CHRIST THE HEAD OF THE BODY
CHRIST THE HEAD OF THE BODY
JBS Our subject this evening is Christ the Head of His body the church. We find from this epistle that a company may be very nice up to a point without knowing Him as such, but until one knows it, one cannot be in the secret of Christ. The Colossians were an interesting company, much like the Ephesians. The apostle says of them, “Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints;” and to the Ephesians (chapter 1: 15), “Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints”. The Colossians had learned what it was to be in the assembly, but they did not know “the Head”. Hundreds accept the doctrine of the Head who have never entered into it.
Ques What is the mark of one holding the Head?
JBS A man who holds the Head would come out here in all the sensibilities of Christ. Suppose there were a company who had all lost their heads and got a new head - one head for all - what would be the effect? You cannot understand union unless you know the Head. The body derives from the Head, and the Head gives direction. Many own that Christ is the Head of the church, and has a right to rule, but it is another thing to be really under His dictation.
Ques Is not the Lord presented as Head in more ways than one?
JBS He is Head of every man (1 Corinthians 11: 3), and Head of all principality and power, etc.; but here He is spiritual Head. The Colossians were not in the power of it, they did not know the mystery.
Let us trace the way of learning it, and then its application. It is only as getting to His side that we know Him as Head.
[p. 336] In chapter 1 the apostle is putting the Colossians on the true ground. They must not be moved away from the hope of the gospel, which is heaven. Then comes out, “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. The part of the mystery brought out here is the Head, and specially in connection with gentiles, they derived from Christ - Christ was in them as life.
We do not get beyond life in Colossians. In Romans 6 I touch life as relief out of death; I get it as relief. In Colossians I have it for enjoyment. I learn what life with Him is; I have life with Christ in the sphere of life, and if I do not know this I shall never understand the Head. In Romans it comes out in connection with deliverance. If you have not deliverance you cannot advance though you may know all the Bible.
Ques When did the truth of the mystery come out?
JBS Through Paul; Ephesians 3 shows the revelation of the mystery made known to him, and the administration of it committed to him (see also Colossians 1: 25).
Ques What is the mystery?
JBS That the church is Christ’s body. The aspect of the mystery that we get in Colossians is “the Head”.
In chapter 2 we come to the gain, what we gain by it. “For 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; that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God”. If there was great conflict there must have been great opposition. The opposition was to hinder them from getting this great gain. The gain was that they derived from the Head. The apostle’s anxiety was that they should fully know the mystery of God, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
[p. 337] The wonderful thing is that we should share all these things, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If we were holding the Head we should answer to what would be right for Christ’s circle of interest. Wisdom is wise in all things, not only in great things. The vulture’s eye hath not seen wisdom’s path. It is a great thing to get hold of the immensity of the grace; even if we are not up to it, it is a great thing to see what we are called to. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are there; nothing outside. The impending danger for the Colossians was that the two evils that had affected the Corinthians and Galatians - man’s wisdom and law - man’s mind and religiousness, should be used as a combination to add to Christ. These things had to be counteracted in another form to that in which they had been counteracted with regard to the Corinthians and Galatians. Here what delivers is “the Head”. I do not want learning or religiousness if I have all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in the Head. The fishermen were not very learned people. These snares are patent in christendom all around us, and among ourselves, too. Sanctimoniousness is part of it. Reverence is right, but not sanctimoniousness. What delivers is to see the Head, and how completely everything begins anew, from the top, so that nothing human can help. Paul, the most accomplished man, is more effective when he has stammering lips. We have not to work on the feeling, but to get direction from the Head.
Turn to verse 10 to continue the history. “Ye are complete in him”. Therefore we cannot add to or improve it. It is a great thing to get hold of the fact that I do not need to go outside of Him. We are filled up in Him, the same word as “fulness” in verse 9. Then verse 11, “In whom also ye have been circumcised with circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Christ”. There is no more sweeping [p. 338] passage than this. It is not the ‘sins of the flesh’, but the “body of the flesh”.
Ques What is putting off the body of the flesh?
JBS To be completely outside the first man. The whole thing is swept away. It is circumcision, not crucifixion. Circumcision is stronger than crucifixion. It is Gilgal, every trace of the old thing gone. If we understood Jordan better we should understand Gilgal better. It is a positive relief that I am clear from all here through the death of Christ. Chapter 3: 3 hooks on to chapter 2. You could not be dead with Him and not be risen with Him; what is true of us in Christ has to be experimentally true of us; all is effected in Christ, but if you are sincere you want it carried out practically in yourself. Seeing it is important, but it has to be adopted, not only admired. We have one point in verse 10 - complete in Christ, and the other in verse 11 - the old thing done away. If you have not come to verse 10 you will not take in verse 11. All that is necessary for God I have in Christ. By degrees we are waking up to the wondrous things we have in Christ. I see the immensity of what I am called to, and how little I am practically in it.
Verse 19 is the great practical line: “And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God”. Then comes verse 20: “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world”. Now we are taking the place of being over Jordan. Colossians is over Jordan but not in heaven. It is dead to things here - the rudiments of the world, more than to man the wilderness is accepted, and Jordan is accepted. In the death of Christ I am outside the world - outside everything. No one will taste heaven as a reality unless he accepts death - accepts the wilderness. You will never understand the Head until you are over [p. 339] Jordan, until you are morally outside this world. You do not get into the sphere of life till then. It is not only the wilderness, but being morally apart from everything here in the sphere of Christ’s life, though not gone to heaven. Colossians holds an intermediate place; Romans is dead to sin, Ephesians seated in heavenly places; Colossians is dead to the rudiments of the world, and in the sphere of Christ’s life. In the sphere of His life we “seek the things which are above” (chapter 3: 1), we are not in heaven yet, otherwise we should not be told to look up; but having died to the world we have got into a new sphere of things, and it is here that we practically learn circumcision. Therefore we get “mortify therefore” (verse 5). You have to carry out circumcision practically. It is not to mortify now and again as an evil arises, but once for all - the whole thing has to go in one lump, will and all. You are already circumcised with the circumcision of Christ, and by the Spirit it is to be made good in you. It is not practice. Many read this chapter for practice, but it is not practice though it is practical. All has to go like Elisha’s garment. When he got the power to take up another he rent his own garment, rendered it useless, and took up Elijah’s. It is not merely to put off habits but what is indigenous in the nature. By the Spirit it is done in you. It is your appropriation of what has been effected for you. First we get - mortify all works of will; then - put off and put on. There is nothing so unknown as the new man.
Ques. What is it?
JBS If you knew Christ better you would know the new man. There is nothing of the old in it,
Here you are over Jordan in position, you have died and risen and are looking to appear with Him in glory, and you have put off the old man. You come into a new circle of things where there is no human voice, where there is “not Greek and Jew ... but Christ is everything, and in all” - no kind of man at all, learned [p. 340] or religious, Christ is everything. You are outside the influence of everything here. You have come to a spot outside everything of man, where there is no man but One, and that One the Lord Jesus Christ; like the disciples on the mount of transfiguration, when they “saw no man, save Jesus only”. What deep enjoyment we should have if we knew more of that!
Ques Would you say that the Head supplies all that should take place in the assembly?
JBS I should - hymns and everything; we should have wonderful times if everything were supplied by the Head. I get instruction from Him how to act in His circle, not in my own circle. The Head supplies what suits Himself to His own company. I try now to come to the assembly like a blank sheet of paper. I used to come otherwise. What He gives is always effectual. It makes one very small, and one may give it out stammeringly, but it makes one very glad, and it comes with His authority. He would give it to you in the meeting or confirm it to you there. If you followed it out you would be timid on the one hand and not abashed on the other, for He would be before you.
Ques If I gave out a hymn that I had on my heart, would that do?
JBS That is not the way to do it. It would be bad if it were not on your heart, but that is not a reason for giving it out. It should be dictation from the Head. Nothing damages the assembly so much as our coming to it thinking of ourselves instead of Him.
Ques What is the difference between the leading of the Spirit and being under the direction of the Head?
JBS In the former case you are not led beyond your knowledge, but in the direction of the Head you get knowledge instantaneously. The Head is dictation; He gives you a new thought which you never have had before, and it is helpful to the saints. The control of the Head is in relation to the body. It is [p. 341] not individual. He directs only in His own circle - the christian circle. He directs life.
In verses 12 - 17 you get what we derive from the Head. His affection, His sensibilities, His word, and then His peace. A rough, uncouth man comes out in a new way, with “bowels of mercies”, etc., and with a suited word, too, and that because he has got another Head. I see the wisdom and goodness of God that when He revived the truth to us it was that of the Head. The first thought of it was given to a clergyman, that there is one Head, and that if there is one Head there must be one body.
The magnitude of it is set before us in this epistle. I am afraid to say what I see. You must be morally outside this scene, liberated, in a new sphere, to know Him as Head. No one will understand me unless he has gone a bit of the road.
“Meditate upon these things”. I do not believe a man gets anything without exercise. The chief interest with God is that which is known least about.