Paul, then, was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy joins with him in addressing the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which were at Colosse, giving the usual salutation to the Assemblies of grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Col. 1:33We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, (Colossians 1:3), They gave thanks to the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, always praying for them, (ver. 4) since they heard of their faith in Christ Jesus, and their love to all saints (ver. 5) for the hope that was laid up for them in heaven. The word of the truth of the gospel was the means of their hearing it, (ver. 6) and this gospel had come unto them, causing fruit to abound since the first day they heard it, and knew the grace of God in truth. This hope mentioned by Paul in these opening verses gives a character to the Epistle which that to the Ephesians has not got.
Here the saints are looked upon as on earth, but looking up to heaven where Christ their life is, and looking forward to the time when He should personally appear (see Col. 3:1-31If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1‑3)) . Thus it was a hope laid up in heaven, for Christ was there, and He is our hope (1 Tim. 1:11Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope; (1 Timothy 1:1)). Whilst in Ephesians the body has its standing in Christ who is in heaven; here it is, Christ in you the hope of glory. Thus all earthly hopes (whether as to a glorious kingdom on earth being set up, as a Jew might dream of; or of the conversion of the world to Christ, with all its learning and philosophy) are entirely cut away. Christ is rejected of earth, and accepted of heaven, and soon coming again to take them to heaven. The only hope for them then was a heavenly hope. (Ver. 4, 5), Faith, love and hope are all brought forward in beautiful proximity, and love to all saints regulated (in ver. 8) by the character of the Spirit of God. It is love in the Spirit.
(Ver. 9) Love begets love, and causes the apostle to pray for them that they might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. This, as we have seen, was the thing they were lacking in as to the knowledge of its completeness. Philosophy and human wisdom were doing their utmost to hurt them. They needed the wisdom of God as opposed to this.
(Ver. 10) Knowing God’s will, they would walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; (ver. 11) but for this they needed strength, according to the power of His glory (for they were in a world of enmity) and patience, long-suffering and joyfulness would be the result. I cannot walk worthy of the Lord unless I first know His will. If my knowledge in that will is limited to the law; if converted, I might become a good citizen, a godly magistrate, a wise politician of this world, and if of royal title, a good king. Such were David, Hezekiah, Daniel, Nehemiah, etc. But if by the will of God, His Son has been rejected of this world, and by Judaism especially, and taken up to heaven, all is changed. I am a heavenly citizen, I am a pilgrim here, and my only hope is Christ coming back to fetch me, with all His blood-bought family, to heaven. How important, then, to know God’s will, that we might walk of the Lord unto all pleasing. His walk down here was that of the heavenly Son of God. He was neither magistrate, king, politician nor soldier,—He was a pilgrim and stranger. His kingdom was not of this world!
The result of this walk is both fruitfulness in good works, and increasing in the knowledge of God; for this we need daily strength by the way, even the power of His glory (cp. Eph. 1:19, 2019And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, (Ephesians 1:19‑20)), and in doing so we learn patience and long-suffering; rejoicing in tribulation, too, (ver. 12) and thanking the Father all the way (for what precedes is the walk), that He hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, (ver. 13) that He hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, (ver. 14) in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Before ever the Christian begins to walk, he is put into this perfect place which is unalterable; no failure in his knowledge or walk can change this. The Colossians and Laodiceans were most defective in the amount of their knowledge, and consequent walk, but their standing in grace was unalterable! What was that standing? (ver. 12) They were a new creation in Christ; Christ was their meetness; (ver. 13) Satan no longer reigned over them, for they were delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the heavenly kingdom of the Son of God’s love; (ver. 14) besides this they had redemption, the forgiveness of sins. What a portion!
In connection with the Colossians’ walk, prayer was needed: for their standing and position he urged them to praise (see ver. 9, 12). But all was worthless for both without the Person in whom they had everything.
My reader, who can express the thought of God’s heart in telling us about His Son, as the Son of His love! He is the Son upon whom the whole of the Father’s affections are set, for having accomplished the purposed thought of His heart from all eternity, viz., the work of redemption!
Full graced in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
On the banks of Jordan the Father’s voice was heard to say of Him, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased {Matt. 3:1717And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17)}!
On the mount of transfiguration,
The Son who is in the bosom of the Father!
Here, besides all this, as having accomplished the Father’s will, He is called the Son of His love. Such is the One exalted to be the King of His heavenly kingdom.
We have seen (in ver. 13) that the Son of God is the Center of a kingdom. This in its present aspect is a kingdom not of this world (compare John 18:3636Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. (John 18:36)). Outwardly it is manifested as the kingdom of heaven, as we see in Matthew’s gospel, but this in Colossians is its real heavenly aspect, and a present place into which the saints are translated, thus no longer belonging to this world. The Son is the Center of this, but a double Headship attaches to Him as such!
(Ver. 15) He is the image of the invisible God, the true representation of God in a man. No one hath seen God at any time, the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him (John 1:1818No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:18)). God’s being is true, though no one has seen Him, or can see Him, and Christ is the express image of His Being (Heb. 1:33Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Hebrews 1:3)), who is Light and Love! But this is shown forth in man. He is the first-born of all creation, not in time, indeed, but in dignity (v. 16), for by Him were all things created. It was said of Solomon, though he was not the first-born son of David,
In time He was born in the virgin’s womb as a man, holy and without spot; but He existed as Son before, for He created all things, whether in heaven or earth, whether thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers—all things were created by Him, as well as for Him; for as man He will be the center of the new creation.
Adam evidently was the figure of Him that was to come, in all this. He was created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26, 2726And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:26‑27)). He was the representative of God in this lower creation. In time he was the first created of the human race; all creation was under him, and for him created, but he fell and lost everything. Christ coming into the world replaces him before God. He becomes God’s representative in creation, and is the first-born of all creation, by positional dignity, for He created all things. By redemption, besides, he acquired a right to this place.
(Ver. 17) He is before all created things on earth, He is before all created angels in heaven, and He upholds all things by the word of His power. (Ver. 18) But besides this, He is Head of the body the Church, and this is connected with resurrection.
God’s elect lived in all ages, who were born again and justified, and Christ will, by His power, bring them into blessing, as well as all creation. But as to a body, a bride, the last Adam stood alone, in the midst of a ruined creation, till the cross.
The Lord was this corn of wheat. Instead of, like the first Adam, gazing upon a beautiful creation lately formed by the hands of the Creator, He gazed upon a wilderness, the fruit of man’s sin. He was surrounded by wild beasts, led on by Satan to crucify Him. But after having been fully tested and tried, and found perfect, He slept, and from His body through His death was formed in resurrection a second Eve, to be for His praise and glory throughout the ages of eternity (cp. Gen. 2:18-2518And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 25And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:18‑25) with Eph. 5:25-3225Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:25‑32)) . And this is now God’s time for the gathering out of the Church. On the day of Pentecost (the Christ having been exalted as man to the right hand of God), the Holy Ghost came down, and baptized all believers into one body, and built them together to be God’s habitation through the Spirit. When Christ returns into the air, this body will be complete, but He is the beginning of it as well as of the new creation.
He is the beginning, the first-born from amongst the dead; the Church is united to Him as come out from the dead, and sat down in heaven, so that in all things He has the pre-eminence. Thus He is the divine Son, the loved One of the Father, the first-born of every creature, the true representative of God in creation, born in time indeed, but in dignity, having the priority as Creator; He is before all things, all things were created by Him and for Him; but secondly, He is the Head of the body, the Church, and that is connected with resurrection. Besides, (ver. 19) it was the good pleasure of the Godhead (for so the verse ought to read), that in Him should all the fullness dwell. How blessed to see the will of God thus connected with the glory of the Son of His love! It is the same thing in the Epistle to the Ephesians, only there it is connected with the full purpose of God concerning His Anointed One, His Beloved, viz., that He is to be, in the age to come, God’s Center of all things in heaven and earth! The will of God is also connected there with our adoption as children, and our inheritance in Christ (see Eph. 1:5, 9, 10, 115Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (Ephesians 1:5)
9Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: (Ephesians 1:9‑11)).
In Colossians this good pleasure or will is developed in the following verses. (Ver. 20) He has made peace for enemies by the blood of His cross; He was the divine peace-offering, perfect, so that God could accept Him as a sweet savor (Lev. 3), and the fruit is, that all things, whether in heaven or earth, shall be reconciled, not only the new creation in the Church, but all Old Testament saints that have died, as well as those who shall be saved after the Church is gone, with all the millennial saints, as well as all other things (cp. Eph. 1:9, 109Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: (Ephesians 1:9‑10))
(Ver. 21) But not only will all creation be reconciled to God by Him who is the first-born of every creature, on the ground of His work, and that according to the good pleasure or will of God, but also you Colossians, the representatives of the Church, once alienated, and enemies in mind by wicked works, already hath He reconciled. But what is the only way for an enemy to be reconciled? (Ver. 22) He can only be presented through death, the divine peace-offering having died. Thus our state of enmity by wicked works is brought to an end, and we enter into peace and acceptance into the presence of God, in Him who is a sweet savor, and finally shall be presented holy, unblameable, and unreproveable in His sight, (ver. 23) if we continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. Mark, my reader, it does not say, “if we continue in faith, grounded and settled,” but “in the faith,” that is, Christianity! To give up the faith would prove they were not Christians, it would be apostasy. Whenever the saints are looked at as a company on earth, and in the wilderness (cp. Heb. 3, 4, 6, 10), they are taken up more or less on the ground of profession, and there is a possibility of falling away. This is outside the question of God’s eternal purpose and counsel towards them. But in both passages the purport of the apostle is to make the real Christians confident, as thus proving they were real. The first departure of the unreal would be departure from confidence (see Heb. 3:12-1412Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; (Hebrews 3:12‑14)). So here, if ye continue grounded and settled. This again seems to me to mark the character of this Epistle. The professing saints were not established, not perfect; they were in danger, through philosophy and Judaism, of letting go the Head, the Center of Christianity. The hope of Christians—the second coining of Christ—was waning in their souls. The tendency, then, of the apostle’s preaching, like in Acts 14:2222Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22), is to exhort them to continue in the faith, of which the Son of God, the Christ, is the Center, as we have seen. The Epistle to the Galatians illustrates the exhortation of Acts 13:4343Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. (Acts 13:43), to continue in the grace of God, that is, in the abiding sense of His free favor, as shown by the blessings He gives, such as justification, sonship, etc.
(Ver. 23) The gospel on the ground of the Son’s Person, the first-born of all creation, and on the ground of His work of reconciliation for all things, goes out to every creature, and Paul was the minister of it. (Ver. 24) The effect of receiving this gospel was to introduce them into the new creation, and to give them an entry as baptized by the Holy Ghost into the body of Christ. (Ver. 25) Therefore, Paul was also a minister of the Church, and as such suffered for the saints, and filled up that which was behind of the sufferings of the Christ in his flesh for His body’s sake, which is the Assembly. He was a minister according to the dispensation of God for the completion of the word of God. (Ver. 26) The Church was a mystery hid from ages and generations, and only now made manifest to the saints (cp. Eph. 3:4-94Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: 7Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. 8Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: (Ephesians 3:4‑9)). God would make known to them what were the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which was Christ in them the hope of glory. This was the mystery of Christ, a body, a new creation formed out of Jew and Gentile and united to Christ by the Spirit, so that one Christ was in them, on earth, outside flesh entirely, for the cross had put an end to it. This was to be displayed amongst the Gentiles! Being on earth there was the hope of glory in front. (Ver. 27) This Christ Paul preached, warning and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that each might be presented perfect in Christ Jesus.
It is most important, my reader, to see that the Church is not only a thing in God’s purpose and counsel (Eph. 1:22, 2322And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:22‑23)), but that it is also a dispensed thing in this world. Paul was the minister of this dispensation (Gk., oikonomia). If we are in fellowship with the great minister of the dispensation, we shall be heralding the truth of Gentile and Jewish believers being fellow-heirs, and of one body to our fellow-Christians (cp. Eph. 3:2-72If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: 3How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: 7Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. (Ephesians 3:2‑7)), so that the result should be, that we may walk together in this world, as members of the Father’s family, as members of Christ’s body, having a common hope of glory set before us. We shall not be content with belonging to the supposed invisible body of Christ, but we shall understand that it was God’s intention that the saints should walk together in this world, as members of the body of Christ. Those that receive this truth will walk together, and in proportion as they do, the body of Christ becomes a visible thing in this world. To come short of this is not to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, which was the object of the apostle in writing the Epistle, that the saints should do (see ver. 28).
Thus in this chapter we have especially two aspects of the Person of Christ dwelt on. First, (ver. 15) He is the Son, the first-born of all creation. Secondly, (ver. 18) He is the Head of the body, the Church. In connection with this double Headship, we have two reconciliations, two aspects of His work: first, (ver. 20) the reconciliation of all things to Himself, that is, things in heaven and earth, when He comes again (cp. Eph. 1:1010That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: (Ephesians 1:10)); and secondly, (ver. 21, 22) you Colossians, representatives of the Assembly of God, already reconciled. In connection, too, with what precedes, we have, lastly, two aspects of ministry: first, (ver. 23) the ministry of the Gospel which goes out to every creature; and secondly, (ver. 25) the ministry of the Assembly or body, which only includes the saints. And this circle of truth completes the word of God! The aspect of the Assembly in Colossians is—Christ in you. The aspect of the Assembly in Ephesians is—in Christ. The apostle was satisfied with nothing less than the presenting every man perfect in Christ Jesus; perfect and complete in all the will of God! Perfect signifies full aged!