READINGS ON COLOSSIANS (2)
[p. 271] READINGS ON COLOSSIANS (2)
Colossians 1: 21 - 29; Colossians 2: 1 - 19
GWH Paul in writing to the Colossians speaks of them as though they had been reconciled, but were they in the good of reconciliation?
FER It is provisional. They were reconciled provisionally. It is conditional. “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister”. You could not exactly speak of it absolutely.
JP If it was spoken of absolutely there would be no “if”.
FER No; I think that must be the case. It can only reach to that as long as we are down here. The thing is true in a kind of way and yet it does not leave out the necessity of continuance on our part.
GWH Continuance is the true test as to whether we are in the good of a thing.
FER I think so. It is the test. We never cease to be tested as long as we are down here. “Who are kept by the power of God through faith”. It is through faith.
JP Speaking of reconciliation here being provisional, I heard you say, too, that in Romans 11 the world is reconciled in a provisional sense.
FER Yes. It speaks of it in that way. “If the casting away of them [the Jews] be the reconciling of the world”. It seems that the world has come into reconciliation. You get an equivalent thought at the end of this chapter, not reconciliation exactly, but what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles. It is Christ in you the hope of glory. It is Christ really among the gentiles [p. 272] the hope of glory, so then he goes on to add, “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man”.
The present moment is a peculiar moment in regard to the gentiles, for the casting off of the Jew has become the reconciling of the world. Now you have, “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”, that is in the gentiles the hope of glory. “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”.
CA Then it is not individually Christ in you.
FER No. It is Christ in the gentiles.
JSA If I understand you it is rather the general character of that which is seen, than the application of it to individuals.
FER I think so.
CHK I presume the mystery refers to what we had before us this morning.
FER He tells you what it is, “Christ in you the hope of glory”.
JP It is a mystery, because it does not belong to the public ways of God.
FER No; the more natural thing was Israel among the gentiles.
JP Yes, but Christ is the Anointed.
FER God’s thought was that Israel were to be like the dew from heaven. They were the vessel of God’s testimony among the gentiles and a separate people to be dew from the Lord among the gentiles.
JP And that is not a mystery.
FER No; it is that which will come to pass.
JP So that in the world to come there will be no mystery, but Christ will be known then in connection with His earthly people.
FER Yes. Israel will be a blessing in the midst of the nations. I think God has ordained them for that, but the peculiar thing is this, the casting off of the Jew in the present moment is the reconciling of the world. What explains that is the position of Christ now in regard to the [p. 273] world and the testimony. Christ is the Head of every man, and now what we get here is this, “Christ in you the hope of glory”.
JP And hence if we see that the world is reconciled, it is a wonderful thing, because it gives you an idea of the character of the present moment, an accepted time, a day of salvation, and God is not dealing in judgement with men now.
FER No. It is Christ in you the hope of glory.
JSA I think your remark at Rochester may be helpful. We have an idea often that the death of Christ has brought the world under judgement, but the world as it is presented here is brought into reconciliation provisionally.
JP “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself”.
JA So they might freely hear and accept the glad tidings.
GWH Would you not say then that the world is resting under judgement now?
FER That is not the way Scripture speaks of things.
JP But you have to distinguish between the world system and the people.
FER Yes; I think so. You can speak of the world in the sense of its being the nations, that is, the people in distinction from the Jew. That is how Scripture often speaks of the world, but I think the world system is judged, it is exposed; that is the meaning of the word judged. For instance, if a thing is exposed for you it is judged. “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”. If that is what the world presents to me, it is judged.
JP “God so loved the world” could not be the world system.
GWH And so in John 9, “For judgement I am come into this world”, I suppose means I am [p. 274] come to expose things.
FER He did not come to expose exactly, but it is the necessary consequence of His coming into the world that everything was exposed.
CA You have said that Christ coming into the world brought everything to an issue.
FER Everything was exposed.
JP That was the consequence of His being here, not the purpose. “God sent not his Son into the world, to condemn the world: but that the world through him might be saved”. “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light”.
CHK Would you say judgement comes in on the one who does not believe? “He that believeth not has been already judged”.
FER He is tested.
CHK I mean the judgement would come on the individual who really disbelieved.
FER In result it will.
JP In result; that is important.
GWH But it is after death the judgement.
FER Yes, individually.
JSA So while there is life there is hope in that sense.
CA Really the present dispensation brought in no such thought as judgement.
FER That does not appear to be the character of the dispensation. The apostle insists that now is an accepted time, a day of salvation. That does not look like a time of judgement. So you get here the thought of Christ in you the hope of glory. That does not look like judgement. Then the apostle adds immediately, “whom we preach”.
CA Would you say a little on that, as to what is the hope of glory.
FER I think the hope of glory is that the glory is coming in. It is really heralded by Christ being among the gentiles.
GWH It takes the character of hope because [p. 275] it is not revealed.
FER Quite so.
CA It will be revealed in the ages to come.
FER Yes. It is the hope of glory. “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ”, and Christ among the gentiles is the hope of glory.
JHC At the present time grace is reigning.
FER That is the thought at the present time. That is what is really true to faith. It is not true in a public way quite, but it is what faith apprehends.
GWH And grace and judgement could hardly be operative at the present time.
FER No.
CHK Then you could not preach in the gospel that men are under judgement.
FER I think it is a mistake to say so.
CHK That is, the world is under judgement and the Holy Spirit is gathering men out.
FER But if you preach that you are bound to substantiate it. How would you do that from Scripture?
CHK Now is the judgement of this world.
FER That is true. To one who has the Spirit, the world is judged and the prince of this world is cast out. I am afraid to speak about myself, but I think that is true about me. I judge this world, and the prince of this world is cast out to me. I think that with the believer who has divine perception this world is judged. I see its character and judge it, and the prince of this world has no more power over me. His power is broken. I judge the world system. It looks beautiful to the man of the world, but if a christian can judge the character of it it is judged to him. That is what I think it means.
JP Is not that the substance of the scripture in John 16, where the Lord says, speaking of the Spirit coming, “He will bring demonstration to the world, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement?”
FER Yes. By whom is it judged? By the one who has the Spirit. If you can know the character of a person, at [p. 276] all events to you that person is judged, and so the prince of this world is judged to us.
JP And it is a great thing practically.
FER John uses the word “judged” in an essentially moral sense, not in a judicial sense. “For judgement I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind”.
CA I think we have made a mistake in that word judgement, in thinking it meant wrath.
FER Not with John. It is used in a more moral sense.
JP There is a passage in John 3: 36, “wrath”, but that is in result, as Mr. Raven said.
ECE The idea of grace and judgement could be harmonised in distinguishing between the individual and the system. The truth involves an exposing of this world, and through the exposing a way comes in for us to get out of it. There would certainly be the concurrent action of grace and judgement.
FER When you come out of a thing at all events it is judged for you.
JSA I think many of us have long failed to understand John 16 from not seeing that particular point, that conviction is in the mind of the believer as to the world.
FER We use the word “judge” in that sense very often. We often say, speaking of a person, ‘He has never judged himself’. Some particular person who has been prone to something or other. That expression is very common amongst us.
Now to go back, I think it is extremely important to understand the character of the present moment. It is a peculiar moment and to understand the character of it is very important.
JP I suppose one could hardly preach the gospel with any intelligence unless in some way one understood the character of the present moment.
FER I think the truth is this, that Christ has come in as last Adam in virtue of redemption, and that has altered the entire position of things. You must allow [p. 277] Christ place as last Adam. As the last Adam He is the Head of every man, if He be the last Adam, and hence that must have some effect on the general condition of things. I presume that is certain.
CA The Scripture says He is the Head of every man. That is in connection with the church.
FER No, it is in the widest sense. But the effect of Christ coming in as the Head of every man alters the whole position, because man in a kind of way is taken up for the moment afresh in Christ. That is the truth of things, I think. It does not say ‘the judgement of God which is toward all’, it is “the righteousness of God which is toward all”, so by one righteousness the free gift of life came towards all men unto justification of life. That shows that Christ stands in relation to all men.
JP So the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared.
FER And God will have all men to be saved in that way. I think it is a great mistake to preach that the present moment is a moment of wrath, except in regard to the Jew, and he is a standing witness of the wrath of God, but beyond that it is a mistake to preach that men are under the wrath of God.
JP It is in regard to the Jew that the apostle said by the Spirit, “Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost”.
GWH At the same time you would not say that the grace of God is confined to the gentile, and would not reach the Jew now.
FER God may do that, as lost in the world, but the very fact of the Jew being lost in the world is a proof of the wrath of God. The wrath of God is governmental. So governmentally the wrath of God is on the Jew, and yet I could understand a Jew being converted. He is simply looked at as being lost in the midst of the world, in the sea of gentiles, and while they have become engulfed in the sea of the gentiles, it is possible that a Jew might be converted.
JP But that would not be in the sense of a Jew. It is [p. 278] the time of their being cast away, and the time will come when the Jew as the Jew will be received.
FER But they are received on that ground now, that is, as being lost in the world.
CA I think they can only come in on that ground now.
FER Yes. I think any special mission to the Jews now is a great mistake.
PAES Would you mind praying for the peace of Jerusalem?
FER If I did I would pray for the peace of the church. That is the only Jerusalem now.
JHC I was struck with verse 27, how the grace of God comes out there. God would make known to the gentiles. It seems to be the over-abounding grace of God.
FER Yes. So the apostle says, “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom: that we may present every man perfect in Christ”. It is a most remarkable expression.
JP It would be pretty difficult to put any limitation on that expression, “every man”.
FER Yes. I do not think it is intended to limit it at all.
JSA There is another thought we have had more than once elsewhere, and that is what God has in His mind for every man, and it is only as you come into the light of it that there is any difference.
FER You see the mountain has been cast into the midst of the sea. “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove”. That is what has come to pass. The mountain has been removed. The faith of the apostles did that.
JP What do you understand by the mountain?
FER I think the testimony of God and the power that was connected with God’s testimony has been removed. It is no longer centred in Jerusalem. It has been removed and cast into the midst of the sea. The body of Christ is among the gentiles, “Christ in you, the hope of glory”.
JP The testimony is there, and the oracles are there maintained in divine power.
FER That is the first epistle to the Corinthians. The temple and the body among the gentiles.
JP So you would not go in now for a delegation to be sent to Jerusalem.
FER No. The Lord said in regard to the apostles, “If ye had faith ... it should obey you”. I think the apostles failed a bit. Their disposition was to remain in Jerusalem. They had to be moved out of it by persecution, and God came in and raised up a special witness in the person of Paul, really to carry the mountains into the sea.
JA So the twelve had really no faith toward the gentiles.
FER I think they failed. That was Mr. Darby’s thought. They were too much disposed to stick to Jerusalem.
JP I suppose the best you could say about them was that in Galatians they consented to it in a way, in the ministry of Paul.
FER The Lord had said they were to be witnesses in Jerusalem and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. They seemed reluctant to go out in that way, and then the Lord raised up Paul.
JP It shows certain persons may fail to accept the privilege given to them, but at the same time the Lord does not give up His thoughts. That is, they go out to the uttermost parts of the earth.
FER Yes. He was not bound to the twelve.
JHC Do you not think the tendency is to narrow things down with us? God is large and we are small.
FER Have you found that out? I have very much the same kind of thought.
GAM You get the thought sometimes that God is tied up [p. 280] to us.
FER But you get painfully undeceived.
JHC What do you mean by ‘us’?
CA I suppose it has been said that such a person thinks he cannot be done without.
FER You have to find you can be done without.
CA That was the case in connection with the twelve.
FER The great thing is to go on with God, not to expect God to go on with us. People make that mistake often. God will hardly go on with you if you do not go on with God.
CA I suppose Enoch would be an illustration of that.
FER Quite so.
JHC That is very individual.
FER As a matter of fact, service was always individual. I object to a great many things going on in the present day. I do not like to see half a dozen men in the present day who profess to be evangelists, all preaching the one after the other.
JP A sort of evangelistic combination.
FER Exactly.
JHC You mean by that there is a kind of dependence on one another.
FER I do not think men ought to combine on any particular service. He that teacheth is to wait on his teaching. Whatever gift a man has as from the Lord, he himself is to carry that out on his own responsibility from the Lord.
CA Would you say then that service is entirely individual? It is not that you would object to a little Philippian fellowship on the part of the gospel.
FER I think that is from the saints. What I mean is men of any particular gift combining together for service.
JHC Would not that be forming an organisation like those in system.
FER It looks uncommonly like it.
JP It really comes to the forming of a clique.
JSA I think the expression has been used ‘a gospel campaign’.
FER I do not believe in that kind of thing at all. It is not the scriptural way of carrying out service.
CHK Would you say a brother who has a gift is responsible to go and use it?
FER Let him go and exercise it. He does not want to go on and consult with other people. You are not even dependent on your brethren.
CA What is the point in chapter 2: 2, 3, “That their hearts might be comforted, ... in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge?”
FER It is the point of the apostle’s conflict. He says, “I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh”, so it includes us, because we have not seen his face in the flesh, “that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God ... in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. The apostle desired that for the saints for their establishment, and to preserve them from the influences that were coming in, and by which they were liable to be affected.
JP I suppose the force of the word ‘comfort’ is really ‘encourage’.
FER Exactly. “Being knit together in love”, that is the first great thing, but unto the “full assurance of understanding”. That is the great point.
JP I have been greatly struck with that. The secret of saints being encouraged is that the saints be knit together in love. You will not find the one without the other.
CA I suppose love should be our common bond.
FER It is spoken of as the bond of perfectness. But then you want that, and at the same time you want what is spoken of afterwards — the full assurance of understanding. That is, that the saints may not be dogmatical. If they have not the full assurance of understanding [p. 282] they are dogmatical.
CA What do you mean by dogmatical?
FER They get creeds and statements, and rest entirely on statements, and so on, if they have not the full assurance of understanding.
JP And they are not always Scripture statements. Like the ‘new nature’, and others. There is no scripture for that.
GBM The repeated reformation of creeds suggests a cloudiness of mind.
FER What struck me about creeds ten years ago, when we had some trouble, was, that the orthodox statement which was then promulgated was taken out of the Athanasian creed.
ECE We do not need to be instructed as to what is dogmatic, but as to what is the full assurance of understanding.
GWH But I suppose there is a divine order in this, love and then understanding.
FER I think so.
GWH It is love which edifies.
JSA And the church in Acts 2 had not had much dogmatic teaching, and yet we have not improved on them much in principle.
FER I think as to what H. was saying, if there is the allowance of anything that is not according to love it is a great hindrance to understanding. Any such sentiment that is allowed or sanctioned or encouraged is a great hindrance to people.
CHK You would not look at that as one of the weights the apostle speaks of.
FER No. If you cherish any sentiment of the flesh you will not find that you will get much understanding. If “thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light”. That is the principle.
JSA “My judgement is just; because I seek not mine own will”.
FER Yes. You want to get rid of all cloudiness which comes in by the allowing of sentiments [p. 283] of the flesh.
Otherwise you will not get the full assurance of understanding.
JP It is a great point to be reached evidently, because look at what the apostle was going through really that the saints might reach it. All that he was going through was with that in view.
ECE The use of the word ‘assurance’ means that when this takes place, instead of saying you are it, you are it. That is assurance.
FER Quite so. I think it is an immense thing in divine things to understand things. It is not simply that you take up statements of Scripture, but the point is to understand them.
GWH I suppose that is what Paul had in mind in writing to Timothy, “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things”.
FER Exactly. It is a great thing to understand the mystery. It is difficult to understand a system of philosophy. No one ever did except the person who wrote it, and I do not know how much he understood it.
JP There are many beautiful expressions in Proverbs, “All the words of my mouth are in righteousness: there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth”.
FER Yes. And I think to get an apprehension of the way in which God is going to evolve a moral universe out of chaos and confusion, is a wonderful thing. That is what the mystery is.
GAM It is a wonderful thing for the soul to get any light on that.
FER I think so. Christ has come in to that end, and the explanation of it all is really Christ, and it is in that sense He is the wisdom of God. I think wisdom really means resource, and Christ is the resource of God to bring to pass what I have spoken of. That is, to bring into existence out of the chaos and confusion in the present world, a universe in which God will be glorified. Christ [p. 284] is the One by whom it is accomplished, hence He is the wisdom and the power of God.
JSA Just in that sense you understand the following verse, “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge?”
FER Quite so. I have no doubt when the apostle wrote here he had before him the system of the Greek philosophy, all the ideas of commonwealth and the regenerating of society, etc. They had that before them, but it is all cobwebs because it never did come to anything. It has been tried and plenty of it, but it all comes to nothing; the fact is this, in the mystery of God are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. God will evolve it because He has power, but the philosopher does not exercise any power.
ECE Would you say that is going on now? Then the idea is if that is going on now we cannot separate the idea of judgement from the process.
FER There is the necessity of judgement in a kind of way. But it is not part of the positive work of God.
CA I suppose what the apostle strove for was that the saints should be in the light of the world to come.
FER Yes. But it is the wisdom by which the world to come is brought about.
CA That brings in the thought of the Person.
FER Yes; the thought of Christ.
GWH Referring to what you were saying, I suppose the great proof that philosophy is a sham and a fallacy is that there is no moral effect produced.
FER I think so. I believe any real state of happiness for man must be dependent on God’s revelation to man and God’s thought in regard to man. There would be no happiness apart from that.
GWH If a christian studies philosophy he is in a bad business, is he not?
FER I think so.
JHC If a man has any spiritual understanding, philosophy [p. 285] is as dry as dust to him.
FER I think it is dry as dust to people who have any spiritual understanding. My point in regard to it is this, that philosophy is quite powerless. It is not a gospel.
JHC It is a dead thing.
FER It is dead speculation.
GBM It also fails to recognise the source of the maladjustment of things. I remember reading Spencer, and he presents what are the causes of evil in the world, and the word sin was not there. He knew nothing about it.
FER And if you put another word in the place of ‘sin’ it really shows where they are, that is ‘lawlessness’. They are all lawless. They are not in an orbit. A man who is lawless cannot account for anything.
GWH I suppose the Colossians were in danger of being spoiled by this, and Christ as the true wisdom is brought in to counteract things.
FER Yes.
JSA I think there is another thing that comes in, namely, that it is enlarging to the mind and thought of a moral being to have some apprehension of the mystery of God — infinitely more so than any philosophy could be.
GWH Philosophy is all based on the wisdom of the world, I suppose, and that is foolishness with God.
FER Yes.
CHK Would you say that love is the channel that leads men into the treasures spoken of?
FER I think love is the foundation and that on which you are founded. You get a solid foundation, “rooted and grounded in love”, and one very great effect of love is that it enlarges. There is great enlargement in love.
CHK It is the essential foundation of christianity.
FER Yes; it says, “being rooted and grounded in love”.
CHK It often gets to a kind of sentiment among us.
CA Would you say that love gives capacity for understanding?
FER [p. 286] It is like a rock. We are rooted and grounded in it. You get stability and you get enlargement.
JP And there is such a thing as saints being straitened in their own bowels, and they need to be enlarged.
JSA And the word quoted proves that, “rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height”.
CHK Mr. P., what do you mean by being straitened?
JP I suppose the bowels is a term for the affections. He longed for the Philippian saints in the bowels of Jesus Christ. The Corinthians were straitened in their own bowels.
FER But the accomplishment of redemption, the grace of God coming in by Christ to take up the liabilities under which men were, so that of necessity Christ must come out in resurrection; because I think it is a very important point in regard of Christ that resurrection is inherent. You see you get the accomplishment of redemption and Christ coming out in resurrection according to necessity, and everything being brought into accord with Christ on that ground seems to me to be wonderful wisdom.
JP You mean by ‘inherent’, resurrection of necessity; what the apostle states when he says, “it was not possible that he should be holden of it”.
FER Yes. “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again”.
JP That was the great blunder of Satan, was it not?
FER Yes; but do you not see, all the liabilities removed and the effect of it, a risen Christ and everything brought into accord with Christ on the platform of resurrection, and of necessity the powers of evil are all dispossessed. That is how God works to bring a moral universe out of the chaos and confusion. But you may depend upon it the whole secret of it is incarnation. The Son of God becomes Man with ability to accomplish [p. 287] redemption, and resurrection is inherent in Him, so that if He goes into death, He must of necessity come out of it. But then He comes out of it and everything is brought into accord with it, and Satan and sin and death find themselves outside.
JP So He is declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.
FER Yes. He subdues everything to Himself; and the powers of evil are outside. They have all their full place in the present world, but the moment you get to a risen Christ they are all outside.
CA You would say then that everything has been established for God in a risen Christ.
FER Yes. Christ must suffer and must rise again. That is the point in all the Scriptures. That is wisdom or resource on the part of God.
CA That would leave us as a redeemed people, quite clear.
FER Yes. So in the next chapter we are risen with Him. We are on that platform “with him”. And hence you are outside the region of sin and death and Satan’s power.
ECE You were giving elsewhere the illustration of the lifting of a mortgage.
FER Yes. The whole inheritance of men was under encumbrance. The point was to save the inheritance for God. That is what came to pass in redemption. God came forward; and there is another point, and that is, it is only the owner of the property that could take up the encumbrance. No man could do it, unless he was the owner of the property, therefore it is only the Creator who can take up the encumbrance, and that is what God has done. The devil did not know it, but really to crucify the Son of God was only to accomplish God’s purposes, because resurrection was inherent in Him, and Christ in resurrection is outside of everything.
JP “Through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil”.
GAM “And deliver”. That is where his loss came in. Not only that death did not hold Christ, but that others came in in resurrection.
FER Just as you get in the next chapter, “ye are risen with him”.
JHC It puts one in mind of that hymn, ‘O Bright and blessed scenes, where sin can never come’. (64:1) There is nothing in that scene but the love of God.
JSA But everything is really involved in the Son of God becoming Man and going into death.
JP A divine Person becoming Man.
FER That is the eighth chapter of Proverbs, really.
PAES The rights of God could not have been met had His mercy not been behind it.
FER But mercy is a right of God.
JP Mr. A. said in one of the meetings, God had said long ago, “I will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy”.
FER It is an important point to recognise that mercy is a right of God.
ECE Referring, as you were a little while ago, to the inheritance, we are looked upon as God’s inheritance.
FER But liability has come in on the inheritance. Who could take up the liabilities?
GWH The Owner of the inheritance.
JSA And that is what you have here, “all things were created by him, and for him”.
FER It is only an illustration, but that is the general principle in the Old Testament. It was only the one to whom the inheritance belonged who could take up the encumbrance.
ECE You get that in the treasure hid in the field, do you not?
FER It is perfectly certain that men are God’s inheritance, and another thing is equally certain, that men had come under liabilities. Then I say it is equally certain to me that men could not relieve themselves of their liabilities, and no one had any title whatever to [p. 289] relieve men of their liabilities with the exception of God Himself.
JHC That is where the rights of God’s mercy come I want to get clear about the mystery. The mystery is the church, and it is that which is the depositary of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
FER No; I would not say the mystery is the church exactly; I do not think that.
JP It is not put that way. It is the mystery of God, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
JSA And you get in Revelation 10: 7, “the mystery of God should be finished”. That would not be true of the church.
FER I think the church is the present item of the mystery, but the mystery is a large thought.
GWH It is the whole range of His counsels.
FER Yes; His counsels in Christ. That is what the mystery takes in.
GWH And it is His counsels not revealed in any other age.
FER There were hints in the Old Testament of the mystery of God, but there was no hint of the church, although you can see certain figures of it now.
GWH It is then that in those counsels of God are found the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
FER Quite so.
JSA At the present time it is in the church that the manifestation of the wisdom of God is to be discerned.
GWH And in the world to come the heavenly city will take place.
FER Yes.
CA The mystery is spoken of in two different ways in chapter 1: 27, and 2: 2.
FER You see, if you get the mystery as a thing existing, which is made known, it is the church, but if you go back into the will of God in what is the mystery of [p. 290] His will, you must take in the whole thing, all that is in the mind of God. There is nothing else existing at the present time in relation with Christ except the church. Therefore the church in that sense is the mystery. You get that brought out in Ephesians 1, “he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him”, but that is looked at abstractly as the will of God, not looked at as an existing fact. If you look at it as an existing fact, it is the church, it is Christ in you the hope of glory. That is where Christ is among the gentiles, but the way He is among the gentiles is by His body. He is not here personally. When the Lord was here upon earth it was Christ among the Jews. “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you”. Now He is among the gentiles. He is among the gentiles by His body.
CA And the mystery of the church is a present thing, while the mystery in the abstract takes in the whole thing.
JP So the Lord could say to Paul, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”
PCR Did Paul learn the mystery of God in the third heavens?
FER I think the great interest of Paul going to the third heavens is that there are things in heaven which you cannot know upon earth.
CA I suppose the only thing we can enter into is in relation to the earth.
FER Except the knowledge of God.
GAM We get light from God as to the world to come.
FER But the world to come is not heaven.
GAM No; I see we cannot go to what is in heaven, but we have light for the earth and the world [p. 291] to come.
GWH Even about the eternal state there is very little said.
PAES Why does verse 6 come in? “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him”.
FER That is taken up in the previous chapter. It is a sort of parenthesis. It is from chapter 1: 27 to 2: 5.