CHRIST IN CREATION AND REDEMPTION
[p. 279] CHRIST IN CREATION AND REDEMPTION
Colossians 1: 12 - 23; Revelation 4: 11; 5: 9
It is extremely important, beloved friends, to look at everything in the light of the coming day. The fact is, in christianity you continually anticipate the coming day.
The “day” is not come yet — the darkness is passing, but the true light has not yet come. The tendency of christendom at the present time is to fall away from revealed truth. Revealed truth has not the place in the estimation of man that it had, and the tendency is to fall back from it into the traditions of men and the rudiments of the world. All these things might have had a place until revelation came in, but revelation dissipates all the darkness. Now people are falling away from revealed truth. This cannot fully come to pass as long as the Spirit of God is here, but the principle of apostasy is at work. There are many antichrists even now, and it is the last time.
Such being the case, it is extremely important that our souls should be found in the light of the day that is coming, because “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable”. We have to hold fast until the day comes, and not to be moved away from the hope of our calling.
I want to speak of the coming day in connection with Christ. When you come to the church, it is the first-fruits of the ways of God. You get Christ risen, and the church sanctified by the Holy Spirit — the beginning of the ways of God — the wave-loaves, all leading up to the feast of tabernacles. I refer to the day of the coming of the Lord, which will bring in the day of the Lord — then the feast of tabernacles will be established, which is a time of rejoicing. There was no rejoicing in the other feasts, but only in connection with the feast of tabernacles. It is the light of the coming day which brings joy. Christians [p. 280] rejoice when their souls come into the light of the corning day. When we can rejoice always in the Lord, it proves that the heart is really in the light of the day that is coming, the day of the Lord.
Now, beloved friends, in the passage in Colossians which I read, all has reference to the Son of God’s love. It does not state things in the same way as in Ephesians. These are not the things which are given to you, but what properly belongs to Him, the Son of the Father’s love. “Who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love”. Then we get a good deal predicated of the Son of His love in connection with taking up “all things”. “All things” are taken up on two grounds — first on the ground of creation, and then on the ground of reconciliation. These correspond with the two passages I have read in Revelation, “Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created,” while in chapter 5, the same things are taken up on the ground of redemption.
Now, beloved friends, we often talk of the world to come — we are more accustomed to talk about it than formerly. The world to come is extremely important. Sometimes we speak of it as another world — well, morally it is another world. This world has been built up on man departed from God, and the world to come is built up, so to speak, on Christ, and it is another world morally. As to the principles prevailing in the world to come, they are in the strongest contrast to those in this world. The principles of this world are the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”, but those of the world to come are righteousness and the love of God.
In this world, the moral source of everything is the devil, while, in the world to come, the moral source is God. You cannot conceive a greater contrast. Therefore we are justified in speaking of it as another world. Yet, after all, we get certain things taken up which have belonged [p. 281] to this world. You get the expression “all things” several times in Colossians and also in Revelation. “Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created”. What was created? “All things”. “All things” belong to this world, but they are taken up by Christ — they come under another Head, they are brought on to another ground. They are taken up, as I said, on the ground of creation first, and then on the ground of reconciliation. In both passages I have read you get the expression “all things”. In heaven and earth all things were created by Christ and for Him, and He has “made peace by the blood of his cross”. All is brought out in connection with reconciliation, while we get the present application given to us, “You ... now hath he reconciled”. We have to wait for the reconciliation of all things, but now it is said of us, “You ... now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight”.
Now, beloved friends, I come back, for a moment, to the subject of creation. He is the pre-eminent One in regard to everything created — “All things were created by him, and for him”. If you follow that out it gives a remarkable character to the Old Testament. You find there a vast number of things set up in the hand of man — thrones and dominions and governments. Dominion was given to Adam over all creation. Then if you pass on to the time of the flood, God entrusted to Noah the sword of government, and later still God established the throne of David. Then another thing comes out in connection with David — you get the headship of the gentiles. There are many things in the Old Testament I have not referred to, but I have just taken up these familiar ones.
Now all these things which were put under the hand of man failed, as we see, first of all, in Adam. So, too, the sword of government was entrusted to Noah, but Noah failed. God also had promised to establish David in the throne of Israel, but David failed in it, although dominion [p. 282] was revived in Solomon, who also failed.
It gives great interest to the Old Testament when you apprehend that all things were created by Christ, and for Him, as in Colossians, while Revelation expresses it, “For thy pleasure they are and were created”. Now mark this — “He is before all things, and by him all things consist”. The different things I have referred to in the Old Testament all came in successively — the throne of David followed the sword of government, and the sword of government followed the dominion given to Adam. You find the truth of all this brought out in the Old Testament, but these things were never connected, they never “consisted”, or stood together. Now Christ is “before all things, and by him all things consist” — all are gathered together in Him. God has made known the mystery of His will, to gather together in one all things in Christ. So, beloved friends, dominion is in the hand of Christ — government and thrones are in the hand of Christ. The angel said to Mary, “he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever”. So, too, He is the Head of the gentiles. This comes out in Psalm 2 — “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion, ... Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee, ... Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession”.
Thus all these things are taken up in Christ, and it gives great interest to the Old Testament when you study it, and see that all that God has established from time to time was created in view of Christ, and also created by Him. Hence when the Son of God becomes Man, He takes up all as Man, and on the ground of creation. “For thy pleasure they are and were created”.
Now when Christ takes up all things, He finds man in possession, and man has to be dispossessed. When the Lord comes, He will not consider the rights of man at all. All that is of man will be entirely swept aside, and everything will be taken up on the ground of creation. Man has no rights except providential rights. We have to respect [p. 283] the providential rights of man, but Christ will not respect them. He will sweep aside every such right, and take up all things on the ground that “all things were created by him, and for him: ... and by him all things consist”. I regard it as very important, beloved friends, to apprehend the ground on which Christ takes up all things according to God. He is “the first-born of every creature, ... and by him all things consist”.
Now we will pass on in the passage in Colossians 1 to verses 18 - 22. In these verses you get an entirely different thought brought in, just as in Revelation 5, everything is taken up on the ground of redemption, and blessing and glory and honour are ascribed to Christ on that ground. Here in Colossians everything is taken up on the ground of reconciliation. This, so to speak, is collateral with what we have in Revelation.
All creation was the handiwork of God, but it did not reveal God. Psalm 19: 1. Men had the witness of creation, but it did not bring to light God’s nature and character. Now, beloved friends, the Son of the Father’s love has revealed Him. The most important fact that has come to light is that He has revealed Him. That is what I understand by “all fulness” dwelling in Christ. The Father was revealed and all the light of God came out in Christ for the first time. In the Old Testament, God interfered with the affairs of the world continually, although men were not willing that He should, but we do not get God revealed. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”.
I spoke on a previous occasion of two things in connection with the Son of God — He declares God, and He baptises with the Holy Spirit. All the truth of God had come to light in Christ. One great truth is established in the Old Testament — “There is one God”, and in the New Testament — “God is one”. The Lord says, “I and the Father are one”. “In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”, and in that light men have to walk.
[p. 284] Now there is another truth — He has “made peace through the blood of his cross”. By the death of Christ all moral confusion has been removed from before the eye of God — not yet from man’s, but from the eye of God. All was brought to an end in the death of Christ, by the removal of the man by whom all the confusion came in. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin”. That man was removed and Christ “made peace by the blood of his cross”.
Put these two things together — God revealed and man removed, they are two great things which come out in the death of Christ. “He made peace by the blood of his cross” in order to “reconcile all things unto himself”. He brings everything, so to speak, into divine complacency by Himself taking up everything. That is the great scheme of reconciliation, that all things that God has established on earth will be brought under divine complacency by Christ’s taking up all things — the One who “made peace by the blood of his cross”. Christ takes things up, not simply on the ground of creation, but also of redemption. He has made peace, and the practical result is that one Man is substituted for another. The one who brought confusion into the world had to be removed, and instead there was the Man who brought in God’s glory.
If He had taken up things exclusively on the ground of creation, which of us would have part in it? By the very fact of His being the “image of the invisible God”, which of us would be suitable? We should all be excluded. But He takes them up also on the ground which admits man; that is, beloved friends, Christ has come in to accomplish redemption, to take up the liabilities of man, in order that man may have a part with Christ.
What practically results is, “Death is swallowed up in victory”. Why? Because Christ has annulled death, and there will be no more curse. There is the curse at the present time, but Christ was made a curse. Christ has taken up every liability which lay on man, that man may [p. 285] get his part. He takes up all on the ground of reconciliation. You get the same principle in Revelation 4 and 5 — “redeemed us to God ... out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation”.
Now, beloved friends, all that is going on now is in anticipation of that. All is there before God in Christ. If we had discernment enough to look up and behold the glory of the Lord, we should see that all the promises of God are in Him — the yea and the Amen, to the glory of God by us. Just as far as we are under the power of the Spirit all these things are true in our eyes, and not only true before God; and if they are true in our eyes, we shall walk in the light of the coming day.
Man, in a kind of way, likes confusion. A very painful circumstance occurred when Christ cast out the legion of demons. They “besought him to depart”. They would rather have confusion than Christ. A great many people now would rather have confusion as it is than have the light of God brought to them. I think men very much prefer the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life to everything being dominated by God, but a christian would not be prepared for matters to be left in that way. Stephen, for example, “looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus”. “We see Jesus, ... crowned with glory and honour”, and all put under Him, in the light of the coming day. We are brought into the light of the day of reconciliation. What for? That we may be presented “unblameable and unreproveable in his sight” — that is to say, Christ has been pleased to bring about a worshipping company of which He Himself is the Head and centre.
You get an allusion to this in Psalm 22, but the company there does not go beyond the remnant of the Jews. Now, Jew and gentile are together, reconciled unto God “in the body of his flesh through death”.
This is all vitally important, because if we are “unblameable and unreproveable in his sight”, it means we are according to His glory, and to live irreproachably [p. 286] we must be according to His glory, and those who are associated with Christ must be according to that glory in order that God may rest there. It is not possible that God should rest where all is not according to His glory. You get a beautiful picture of it in the new Jerusalem, where all is according to His glory. Some say we are not “holy and unblameable and unreproveable” yet. That is true, but you and I can enter into the mind of Christ with regard to us. He ‘presents’ us so that God may rest in us, because all is according to His glory.
There are many things in us that offend the eye of God. Many people wonder why their circumstances are so trying, but the thing is, every child comes under discipline. I am a very poor hand at dealing with my children — a very faulty father. I do not subject my children to discipline as I should, but God proves us in His love, and disciplines too. “His eyes are over the righteous”. “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” Amos 3: 2. In divine love the Father does not overlook what is offending; He deals with it in love.
The power has come in by which saints can be before God here, and the flesh excluded. Christ has reconciled us to that end, that everything that is contrary may be excluded, and that we may be in a sphere where divine love can rest in perfect complacency.
Now, beloved friends, we anticipate the coming day, and in the coming day the church will have its place as a great worshipping company. We cling to the true Aaron. He covers us, so to speak, in the presence of God. But in the coming day the church is to come out from God. “I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven”, “that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God”.
That God will be presented in the church is the great triumph of grace — “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus”. It is God’s triumph above all the power of evil which brought confusion into the world.
Beloved friends, do not let the world occupy your attention. Let your attention be diverted from this world, and the things of this world, and let it be directed to God’s scene, where there is no confusion, and where the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, have no place. Christ, in that scene, is the Sun of Righteousness, and He fills all things with the light of reconciliation, and with the warmth of love. That is what fills the world to come. All is taken up in Christ, that God may fill all things. “You ... now hath he reconciled”. There is a worshipping company where all answers to God, where all is in its proper place, where everything answers to the glory of God, and there is nothing which offends His glory. That is the place of the church.
Now, beloved friends, God keep our hearts in the light of the coming day, when all things will come under the Son of man!