CHRIST KNOWN AS HEAD
CHRIST KNOWN AS HEAD
JBS We have come as far as the assembly where the Spirit leads according to Acts 2. Tonight we go on another step.
The Colossians were a nice company. The apostle could speak of their faith and love, and he prays for them on account of the hope which was laid up for them in heaven (chapter 1: 4, 5); yet they did not know the mystery. It is very important to understand how far you may go without knowing the mystery. The great point in the mystery brought out in this epistle is that Christ is the Head. It is not that they had never heard of the mystery but they did not have it in power. Therefore the second chapter opens with, “I would have you know what combat I have for you”. A combat supposes a great opposition. Even the apostle was in prison.
Remember the Colossians were in what we would call a nice state. The apostle could rejoice in beholding their order and the steadfastness of their faith in Christ (chapter 2: 5). But they did not know the mystery and it was important for them to know it because it was the great and only preservative from the snare to which they were exposed at the time, and with which christendom has been caught. That snare is that by man’s mind and religiousness you could .help on the service of Christ by what is called tradition - the rudiments of the world - and philosophy, or, in theological language, ritualism and rationalism. One is making man’s body and the other making man’s mind contribute to Christ’s service. That was the impending danger at this time and I need not say that it is what has overrun christendom. No one would be appointed a minister of the gospel in christendom if he [p. 58] had not these two qualifications - that he was a religious man and that he was a learned man.
The snare was different from that at Corinth or among the Galatians, because the idea was to make man’s mind contribute as it were to Christ and to His service. The Corinthians were full of their own mind but it was all for themselves, not for Christ’s service, and the Galatians were full of law but it was to correct themselves, not to contribute to the service of Christ. But everyone knows what is rampant now in christendom, ritualism on the one hand and rationalism on the other. The one has to do with religiousness and the other with man’s mind. Now nothing can save you from ritualism or rationalism but the knowledge of the Head. Many may think they are safe from this influence but it is uncommonly subtle, and a person may very easily be taken with the idea that by certain religious attitudes, or gestures, or some bodily effort, he can help on the work of Christ; on the contrary, he will hinder it.
WK When you speak of rationalism and ritualism you do not intend to convey to us any definite systems with those titles?
JBS That is the shape these things have assumed in christendom which are called in Colossians tradition and the elements of the world. And that is the reason why we need this epistle. We might have gone from Romans to Ephesians but we are all so leavened with this snare that we have to learn Colossians before we can apprehend Ephesians.
AG Would you say that the national churches have gone into ritualism and the Dissenters into rationalism?
JBS It is more or less so, but everyone is affected by it. I said to a very intelligent brother lately, Do you not see the Colossian snare break out among us sometimes? Yes. One thinks by a sanctimonious manner or by saying something in a very eloquent [p. 59] way to help the service of Christ. He loses power by it.
WK That may be found anywhere.
JBS Yes; it is in the air and we are all liable to it. The only thing that will preserve you from it is the truth of the Head.
WK You mean the enjoyed sense that you have the Head?
JBS No doubt the Colossians knew there was a Head, but the thing is to have it in power, to understand it.
AG Would you say that anyone acting in natural piety or in the energy of the mind loses energy in the service of God?
JBS He loses power.
JFH I would hardly say he loses power, for a person might not have got that length.
JBS What I meant was a person who knew what it was to be led by the Spirit of God in a measure but trying to improve on it by saying things in an eloquent way. He loses power. You will find that an eloquent discourse exhilarates you, but a spiritual discourse subdues you. You are charmed with an eloquent discourse and can talk about it to others; but the effect of a spiritual discourse is that it subdues you and you would like to be alone.
WK It brings the sense of God to you.
JBS Exactly. That is what we have in Psalm 73. The first impression when a soul is before God is the greatness of His presence.
WK And that is why you are subdued?
JBS Yes.
AG “No flesh should glory in his presence”.
JBS Nothing can be more subtle than this snare. A person might say, ‘Could I not use my mind, could I not use my religiousness, or could I not put on a sanctimonious manner?’ You will lose power if you do. Do you want me to have an indifferent manner? I want you to have the manner which the Spirit of God [p. 60] would give you. People say, It is only manner, but remember manner is indicative of what is your power. The ritualistic effort is to make the outward appearance a help to Christ’s service. The true thing is to have a body of light but you remember when the Lord spoke of this: “As he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him”, as much as to say, ‘That is exactly my doctrine.’ No, says the Lord, ‘You cleanse the outside of the cup and platter,’ I begin within.
WK Then it is still the question of which power, human or divine?
JBS Yes, quite so. But then you see what a difference there is. We have got as far as the assembly formed by the Spirit; what we have to learn now is that Christ is the Head. It is easy to say I see it in Scripture, but you have no power in speaking of what you merely see in Scripture, your power is in speaking of what you know. It is not only that I am in the presence of the Lord of glory and I am looking to Him to speak, as I might say, in faith, but that I am directed by Him. I have lost my own mind, my own head, and have another. It is not like the head of a family, or the head of a firm, but it is as if every christian in this room had lost his head and all had got the same Head. In my acquaintance there is nothing so little known as this, except union; and certainly if you do not know the Head you will not know union.
WAW Do you not think that what we had last night would preserve us from this snare?
JBS No. They did not learn the Head in Acts 2 nor is it made known all through the book of Acts. They were gathered together by the Spirit of God to be led and acted on by the Spirit of God without any appointed ministry but the knowledge of the Head was not revealed. As far as I see, while there are many companies, thank God, gathered to the [p. 61] Lord Jesus Christ and really waiting for the leading of the Spirit of God, where is there a company that is directed by the Head? I think it would be a wonderful thing if you were directed by the Head. If I go to the Catholic he will tell me the pope is the head; if I go to the national church the sovereign of the country is head; but I come to real devoted christians who are separated from all that, and while they will tell you that Christ is the Head yet they look upon Him as the head of a family or of a firm. They would not have the pope or the sovereign or a man at all, but then what does the head mean? It really means this: here is a company of five hundred christians and they have all lost their heads and have now all got one Head.
TMG Is it one director?
JBS One Head, one Source. You will find after-wards that the qualities come out: “bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering”, etc. Where do you get them? It is from the Head. First we have to know what the Head is, and next how we receive from the Head. He is Head, and we may know it and yet not be holding the Head. That is individual. We have all to learn it and to hold the Head individually. The first thing is to learn what it is, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
WAW When you spoke a little while ago of being exhilarated by a discourse, did you mean that we were carried entirely out of ourselves?
JBS No, I meant you were full of enjoyment.
WAW Well, I have often enjoyed you!
JBS Well, I would a great deal rather you had been subdued. I do not think a man is very much impressed when he is very buoyant, do you?
WK Your thought of exhilaration was not really spiritual joy?
JBS No, you are mentally [p. 62] elated.
WK What is expressed in the Old Testament by drinking wine?
JBS Yes, exactly.
AG How has the church got into such a state as at present?
JBS Because they do not know what it is to have a Head. You see here in Colossians how it was lost. A person could not understand union without the Head nor could he keep the unity of the Spirit without the knowledge of the Head. Now what we have to learn is how the Lord recovers a person. The first recovery of the truth sixty years ago was by a clergyman in a very isolated place waking up one morning and saying, ‘I have a Head in heaven.’ That was the beginning. The recovery began with the Head, not the body. I am sure I have pondered it over and over and I cannot conceive anything greater than to get an idea of the Head. You may say it was a wonderful thing we had before us last evening, that we can be in the presence of the Lord of glory and that instead of being repulsed by His glory we are not only at home there but we are transformed into the same image. Now comes another thing: do you know that you are to get direction from that One, that He is your Head, and not only your own Head but the Head of the assembly? I know there is a great difficulty in explaining it. I think I could explain to myself what is the difference between a person waiting on the Spirit to speak in the assembly and one getting direction from the Head, but I do not know whether I could explain it to anyone else. I used to pray to the Lord to give me a subject for the assembly, then I saw that was not the thing. As Head the Lord directs you to a thing, not your own mind. A person often says, I had such a thing on my heart. That may be very true and the Spirit may help you about that, but it may be only for yourself. The Head gives direction at [p. 63] the moment.
WAW Direction about what the Spirit has already made yours?
JBS You may know very little of it and you ought to have no preconception of it beforehand.
WAW But it is yours.
JBS Of course you cannot go beyond what you know.
TMG You may get more in giving it?
JBS No doubt you often do. Sometimes I feel I know very little about this. Say what you do know, is the answer I get. It does not depend on how much you know or how you can express it, but on what is the Lord’s pleasure for His people at the moment.
WK You are speaking now of getting the dictation of the Head.
JBS Yes.
WAW Rationalism you say is only prevented by knowing the Head. Why do you confine that to the assembly?
JBS I do not, but I say, If I am not right in the assembly I am not right myself.
WAK Then a person might have what we had before us last night and yet turn to rationalism?
JBS Exactly so, and that is where the truth of the Head comes in. I cannot conceive anything greater than that I get direction from Christ Himself for the moment.
WK You said, I think, that any preconceived idea of what you would minister would destroy the dictation?
JBS It would.
TMG A servant of the Lord might go to a place and know nothing about the state or need of the people and yet if subject to the Head he would minister just what the Head would give for the time.
JBS Quite so.
[p. 64] WAW Yes, but is it not important to see that it is his own; he does not get it by revelation at the moment? It is not something foreign to him.
JBS No, but it is not merely something laid on your heart. I go back to my own experience. I had something on my heart. I thought, This is a good thing; I had faith about it and I looked to the Spirit to help me, and no doubt He did; but I do not call that dictation.
TMG I understood you to say that you might know very little about what the Lord would have you say, but is it not true that in speaking of it you get more?
JBS I have said it over and over again and I have had it confirmed by others that you get an expanse of truth in the assembly that you do not get anywhere else.
JFH You spoke of looking to the Spirit to help you; I think brethren generally look to the Lord.
WK With all respect I very much doubt if that is the case. While nominally it is the Lord you look to it really is the Spirit you are expecting to act.
JBS I think generally there is something on your heart and you are looking for an action of the Spirit. That leads to Quakerism; a sister might have a thing on her heart as well as a brother.
WK I suppose it is not merely the speaker that is to get an enlarged idea of the truth presented at the moment, but all?
JBS Exactly. I believe all would get wonderful enlightenment, and they would say that it is from the Lord.
TMG Is it not true that a person might be in the enjoyment of something for himself and that that might be the very thing the Head would give at the time?
JBS [p. 65] It might be so, but I think generally it is not so. Very often it is something you did not think of at all.
W K. The enjoyment of it for oneself is no guarantee that it is the thing for the assembly?
JBS No, nor even what others would think was good. G.V.W. used to say that he knew the state of a meeting by what he was given to say.
Ques Would you say that no one should have things on his heart?
JBS Oh, no, but that is no authority for giving those things out. I think when we come to see the truth of the Head we shall understand it better. There are two things in this chapter (Colossians 2) which you must learn before you can understand the Head. The first is in verse 10: “Ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and authority”. That is something to ponder. I think it is a very good thing to do, as a countryman once told me; I get a scripture, and I walk about the room thinking of it, and I get something from it though I hardly know what it is. How many of us have sat down for half an hour to think of that: I am complete in Him? You cannot add to what is complete. You need not bring in mind or body. The body is the Lord’s and He can use it as He pleases. The mind belongs to Him; you belong to Him. The first thing then is that you are complete in Him. If you accept that thoroughly you will be ready for the second thing which is in the next verse: “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”. Observe it is not the sins of the flesh. Some pious monk in a very early age put in those words in the margin because he did not understand the verse. A man looking for religiousness to commend himself to Christ could understand putting off sins, but putting [p. 66] off the body of the flesh made his religion worth nothing.
WAW If we learn the tenth verse is it the power for the eleventh?
JBS Yes, if you have learnt the tenth you are prepared for the eleventh. You are first complete in Him and then the old thing is put away. The way I illustrate it is by an emigrant who had some friends with him of whom he was not very sure, and as soon as he landed he said, I think we had better burn the ship - so that they could not go back. It is not merely the old man crucified with Christ, it is put away, put off. I do not want anything of the flesh to help Christ for I am complete in Him already.
WK It would be impossible of course to touch the eleventh verse if we had not the tenth?
JBS Quite so, and if you really accept the tenth you will find how easy the other is.
WK Because if you are complete in Christ then, of course, you can do without the old thing. It is, in a sense, no pain to get rid of it because you want to get rid of it.
JBS The flesh is the thing that makes the trouble and the thing that has to be set aside. You find the same principle in Romans: “That the body of sin might be destroyed” (Romans 6:6); and, “Who shall deliver me out of this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). It is the body of sin.
WK It is not merely sins in detail?
JBS No, it is the principle.
WK It is one’s natural life in point of fact?
JBS Exactly, and it is there where the judgment rests. It is not merely that there must be an atonement for your sins, but sin is to be condemned, that order of being must go. That is the practical difficulty with souls: that that order of being must go.
WK As being utterly contrary [p. 67] to God?
JBS Yes. God said long ago, “The end of all flesh is come before me” (Genesis 6: 13).
WK And the point in this chapter is that the flesh in a religious form is no better than in a gross form?
JBS Quite so. Here it was being brought in to contribute to the service of Christ.
WK That which was hateful to God.
JBS Quite so. Therefore lower down in the chapter we “have died with Christ from the elements of the world”. In Romans 6 we are only dead to sin; here we are dead to the world.
WK To its “elements;” the least thing in it?
JBS It is ABC, so to speak.
WK Many a one would refuse the world as a system who does not refuse the elementary principles of it. Many a one would refuse the world looked at in its glaring forms, who might have in his own heart the principles on which the world is built up.
JBS Quite so. If he had the least bit at all he would not be free of it. A person might be dead to sin but yet might not be holding the Head. If you are dead with Christ from the elements of the world you are over Jordan.
WAW Is this the result or have we to do this?
JBS The Spirit of God brings you into this: you are over Jordan; you have died with Christ from the elements of the world.
WAW I could do nothing to get that?
JBS Well, we have had that ground long ago.
WAW Of course, it is not such an effort after all.
JBS I am not saying a word about effort, but it is a great trial.
WK It is a very great trial, because it is parting company with yourself, and that is the greatest trial any man could have.
JBS Still, you have to take the step. I am outside this world; as another has said, In an out-of-the- [p. 68] world condition of things. I daresay many in this room would say, I do not know where you are going because you say you are not going to heaven and yet you are outside of everything here. That is Jordan. I can understand a person saying to me, That ground is outside one’s senses. Yes it is.
TMG A dead man living on earth.
JBS Revisiting it.
WK In a scene to which he does not belong and a system of things which is altogether contrary to him.
JBS Yes, I find it easy enough to explain heaven and earth but very difficult to explain an out-of-the-world condition of things; that a man can be in the world and yet outside of it. I remember at a large reading J.N.D. asking, Where do you put Colossians? There are three things I think I said: Entering, possessing, dwelling. I would call it entering. No, he said, That will not do. I saw afterwards that it was preparing.
WK As Joshua stood on the bank - it is resurrection.
JBS You will find it very important if you want to understand the Head. You can never understand the Head until you have reached the spot where there is no human voice.
Ques I would like to ask one question about the direction of the Head and the leading of the Spirit. I understood always that if a person was led by the Spirit he would be sure to be directed by the Head?
JBS I say the Spirit could not lead to direction if you had no Head to direct. Where do you put Colossians?
TMG And yet they had the Spirit?
JBS Yes, and the apostle could speak of their love in the Spirit.
JM I was thinking of Romans where the Spirit of God leads us into the things of God, revealing them to us.
JBS That is for yourself.
WAW What was it you said about the human voice?
JBS You reach a spot where there is no human voice. “Wherein there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is everything, and in all” (Colossians 3: 11). Let anyone in this room tell me, if he reached by the Spirit of God a spot where he was free of every human voice, where he had to do with Christ and Christ was everything - if he touched it but for a moment - could he ever forget it?
WAW Does the Spirit of God lead to this when we reach the point where you brought us last night?
JB S. I do not say you have this but you are ready for it. Many are where we were last evening who are not where we are this evening. It is not only that I am in His presence but He is the one who dictates to me.
WK You mean that what we had last night was that we reached where He is?
JBS Yes, and that is really where the Colossians were.
W.K And now this step we are on tonight is to reach a place where we hear no voice but His?
JBS Yes, where there is not Greek and Jew.
WK Neither the polished man nor the rough man, no man at all?
JBS “Christ is everything”. Thank God there are hundreds of christians who can say Christ is Chief; but I have another question: Is He everything? Do not many think that they would like some-thing else along with Him?
WK You mean that everything else is excluded?
JBS Yes, but there is no lack, for Christ is everything. Therefore you get, “Put on ... bowels of compassion, kindness, lowliness”, etc. I might be [p. 70] naturally a severe, harsh character, but now I come out in a new way.
WAW Wants are unknown there?
JBS There is no want. But then you get to the point of being in His own circle and having before you what His interest is. The more I look at it the more profound I see it to be and how little one really touches it.
Ques Would you say that the Spirit is the channel through whom the direction comes?
JBS Oh, certainly: there is no other.
Remember in Colossians it is not crucifixion with Christ. Crucifixion is the judicial termination of the thing, but here it is putting it off or putting it away, which has to do with circumcision, or Gilgal.
TMG It is the carrying out practically of what has been done on the cross?
JBS Exactly. And that is what you get in the early verses of chapter 3 which so many use for practice. It is not so much practice as practical, I do not know a better illustration than Elisha; when he got Elijah’s power he took his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. He said, ‘I have done with that mantle.’ Why? Because I have got another.
W K. Is the rending the circumcision?
JBS Yes, but it is not that you yourself effect it you accept what has been effected for you. It is not like Marah, putting away the thing as it arises; but Gilgal, rolling away the whole thing. “Have your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth; for ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God”. Now you have to do with Christ’s life as it is in Himself, not as in Romans 6 for your relief. Therefore here we have, “Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness”, etc.; and not only so, but, “Now, put off, ye also, all these things, wrath, anger, malice, blasphemy, vile language out of your mouth” - wherever the will is you put off that - “... and having put on the new, renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him”.
TMG We did not catch what you said as to the difference between Romans and Colossians.
JBS In Romans you get Christ’s life for your relief. I am delivered from the man where the death is and with the Man where the life is. But in Colossians I come to another thing: “Your life is hid with the Christ in God. When the Christ is manifested who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory”. You are now, if I may so speak, at home with Him.
TMG In Romans it is rather the negative side, in Colossians the positive?
JBS Well, I would not say exactly the negative but it is touching it for yourself. It is the first sense of being clear of the old man.
AG You made a difference between practice and practical?
JBS The practice here is putting on “bowels of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, long-suffering”, etc. The idea is that of a man going to work: he first takes off his coat. The first thing you do is to go to Gilgal, that is chapter 2: 11, 12, which connects with chapter 3: 1. You are over Jordan: “If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above”. That shows you are not there if you are seeking them, that is plain.
WK In Colossians you say it is the life presented more in the character of association with Christ?
JBS I do not know exactly how to express it. You are at home with Him. You put off these things and put on the new man; you come out in the character of the new man. Practically speaking we are all :[p. 72] Wesleyans more or less; we are always trying to improve the old man. No, I have done with it, I have the new man.
Ques Why do you say we are all Wesleyans rather than Calvinists?
JBS A Wesleyan is one who is trying to improve the man.
JFH I always think there is a great mixture of flesh and Spirit in Wesleyanism.
JBS The truth is they use the Spirit to improve the flesh they try to put the new wine into the old bottles. I was saying something of a brother lately and he asked me how I knew it. Well, I said, I know myself and so I know what you are at. We need not put this away from ourselves, we are all affected by it. We need not say a word against anybody. We are to help one another and we have nothing but what we have received.
WK Well, you said the way we got to the Head is by these two verses. First that we are complete in Him, and then being in the sense of that we can afford to get rid of the hindrance, the body of the flesh which is to go altogether; chapter 2: 10, 11.
JBS Yes, and that is what comes out in chapter 3. It is not something to be done when the thing arises (Marah) but the whole thing is gone (Gilgal). “Christ then, having suffered for us in the flesh, do ye also arm yourselves with the same mind; for he that has suffered in the flesh has done with sin”, 1 Peter 4: 1. I am to come out now in quite a new way.
WK Then we have life in association with Christ risen, and then we go on to put on the character of Christ?
JB S. Yes, we put on His affections: we belong to the christian [p. 73] circle.
WK You do not confine that to the gathered company merely?
JBS No. It is what comes out constantly. “Let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to which also ye have been called in one body” - that is the first time you have the gathered company here.