There are four great epochs in the world's history, as unfolded in the word of God, at each of which a great and radical change is introduced, viz., the fall of man, the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the establishment of His kingdom in power on the earth, and the delivering up of the kingdom to God, even the Father.
By the fall of man, a change, both moral and physical, took place. Moral, inasmuch as his heart was then alienated from God, and his powers devoted unconsciously to himself to the service of Satan; physical, inasmuch as the earth, which but recently at the word of the Creator brought forth the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit, fell under God's curse on account of man's sin.
By the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, another great change has taken place, this time moral only. Man (Israel in profession excepted), in the vanity of his mind and ignorance of heart, had served the devil as his master and lord. But when the Lord arose from the dead, conqueror over " death, and him that had the power of it.," another Lord was presented, a kingdom was declared to be set up, in a mystery, indeed, yet really set up, on the earth, and its King, the Lord Jesus, was announced as the One to whom the sovereignty of the universe belonged. " God bath made that same Jesus whom ye crucified both Lord and Christ." (Acts 2:3636Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. (Acts 2:36).) " He is Lord of all." (Acts 10:3636The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) (Acts 10:36).) It is true, His claims as King and Lord are recognized but by few.
The god of this world still successfully Hinds the minds of them that believe not. But His claims are real though Satan now, as it were, divides the authority with Him.
When next He comes to this earth, riding on a white horse, with the armies of heaven following, divided authority in the earth will cease. The claims of the Lord, as universal king, will be acknowledged professedly by all. The curse, too, will no longer weigh down creation. (Rev. 22:33And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: (Revelation 22:3).) The wilderness will be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. Enmity between man and beast will disappear (Isa. 35:1;11. 8; 65:25); peace and plenty abound, and judgment be administered in righteousness and truth. (Psa. 72:7;94. 15; 96:13.)
When the end comes, and He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, a further change will take place. As at the fall, a change both moral and physical was introduced, so will it be at the close. " Behold I make all things new," is the word of the living God. What this means Peter unfolds: " A new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2 Peter 3:1313Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2 Peter 3:13).) Evil in that creation will not be repressed as during the millennium. It will not exist.
Placed as we are in the providence of God between the second and third of these epochs, what is presented to us? The kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not yet established in power, but set up in a mystery, to be owned by all the faithful. Before He came Israel were bound (though they failed, as God's word shows us) to acknowledge the claims of the Lord Jehovah, their Redeemer from Egypt, according to His promise to Abraham, despite their murmurings and rebellions by the way. For Israel, and Israel alone, had this mighty work been accomplished; and with them, and them alone, did God enter into a covenant, which they bound themselves to observe. After the death and resurrection of the Lord, redemption, not from Egypt for one nation, but from death and judgment for all who would receive it having been accomplished and announced, the Lordship of Christ, though first declared to God's ancient people, is proclaimed far and wide. All that in every place received the word, believed it, and called " upon the name of the Lord, both theirs and ours," are declared subjects of the kingdom. By and by God will command the obedience of His creatures on the ground of creation. (Rev. 14:66And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, (Revelation 14:6).) Now conformity to His will is urged, on the basis of an accomplished redemption (Rom. 12:1,21I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:1‑2); Titus 2:11,1211For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; (Titus 2:11‑12); 1 John 4:1414And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (1 John 4:14)), and His will, is that the claims of the Lord Jesus should be owned and submitted to. So the Philippian jailor is told to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Rom. 10 confession is to be made of the Lordship of Jesus. That the Lord Jehovah was to be obeyed the Jews professedly admitted. That the crucified One, the virgin's Son, Jesus, should in all things have the pre-eminence, and be owned as the Lord, was a new, and to many ears, a novel doctrine. To the Jews Christ crucified was a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but to those who believed, He was the power of God and the wisdom of God. It is in the Epistle to the Colossians that we have brought out in the fullest and clearest way the preeminence of the Lord, and the great moral change which has taken place consequent on His death and resurrection.
After the salutation to all the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse, from God the Father [for the chief critical editors agree in the omission of the words, " and the Lord Jesus Christ," an omission peculiar to this epistle], Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, with Timothy, gives thanks for them to God the Father of the Lord Jesus, having heard of their faith in Christ Jesus, and prays that they may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, Observe, the object of their faith is the lowly one Jesus, God's anointed one-Christ. But faith, if real, is evidenced by walk. When that is mentioned, the claim of Jesus as Lord is set forth. " Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing," into whose kingdom we have been translated, delivered from the power of darkness by the Father. But who is this one, and what has He done, that He should be Lord? He is God's Son, the image of the invisible God. By Him all things were created, and by Him they all consist. He has therefore a place as head of all creation. He has a place too as head of the Church, the first-born from the dead, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. As Creator, then, He could command our obedience. But He is presented here with another claim on His people, for in Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And now " you," says the apostle, " that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, God has reconciled to himself in the body of his flesh through death;" [and how perfectly reconciled] " to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight." Furthermore, in Him all fullness pleased to dwell, and in Him also are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Having thus brought forward the excellency of His person and the ground of His claim to the allegiance of His people-and what excellency could surpass it, what claim could be greater?- the apostle goes on to show, in chapter ii., how the excellency and fullness in Him may be denied; and in chapter iii. how His claim as Lord should be owned and obeyed. Since all fullness dwelt in Him, they could not get beyond Christ. He was not only the foundation on which they must rest, but the One in whom they must be built up, " Rooted and built up in him." The truth about him had been revealed and received. There was nothing fresh to look for. "As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." But why this caution? They were in danger, and this was not confined to that day, of being drawn aside (1) by philosophy, (2) by a recurrence to ordinances, and (3) by the corruption which had already been developed of Christianity itself.
1. To some, human philosophy might prove a snare. Would they reject (it might be asked) the teaching of the sages for the doctrine of this most recent of schools? Was all the wisdom and learning of the ancients to be put aside for the dogmas and novelties of the sect of the Nazarenes? What is the answer? Philosophy and vain deceit were indeed after the traditions of men, suited to the world, but they were opposed to Christ. What were the philosophers when compared with Him in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily? What were the rudiments of the world when weighed against Him who is the head of all principality and power? Between these they had to choose, and they had chosen Christ. He was henceforth to be everything to them. The cravings of the heart, which the philosophy of the schools could not satisfy, He could. The all-important question of the soul's future, which man's wisdom could not solve nor his reasonings stifle, found an answer in the good news of the finished work of Christ on the cross, and His resurrection by the power of God on the third day. They were filled full in Him. (Chapter 2:10.) " Not after Christ," is the short but effective answer supplied by the Spirit of God. Has not this a voice for us in these days? Man's wisdom and researches are brought forward to discredit Scripture. Man's intellect, liable to err, is to sit in judgment on the unerring word of God. His discoveries in science, his researches in the kingdom of nature, his discernment and power of dissecting the Scriptures to show the small residuum of truth, imbedded in the mass of documents compiled by some scribe of a far later age than the record would assume, and men till now have believed, are brought forward as sufficient to outweigh and discredit what has been received as the word of God. To all this we have a ready answer here supplied: " Not after Christ." It is the exaltation of human intellect, the deification of human wisdom, not subjection to God and His word.
2. Were any troubled by teachers insisting on the need of circumcision, and the return to a religion of ordinances? They had been circumcised in Christ, in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Moreover, they had been buried with Him by baptism into death, and risen with Him, brought into a new condition altogether, where a religion of ordinances had no place. Had not God appointed them, it might be urged? Would they renounce that which had been ushered in with such solemnity amid the thunders of Sinai? Would they turn their backs on the sign of the covenant made between God and Abraham, " an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee?" (Gen. 17:77And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. (Genesis 17:7).) Was He not allowed to be the Father of the faithful? were not all believers children of Abraham? would they not lose the blessing if they refused to adopt the sign of the everlasting covenant? how could they meet this form of evil? Again the Spirit of God gives a very short but clear and decisive answer. All that these teachers were battling for were shadows of things to come, but the body is of Christ. Christ had been set before them as the One who had "blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." Were they to go back to that which existed by God's appointment before the cross? From that the great change which had come in took its date. Who would pursue the shadow when they had grasped the substance? How real, then, and great was the change introduced by the death and resurrection of the Lord.
3. Another form of evil might draw away unstable souls: an appearance of humility and worshipping of angels. If they followed this they would cease to hold the Head. The forms of evil already spoken of had regard to what men had been occupied with before. This seems more a corruption of Christianity, not a return to that which they had left. The correction for this, as for the other, is found in but one-Christ the Head. Holding the Head, cleaving to Him, was their business now. Besides, this apparent' neglect of the body, this humility, was, after all, a satisfying of the flesh. But they had died with Christ. What place then could there be for such doctrines among them?
These three forms of evil, so needful to guard the Colossians against, whilst differing in many things, had this in common-they were all connected with the world, and regarded man as alive in the flesh before God. But believers were dead and risen with Christ. The heavenlies was their place, and the things above God would have their hearts occupied with. The heavenlies, however, is a wide place. Satan is there with his angels, as well as believers. Whither, then, should their thoughts be directed? Where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Their security, too, was bound up with Him, and their hope was to appear with Him in the glory. Associated thus with Him, one with Him, He Himself their life, a heavenward direction given to their thoughts, they were nevertheless still in the world, and had to do individually with one another. So, after speaking of the desires of the flesh and of the mind (chap. 3:5-8), the apostle proceeds: " Lie not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all and in all," However the Jew or the Greek might have attempted to take advantage by deceit of any one placed in conscious inferiority to themselves, that would not become the Christian. National distinction or social position could no longer give an apparent liberty for such practices, for a change had been introduced. Christ was all now, and, moreover, in all. Would they seek to take advantage of one in whom Christ was? And, further, there would be the need of forbearance and the exercise of forgiveness, and the reason is stated: " even as Christ forgave you."
As pilgrims here below, other difficulties most be met than those incidental to intercourse with their brethren. So the apostle speaks next of the provision made for such, and turns their thoughts once more to the Lord. "Let the peace of Christ (for so the critical editors read) rule in your hearts." " Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly;" and to maintain consistency of walk, it is added, "Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." Here the authority and title of Jesus as Lord comes in.
But comprehensive as this precept is, the Spirit of God does not stop here. To make it plain how completely it accords with the Father's good pleasure, that in all things the Son should have the pre-eminence, relative duties are next enumerated. Now these existed from the days of Adam and Eve. The special relations of individual believers to one another in Christ were new, and were not the subject of divine admonition till the body was formed by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. But the relative duties of life existed long before. The subjection of the wife to the husband, the child to the father, the servant to the master, were acknowledged and enforced from very early days. But now that Jesus is risen, these duties are to be done to the Lord. (Chapter 3:18,20,22,24.) In verse 22 the critical editors sanction another change, reading the "Lord" for " God"-" fearing the Lord;" a change in perfect harmony with the thought of the whole passage.
What a change, then, has taken place since the Lord died and rose A change of which the world is unconscious, but yet a most important, a real change. " Not after Christ"-" The body is of Christ"- " Holding the head"-" Christ is all and in all"-" Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus"-" Fearing the Lord," Such are the statements of the Spirit, indicating the reality and greatness of the change. Ephesians unfolds God's counsels about the Lord. Jesus and the Church. Philippians sets before us the Lord as the example and object of His people. Hebrews unfolds His offices, and proves the finished character of His work; whilst Colossians displays to our eye the mighty moral change brought about by His death and resurrection. It is the Lord whom we are exhorted to walk worthy of. In Him we are to walk.
Where He is, there our affections are to be set. His word is to dwell in us, as His peace is to rule in our hearts. Wives, children, servants are each to obey as it is fit in the Lord. Throughout we see it is Christ that is set before us. The Lord grant we may not stop here. May the writer and reader ever know not only what it is to have the truth displayed before the eye, but to have it really acting on the heart.