WHAT THE HEAD IS AS THE SOURCE OF SUPPLY
[p. 382] WHAT THE HEAD IS AS THE SOURCE OF SUPPLY
JBS We were looking a little this morning at the assembly according to Acts 2, when the mystery had not been revealed, as to what characterised the meeting where there was no knowledge of the mystery.
One could hardly say we could go back to that, though in our day there are a great many who do not know anything beyond it. They do not know Christ as Head, but they desire to be led by the Spirit, and look for Him to help them to give utterance to some word brought before them in the assembly. I think it is important to see the difference between being led of the Spirit and the knowledge of the Head, acting in communion with Christ as such.
Ques Whilst it is plain we come to the Head in this scripture, is it not more in connection with the circle of christian fellowship?
JBS Yes, that is true, but still He is Head of every believer.
The first thing to understand is that the Colossians were a well-ordered assembly, but they were not really in the truth of the Head; they did not know the mystery, and the apostle had great conflict for them that they might know it. A great snare was impending, the notion that man could serve Christ by his religiousness or his learning, and so the flesh become a contributor. What the apostle shows is that if you hold the Head you would not seek anything from another source. In chapter 2 you find two great things: the first is, “Ye are complete in him”, and the second is that the body of the flesh has been entirely removed, cut off in the circumcision of the Christ - that man has been entirely put out of court. Now what we have [p. 383] to learn is that He is Head, each one has lost his own head and has another. Each one has the same Head. Some think of Christ as the head of a family, but that is not it at all. When you have the Head introduced you have the thought of the new man brought in. Chapter 3 begins with the fact that you have accepted circumcision; you have done with the old man and have a new source of supply. The best illustration I know is the case of Elisha, who took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces, and then he takes up the mantle of Elijah. Circumcision is the soul accepting the death of Christ. It is not that I am trying to do something, I am merely accepting what is done. Crucifixion is the judicial ending of the man; circumcision, that he is entirely cut off, outside altogether. You will never understand the Head until you arrive at the spot where there is no human voice, “neither Greek nor Jew”.
Romans 6 gives only “dead to sin”. In Colossians 2 you are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world; not gone to heaven, but outside the world as risen with Christ; therefore you do not want the first man to help, nor what applies to that man. Many rely upon the language they use when dwelling on the things of God to produce an effect.
Ques Do we derive individually from the Head?
JBS Yes, but unless you drop your own head you will not have His; you must drop your own first, as Elisha rent his clothes; the proof of power is that the obstruction is removed. You must give up your own to get the new, that is the early part of the chapter, “But now ye also put off all these... and have put on the new man... where there is neither Greek nor Jew... but Christ is all, and in all”. Christ is everything. You have come to a spot outside everything of the first man, and found Christ everything.
Ques Do you mean there must be a practical removal of what hinders, in order to enjoy the Head?
JBS [p. 384] Yes, you must accept in faith what has been done for you; the conscience must go along with the truth. The truth is a dead letter unless conscience is in exercise.
Ques “Let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to which also ye have been called in one body”. Is that union?
JBS No, not exactly union; we have not the doctrine of union here, though you will not understand union without this. To understand union you must go to the place where Christ is. It is more a question of life than of union; you have life, then union, then you know the power of the Spirit of God. You have life and nature here, or you could not live in this out-of-the-world place; here we are practically over Jordan. Here it is a question of what the Head is, as another has said, as the source of supply.
The truth taught in Colossians was to meet a work of Satan which was impending, but which is simply christendom today.
You have the Head, that is the great point in Colossians. In John 15 I am to abide in Him, but that is not union. John brings out the moral effect of the divine fact, but if you have not the moral effect it soon appears that you have not the divine fact. Fruit-bearing is the evidence of vitality. If you abide in Him the habits of the new man come out. In John 15 you come out really setting forth Christ; so the Lord says, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit: so shall ye be my disciples”.
I could not get christian sensibilities anywhere else but from the Head. You come out in a new fashion. Once, perhaps, one of the roughest and rudest, you come out in an entirely new way. It only confirms what we were saying yesterday, that your body becomes indicative of the measure of the Spirit’s work in you. Look at a man, once rough; now he has “bowels of mercies, kindness”, etc.; people would say, What a [p. 385] changed man! Why? because he has changed his head; he now expresses the sensibilities of the Head. If I am “holding the Head” - if I am in the power of Colossian truth, I am suitable to all His people. I come out in a different way to all that belongs to Him; that is the christian circle, and that is what we get in Colossians. “Holding the Head” is confined to the christian circle; a man does not bring it into his business, though I think he would be a different man in his business.
Ques Some have said it is a corporate line of things that belongs to all?
JBS That brings the body in too much; that does not seem to me to be the thought. If they used the words ‘christian circle’ it would be a great deal better than corporate; corporate gives the idea of the body which is not the idea here. It is holding the Head that introduces the christian circle. I do not think a person gets into it till he holds the Head; he does not get the qualities to fit him for it. The Colossians were a very nice company; their faith in the Lord was great, and they had love to all saints, but I do not think they knew what became them in relation to the christian circle.
I think we must allow that we do not like a path that puts us outside everything, and where we have to do with Christ as the sole dictator of what we should do.
Ques You would refer to the Head in everything?
JBS I would not use the word ‘refer’; as Head He directs. In the assembly it is not merely referring to the Spirit of God that we should have in view, but what I should look for is that I may really be under the direction of the Head; He may direct me to some scripture that I may feel I know but little about; but if He directs me I shall be enabled to open it out in such a manner as will be manifestly suitable to the state of the assembly at the time.
Ques You mean that is the direction [p. 386] of the Head?
JBS Yes.
Ques How are you to get rid of your own head?
JBS You have died with Christ and you are risen with Christ; you are outside it all. To accept this in faith is the first step towards holding the Head. It is a great and blessed thing for faith to lay hold of, that I am in living connection with the Head, and that He, in His deep interest in His saints, can direct His servant to minister that which is adapted to them at the moment.
There is a difference between “Lord” and “Head”; the former is evidently in connection with His authority; the latter is to give character - everything is to have its character from the Head.
Ques He gives character to what is presented in the assembly?
JBS I am speaking now of the christian circle and not of the assembly; but if we are not right in the assembly we are not right outside it. Suppose Colossians 3 were carried out, there would be a company here upon earth, the whole character of which was determined by the Head. The virtues of the Head would be produced in the company.
The secret of it all is in the expression “Christ is all, and in all”; very few have come to this point. You see nothing else whatever - that is the entire point. Perhaps one can say, He is “the chiefest among ten thousand”, etc., but that is not only so, “He is everything”.
It is manifest that no one has got hold of the truth of the Head unless he knows that Christ is everything, and that is what the natural man does not like; but the more the soul is attached to the Lord, the more it will delight in that seclusion.
Ques “Christ is all, and in all”, then, belongs to all?
JBS Yes, but we have to learn it. A great many of us have skipped, gone to Ephesians before we had [p. 387] learned Colossians, and we have to go back to Colossians to learn it.
Ques In chapter 1: 18 he says, “And he is the head of the body, the church”.
JBS Yes, that is God’s appointment. It is a point of great moment; you do not come to union till you come to Ephesians.
Ques Is not union found in Colossians?
JBS No.
Ques Can you have the body without union?
JBS We are all members of His body and have His nature; we come from Him and do not bring anything to Him. If the truth of the body is touched upon as in Romans 16, it is not expounded, because it is not the subject taught there; so also in Colossians we are all members of His body, but the question is to know how we derive from Him. There is nothing more striking than the fact that under the law there were no regulations given in connection with the family.
Ques “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” - that would include your business and everything, would it not?
JBS You would be a different man in your business if holding the Head, because you belong to the new order of things; but in that verse you pass from the “Head” to the “Lord”. The moment the apostle comes to relative duties we have the Lord brought in.
Ques Would not the relative duties come under the direction of the Head?
JBS No, under the Lord.
Ques What is comprised in the christian circle?
JBS Every christian. I think it shows the connection between the family circle and the christian circle. We are not sent back to Adam to learn how to behave. It is remarkable how we are led on as to the work of the Spirit in the soul; we do not begin at the top, but He will lead you to the top. You will never get beyond the Spirit’s work in you. He will never deviate; we deviate but He never does. In Colossians 2: 19 we have “not holding the Head”, etc.; what follows is that all vitality is by holding the Head. He is the Head of each individual, and belongs as much to the youngest babe as to the oldest father; but we have to learn it. There is no idea of organisation in Colossians, but directly you bring in the body you have an organism.