ASSOCIATION WITH CHRIST
[p. 352] ASSOCIATION WITH CHRIST
Colossians 2: 20 - 23; Colossians 3: 1 - 6
The subject that has occupied us on the three previous occasions has been “deliverance”, but then deliverance has, in the thought of God for the saints, its own distinct purpose and object. And as I understand it, the end in view is that we may enter in our souls into the proper place of Christians as in association with Christ risen, and thus as one body by the Spirit here on earth. When we have reached that point, then I think all can understand that deliverance is realized. That is what led me to the passage I have read, for in the beginning of chapter 3 you get the thought of being risen with Christ, and this means that we are in association with Christ. The idea, as I understand it, is that the power of God that has operated in Christ in His resurrection has also taken effect in the saints; not in the same way, because with Him it was in literal resurrection, and in the saints it is moral; but it is the same power, and by divine power they are placed on one common platform with Christ, as risen together with Him. And I doubt if anybody understands what Christianity is if he does not apprehend that. It is all very well to bear a good name in the world six days in the week, and to be a Christian on the seventh; but that is not Christianity. Christianity is brought out in the passage I have read in Colossians; at the close of chapter 2 you pass out of one scene, and in the beginning of chapter 3 you have got another scene in view, though you may not yet be there. That is what I shall try by the grace of God to make plain: there is another scene opened to the view of the Christian. It is presented in a few words in the beginning of chapter 3, “If ye [p. 353] then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth”, the connecting link is where Christ is sitting, “at the right hand of God”. And I make bold to say this, that until we as Christians have in faith another scene in view, we really do not understand what it is to be intelligently for Christ down here.
Of the two scenes to which I have alluded, the one is in contrast to the other; the one is an order of things in which man dogmatises, and lays down the law. The other is an order of things in which man has no place at all, but everything is completely of God, “the things above, at the right hand of God”: you may depend upon it there is nothing of man there, all is of God.
I have spoken of deliverance as a subject of the last importance to us as Christians, and have referred to it in three aspects, first, deliverance from sin and the world, which are intimately connected, then deliverance from law, and finally deliverance from the flesh. I will briefly touch on the three again, to connect the whole together.
I do not think that people enter into deliverance from sin and the world until they get something positive in their souls. It is no good their saying they are dead to sin and the world if they are not dead; and I do not think they reckon themselves dead, until there is a certain power of God in the soul, and this lies in the apprehension of another Man. As we get in Romans 6, “Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father”, it is another Man, “In that he died, he died unto sin once; in that he liveth, he liveth unto God”. It is perfectly evident that the man here lives to himself; that is the principle of sin. But what has come to pass in regard to another Man is, “in that he died, he died unto sin once”, He had to say to sin in bearing the judgment of it, “in that he liveth, he liveth unto God”. The great point is this, that a Man, of another order, has entered in to the eternal and perfect satisfaction of God, “raised from the dead by the glory of the Father”; and it is the sense and power of that in the soul which really enables the Christian to reckon himself “dead to sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus”. Any Christian would feel the incompatibility of sin with grace. Then in regard to the world, the world is the system of things in which the flesh lives; and I do not think persons would be content to accept death to the world if they did not apprehend that there existed another sphere, another circle, in which the character of Christ is seen. I do not say more now in regard to deliverance from sin and the world, because I am only recapitulating.
Subsequently we had before us death to the law, a very important point. The law was a bond under which the Jew was held; but God has dissolved the bond by the death of Christ. The bond does not exist for the Christian, he is not under law. It is not quite like death to sin and to the world, there is no bond there; but the law was a bond, and the point in regard to it is that God has dissolved the bond in order that another bond might be formed. You are “become dead to the law by the body of Christ”, that is, in Christ that bond is dissolved, “that you might be to another, to him that is raised up from the dead, to bring forth fruit unto God”. I will put it in other language for you, which may perhaps tend to simplify it. The apostle says, “In that I live in flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”; that is my bond, he says, not law. The Christian is bound to Christ, by the sense of what Christ has done for him. The law did nothing for him except condemn; now he lives by the faith of [p. 355] the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him; there it is he gets deliverance from law. He walks under the influence of love, not simply the love of God but the love of Christ. Some might think they are the same thing, but they are not; there is the love of God and there is the love of Christ. You could hardly say that God loved me and gave Himself for me; God gave His Son for me, but Christ “loved me and gave himself for me”. It is a Man that loved me and gave Himself for me; He is divine, but He is a Man. So, too, He “loved the church and gave himself for it”. That is the second point, deliverance from law.
Then the third point came before us last time, and that is, deliverance from the flesh, which is comparatively simple, because it lies in this, that the Christian being indwelt by the Spirit is not in the flesh. He has to learn that; and as to the way deliverance is realized, he has to learn that God has in the cross judged sin in the flesh. I do not think the Christian practically understands deliverance from the flesh until he sees what was effected typically in the brazen serpent and actually in Christ; then he sees that the state of man in the flesh has been judged in order that the believer might be indwelt by the Spirit. When I once see that God has judged sin in the flesh, then I say, I am not debtor to the flesh; I am indwelt by the Spirit, for the judgment was effected in order that the Spirit might be given and might be life in the believer. It is just according to the type in Numbers, where the next thing after the brazen serpent is the digging of the well and the springing up of the water, “Spring up, O well” That is, it is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus springing up in the Christian, and that is the way he gets, practically, deliverance from the flesh.
Of course it is easy for me to dwell on these things [p. 356] in detail; but the difficulty is that all these things have to be put together in each one of our souls, because they all work together. I am quite warranted in taking them up in detail, for indeed Scripture does so; but they must all be put together in the soul of the believer, because deliverance has to be complete; he has to be practically freed from sin, and the world, and law, and the flesh; that is the divine thought. And the object and purpose on the part of God in it is that he may enter into the blessed truth of association with Christ; pass practically out of one scene into the presence of another blessed scene opened up to his view entirely outside of all that is here.
Allow me to dwell first on the two or three verses at the close of chapter 2. The apostle has completed the doctrinal part in verse 19, and then in verse 20 he comes to the hortatory part, and says, “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though alive in the world” — not “living” exactly, but “alive” in the world — “are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not, taste not, handle not, which are all to perish with the using), after the commandments and doctrines of men? which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will, worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body, not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh”. Now I think any one can see there is one scene here, the world; and it is not the world of gross things, not Egypt, but it is what one may call the religious world, and in the religious world man dogmatises, the law is laid down. Even the law of God in the Old Testament was in dogmas; the apostle speaks of it in the early part of the chapter, as “the handwriting of ordinances”, dogmas. But in the religious world it is after the traditions of men; man lays down and prescribes what is suitable to the religious person. You will [p. 357] find it in all the great systems which exist in the present day; Christianity has got back to dogmatism. Man prepares a rubric, he lays down rules as to service, he gives directions as to the ordering of the person and even of the dress. That is the character of things that exist in the religious world, it is dogmatism; it calls for unintelligent obedience, and the end and purpose of it is the satisfaction of the flesh. I have often thought, in connection with the great religious things in the world, for whose satisfaction do they exist? Whom do they please? Suppose you have intellectual preaching, to which it is a great pleasure to man to listen, is that to please God or man? So, too, in regard to musical services; whom are they intended to please? If you had the most magnificent music which it was possible to produce upon earth, do you think for an instant that human music could please God? What has God to say to human music? There is such a thing as singing with the heart and in the Spirit, and with the understanding; but nothing can please God except what is in the Spirit. All else is for the satisfaction of the flesh. Of course you see all I have spoken of in its most gross form in Popery; but you can see plenty of it outside Popery, round us here in the world. I might take up a good many other things besides those I have mentioned, such as laying down of seasons and times and days; for they are of the same order of things. People are dogmatised; it is not intelligent subjection which is called for, but unintelligent subjection, that is, people do things, not because they see any spiritual purpose or reason in them, but because they are laid down after the commandments and traditions of men, and serve for the satisfaction of the flesh. And they are well pleased with what they do in this way; there is a sort of satisfaction in it, it is not that God is pleased, but [p. 358] the flesh is satisfied, and it ends there. It has often been said that there is a strong religious tendency in the nature of man, and therefore a cultivated world cannot do without religion; but the character of worldly religion is always dogmatism, what is laid down by man, “the commandments and traditions of men”: it cannot rise above this.
In regard to the Christian, the point is this: he is dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world. Christ in a sense came under the rudiments of the world, for He had His human identity, was “made of a woman, made under the law”, He was presented to Jehovah, and was circumcised. But He has died out from all that order, and we are dead with Him, “If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world”. A Christian has passed morally out of that scene.
Now I want to look a little at the scene opened to us at the beginning of chapter 3, though I can speak but little as to it, seeing that so little is said about it, and really it is a scene on which one finds it very difficult to touch. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory”. Now may the Lord enable me to say a word in regard to these two or three verses. It is not that I can pretend to expound them; I can only throw out a thought or two in regard to them. We have come, as I was saying at the beginning, to what I believe to be the great purpose and end of deliverance, that is, that we are risen together with Christ. How that is brought about we are told in verse 12 of chapter 2, “Buried with him in baptism, wherein [p. 359] also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead”. My own impression, although I would not be very positive about it, is that it should read, “In whom also ye are risen with him”: I am not clear about connecting it with baptism, I am more inclined to connect it with Christ: “in whom”, that is, it is in Christ, the Christian is risen with Him. Now we come to the exhortation founded on it, “If you are risen together with Christ”. You can understand that the Christian is not yet risen; but Christ is risen, and God has wrought in the Christian in the same power by which he raised Christ, and by the same Spirit; and the way in which it is wrought in the soul is “through faith of the operation of God, that raised him from the dead”. What that means is this, that I see the force and meaning of God’s operation in raising Him from the dead. I begin to see something of the glory of God, what God would secure for Himself out of the wreck and ruin of everything here, and the beginning of it was the resurrection of Christ. When Christ died, everything was gone as you might say; the world was dead in trespasses and sins, Jew and Gentile alike; Christ was in death, and what was to come out of it all? The first ray of light that breaks in upon that scene of darkness is the resurrection of Christ; the power of God raises Christ from the dead; it is God working, who commanded that out of darkness light should shine, and the first ray of light is the glory of God raising Christ again from the dead, that is the real beginning of all for God. Now I apprehend what God is doing, I see the character of his operation, that the purpose and intent of God is to recover. The resurrection is really the divine power in recovery. Satan destroys, man destroys, as the Lord said to the Jews, “Destroy this temple”, that was what they would do, “and in three days I will raise it up”. I see that Christ raised again from the dead is the glory of God in contrast to the destructive power of man and of Satan. I delight not only in the personal resurrection of Christ, but in the operation of God that raised Him from the dead. And I am entitled to take this ground, I am risen together with Him; God is bringing a company out of death, and Christ is first of that company, He is the first-fruits of the resurrection. God “is bringing many sons to glory”, and He has taken the first-born of them out of death. And the same power which wrought in Christ has wrought in us, and the way in which it is evidenced is in faith in the operation of God, that raised him from the dead. We are of His company, risen together with Him, in association with Him, and He is “not ashamed to call us brethren”. All the sons that are brought to glory are taken out of death. It is the triumph of God, His glory, that He takes a company for glory out of death.
I want next to show you the effect of it, and how it opens up to us another scene, a scene which is outside this scene. And the first point is, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God”. It is interesting to see the different way in which Christ is presented to us in the different epistles. I think you will find that almost every statement in regard to Him in the epistle to the Colossians is really leading up to the divine glory of His Person. And the reason of it is that there had been a tendency among those who were affecting the Colossians to set aside the true glory of the Person of the Son. For instance, in chapter 1 we read, “who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth”. And again, “for it pleased ... that in him should all fulness dwell”, and so on. So again in verse 9 of chapter 2 it says, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”. When you come to chapter 3 it says, “where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God”. I understand by it that that is the place which Christ has taken personally; it is not a place in which any other but Christ will ever be; you read of the saints being in heavenly places, but not at the right hand of God. It is the place which Christ has taken personally, and to me it is the declaration of the glory of His Person. Angels are the most distinguished of created beings, but “unto which of the angels said he at any time, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool”? The place that Christ has taken as Man at the right hand of God, the place of supreme honour and power, is the declaration on the part of God of who Christ is. I will give you a proof of it. The Lord told the Jews when He was before the Council that they should see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of God, and they said unto Him instantly, “Art thou then the Son of God?” They felt what it conveyed. So, too, Stephen saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And here you get the great truth that He sits at the right hand of God; it is the proof and declaration that He is the Son of God, in the place of supreme honour and glory. I have often thought in regard to Christ here upon earth, that the greatest proof of His deity is what He was as Man; you could not have such a man if He were not God. And here I get the declaration of His deity; that is, that He sits as Man at the right hand of God. It is a wonderful thing for the Christian, because everything is consequently changed, and he can look up there for that very reason, for the blessed truth has come out that there is actually a man sitting at the right hand of God. And then the practical bearing of it [p. 362] is that that Man is the One with whom as Man the Christian is associated, in order to draw his thoughts and heart into another scene where everything is of God. Mark you this, there is nothing there but what is of God; love reigns there supreme. When you think of Christ rejected, spit upon, and crucified down here, now sitting at God’s right hand, the object of all homage and honour and glory in heaven, it is a wonderful thing to think that as Christians we are placed by the grace of God in association with such an One. The practical effect of it must be that you “seek the things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God”.
The next point is this: “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth”. There are “things above” and there are “things on the earth”. It is a very difficult thing to attempt to describe what the things above are; but I should suppose they are most blessed things, and I take it that things above all centre round Him who is everything to us, who loved us and gave Himself for us. There is no one here tonight but knows very well what the things on earth are. You do not want to find the earth made agreeable to you, because another scene is opened up to you, where everything centres round a Man, highly exalted, proved to be divine, and where everything is of God, and love reigns supreme.
But now we have this great truth, “Ye are dead”. The statement is not doctrinal but practical; you are dead, and “your life is hid with Christ in God”. No one knows what the life of the Christian is, it has never yet been manifested, it is hidden in God. If you could see Christ, you would understand then what the life of the Christian is; you will never know it till Christ appears, that is, I imagine, the meaning of the expression, “Your life is hid with Christ in God”. “When he is manifested [p. 363] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”, and no one will be like Him until He is manifested; then we shall be like Him in order that we may see Him. But for the moment our life is hid. How does that work? I think in this way, that a Christian wants to be hid so far as the world is concerned; I do not want to be prominent here so long as my life is hid; I would like to be in the shade down here until Christ who is my life is manifested, but though in obscurity I would not be inactive, but serving the Lord in the place of obscurity.
Now we come to the third point, and that is “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory”. Christ is our life, He is the real living power in the Christian, as the apostle says, “Not I, but Christ liveth in me”; that is what obtains in the present time, our life has not yet been manifested, but Christ is our life, and when He appears we shall appear with him in glory. I think I speak the sentiments and feeling of a great many, when I say, You do not want to come out glorious in the present time. You are content to wait for the time when Christ who is our life is manifested. I do not think we want to antedate the glory. One would not care to be glorious here, knowing that all the glory is at the right hand of God. There has been nothing but the deepest shame and humiliation and ignominy down here for Christ; He has now the blessed answer to it in the place of supreme honour and glory at the right hand of God, and I think the Christian should refuse to be renowned or distinguished in a scene where Christ has only been dishonoured, and content to wait until Christ is manifested in glory.
It is a great point to me that God has opened another scene to the Christian. I might illustrate it by the position of the Lord Himself when He was [p. 364] raised again from the dead; you can understand that He had clearly broken every link with this world, though morally He never had any. The potentates of the world had cast Him out, but as raised He enters the Holiest in the virtue of redemption. He had glorified God, and He was on the point of going up to heaven, but he remained here forty days for the will of God. And the Holiest is now true with regard to the Christian. We are risen together with Christ; the same power which raised Him from the dead has operated in us. We are in association with Him, and God has been pleased in His great grace to open up to us that blessed scene into which Christ has entered, and He bids us to seek the things which are above. Our souls are to be filled now with a sense of the blessed things where Christ is. As the apprehension of Christ is opened out to the believer, it is not only that we see Him as the anointed of God, who was here entirely for God’s will, and was the vessel of God’s pleasure, but we apprehend Him now in the glory of His Person; He is the One who sits at the right hand of God, and who is worthy to sit there, and He is declared to be what He is, the Son of God.
May God give you to see the great blessing of this truth, to see what a great end is to be gained by deliverance, what deliverance brings you to as to the practical state of your souls, that is, into the consciousness of association with Christ, according to the grace of God; that He is not ashamed to call you brethren; you are in association with Him, you have got glory in view, and the blessed scene where everything is of God, where there is righteousness and holiness and love and majesty, and all that is of God, vindicated in a Man. That is the scene which is opened up to the Christian, and opened up to him in order that he may know what it is to be according to God and for God down here [p. 365] during the little moment he is on earth. May God in His great grace show it to all, in a way in which it is totally impossible for me to show it to you. I have only tried to give the idea of it; and I trust through the grace of God it may really take possession of our souls, that all may see the great gain which is to be obtained through deliverance.