opening up of the thoughts of the economy of love, and the divine arrangement into which divine Persons have come. I think the Spirit’s ministry in all these scriptures would have in mind the building up of our souls in the knowledge of Christ’s glory so that we become more and more practically detached. We have been using the word ‘detached’ a lot, and the Spirit has in mind, on the eve of translation, that we should be more and more detached from everything around us, and detached from the features of the man of sin and shame in our own hearts, and there is only one way in which that detachment effectively comes about, and that is through the advancement of Christ’s glory in our souls.

So that in Romans 5 we have Christ’s headship alluded to uniquely in relation to the race. Christ’s headship in connection with man, over against Adam who was the federal head of the human race, but who fell through sin. Christ is brought on to our view as the Head of the race according to the truth of the glad tidings in which God’s thoughts and blessings for men are presented, so that it is Christ’s headship on moral lines in relation to the sin question, delivering us and detaching us from lawlessness and independency. In Colossians, where we have the glory of Christ advanced on our view, it is the personal glory of Christ and His headship, standing related to the assembly, His body. If we are not basically affected by this in the truth of the gospel and our foundations are not right in regard to it, we shall never be right in the assembly. In Romans the kingdom must have its way in authority in the teaching in our souls,

so that we are obedient and dependent and moving in our orbit rightly as would be indicated in our attachment to Christ in this light. Then we have the powerful presentation of the Person of Christ, which is very affecting in Colossians, to detach us from the subtle and insidious working of things that so easily might deceive us as man’s mind comes into the holy things of God.

Then in Ephesians, Christ’s glory and greatness are advanced on our view, more on official lines as the great Head over all things to the assembly. The vast system of things upon which His headship bears, is before us, God having in mind earlier (the verses we did not read) “to head up all things in the Christ” (verse 10), and then the assembly sharing in that headship in such a unique way as by Him, like the queen, in gold of Ophir, by the side of the king in Psalm 45. I thought we might get help in relation to these thoughts; there is much detail in these passages that we have read that we shall not have time to dwell upon, but if we keep to these main thoughts we may get help.

SHN Do you think there is to be a moral justification for the promise to Philadelphia that we were considering yesterday, “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world” (Revelation 3: 10), in having our interest and our life centred in our Head, in Christ, and so detached from the earth and the world that is coming under judgment?

SMcC I think there certainly is; there is to be that. There is that contemplated in Philadelphia that corresponds with Him who is the holy and the true, so that the justification of life, for instance, alluded to in Romans 5, lays the basis for that kind of thing, that is the justification of life involves what we are in the testimonial position, before the world and before men.

AH Do you think the peculiar moral worth of Christ is presented therefore in this chapter, in Romans 5, “the free gift in grace, which is by the one man, Jesus Christ, ... the free gift of righteousness, reign in life by the one Jesus Christ”, and then in the end of the chapter “eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”? Is that to project Christ as the one Man on our vision, to attach our hearts to Him?

SMcC Exactly, and the emphasis on divine gift alongside of that is very important, because there are a good many younger brethren here, and it is important that we should see in Romans 5, in the great rudiments of the gospel, how our souls are to be built up in the knowledge of divine giving, so that property is acquired; substance is acquired in the knowledge of God in Christ, in the knowledge of Christ and the Spirit, that becomes wealth in view of the construction and building of the sanctuary.

EJH Is it to be noted that the Lord, in the forty days of His resurrection, spoke of the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the next word is that He assembled with them forty days speaking of the kingdom?

SMcC So that the Lord would impress upon them the great thought of the kingdom, not only in its subjugating feature, but in the positive wealth that lies in the realm, the things concerning the kingdom of God. In the world we get brochures illustrating the different countries and the attractive features that mark them, their resources and the like, to attract us to them. Romans 5 is like that, it is the great description of the wealth and attractiveness that is linked with the kingdom of God through divine gift, and that as by faith our souls acquire the gift, we are built up in the knowledge of divine giving in that sense.

EBS Does this thought of God’s giving help towards detachment more than anything else?

SMcC It does. What has the world to give as we contemplate what Romans 5 opens up in such richness and fulness in divine gift? The Spirit is referred to so early as shedding abroad in our hearts the love of God. All that is to give the believer a good start, as it were, just as we have in the operations of the mediatorial system early in Exodus.

FVW Do we see it in John 4, the Lord speaks there about the giving God and in the end the woman leaves her water-pot, she is emancipated?

SMcC Yes, it works out in a detaching effect with her, so that she leaves things, she is so affected by the Lord’s proposal.

RHS Would you say something about the receiving of the abundance of grace in connection with this thought of the gift?

SMcC We are to notice all these expressions, “the free gift in grace”, and the “abundance of grace”, and “the free gift of righteousness”. We are to notice the richness of these expressions, and the liberality and gratuity of divine giving that is suggested in them, so that the believer, as getting a sense of this, and as the truth of the glad tidings gets a place in his soul, becomes imbued with the liberality of divine giving, and thereby he is greatly affected in regard to God, as being brought to God in this way.

PHH Is our attachment to Christ somewhat illustrated in the early history of David as being chosen by God, and given by God, and then his exploits as with Goliath and gradually everybody centring in affection upon him? Is that somewhat illustrative of the headship of Christ in this portion of scripture?

SMcC I think it is, so that as we get indicated in David as a type of the believer, there was a remarkable sense of obligation accepted, and it seems to one,

that as the truth of the glad tidings is rightly taken on in faith, and is rightly affecting us, it works up to this great thought of the acceptance of obligation in the localities in which we are set. For instance David says, Was it not laid upon me, and we know the obligations he accepted in regard to the ark and the house of God, a type of the assembly. Romans 5, I think, is intended to affect us in this way, detaching us from the world with all its material values in which we can easily get enmeshed, our jobs, our work, our families and our businesses, overpowering us and crippling us in view of assembly obligations, assembly life. Romans 5 in the lavishness of divine giving that is projected on to our view, would help us, as faith enters into it, to take on and to accept obligations as the latter part of Exodus shows.

WHL Does chapter 12: 1 enter into this, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God”, would that include what you are speaking of as this free giving in chapter 5?

SMcC That is right, so that while the Holy Spirit is viewed in relation to our hearts in Romans 5 it works out to our bodies in Romans 12, so that our bodies are on the altar as a living sacrifice, a remarkable thing, I mean the way our bodies are referred to, the body of the believer in relation to what is spiritual. We might make a wide line of demarcation between our bodies, physical as they are, and what is spiritual, but Scripture closely allies the two. The body is on the altar, never the flesh, the body is on the altar a living sacrifice; and Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, “Do ye not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” (verse 15), not our souls, not our spirits or our hearts, but our bodies, showing the close link there is between our bodies and what is spiritual.

SEW You have referred twice to the question raised by Rebecca as to who is the man coming to meet us, would that be the outcome of what the servant had bestowed upon her in his giving and adornment previously?

SMcC That comes into it. We have to be reminded, of course, of what is in advance of Romans 5. Romans 5 is dealing with the great principles of divine giving in the truth of the gospel, in view of the laying of a right foundation. Much comes in later through the Spirit’s service and activities, in the way of ornamentation and adorning, but Romans 5 to 8 is the under-shoring, under-pinning work, that is necessary in our souls in view of being right assembly men and women.

ECM Does this lay the basis for priesthood? I was thinking of Exodus 19, where Jehovah says, “Ye have seen what I have done to the Egyptians, and how I have borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (verse 4), and then He immediately speaks about “and ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests” (verse 6). Do the first nineteen chapters in that way link with Romans 5 from the divine side?

SMcC They are all in view of our souls being built up in spiritual property and wealth that becomes serviceable in the sanctuary, serviceable in the construction of the sanctuary, and serviceable in the sanctuary as constructed.

EJB Does the word ‘constituted’ in verse 19 indicate that this line of things, this presentation of Christ, is to affect the saints in their very constitutions?

SMcC I thought so. The word ‘constituted’ is a fine word here in Romans 5 in that sense, especially because of the way that the enemy is operating in the mystery of iniquity which is working. In schools and colleges, the rival head in principle is being advanced, and we are liable to be ensnared by it. All this is to build up our souls in the knowledge of divine giving, so that we are in the kingdom as independent of the world.

AJG Would you say that the presentation of the headship of Christ in this chapter, on moral lines, as the One Man, Jesus Christ, has in view the recovery of men for God here upon earth?

SMcC That is it, exactly.

AJG The one Man is exclusive of every other, is it not?

SMcC That is it. That is why one referred to the woman in the synoptic gospels unnamed, and one Man stood out in her outlook; however many others there were around, and there were many in her day, one Man stood out, and not only did He stand out, but she anointed Him, she was committed to that great thought, that no other man, as it were, would exercise influence over her, but the one Man.

JWD What would you include in the thought of moral obligation in our localities?

SMcC Well, you take the matter of the covenant in Exodus. The spiritual significance of the first covenant involves that obligations are accepted, taken on, and that works out in the local position, so that we are not marked by lawlessness or independency as attached to Christ, in the light of what we are here, it immediately brings in to our minds the great feature of righteousness.

CWO'LM Does the matter of obedience connected with the “constituted righteous”, establish the matter of obedience as a basic principle in the believer’s constitution?

SMcC I think so, so that the truth of the glad tidings is very important.

CMM Could this be linked with Moses making the boards of acacia wood standing up?

SMcC That would be what it would have in mind. The believer, as set up in the sense of divine gift, according to the truth of the glad tidings, is marked by stability, independent of the world in the sense of the moral system that the world constitutes. We get, of course, the chapters that follow that bring in the experimental side, but chapter 5 is emphasising what is available from the divine side towards the believer.

PHH Is the idea in the preaching of the glad tidings, that God is ready to transfer us from the headship of Adam to the headship of Christ, the one Man?

SMcC Exactly, so that Romans 6 brings that in experimentally into our souls. Romans 6 involves the change of man, and I think that while these expressions were largely used in the early days of the recovery, perhaps there needs to be a review with us as to the great elements and rudiments of the truth in regard to the gospel, so that there are right foundations laid. Mr. Raven said, when a man goes off in later years he always wondered what stone was loose in his foundation. I am sure we all need to be concerned, not only the younger ones but all of us, about our foundation, so that there is no stone loose.

PHH Therefore would you encourage us more to preach the Person, not excluding other things, but the Person must be the centre of everything in the preaching of the glad tidings?

SMcC Because the presentation of the Person as exalted at God’s right hand, the great Administrator, would involve a complete detachment at the very beginning from what is around.

AH And has all this in mind, to use beloved Mr. Taylor’s expression, to put us in a substantial way amongst the ruling class? I was thinking of this reference to “reign in life by the one”, it is preceded by “those who receive”.

SMcC I think what you say as to the ruling class is good in that sense, because Romans 5 contains morally astronomical allusions. As the celestial bodies are held in their right orbit in relation to the sun, the father of the great solar system, the centre of the whole system, so the believer is held in his right and proper orbit in relation to Christ. The celestial bodies represent in figure, the ruling class, and believers, as brought into this wonderful attachment to Christ through the glad tidings, belong to the ruling class. They will be the ruling class in the world to come.

RGB Does what you are saying make the question of the gospel that is preached in our rooms a very important matter, and also the circulation of gospel literature, as the Trustees have in mind, that you were referring to yesterday? Would all that help in the development of a right constitution?

SMcC I am sure it would because it is important that we carry with us all the time the spirit of the glad tidings, and that the truth of the glad tidings is constantly present in a detaching and delivering effect.

JTS In Acts 2, Peter says, “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (verse 36), that raises the question, does it not, “What shall we do, brethren?” and they accept detachment in the fullest way, and Peter goes on “ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (verse 38)? Is this attachment to Christ that you are speaking of, effectual now by this?

SMcC I think so, and we want to see the importance of this attachment to Christ that Romans 5 has in mind, Christ as the divinely appointed Head, who has taken up all the liabilities of man, of the race, and discharged them to the glory of God, and as the One in whom everything is presented for men, and not only our attachment to Him, but there is also the thought of contact with Him. We did not read the verse, but “For if, being enemies, we have been reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much rather, having been reconciled, we shall be saved in the power of his life” (verse 10). That means that practical contact by the Spirit with Christ in the present place in which He is, involves our salvation. It is important that the younger brethren see that, because why do persons go out of fellowship? They might say, the brethren are to blame, the brethren withdrew from them. They might say, O well, they did not have a right attitude, and all that, but whatever may be said, the crux of the matter is that every person normally speaking, who gets out of fellowship, has lost contact with Christ. The contact has been interfered with and broken, and it has worked out in that which involves the position that out of fellowship means.

CH I was going to ask in relation to these catastrophes that occur amongst us, you have spoken of our being out of contact with Christ, does it not also point to a deficiency in the truth of deliverance?

SMcC I think it does, that is just what we are seeking to get at, that we all need to see the importance of our foundations, according to the truth of the glad tidings. It is a question not only of being detached from the world, but being detached from ourselves and the man of sin and shame linked with ourselves. If the detachment is complete then there will not be much difficulty, do you think?

CH In our assembly life together, does the education go on as to the practical change of man? I was struck with the way the apostle refers to Jesus Christ constantly in the first letter to the Corinthians particularly.

SMcC That is very important. It is not something we leave, as if we have faced it and we have finished with it, it is something we carry along all the time. So that as he says to the Corinthians, “For other foundation can no man lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3: 11); it is that order of man.

RHS Would you say something as to the end of chapter 5, it says, “to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”, then the end of chapter 6, “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (verse 23).

SMcC Well, I think that all helps to see that detachment is in mind. The brethren may think we are using this word ‘detachment’ too much, but I am sure the more it is considered, the more we will see the importance of it, our complete detachment from the world and from the first man. Eternal life alludes to an order of things that is out of the world, morally and spiritually, and it is always presented in Paul’s ministry as an objective to be reached, and the truth of the glad tidings puts us on the way to it.

HW Does John the baptist, in the first chapter of John’s gospel, shine out in that connection? He says, “Behold, the Lamb of God” (verse 36), and two disciples are detached from John and attracted to Christ?

SMcC Well, you can see how completely John was detached from himself, and from Jerusalem with all its traditional and powerful influence that it had. How completely he was detached from it in the light of Christ’s glory, Christ having eclipsed in his mind and his soul, every other man, and a true minister, like John the baptist, for he is a model in John’s gospel, his ministry will always lead that way. If a ministry attracts itself to the minister in the sense of personality according to the flesh, results will be disastrous, for all true ministry must detach from man according to the flesh and link us with Christ.

HW These two disciples are really brought into their orbit with regard to the centre of the divine system.

SMcC And that is a great matter with us that we should be in our orbit, our orbit in the kingdom, and our orbit in the assembly, in the local position, because whenever we get out of it we collide. When brethren get out of their orbit they collide, there is a collision because of getting out of their orbit, and what leads to it is independent outlook, independency of the brethren, it always leads to the collision involved in getting out of our orbit.

AEM Would you say that the orbit includes the matter of gift, too?

SMcC Do you mean gift in the ministry?

AEM Yes.

SMcC In the light of what has been said about the ruling class, the sun and the moon and the stars, it is all part of a system of influence, in relation to which we are to be rightly held, and gift is part of that.

AEM I was thinking of the Lord’s sovereignty in the matter of gift, sometimes it makes a collision.

SMcC Just so, and that would be a question as to whether we have been rightly subdued in our minds and wills through the truth of the glad tidings, do you not think, in our detachment from ourselves and our attachment to Christ.

AEM The Lord may give a greater gift to another, we must recognise it as part of the service to us.

SMcC Yes, and get the gain of it, and that would be very important in the local positions. While gift is not set in localities, yet the localities would get the gain of gift that may be resident there.

PHH Is that why Paul writes to the Corinthians, a local company, and in talking about the gifts says, “God has set certain in the assembly”, 1 Corinthians 12: 28?

SMcC That is the passage I was thinking of in referring to the gift in the way one did. God has set them. It says in Genesis 1, “Let there be light” (verse 3), and then God made the two great lights, and then “God set them in the expanse of the heavens” (verse 17). He set them, just as it is said of the gifts, that they are set there.

PHH Does that mean that every local assembly is to regulate itself by the whole thought of the assembly, even in regard of gift?

SMcC So that it is remarkable that the setting of the gift is not alluded to until after the thought of the body of Christ is covered. After he has gone over all the features that he has in mind to enlarge on in relation to the body of Christ, he immediately refers to God setting certain in the assembly, showing that the two sides are interlocked. Sometimes it might be thought that gift would overshadow the body, but if gift is operating effectively it will never overshadow the thought of the body, and vice versa, if the body is operating effectively it will never shut out the operation of gift, they are interlocked and interdependent.

AEM Even Paul could take his place in the body with great satisfaction.

SMcC Exactly.

RHS Does the question of the orbit include the sisters as well as the brothers?

SMcC Certainly it does, because in Romans 5 the truth of the glad tidings includes all of us, young and old, brothers and sisters, and has in mind that we should be brought into our right orbit in attachment to Christ, delivered from the awful working of the mystery of iniquity. We may think of it in the world, but we are to see how near the enemy comes in the assembly to the upsetting of things amongst the brethren.

ACSP In connection with the glad tidings, are the saints in their orbit in the local meeting an essential part of, and support for, the preaching of Christ personally? I was thinking of your reference to the unnamed woman and what it says in Matthew, “Wheresoever these glad tidings may be preached in the whole world, that also which this woman has done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her”, Matthew 26: 13.

SMcC So what a background you have got in the brethren, in the saints for the promulgation of the glad tidings! When you think of the living appreciation of Christ that there is among the brethren, as in that woman, what a background to enhance the promulgation of the glad tidings.

ACSP In that connection might I enquire as to what has been suggested recently in some parts that sisters ought not to go out in support of the open-air preaching? What would you say about that, please?

SMcC Sisters ought not to go out?

ACSP Yes, that is what has been said.

SMcC What scripture would they support that from?

ACSP I do not know, I just wanted you to say something about it.

SMcC Well, I could not give you a scripture that would support that. I could give you a scripture that would support the sisters going out into the open-air.

ACSP If you did so it would help.

SMcC John 4, the woman of Samaria. She would not be absent if she could possibly be there, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done” (verse 29). Her soul was full of the glad tidings as it had affected her, and I do not think the woman in Acts 16, Lydia and the others, would be absent from the promulgation of the glad tidings in the public position if they could be there. There may be many reasons, of course, why sisters cannot be there, but when persons say sisters should not be there I think that is not according to the truth.

AJG It is interesting that in Philippians 4 Paul says, “I ask thee also, true yokefellow, assist them (and that is feminine) who have contended along with me in the glad tidings” (verse 3).

SMcC Very good, that is an excellent passage, and allied with that Psalm 68, “great the host of the publishers” (verse 11), the word is feminine, is it not?

JTS Would the word in Luke 8 also confirm what you were saying, “preaching and announcing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God; and the twelve were with him, and certain women” (verse 1)?

SMcC Very good. Now we must come to Colossians. Romans brings up the moral side in relation to the sin question and bears upon the public position, justification of life and we also get reigning in life, which means that the believer, through the truth of the glad tidings, is above his circumstances, he is not under them. Justification of life means that there is complete testimony before men in his life as to his detachment, through the gospel, from man and the world around him; but Colossians is more the hidden side. Ephesians is the heavenly side. Colossians does not take us to heaven. Colossians is the hidden side in this world; Christ among the Gentiles, the hope of glory, involves the side of mystery, and Christ’s headship is advanced on our view in such a remarkable way, because of who He is personally, so that the dual thoughts in relation to His personal greatness are to be noted, in relation to His deity and His humanity.

WMcK Is this an appropriate point to ask you to say a little more about Rebecca covering herself? Is this in the presence of the Man whose glory shines in the epistle to the Colossians?

SMcC I think it links on immediately with what we are coming to now, like Rahab too, who secreted the men under the flax. With Rebecca it is more the refined side that is in mind, she covered herself, that is she realises the side we are speaking about, the secret hidden side in relation to which the assembly stands in connection with Christ, involving the mystery.

PHH In using the word ‘hidden’ are you stressing that which the assembly would enshrine, and that which would be enjoyed in assembly life and assembly service? I was just hoping you might say a little more, please, about how the word ‘hidden’ would apply in the assembly as we know it.

SMcC The world cannot follow there, they can follow up to a point. The world can go up to a certain point as in the burial of Jacob, you remember, there were those who went out of Egypt, the great throng and crowd, but they could only go as far as a certain point. From that point onward Joseph and those with him go, so that the world can only go to a certain point. They can see what is material and what is physical, but the hidden side involves what is spiritual, and involves the secret of the organism in the body’s attachment to Christ, quickened in the life of the Head as the body is, a sensitive organism in which things operate with such delicacy.

GHSP Do we get both these thoughts at the end of the first preaching in the second of Acts? Peter first of all lays great stress on baptism and saving themselves from this untoward generation, is that like Romans 5, and then the Spirit’s comment on the hidden life which is brought to light in the persevering in the apostles’ doctrine, breaking of bread, and so on?

SMcC Very interesting, so that while the truth of the body was not unfolded in the early chapters of the Acts, the vital features of it were there in the working of the organism by the Spirit’s coming in as He did, and the link they had with Christ through that.

PHH I suppose the thought of what is hidden operates in the Supper itself, is that right? Because to follow what you have been saying, there is the public side of persons sitting down to take the Lord’s supper, but then there is the hidden side, in which the Lord comes in and is known to us. Does the Colossian side, so to speak, start there?

SMcC Exactly, making way for His headship, the Supper would bring us together in a public way in love for one another. You cannot have the headship of Christ functioning rightly unless our relations with one another are right. The headship of Christ does not work arbitrarily, it works through the affections, and unless we are together rightly in affection we do not get the gain of the headship of Christ.

HW In our apprehension of the truth, does the truth of the body come first, or the truth of the head?

SMcC The truth of the body involving our relations with one another, makes way for the head to come in in a functioning way, because the head comes in to function in relation to the body. There is the apprehension, of course, of the Head in His unique glory which comes first in Colossians.

HW Unless we are set together, as it says here, in love, there is not much likelihood of our apprehending or enjoying the headship of Christ.

SMcC I do not think there is, so that the way we view one another in our localities becomes a very practical matter, and the love we have for one another, whether there is a certain moral distance between us, or whether the Supper, as we sit down to partake of it, has affected the active state of love that is intended to be amongst us.

HW So that at the beginning of this matter in Romans, the apostle reminds us that we are members one of another, and that is essential before we can come into the gain of the working of the Head, would you say?

SMcC I think so. Romans does not develop the truth of the body, it just alludes to it in chapter 12 in such a way that we should be saved from isolation and independency. So many are deflected by independency and isolation in their outlook, and it is important that we should see the value of our links with one another in view of being preserved from that.

WHL Does the presence of the Spirit enter into that, His being free among the brethren?

SMcC It does, very much, because the Spirit is the binding power between the brethren. That is, He is the hidden bar, in the type, running through the boards of the tabernacle.

WMB Is that seen in the one reference to the Spirit in this epistle, “your love in the Spirit” (chapter 1: 8) preceding all this?

SMcC Very good. It is remarkable that not much is said about the Spirit in Colossians, although He underlies the whole matter, but the rare reference to “love in the Spirit” I think, is very apropos, coming in as it does, and where it does. In Ephesians you have constant reference to the Spirit, but Colossians is to make Christ prominent, and the life of Christ in the saints prominent.

EJH Is the Spirit saying, “That is my master!” in Colossians?

SMcC Exactly. In Romans 8 the Spirit is life as it says, but not in Colossians, the Spirit is not life in Colossians.

PHH Will you please say some more about Christ being our life, the life of the body in Colossians.

SMcC I think the whole point in Colossians is to make much of Christ in that way, so that even in regard to the new man, Christ is everything and in all, He is everything as object, and in all as a characterising state. Christ is written over this whole epistle, so that we are to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and thus we are delivered from the influence of man, and the mind of man entrenching in the holy realm of divine things.

AWP So it is “Christ in you”, not as Ephesians, the saints in Christ. Would that be essential, bringing in the body as being most essential in order that the flow from the Head might have the body in view?

SMcC “Christ in you” emphasises the hidden position that we have been referring to, the secret position. It is like Joseph in Egypt; that is, he was apart from his brethren, and Christ is viewed apart from Judaism here. Judaism adds nothing to Christianity in this sense, it is what there is in a secret hidden way, apart from what is around us, so rich and so full.

AJG And so does that flow out from Christ being held in the affections of the assembly?

SMcC That is how I understand it.

AJG So that you have “dead with Christ”, “buried with Christ”, “risen with Christ”, “manifested with Christ”, it is a question of being with Christ all through, is it not?

SMcC Exactly.

ALO Going back for a minute, could you indicate how those who are sitting behind can be attracted from what is public to what is hidden?

SMcC What is hidden, of course, works out in effect testimonially, that is, there is something there that affects those who are concerned, like Rahab was affected. She was on the outside, looking on, and there was something there in Israel that affected her, and affected the work of God sovereignly in her, so that she desired to be linked with it.

AH You referred yesterday to the great matter of Christ singing in the midst of the assembly, that would be the hidden side of things, would it not? But is it not calculated to powerfully affect the saints so that there is an outburst of praise from them, and does not that become public?

SMcC That is, the power of it is felt testimonially. The assembly is affected by Christ’s Headship in the service of God, receiving all direction and impulse from Christ. The world does not understand that, but the power of it is felt testimonially.

ECM You referred yesterday very much to the thought of the root and the offspring of David, do you think we might link that with the passage here as to the Person of Christ, His deity being asserted as also His manhood?

SMcC That is what I was referring to in the dual thoughts that come into this letter to the Colossians. These first and second chapters are full of dual thoughts, for instance, verses 15 and 16 give Christ’s pre-eminence in relation to the whole creation, “firstborn of all creation”, and verse 18 brings in His pre-eminence in relation to the assembly. That is, you have got what is general in the whole creation. He is “firstborn of all creation”; involving the great sphere of divine majesty and glory, but then you get what is special, “he is the head of the body, the assembly; who is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead” (verse 18), involving that He has gone through the article of death, and He has gained the victory over death in His humanity. He is risen from among the dead, and His pre-eminence is seen in the special position over against the general position, but both features of His glory are calculated to affect us very much.

SEW Would all this help us in relation to what you said as to Joseph being hidden? Was not Benjamin hidden, and was it not when Benjamin was seen with the brethren that the heart of Joseph was moved in relation to his brethren, and would the brethren be affected by that?

SMcC So that you have what is general with Joseph, and you have what is special. You have got the great realm in which Joseph is administering, involving, as we might say, the whole creation of God in figure, and where God, in an abstruse way suggested in Pharaoh, is to be Supreme. But then you have what is special; you have Joseph’s brethren upon whom he focuses his attention, and they coming into the gain of such intimate contact with him, and his embrace of them. So you get it working out in Paul; he speaks of the glad tidings, he speaks of it in relation to the whole creation, but then he channels our thoughts into what is special, “I rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly”, showing how we are to have these great thoughts in relation to Christ’s glory before our souls.