SPIRITUAL FORMATION FOR ASSEMBLY SERVICE (4)
[p. 65] SPIRITUAL FORMATION FOR ASSEMBLY SERVICE (4)
Colossians 2: 9 - 23; Colossians 3: 1 - 4; Joshua 5: 2 - 9
JT It is thought that the types in Joshua will help us in the understanding of these sections of Colossians and so the verses read have been suggested. There it is a question of Israel, not having exactly entered the land, but in the act of entering it and it thus links with what has been stressed this morning as to what God is doing. It is not what He has done or will do, but what He is doing now and hence the application of this passage to us as we are here on the earth. That is why we dwelt upon it at such length, and yet we hardly finished what should be said about it, especially the position of Christ in chapter 2 as compared with the passage in chapter 1. They correspond in measure as to the word “fulness”. We have here in verse 9, “in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”. The word bodily is added in order to bring out the idea of persons. It is not only what we may know, or be, in God’s mind or in the minds of each other, but what we are in person, each one in his person. The assembly is composed of persons, and Christ is said to be Head of it. In chapter 1 of this book, it is formally stated that “he is the head of the body, the assembly”. The word body carries with it the idea of persons, but in a substantial sense and in the aggregate. Among many other distinctions, Christ has the place of headship to the body; the word assembly being added. Then this passage alludes formally to the Person of Christ in a bodily sense. The question of our bodies must therefore come up if we are rightly to understand the passage and this must include our connections, relations or associations and what we are in appearance as well as what we are in our minds. Circumcision is introduced in Joshua, after they had crossed the Jordan. The enormous number of those who died in the wilderness,
[p. 66] possibly six hundred thousand, actual death being administered to them so that their carcases fell in the wilderness, would point to the force of circumcision. As to those who go into Canaan, their bodies are affected by circumcision and not literal death. Circumcision is not in the head, it is a question of their bodies in a general sense and it obviously points to the number that were slain. Thus death, in a moral sense, takes the place of literal death which the great number in Israel endured. Circumcision therefore for us now is not a rite or ceremony or something to be administered, such as baptism; it is the death of Christ that is in mind. It is real death, and that we come into it in a moral sense, and hence have passed out of the world. So the word later is, “for ye have died”.
PHH Referring to the word bodily, do you mean that the “fulness of the Godhead” dwells in Christ’s own personal body as Man?
JT Yes.
PHH Would you say just a little more about the term substantiality in that connection.
JT Well, He is a real Man. Here, I think, it is to stress the reality of His manhood, as over against certain current ideas and that “as he is, so are we”, 1 John 4: 17. He is a real Man with the faculties and feelings of a man, but withal in that outwardly small compass; not inwardly small, because there is no measure of the inward side; but, in that outwardly small compass, the fulness of the Godhead dwelt.
ANW Is that why John begins his epistle with the word That rather than He as at the beginning of his gospel?
JT Well, I think that is just the point. John brings that out; he begins with the neuter: “That ... which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes”. It is the reality of His manhood. He was a real Person, a real Man. It would be very much to John himself, because John lay [p. 67] in His bosom.
PHH Is it clear that in some connections the word fulness refers to the complete expression of a thing? Here would you take it to mean more, that it is all that is inward and completely immeasurable?
JT Just so. Instead of the word expression, it is, as you say, all that is there. So the first chapter of Hebrews, as we had it this morning, reads: “by whom also he made the worlds”. That is to say, it is from eternity, and then “who being the effulgence of his glory and the expression of his substance”. The word substance, according to the note, is essential being, not person, and the note adds, It is of God, not of the Father. That is to say, it is the expression of the substance of God, what He is substantially. Substantiality is the word we have been using, and Christ, as the passage says, is the expression of His substance. It is not exactly representation, but expression, the expression of His substance, which is beyond the creature’s power to compass, or ever to name, what God is essentially, in His own being.
Ques In “the expression of his substance”, does the word expression mean that it is something for us to take in?
JT Well, it is a question of who we are and who are the persons in mind, because it would be angels too, the whole realm of intelligence, I would say. Yet it cannot be said that the thing is properly understood, because it is infinite and inscrutable.
WH Would the expression, “seen of angels” come in in that connection?
JT Quite so. It says, “seen of angels ... believed on in the world, received up into glory”, 1 Timothy 3: 16.
AAl The word announcing His birth is “that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”, Luke 1: 35. Would that involve what [p. 68] is substantial?
JT Yes, it would. The word thing there is to be noted; “that holy thing which shall be born of thee”. The Spirit of God has that way of dealing with matters at times. He does not go so far as we might think. His way is just to avoid certain things as needed. Later the Lord was circumcised and His name is given. He was called Jesus, but “that holy thing” is to bring out what was there in a substantial sense.
Ques Do you see any connection between verse 9 of our chapter and John 17: 5, “and now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was”?
JT Yes, there is, only that in the latter case the Lord was in the form of God; what we are dealing with here is in the form of man. John 17: 5 is what He was in Deity, before incarnation, but here we are dealing purposely with the incarnation, so that it might be understood that there is a real Person and that the fulness of the Godhead is in Him, “for in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”. The word dwells too is to be noted. It is not simply that it is in Him, but it dwells there, the Godhead dwells there.
LES What would be the difference between “expression of his substance” in Hebrews 1 and “God is a Spirit” in John 4?
JT Well, we cannot go beyond that. “God is a Spirit”. God is that, and He has to be worshipped in that sense. It is to bring out the need in ourselves of the knowledge of God and of who He is and what He is and that we know therefore how to worship. It is who we worship. We worship God, but then we worship the Father, and we worship the Son. The point there is that God is a Spirit, and that thought should enter into our worship so that our worship must be spiritual.
Ques I would like to ask why the word “bodily” is used in chapter 2 when it has reference to the present place of the Lord Jesus, in contrast with the place that He had here as [p. 69] Man.
JT Well, it could come in there also, for it was true when He was here. It was true from the time of the incarnation as to fact.
Ques Is it not the fact here, that the truth is brought forward in its bearing on ourselves, for it goes on to say, “ye are complete in him”. Does not Mr. Darby’s note to verse 10 connect the two?
JT Yes. The link is strong as to substantiality and personality of which we have been speaking, and bears on the assembly, because later in the chapter it says, “the body is of Christ” (verse 17), and then “not holding fast the head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God”. The body is thus in mind in all this and what God effects in it; hence the importance of what has been said about substantiality. The assembly is formed of persons of which Christ could be Head, or is Head. That is, there is in that sense a correspondence between the Head and the body, but all in the sense of substantiality as over against chapter 1 where the word bodily is not found.
WH Would the thought of bodily stress the substantiality that the saints have now in Christ where He is?
JT Well, just so. The very existence of the body depends on Christ where He is, dead and risen and glorified. The assembly is out of Him, Genesis 2: 23. It says, “the body is of Christ”. It is a substantial thought, it is composed of persons such as ourselves. That raises the question as to how we regard each other and what we are as in that position. It is the position or sphere in which the divine operations are being carried on, and hence the thoughts of circumcision and baptism that follow and the faith of the operation of God or the working of God. That is to say, He is operating on the principle of faith. It is not what we shall be by-and-by, but what we are now, as we are now in faith. God is operating in us on the principle of faith, because we are [p. 70] in a faith period. We are not in a risen condition, in an eternal period or in eternal conditions, we are in the faith condition, and God is pleased to operate in the faith period. It is in view of bringing about a condition in which we can abstract ourselves from what we are morally in this world, to be abstractly what we are in Christ, and that is the basis on which assembly service is to be carried on. Hence the position of the ark in Jordan and all that follows as seen in Joshua 5 and other parts of Joshua help greatly in the elucidating of the truth in this epistle of Colossians.
AJE Would the idea of substantiality be seen in Acts 5, the shadow of Peter falling upon the sick?
JT Just so. You could hardly have a shadow without a substance. That shows the value of the saints, which we have already touched on. Peter in the beginning of Acts, with John, says to the lame man who was to be healed, “Look on us”, that is on John and Peter. There was something there in those two persons, and that is really what is in mind in all that is being said as to substantiality in persons. We are to learn to look on each other and regard each other accordingly, because there is little or no value in dealing with the body, save in the sense that we are the persons themselves, at least we are of them. We are real persons in whom God is working, so that we are objects of affection to one another. That is what is in mind, and that is what this passage has in mind too; it is to bring out the reality of Christianity.
WSS That is the great mystery of it, I presume, “Christ in you the hope of glory”. He is here substantially in persons today?
JT Quite so. According to the last verse of chapter 1 God was working in Paul but now He is working in us and it is on the principle of faith: “through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead”.
ECM Would you say a word on the expression “united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God”, as connected with “being united together in love”.
JT Well, it all bears on the same thing. The joints and bands are not in the head, they are in a general way in the body. Although it is enlarged on a little more in Ephesians than it is here, it brings out the full idea of a body, of the human body, and that Christ has a body, only that He is divine, He is God in it.
GHM While you are speaking of this matter of bodily, would you say a word as to its application to the Spirit in Luke?
JT The word bodily there cannot be said to be in the sense in which it is spoken of Christ. The Holy Spirit has not a human body; it is just that the form was there. He took that form, so that it could be attested by John; as it is said in John 1: 32, that John beheld the Spirit descending. It was a question of testimony and hence what could be seen. So in the beginning of the epistle; “That which ... we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled”, and so forth, is to bring out the reality of the humanity of Christ.
We are endeavouring to get at the abstract position, the essential position that the chapter contemplates. There is what is in Christ, in His body, in a bodily sense, and how we correspond with it. Then we have the working of God; first, that we are circumcised in His circumcision, and then that we are baptised, not in His baptism, but baptised just in the ordinary sense, and that baptism in this chapter, as we have remarked, carries with it the idea of resurrection. It is not resurrection as a full basis of things but simply that they are viewed as risen. “Wherein also ye are risen”, as it says, “through the faith of the operation of God”. Then, if we are that, if we are risen by the faith of the operation of God, well then we can proceed to what is found in [p. 72] Ephesians, where it is not only that we are risen, but quickened and raised and seated in the heavenlies. Ephesians goes all the way and is anticipative, whereas Colossians is not anticipative. It contemplates us as we are, what is current at the present moment. That is to say, instead of being in the land, we are entering it, and Joshua 5 shows what happens in the entering. There was need for circumcision, and we are told that they made stone knives or swords of rocks. The idea of the sword is used, which means there is a real cutting off, and not only a cutting off but a rolling away of the reproach of Egypt. The word rolling is to convey the thought of the total rolling away of the reproach of Egypt. Before there could be the eating of the old corn of the land, that has to take place, and it takes place in the entering, at the time of entering into Canaan.
SB In regard to what happened when Elijah was taken up, Elisha asks for a double portion of his spirit and Elijah’s answer is: “If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so to thee; but if not, it shall not be so”. And Elisha sees Elijah taken up and when he comes back the sons of the prophets say: “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha”.
JT I am glad you have brought up that, because it is just a question of what we are saying. It is what is current, what God is doing. The great thought is the operation of God and all these things enter into it, having in view that the service of God should exist and go on.
Ques Would the practical effect of the apprehension of this amongst the saints be that we learn to dispense with all that is not of Christ?
JT Well, just so. It is really a question of displacement and hiding and so you have here a striking word in verse 14, “having effaced the handwriting in ordinances which stood out against us, which was contrary to us, He has taken it also out of the way”. I am referring to “out of the way” and effacement. God has operated to take [p. 73] things that would hinder us out of the way and to take them out of the way judicially. We can thus see that they are dealt with and dealt with for ever so that they should not hinder us. Then there are many things besides that are hindering us that are not mentioned here, that God would have us remove and take out of the way. Such things as associations that are not proper to Christians and many other things like that; so that instead of God as it were taking them out of the way judicially, we take them out of the way too, in a practical sense, so that they should not hinder us.
LES So that Paul’s word in Philippians 3, agrees with this, “See to dogs, see to evil workmen, see to the concision. For we are the circumcision”.
JT Quite so. See to it and have it attended to; that is the thing.
HPW Is it displacement by death?
JT The circumcision of Christ is the death of Christ. Although we have literal baptism, we have no literal circumcision, but we do have spiritual circumcision, and that is what the apostle means. It is the application of death, hence he says: “for ye have died”. The first verse of chapter 3 is really hypothetical; it says, “If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God: have your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth; for ye have died”. He is dealing with that and he alludes to the circumcision of Christ.
Ques Would the importance of what you are saying be stressed in Joshua 5 when Jehovah says “circumcise again ... the second time”?
JT Just so. I think it points to what was so very real with the Israelites for six hundred thousand of them died in the wilderness. The word carcases is used as to them, and then the word bones in the warnings against defilement shows that the reality of death was there.
[p. 74] Hence the second circumcision is to stress that, for the young people that were born had not been circumcised and they should be. It was to stress in their minds that their forefathers had died because of self-will that is the idea of it. Death is a real matter and it can be brought to bear on young people now and upon all of us that death will come if we persist in ministering to the flesh. Now circumcision forestalls that, and we are able to enter on the service of God because we are raised through the operation of God, on the principle of faith.
WH Would circumcision, in that way, have particularly in view what is spiritual as suggested in the inheritance?
JT Quite so. They were already entering on it really. They had actually laid their feet on it, but still they are not regarded as having gone up definitely, because Jericho is still in the way. They had to go through the thing in themselves; that is to say, the actual figure of death, accepted in the true sense of it.
PHH What place would the stones have in connection with what you are saying? There were the stones in the Jordan and then stones placed on the other side.
JT I think the stones in the Jordan are just a type of where we were; where Israel was and where we were in death. The setting up of these stones was done by Joshua himself, as it says in the ninth verse of the fourth chapter, “And twelve stones did Joshua set up in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant had stood firm; and they are there to this day”. That is to say, they are there as a testimony. Jordan has returned to overflow its banks, and the whole force of death is there but, nevertheless, they are there. Then what precedes that is, “And it came to pass when the whole nation had completely gone over the Jordan, that Jehovah spoke to Joshua, saying, Take you twelve men out of the people, one man out of every tribe, and command them, saying,
[p. 75] Take up hence out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the lodging-place where ye shall lodge this night. And Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had appointed of the children of Israel, a man out of every tribe; and Joshua said to them, Pass before the ark of Jehovah your God into the midst of the Jordan, and lift up each of you a stone and put it upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign in your midst. When your children ask hereafter, saying, What mean ye by these stones? then ye shall say to them, That the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah; when it went through the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever”, Joshua 4: 1 - 7. That means, as applied to ourselves, that we are risen with Christ. We are entitled to regard it so, but that is not the whole position, for according to Ephesians we are raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies, but Colossians does not go that far. What we are saying therefore as to Joshua greatly helps us as to Colossians for the bearing of resurrection in Colossians has the heavenly position in view. We have to realise the power of resurrection, which is “the working of God”; that is, the energy of God; His active power. Paul says, “ye have been raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead”. That is to stress the power of resurrection entering into the service of God, and that it is realisable by us, when we are actually in the service, because we have the Spirit. Without the Spirit it could not be realisable, it could only be a theory or a doctrine. The Spirit makes it a real fact, so that we are affected thus and really in the enjoyment of association with Christ.
PL So that spiritual alacrity marks Abraham after circumcision, for he runs and then he ministers to [p. 76] divine tastes at the tent door. Would that suggest the service of God?
JT Quite so. It was a real scene of activity and Abraham was a servant in active service. Sarah is brought into it, although she did not just fulfil her part in it, yet she is brought into it and the young men are brought into it as well, and so forth.
GWB Would you say a word as to the distinction between baptism and circumcision.
JT Well, circumcision is just a real figure of the death of Christ. It is never applied to the Christian, nor is it brought into Christianity as baptism is. It is just a figure of the death of Christ, and that we are circumcised in it, in Him. Baptism is also a figure of the death of Christ, but it is a figure of the resurrection of Christ as well, as it says here, “Wherein also ye are risen”. All that bears on the service of God as showing what we may be as sitting down together in the assembly.
Ques When he speaks of being quickened in verse 13, he says quickened together. Is that the point where we touch true collective ground, in the consciousness of this relation?
JT Very good. I think it is, because we are greatly tested as to what we think of each other. One would always challenge oneself in sitting down with the brethren as to what one thinks about them, because it is a question of what we are, and the Lord comes to us according to what we are. We expect Him to come, but He has in mind what we are, we are persons that are attractive to Him.
Ques Would you judge that there were those conditions in the assembly at Antioch according to Acts 13?
JT Well, I think that is right, because they are called Christians. It is a term that signifies what they are, that is to say, they are “of Christ”. It just indicates that the saints at Antioch were fully in these matters; they were fully in the truth [p. 77] of Christianity.
FCH What would be the relation of the younger generation in regard of circumcision? No uncircumcised person was to eat of the passover and yet it says that “all the people that were born in the wilderness on the way, after they came out of Egypt, them had they not circumcised”. Does that bear on what you are saying as to the young people?
JT Well, quite so. It is really what we are aiming at in the main, because most of the dear brethren that are in mind here are young and perhaps not fully initiated in the truth of Christianity. One knows no passage more important than the epistle to Colossians as to the reality of Christianity, and how we are to get into it. We are told in these scriptures how we are to get into it, and the types, particularly that in Joshua, help us greatly.
Ques What is the thought of spoiling principalities and powers?
JT It would mean that they would be hostile principalities and powers; that is what Satan has built up. It is more fully entered on in Ephesians, but here they are spoiled.
AHG Why does it say that they are made a show of publicly?
JT Well, I suppose to bring out that the power of God is operative against the world. Presently, as the book of Revelation shows us, there will be a great conflict between Michael and the devil. There will be an actual conflict. No such thing as a conflict in heaven has ever been seen before, and the devil will be cast out of heaven for ever. He is not cast out yet, and that is a very solemn thing and that is why we have so much conflict, so much combat. It is spoken of so much here and we have to struggle in this matter because of many things in our circumstances and our houses, and the like, that cause combat, the devil taking advantage of circumstances in which we are.
AHG You spoke earlier of making way for the assembly. Is what is here linked with that thought?
JT Well, it is. “Taken it also out of the way”, is the very word that conveys it to us. Something is in the way and it may be in any one of us. In what is alluded to here, it is said that God has taken it out of the way, because it is God here: “Having effaced the handwriting in ordinances which stood out against us”, that is ordinances stood out against us, they were contrary to us, “He has taken it also out of the way, having nailed it to the cross”. That is all judicial; it is the death of Christ, but then there are other things that are not mentioned here that are very practical and it raises the question as to what we may do in removing them. One could mention many things but the general thought is that there are things which we can deal with ourselves; things that hinder us and if we do not deal with them they will continue to hinder us.
JG Would the graveclothes of Lazarus come in in that connection?
JT Just so. The Lord told them to loose him and let him go. The Lord said in effect that he would not be able to go unless they loosed him. They had to do that, for Lazarus himself could not have done it, but there are things that we can do ourselves, and that is just what is in mind, let us do them.
EEP In Exodus 33: 11 it says “Joshua ... a young man, departed not from within the tent”. Would that show definitely how to become a skilled man in order to enter with vigour and strength, on Colossian ground?
JT Many, who perhaps do not know it, are held by things that could easily be taken out of the way. It is not that we should wait on God to do it judicially, because things are not dealt with in that sense. Such things as evil associations that we link on with, business associations and companionship and especially mixed marriages; all of these things are to be dealt with by the persons involved, or we will be hampered by them.
[p. 79] Ques Would the word that the apostle writes to the saints at Corinth enter into what you are bringing before us? “Do ye not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own? for ye have been bought with a price: glorify now then God in your body”, 1 Corinthians 6: 19, 20.
JT Quite so. How many things there are that we can deal with ourselves! The Colossian epistle is to help us to deal with ourselves where there are hindrances. God has done certain things for us; He has taken things out of the way, and gone so far as nailing them to the cross. We might therefore do very well, too, to nail them to something, so that they should never be taken up again.
Ques Does it help in verse 14 to see that the collective position is the real point of the attack in the associations to which you have referred? Whilst the individual has to take them up this way, it is against us that they stand out and “contrary to us”.
JT Quite so. As regards sins and as regards quickening in verse 13 it is said, “And you, being dead in offences and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has quickened together with him, having forgiven us all the offences; having effaced the handwriting in ordinances which stood out against us, which was contrary to us he has taken it also out of the way, having nailed it to the cross; having spoiled principalities and authorities he made a show of them publicly, leading them in triumph by it”. All that would allude to what God has done and what God alone could do. But then we are speaking of what we can do, too. God has taken things out of the way judicially, but there are things that we may allow and not take them out of the way and, of course, we never get on in the truth accordingly.
GCS Does Paul enumerate some of them in Philippians 3, when he speaks of counting all things but dung that he might win Christ? That follows on what he had said about [p. 80] circumcision.
JT Yes, quite so. He had a purpose in what he was doing and that was that he might have Christ for gain. That scripture is very important in regard of what we are saying, Paul had such a purpose in what he was doing.
WH So he says here, “Let no one fraudulently deprive you of your prize”. It comes home to us in that way.
AJM Have you any thought about Zipporah in regard of Moses? The Lord sought to slay him and she said, “A bloody husband indeed art thou to me! ... because of the circumcision”, Exodus 4: 25, 26.
JT That is a remarkable passage indeed, because he neglected the circumcision for his son, and Jehovah thought to slay him, showing how serious it was. So here, “Let none therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in matter of feast, or new moon, or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Let no one fraudulently deprive you of your prize”, whatever it may be, “doing his own will in humility and worship of angels, entering into things which he has not seen”. That shows that we may get into these things religiously, such as Romanism would instruct us in. Even heathen eastern religion might creep in and hinder us, and there are many other such things in the surrounding religions, such as the Established Church, where customs are practised that would hinder us unless we judge them and cease doing them. So it goes on to say, speaking of the false worshipping of angels, that such a person was “entering into things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh”, showing what all this means, the mind of man’s flesh working in the things of God. Then we have “and not holding fast the head”, that is to say, Christ the Head of the assembly, for Christ is Head of the body, “from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God”. All these instructions are very clear and are very obvious, and,
[p. 81] if in any way we are ignoring them, we will be hindered in entering into the truth of the assembly and the service of God.
AHG Would you say a word on the expression: “but the body is of Christ”.
JT It is just the thought that, as Eve was taken out of Adam, so the assembly is taken out of Christ. That is really what is meant, “the body is of Christ”.
ANW Does it emphasise the matter of substance again in contrast to shadow? In verse 17 it says certain things are a shadow but then it says the body is of Christ. I wondered whether that involved the substance again.
JT These customs and religions around us are nothing at all; they have no force at all religiously, I mean to say in the spiritual sense. But then when the word comes in “the body is of Christ” we have a substantial thing, for it is referring to the persons who form the body and that they are taken out of Christ. It is not simply so many persons born, but persons in whom God has wrought, persons whom He has quickened and made to live together.
JM Would the reference to the handwriting in ordinances being effaced indicate that they are no longer necessary because the body is of Christ?
JT Quite so. “The body is of Christ” means it is a substantial thought. It is referring to ourselves, to Christians, the only circle of persons who are really of any account to God, to heaven. All else is simply in the way. Of course, there are natural connections, associations or links which we have to recognise, but they do not continue; the assembly does continue, for it is an abiding thing.
PL It is a deathless company, is it not?
JT Quite so. Deathless is a good word for it.
WSS It “increases with the increase of God”.
PHH Would there be a warning in connection with all this in Achan hiding the wedge of gold and the [p. 82] Babylonish garment in his tent? That is, while positionally risen with Christ, yet we may be going on with the elements of the world?
JT Yes. He stole them and hid them, and, of course, suffered accordingly.
PHH It is said of him that he dissembled.
JT Quite so. They represented the world. On the other hand, there were certain things in Jericho, such as metals, that, in themselves, represented what was of God and that is another matter.
Ques Does Gideon represent the idea of dealing with things that are not right, in that he deals with them first in his father’s house? He destroyed things that were inconsistent with the thoughts of God for His people.
JT On the other hand, when he would use the gold of the persons he had overcome to make an idol, there was failure. How easily we can drop into what is wrong after being so characterised by what is right!
EuR Do the twelve stones taken out of the Jordan and reared up on the land side link on at all with the thought of Christ’s brethren; a company of His own order, a heavenly company?
JT Quite so. They link on with ourselves in that they are types of ourselves. They are types of the assembly, that we are risen with Christ.
EuR Does not that help us to enter into the thought of being His body and responding to Him?
JT Quite so. That we are risen with Christ helps us in participating in the service of God. That is in Colossians and resurrection is only on the way, as we have already remarked, for Colossians is entering. They have not yet fully entered, and so it is that the full truth of the service of God requires Ephesians as well as Colossians. We are thus able to go the whole way, and it is a question therefore of the power of the Spirit operating in our hearts and minds. We are able to sit down together in assembly and lay hold of the fact that we are risen with Christ and not only so, but that we are raised [p. 83] up and seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, because we have to go the whole way. God would have us to go the whole way; and unless we reach heaven, sitting in heavenly places, we do not go the whole way. In order to go the whole way we have to go through this chapter and that is why one is stressing it so much. God has done His part in removing things that would stand in our way; but then do we remove the things that we know are standing in our way?
You have in the next paragraph, verse 20 of chapter 2, “If ye have died with Christ from the elements of the world, why as if alive in the world do ye subject yourselves to ordinances”. The thought of subject yourselves would be that you are holding on to what is in the way, and so then he explains what he means, “Do not handle”, that is what people would say in that sense. “Do not taste, do not touch”, and then the bracket “(things which are all for destruction in the using of them:)”, That is to say, they are really nothing all, they have nothing to do with the service that we are professing to hold. Then he goes on, “according to the injunctions and teachings of men”, and then again a parenthesis, “Which have indeed an appearance of wisdom in voluntary worship, and humility, and harsh treatment of the body”, (and we know something about that in certain systems) “not in a certain honour”. That means they do not respect what is due to the human body; then the bracket ends; then, “to the satisfaction of the flesh”. That is to say, the flesh wishes all these things religiously, and every one of them is in the way. They become an occasion of religious pride, because we have them and because we practise them.
AM Does the word in Hebrews 12 link on with it, “laying aside every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us”?
JT Just so. That is just the point; “laying aside every weight”, whatever the weights may be, as well as “the sin which so easily entangles us”.