THE HEAD OF ALL PRINCIPALITY AND POWER (3)
[p. 83] THE HEAD OF ALL PRINCIPALITY AND POWER (3)
Rem Seek the things which are above.
FER Well, Daniel’s point was Jerusalem. His great thought was Jerusalem and the temple rebuilt. We do not look for that. The point for us is, that all will be fulfilled from the right hand of God, and all is established in the One who is there, so that it is the great centre of interest to the Christian. I do not care for political changes here; to a Christian it makes no difference whether this country is ruled as it is, or comes under the domination of another power; the only point is that we might live a quiet, peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty. England is no more to you than any other country. For the Christian everything is at the right hand of God, where Christ is; all is established in Him, and He is the Head of all principality and power. “Risen with him” is that you are on the same platform with Christ. In the world of which Christ is Head, all is on the platform of resurrection, but we are already risen with Him. Paul, at the end of the Acts, had dropped down a bit; he claimed to be a Roman, and a Pharisee; he got depressed for the moment, swayed by his zeal for the Jew, but he did not gain anything by it; he wanted to go to Jerusalem, and the Lord told him he had better not, but he never gained by it, for he never got a hearing there. God overruled it, but the practical result was that Paul went to Rome as a prisoner, instead of as a free man; but we see the Lord encouraging him. In Scripture you get the most eminent men, and their faults are not hidden a bit; things are painted as they were; they were not coloured, nor like photographs touched up!
[p. 84] It is a wonderful thing that God is to evolve a universe from one Man. The present world has been evolved from one man. That is what is going to be; it is all established; it does not remain to be established, it only remains to be displayed. “We have come to mount Zion”, etc., they are not imaginary things. The “things above” are there. This world is a chaos, and no one can forecast events for fifty years to come. It is a scene of moral confusion. Christianity has failed in the world; the world has conquered it. It has, of course, effected God’s purpose, but it has produced no revolution in the world; it is not peace now, but confusion.
Why is it “set your mind on things above”, and not your heart?
FER We are first to seek the things where the Christ sitteth, then “have your mind on the things that are above”; “your life is hid with the Christ in God”. It is the Christ, the Head. It is a great pity they have omitted the article. All will come from the One who is the Head of all principality and power — from the right hand of God. “Your life is hid with the Christ”. There is no element of spiritual life in the world; all is in Christ. We all held extraordinary ideas as to life: that we had life as God has it, that is apart from certain conditions. Man in the natural life cannot live without conditions. Let a man go up in a balloon, and go too high up, how long will he live? If persons say they have life, I say, where are the conditions? We have held impossible things. The conditions of life are all in Christ. It is a great thought that Christ is available to man, and all the conditions of life are there in Christ. If we are in Christ, then we come into the conditions, and then they are in us. The Christ is our life. The Christian has to live in Christ, his life is hid in God; it is not yet manifested. “When the Christ is manifested, who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him”.
“Ye are dead”. It will not do to take up an expression in the hortatory part of Colossians to prove the doctrine of Romans 6. We are only dead by reckoning so long as we are down here. The reckoning may be sound and real, and true in the power of the Spirit, still it is a reckoning. “Ye are dead”; that is, you have come to it in the sense of things in your own mind. Your title to die is that Christ has died, and we are to reckon ourselves dead, and to reckon ourselves alive. You must take up both sides. Until a soul is in the reality of being alive in Christ, you cannot reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin.
Dead to sin, to law, and the world; are they all reckonings?
FER Yes, I think so; otherwise it becomes dogma. It is in the power of the reckoning alive that you can take the death side. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live”. It is so experimentally. No one could accept death here unless he apprehended life in Christ as the Head and Centre of another world.
What is “Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus”?
FER That is consistency with it; there is to be a reckoning of mind, but then you have to see that you are consistent with it; the reckoning becomes a basis, so here you get “mortify therefore”. I should like to see people alive to the testimony of the Christ. God has made known to us the mystery of His will, to head up all things, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. I should like that to get into the view of people, and the testimony invariably refers to what is going to be displayed. We shall be very much alive when the Christ is manifested. It will be life then, but life will then still be dependent upon conditions. We never can get beyond reckoning at the present time, however real and true that may be. We get nothing by faith, and we do not reckon by [p. 86] faith, but we do not get anything without faith.
Rem “Thy faith hath saved thee”.
FER Well, faith is the way of everything, but you get everything by the Spirit; we have nothing apart from Christ and the Spirit of Christ. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”. Faith is recognised for righteousness. A believer is accounted righteous for God by faith; but how is a man to get the good of it? It is only by the witness of the Spirit.
Rem “Through faith of the operation of God”.
FER Well, it simply brings the mind into accord with it. Abraham’s faith was accounted for righteousness, but we are not told how far Abraham knew that, for the statement only gives how God accounted him.
Rem “Thy, sins are forgiven thee”.
FER That is said to us now by the Spirit. What answers to the word of Christ when He was here, is the witness of the Spirit; it is by the Spirit we know it.
FER We get two thoughts — one in the end of the previous chapter, dead with Christ to the rudiments of the world; and then in the beginning of this chapter, “If ye then be risen with Christ”. The two things are bound to go together. You could not be dead with Christ without being risen with Him. If we are risen with Him, we are dead with Him; and if you are dead with Him, you are risen with Him. It is a great thing to realise this. We are on another platform, not of man, or of the flesh, but on a platform of being risen with Christ. We are circumcised with the circumcision of the Christ. If we be risen, seek the things above, where the Christ sitteth. “When the Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory”. The great bulk of people in the present day are going on with the world — they are not dead with Christ to the rudiments of the world, and they are dogmatised. If [p. 87] you have dogmas, you must have ecclesiastical authority; on the other hand, if you are risen with Christ, you seek the things above. It is a great thing to apprehend that new platform. Christ is risen, and the whole system of the world to come will be on the same platform with Christ, that is the resurrection platform; everything will have to be placed on that ground in order to be in accord with Christ. When Christ was here in the flesh, the disciples were taken account of as being on the same platform; they prayed, “Our Father, which art in heaven”. Once Christ was risen, the entire platform was altered; it is their “knowing no man after the flesh”. The disciples, when Christ was here, were recognised as in association with Christ as after the flesh, but when He was risen all was changed, and the platform entirely altered; it is then, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee”. That was the new platform. The great congregation will be also on the ground of resurrection, and so Christ will praise in the great congregation. The question might profitably and well be raised, What do you belong to religiously? Do you belong to the world or to Christ risen? Faith in the operation of God is the apprehension and light of the platform on which God has seen fit to place everything by the resurrection of Christ. The promises were given to Abraham and confirmed to Isaac when in figure he was raised from the dead, that proved pretty clearly that all the promises would have to come in on the ground of resurrection. If it were not so, Abraham would not come into them. I do not see how God can bless except on that ground, for everything was under death. Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for everything; and He did so that everything might be placed on the footing of resurrection. We can see the working of things; it came in very early to try and accommodate Christianity to the world; that was the [p. 88] effort of the Judaising teachers in early days, and which the apostle had so often to counteract.
What are the “things above”?
FER It is all that prevails above; we have to look above for all that is good: “The way of life is above to the wise”, Proverbs 15: 24. “Every good and every perfect gift is from above”, James 1: 17. There is an above, and there is a below; and they are moral ideas. There is a scene above, and all there is ordered according to God. A man is coloured by what he pursues; if it is pleasure or gain, he is sure to be coloured by these. If we seek the things above, we shall be coloured by the things above. It is a great thing to apprehend that there is a scene of intelligence above all the moral confusion here. There are many things here which outwardly appear comely, but beneath the surface all is confusion. The “things above” are to be the object of pursuit. God gives colour to the things above. Surely there must be a place where God abides. He gives colour to it, and there is no confusion. When Christianity came in, idolatry was overthrown; but then the devil changed his tactics, he has tried to corrupt it.
A French astronomer is reported to have said, that he had searched the heavens with the telescope and could find no trace of God. It was very foolish; it is the working of the material mind of man. When Christ was here, no power of man could have detected Him; He was not to be discerned in that way. There is a scene above where God abides, and where there is no confusion. In regard to God Scripture says, “Whom no one has seen, nor can see”. You get something very definite in connection with the things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. There is a scene, it may be impenetrable to man, but it is where the Christ sitteth. It is extremely beautiful in the end of Luke: “He was carried up into heaven”. If you ask me where heaven is, I say, I don’t know, but it is [p. 89] somewhere, and there Christ sitteth. Peter says, “Who is gone into heaven”. The things above refer to the scene of divine affection. The consequence of the mind of the Christian being carried above, is that the members upon the earth are put off, and another character of things put on; but these things are not quite the “things above”. In the scene above, all is divinely perfect, divine affections flow there, and there is no obstacle to them, Nothing contrary, nothing out of gear there. The things above are divine things, where all is ordered after God. The things above never come below; we get the result and effect of them, but they never come below. In the beginning of the Revelation you get the heaven opened, and John sees the things above; he saw the ordering of things above; the throne was there, If we set our affection on things above, we shall learn the ordering of things there; there is no confusion there; all that is of God is there; it is the scene where divine affections flow unhinderedly. In the time to come, God will bring to pass that everything on earth will be ruled by what is above: that is the thought of the city. The source of all blessing is above. There would be no rain were it not for the operation and influence of the sun — evaporation and the like. The central point of interest in “things above” to us, is the Christ. The Christ is intelligible to us. He is not unknown to us, and we can enter into the knowledge of Christ.
What are the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him?
FER That is not quite “things above”. Things above are things above, The Lord says, “I am from above”. There was a scene from which He came. We are to “seek the things which are above”, We must enter into this, that there is a scene into which Christ has entered as Man; into which He is received with acclamation: That scene constitutes the “things above”. Stephen saw the things above; he looked up [p. 90] steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God and Jesus; he was on the point of being put to death, and by the Spirit of God he got a sight of the scene above, where all is peace; there was One there, too, whom he knew. “Lord Jesus receive my spirit”; he knew that One. The rejection of everything on earth, and Jerusalem refused, and all the prestige connected with that, removes the scene of interest from earth; the scene of interest is now “where the Christ sitteth”.
Why the Christ?
FER Because it is Christ viewed as the Head of all principality and power; it is Christ officially. Christ is at the right hand of God officially as the Head and Centre of the whole divine system. He is the seen, known, and recognised Centre of all reverence and affection in heaven. The glory of God and Jesus are inseparable. The Christ is not representative; it is connected with the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Him bodily, and as such Head of all principality and power. That is the Christ. Peter puts it, “Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him”, 1 Peter 3: 22. It is most wonderful that there should be One in that place who is within the range of our knowledge. He may be known. There are so many beautiful things connected with the Lord in the gospels. Take the end of Matthew 11: “Come unto me all ye that labour ... and I will give you rest”. “I am meek and lowly in heart” — that is the Christ. The Christ who is our life.
How is our “life hid with Christ in God”?
FER When the heavenly city comes down from God out of heaven, your life will be no longer hid — all will come then into manifestation. We don’t know what the conditions of life will be. We await manifestation. We know it morally, but we do not know what we shall be. The creation itself waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. Christ is hid in [p. 91] God. He is hid for the moment. “The things above”, when you get to them you come to God’s abode. We shall dwell with God. “He that abides in love, abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4: 16), and we find Christ there. It is most wonderful that we live because Christ lives. I do not live because the world goes on, or because I am a healthy man. I live because Christ lives; it is spiritually, of course. The Christ will be the life of God’s universe. When God makes manifest His universe, Christ will be the righteousness of that world, and the life of it. Everything will be brought under the influence of Christ, Christ, the Sun of righteousness, will be the light and life of God’s universe; and now we live because Christ lives. Everything for us depends upon our appreciation of Christ. It is our true measure, you may depend upon it. Christ is the life of the soul, and it is that which binds us all together. He is the eye of all our souls. “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life”, John 4: 14. It is to Christ Himself it springs up; that is practically what eternal life means. Christ is going to be the life of the age to come. Christ is so great that He has ascended up that He may fill all things, and yet He would allow the disciples to ask Him questions, and to express their ignorance, and let a sinful woman touch Him. There are such heights and depths about Christ. He was not affected by the opinions of men here. He was far too great for that kind of thing. It is in that way that He has come within the range of our knowledge. He can be known in that way although He is the Christ who sitteth at the right hand of God.
The great fact is that God has come out to me, as low as I was, and that was death, and distance, and darkness, and that is redemption! Now we, by the Spirit, can go in to God, and we are permitted there [p. 92] to see the relations between the Father and the Son, and between the Son and the Father; and I believe that these relations and the affections connected with them, constitute the things above. Christ is the Object and Centre of every intelligent affection above. We shall be above some day. We want purpose of mind to seek the things above now. Whatever a man sets his mind on gives colour to him. A man who gives himself to science becomes precise and hard and material; that is the effect of it.
We shall come out in distinction by and by, in the full character of sons of God. We shall not come in glory, as we go into death — “sown in dishonour, raised in glory”, “sown in weakness, raised in power”. Death was dishonouring to God, it was a reproach that the creatures God had made had to go into death; the glory of God is resurrection; the reproach is set aside.
The argument of the apostle in verses 3 and 4 is that our life is hid, and we should be obscure down here. What follows in verse 5 is practical, not quite as in detail, but the place in which these things are to be held. We are not viewed as in heaven here, but we are in touch with heaven, for we are in His acceptance. If a Christian has accepted death with Christ, he cannot admit of such things as verse 5 contemplates; it would be inconsistent. The apostle says, “as unknown, and yet well known”, the world taking no account of us, and yet in another way well known in the circle of grace. The members on the earth are the natural vessels of the flesh; if left to themselves, the flesh is bound to work in them. The point is, “I have died”, and I cannot allow my members to live in that connection to which I have died; death has to be consistently maintained. We walked in these things when we lived in them. Verse 6 is future; it is a serious consideration; there are certain things in the world which are repugnant to God, and will in due [p. 93] course bring down the wrath of God. One wonders sometimes if we know all the wickedness continually committed, and in such a place as London, that God bears with it, as He does.
Legislation does not do much to put down wickedness, neither does education; in the educated classes wickedness may take a less gross form, but the character of the evil is as great. We may not get such glaring crimes in the educated classes; but their education has not any effect upon wickedness, it enables people to keep it more under cover. We should be appalled if we knew what goes on. I know, as a Christian, what I am capable of, and it is a great mercy if by the grace of God we are restrained from giving way to the capabilities of the flesh. A man is not free of the flesh till he gets to Gilgal; there is always danger to the flesh so long as a man is entangled by the world. Chapter 2 is the doctrine, and chapter 3 is practical, based on chapter 2. The Red Sea is the judgement of God. Jordan is, we are dead with Christ. It is that which practically delivers from the world. We do not get the good of the brazen serpent until we come to Jordan. The brazen serpent is on the divine side. We do not enter the sphere of life where Christ is till we get to Jordan. “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood”, is really Jordan. We get the Spirit of life in connection with the brazen serpent. It is as risen with Christ that we are in life.
The point in Colossians is our association with Him; not so much in Him, in heavenly places, but down here, on earth, we are in association with Him. Our association with Him is the sense of being in His acceptance. We are in the acceptance of His resurrection. God was glorified in His death, and He is risen. He is accepted, and we are risen, and in His acceptance. Then the next thing is, we come into His sphere of life. We learn first we are accepted in Him, and then we are in His sphere of life. We may get rid of what [p. 94] follows (verse 8), they are habits acquired — “anger, wrath, malice”, etc. It will require a good bit of grace to put them off, but what we get in verse 5 is inherent in us; we do not get free of these — they are lusts. Idolatry is whatever a man worships; covetousness is really the love of money — money is his god. Idolatry refers to love of the world in any form.
Is a lie connected with the old man (verse 9)?
FER Lying is the most characteristic feature of the old man; it is a great propensity in fallen man. Take Eastern nations — Chinese mendacity is almost natural, it is perfectly natural to the old man. The truth in Jesus is the putting off the old man. The apostle was able to speak in this way of the Colossians: “seeing that ye have put off the old man, and have put on the new”, etc. We cannot transfer these statements to the Galatians, for instance. No one really has put off the old man until he knows something of its character; and it is only in the light of Christ that we discover the old man. We have another Man come. Christianity hangs on this. The second Man is out of heaven. All that is morally divine and heavenly is brought into manhood, and nothing will go to heaven but what came from heaven; even as to our body we get “our house which is from heaven”.
What is the “new man”?
FER It is Christ in the saints; what is to come out in saints is Christ, The new man is looked at abstractly here. It takes in the thought of all saints. As to the character of it, it is new creation. “New man” here is fresh in character; in Ephesians it is “after God” — created; here it is renewed in knowledge; that is, everything is looked at in a completely different light; whatever is presented to saints, they see according to God in an entirely new way. Then it is that all distinctions of flesh disappear, and nothing is left but Christ, and there is nothing before God but [p. 95] Christ. These distinctions exist in the old man, but it is only in the new man they are gone.
“Image of him that created him”; who is the “him”?
FER God. He is the Creator. “Image” is the exact likeness; things are seen entirely according to God. We see men according to their natural proclivities and peculiarities; but in the new man you do not do that. You then only take account of what is Christ in them. Everything is brought into manhood in Christ, so that it may be brought within the reach of man. It is a long time before nothing is left in us but Christ. It is very natural to view saints according to their natural peculiarities; it is another thing to view them in this light. The way in which we see Christ in others is the measure of how much there is of Him in us. The whole field is completely cleared, and nothing is left but Christ; the old man is gone! Nothing is left but Christ, and He is all, and in all. The practical working out of Christianity here is in the Christian circle, a circle in which all that is of Christ is recognised.
We get here a picture of what the world was as to the way people walked when Christianity came into it. Christianity produces effects, even when the power of it is not known. But here we get the state of things which existed when Christianity came into the world (see verses 5 and 8). It is a picture in a few words of the way in which people walked, under the influence of idolatry when God was unknown; man found ample scope and room for his lusts, as we get depicted here. We do not see things in exactly the same gross way now, as Christianity has produced certain results; but still, when God is unknown, people will be governed by their own lusts and will. When people live in darkness there is nothing to rebuke them, and therefore what is there comes out, and that is not strange. Any one who knows himself can find all these things in his [p. 96] heart. I am sure I could. We never can be absolutely free of these things while down here. In contrast to these, what has come in for our faith is “Christ our life”. It is in contrast to what naturally prevails and governs men. “Our life is hid with Christ in God”. Christ is the life of our souls, and when He is manifested we shall come out with Him in glory. The assembly will come out, and give the law to the universe.
What is “mortify”?
FER It is putting to death; these members have to be put to death. You have to deal with them in their conception. In verse 8 the things are more habits; in verse 5 it is more nature. Habits, if allowed grow upon you, and get the mastery in time. When man became lawless in regard to God, he became unfaithful in every other way. Infidelity in other relationships is bound to follow if a man becomes lawless God-ward. Corruption is bound to follow lawlessness. If a child became lawless in regard to its parents and broke away from its relationships, it is bound to become corrupt. It was on account of the moral irregularities which came in, that God brought in the waters of the flood. People are trying, at the present time, to prove that the flood is a myth; but it is an attempt to set aside any interference on the part of God. Things are restrained by the influence of Christianity for the moment, but when the apostasy comes in you will get moral irregularity. When man becomes lawless in regard to God, there can be no doubt the marriage tie will go. When Christianity in the power of the Spirit is gone, all check will be removed.
“Covetousness which is idolatry”. Covetousness is not so much lust here as avarice. If a man begins to acquire money, he little understands what a hold on him it can have; man worships money because it gives him a place in the world. If you love anything too much, whether money or even a child, the danger [p. 97] is idolising. What you love you readily worship. Money is the vehicle of commerce; it has value for what it will acquire; you can get your money’s worth. In Ephesians 5: 5 it is a covetous man who is an idolater. It is the same word; it is an avaricious man. If you get a man avaricious, he very soon becomes unscrupulous. The love of money is the root of every evil. The great thing in contrast to it is to live in the life of Christ; to live in the appreciation of Christ. “Because I live, ye shall live also”. It is a very practical thing to live in Christ. It is a great thing for Christ to live in the heart of the Christian, for if so, then it will govern you. If Christ is our life, then we are rich, for all riches are in Christ. Sunshine has beneficent effects, so Christ is our life. We want to be continually in the sunshine of Christ. It is a great thing for us to get into the reality of Christ, of where Christ is, and what Christ is; people are not half enough alive to it. In early days the riches of Christians were that they appreciated Christ, the principle that ruled them, and was the life of their souls, was Christ at the right hand of God.
There is a deliberate attempt in Christendom to connect Christ with the world. In early days the power connected with the Name made the lame walk, and leap, and praise God, as it will Israel in the latter day, when the lame man shall leap as a hart. Silver and gold could not give that. The Christian is not to live by the world, but to live by Christ. “He that eateth me, even he shall live because of me”. The conditions of eternal life are unalterable and unchangeable, although people die, and pass off the scene, and await the resurrection, Natural men die and pass off the scene, but the sun and air remain for others who follow. So spiritually it is the same; the conditions of eternal life remain for Christians to enter into, and that is true, even though many die and pass away.
[p. 98] In Old Testament times people lived on promises, now we live on Christ, in whom all the promises are gathered up. What a contrast to all the lust and pride, and arrogance and will of man, is the meekness, and grace, and gentleness of Christ; all that is in Christ being the life of the soul. If Christ is the life of the soul, the character of Christ must come out. The old man has his lusts and tempers, but the new man is renewed in knowledge according to Christ. In the millennium the outward distinctions of nationality will not go for much; they will exist to a certain extent, but what is moral and is of Christ will override it all, and will tend to bind everything together. The characteristics of the new man will prevail. A Jew will not make much of being a Jew in the millennium. The Jews will be a blessing to others, they will be like a dew from the Lord. The seat of every beneficent influence will be in the heavenly city; but then the heavenly city will become a joy to the whole earth.
We put off the deeds of the old man by putting off the old man; the putting off and putting on are the foundation of practice; they are what I would call a state of mind by the Spirit in virtue of which you discountenance the one and adopt the other. The old man was terminated in the death of Christ, and Christ characteristically is the new man; so we in mind discountenance the one and adopt the other.
“Mortify” is applied to things which you never can be free of down here, but you have to put them to death in their first conception. Habits are what are acquired; lying is a habit, we are to “put away lying”. You cannot help lust having a place in you; it is there, but you can put it to death in its first movement. Lying and anger are habits, and a man may put these off, and so get free of them.
What is “Renewed unto clear knowledge, after the image of him that created him”?
FER The new man is characterised as being renewed. Knowledge is capability; it is the apprehension of things by which you view everything from an altogether different standpoint. In the new man there is capability to understand God’s things. The character of the new man is that he is renewed, made different. If I put on the new man, then it is myself. I have to be consistent with what I have adopted. Here, the putting off and putting on is stated abstractly; but when I have come to it, then it is I who am “renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him”. Image is exact impression of. The “putting on” is really a new creation; what we “put on” is what is of God. You may be exhorted to put it on, and yet if you do put it on, it is all the work of God. It may be anomalous in that way. If I hear the voice of the Son of God I live; and yet if I live, the truth is it is divine power, creative power, which has made me live. A moment does come when in experience the Christian puts on the new man; and yet when He is put on, it is said, “he is created”. Christ does not fit Himself according to man. Nationality began at Babel, and with it rivalry and hatred.
What is “Christ is all and in all”?
FER He is all as object, and in all as life. He is all to us, and we live by the appreciation of Christ. In natural things the husband lives in the affections of his wife, and for that reason he is all to her. If Christ is all and in all, that must bind us pretty much together; and it must be so. It is a perfect object, and a common object.
We cannot make much of nationality or patriotism in the light of this: “where there is neither Greek, nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free”. If we put on the new man, it is to govern us in all the detail of everyday life. In the new man all idea of nationality comes to an end; and in contrast to that “Christ is all and in all”. It is for this reason that in the world [p. 100] to come the distinctions between nations will very largely be overcome. God will be glorified in this order of things; but this order of things is not entirely according to His mind, and so we get “Behold I make all things new”; then it will be God and man.
Rem When imperialism is crushed, things will take a simple form.
FER “Put on therefore as the elect of God”. When the Spirit of God has come to that point, the new man put on, then the saints are viewed in the place of Christ here. It is really Christ under the eye of God: “Mine elect in whom my soul delighteth”. The graces of Christ are to be expressed in the saints down here; we are in the place of the “holy and beloved”, and if we were in the sense of being that, in the eye of God, it would have a great effect upon us in regard to our ways; the great point would be that what is of Christ should come out in us, “bowels of mercies”, etc. It began with that; Christ came in in “bowels of mercies”, and the same thought is to be continued in us. It is the thought of the body standing here in the place of Christ. “Holy and beloved” is simple: the answer to the prayer of the Lord in John 17, “that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them”. What is to mark us is the expression of all that is of God in Christ; it is what it is in its adaptation to things down here.
It is curious that the epistles which speak most about the mystery bring these natural relationships into view — that is, husbands, wives, children, etc. We get nothing in Romans nor in Corinthians nor in Galatians as to them; but in these two epistles, Ephesians and Colossians, where the mystery is taken up, you do get them. I think it shows that all these relationships have their place, and come in, God having brought all [p. 101] into reconciliation.
Does it indicate a state in which they are fulfilled?
FER Yes. God recognises everything which He Himself has established; all is taken up in reconciliation. What is mystery now will be made manifest in the world to come. It is manifest now, in the way of testimony, but it will be manifested in display. “That I may make it manifest as I ought to speak”; that was to faith in those to whom the apostle was speaking.
How do the masters and servants come in?
FER I do not know that these relations will be done away with in the world to come. There are people who are unable to stand on their own legs, and God may make provision for them.
Rem We get a picture of that relation in Boaz and his servants.
FER I am not putting out that there will be that institution of masters and servants in the world to come; but there are those who seem incapable of undertaking for themselves, and God may make provision for such. The millennium will be perfect as regards government, but as regards man you must look beyond. God may recognise certain things which are not a perfect state of things as regards men; it is a perfect state of things as regards governmental order. The Spirit of God in taking up these relationships in the epistles in which the mystery is found, it seems to me to indicate that they may have their place in the day when the mystery will come into display, that is, in the world to come. The divine thought in regard to children is brought in here, and it shows that they will have their part in the world to come.
God takes up everything which He has established, all along the line, and all is made good in Christ. The assembly is a preparatory witness before the day of display, that is the divine thought. It is a witness to Israel, you get that thought in Corinthians. The assembly is a witness to holiness and unity; the temple and the body. Then again the thought of the flock [p. 102] is taken up in the assembly. No godly Israelite, even in Old Testament times, ever embraced less than the twelve tribes, as the divine thought in regard to Israel was unity. In the assembly you get the preparatory witness to holiness, and unity, and love. What has been set forth is possible, and what has been set forth in the assembly is possible, because it has been. So if the Jews were once in the goodness of God, they can be again. In the assembly you get the preparatory witness of everything. There is a witness in the assembly that in the true Isaac “all nations of the earth shall be blessed”; but that is but a witness to what shall be. The assembly is (if we could see it) a witness to all that will be. The assembly is promoted from being a witness down here, to having a place above. It does not deserve it, for it has not been a faithful witness, except at the beginning; still it gets its promotion and goes above. The assembly will know all about things, and will exercise a most profound influence on the earth, just as the natural sun does. The righteous are to shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, and it will have a profound influence. “Her light was like unto a stone most precious” (Revelation 21: 11); that is a variegated light. I do not think we fully appreciate the great connecting link which the church is with what is past, and with what is to come. The Old Testament looks on to the world to come — the kingdom; but then the assembly has taken up all that has been, and witnesses to all that shall be. So you can understand “that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God”, Ephesians 3: 10.
Rem As to the future, there will be glory to God in the assembly throughout all ages.
FER The assembly here is a witness. Israel was a witness, the assembly is a witness, it is the body, the medium of diffusion. All is set in movement by the [p. 103] body; the body is the anointed body, and the object of the anointing is to diffuse the light. We have an unction, the anointing is that we may understand. “The anointing teacheth you”, and it is that the light may be diffused. I take it up from the gospels of John and Luke. In the former Christ is the vessel of light — the Temple; but He was the Man anointed to diffuse the light. This latter is what we get in Luke’s gospel. The body is not only in view of our understanding by the Spirit, but also that the light might be diffused by the Spirit, and that is where gifts come in. The gifts are in the administration of the Spirit. The assembly, too, is the temple, and also the body — the anointed vessel. “So also is the Christ”. Where was the world before the light came in as to these relationships? Loosen the first tie, and the effect on the children is disastrous; loosen the tie between man and wife, and it will loosen the second, that towards children. In America this is very evident. The first tie is held loosely, and as to the children, they regard themselves as good as the parents. As lawlessness becomes more manifest, you will get the disintegration of society, and that will pave the way for full-blown lawlessness, and the setting up of Antichrist; but the mystery of lawlessness already works. The Spirit of God will hinder until He be taken out of the way. It is a great mercy that we have divine light, and that the divine thought is given to us in regard to these relationships.
What is the difference of the standpoint in Ephesians and Colossians in regard to these relationships?
FER In Ephesians they are taken up at their full height. The first witness given by God (Adam and Eve) was to unity. They were to be “one flesh”, a setting forth in that sense of Christ and the assembly. Unity is inseparable from union. Unity depends upon union; union is an actual bond, an actual joining. Unity really depends on the Spirit. “By one Spirit [p. 104] are we all baptised into one body”. We are joined to one another by one Spirit. It is a practical thing, but we are to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit.
Is it possible to all think one thing?
FER It is all dependent upon every mind being kept within the limits of the Spirit, and that is the mind of Christ; then we shall all think the same thing.
On what ground are the children exhorted here?
FER It supposes the children of believing parents that they are in the Christian circle — that they are baptised. These admonitions are spoken assuming that they had been brought in a formal way into the Christian circle, corresponding to the court of the tabernacle, and the precincts of the house where the laver was, and where the altar of burnt-offering was — a place of acceptance; but the laver signified being washed from the pollutions of the world. Children escape these in a formal way by baptism, for the effect of the latter is to bring them into the precincts of the tabernacle. There are two public recognised institutions which God has allowed to remain as a witness to the truth of Christianity. They began from the beginning; for all records show that both baptism and the Lord’s supper were practised from the beginning. People are very unintelligent if they do not see the propriety of baptism in regard to their children. The assembly does not properly belong to earth; it is only here for the moment, and yet everything is taken up in Christ. The law recognised children. The Lord took them up in His arms. So, too, now, they are recognised, and they will have their place in the world to come. The slaves (verse 24) will “receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ”. It is the thought of the kingdom. It is retributive; you get both “reward” and “receiving for the wrong he hath done”.