In Ephesians we have “accepted in the Beloved”; in Colossians, “He hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” Along with the position you get an Object, and this Object is first God’s, and afterwards becomes ours. To partake of the inheritance of the saints in light is a hope laid up for us in heaven: “That where I am, there ye may be also.” This is in contradistinction from “the kingdom of His dear Son,” which is the region, the home of light, and may shine down here. We have a revelation of the glory of Christ’s Person in Colossians; in John 1 the Word created all things, and in Heb. 1 He is the Son. In Hebrews He is exalted above thrones and principalities and powers; in Colossians He created them. “He is the Firstborn of every creature,” then He is “before all things.” The apostle shows them, in contrast to what the gnostics said, that there was no other representative of God at all. He is the image of God. There is no place left to bring in the demons. The Holy Spirit shows that there was no existence, no being at all, before Christ. As to the Church, He is the Head of it. Then He says this wonderful Person is the dwelling-place of the fullness of the Godhead. In the nature of it there could not be two Godheads. The Epistle to the Colossians lays great stress on understanding. The treasures of wisdom and knowledge mainly refer to the One we are united to. The Spirit brings out here the glory of His Person. If He ascended up, He ascended up far above all heavens. We have here, first, His essential glory and His position when ascended; secondly, the Godhead has its house and dwelling-place in Him; thirdly, what He is as a Man, the Man of God’s counsels, viz., that God has put Him at the head of everything, and put us in Him. This is all given us in Colossians as a comfort, the knitting together of hearts connected with the revelation of the Man who is the Head of the universe of God.
The Firstborn of every creature coming into creation, He is the Head of it. Heretics have used this to say that He is a creature; but the passage excludes utterly all such false doctrine. In Col. 1 He is before all other beings, for He created them all. The Holy Spirit has the gnostic thoughts directly before Him, “Lest any man spoil you.” It really is, “Lest anyone,” etc. Satan does it through man. In Hebrews He sets forth the glory of the Son, because He is going to supersede every man upon earth by bringing in Christ.
In Col. 1 the attacks of Satan on the new creation are met; then in ch. 2 Christ is brought out, and our union with Him. God is so engrossed with the blessing of His people that all His wisdom is exhausted, so to speak, in this. It is not only that He is Head of creation and Head of the Church, but all the Godhead is there. Godhead dwells in Him who is the Image of the invisible God, and Head and Sustainer of creation. He who dwelt in them was the Christ of glory, and that gave them a title to all His glory. “The mystery” in Colossians is not merely that we are one with Him, we must take in who the Person is. The growth of the soul and its blessedness and power are connected with it, for he says, “That your hearts may be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.” He is the Head of the new creation; that takes us instantly out of the whole thing. The position Christ is in is entirely outside of all that. It puts an end to the ten thousand books that are written now. If they do not deal with Christ in this position, there is no need of them. Out of the religion given them even by God, the whole power of God was required to take them. It has been the ruin of the Church that they have. continued practically in the old things.
“How great conflict I have for you.” The word “conflict” is deeply interesting. We see the mighty levers he applies to the soul, all divine, all of God, to lift us into the region where God is. Going back to Judaism was in principle going back to heathenism. It is remarkable you cannot introduce the moral element into mere ritualism, because ritualism is in its nature a provision for the flesh. Persons can be as pious and religious as possible all by rule, without any exercise of heart and conscience, nor is God the Object at all. There is no inner connection of Christ with the soul, though the Spirit of God may be in some who are in it, and they break through it all to Him. The terrible thing is that people are going back to the empty form after atonement is accomplished.
There are three distinct things here: first, what Christ is, the Image of the invisible God, the Head of creation and of new creation, Creator and Sustainer. Our souls must feed on that. When I see God’s object thus, the Holy Spirit bringing out in detail all His glories and positions, it turns my heart to God. Secondly, all the Godhead is in Him. We do not enjoy truth apart from actual communion with God: we do not get much profit by it.
Thirdly, here is God taking His Son, after He had died, and putting Him in that place and piling glory upon glory on Him, putting Him over all He had created, but in a new place. He has reconciled us “in the body of His flesh through death,” but that is before He reached that place. In Eph. 2 it reads, “That He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross.” There it is connected with the new creation. Colossians is that I do not find the body of the flesh any more. In Ephesians we come out the other side of the cross, as one body in connection with Himself, the ascended and glorified Christ.
Beware lest any man beguile you with enticing words. Those who tried to do it would be Satan’s agents. The way the serpent came in the first creation was with deceiving words. “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.” We are to walk in Him in the same kind of absoluteness. If we were asked how we became Christians, we should reply, if taught of God, “We received Christ.” And if asked, Did you receive nothing beside? we should say “No.” People now want to bring in other things to mold and modify your walk.
There are three elements of worldly religion (v. 8): (1) philosophy, (2) tradition of men, (3) elements of the world.
Philosophy takes in all ritualism—the whole scene we are passing through. “Elements of the world” is what is adapted to man as man. Take up these three things in detail, and you will find God is not in any of them. Philosophy is to shut out God, but all that I can want of what is God I find in Christ. What then is the use of talking about other things? All the Godhead is there, and all that God wants to find in me He finds without a moment s pause, because He finds. me filled up in Christ (v. 10, “complete” ). He finds at once all that suits Him. I am in union with Christ. That shuts out the whole world of demons, shuts out everything but Christ. All that God wants as God He finds, and that in regard to me. There is no law, no ritual: we are in another place altogether, in new creation scenes. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him, and we are “filled up” in Him. That is a divine way of meeting these things.
Moreover there is no principality or power of which Christ is not Head. All the “religion” was made for this thing that is put off now. “Buried” is an explanation of how it was brought about. The eye and heart are directed towards God, and what He had done (v. 12). The principle is that you are not to look into yourselves for your own experience of things, but what has God done? It is not what is called “subjective”; it is all “objective,” through faith of the operation of God, who raised Him from the dead. One feels God’s atmosphere. If I do not feel that God has raised Him from the dead, I am in a bad state. Power lies here. It is God’s work from Himself to Himself. God’s eye is on everything—all the subtlety of the enemy and all a believer can discern in his own heart, all that man can do. Then His Spirit unfolds the glory of Christ, all His glories, human and divine, to bring us into this place.
The handwriting of ordinances that was against us”: He had Himself given these ordinances. A note in the New Translation reads, “Handwriting, obligation to which a man is subject by his signature.” The People had said, “All these things will we do.” He has blotted out too what Satan has done; our own poor folly and ruin on the one hand, and all the demons on the other.
It is very easy to understand why a person wishes to get back to popery:
it is because it is the continuation of Judaism (vv. 16-18).
I do not know any chapter that gives me a better idea of divine power coming out. It is grace and wisdom, “grace upon grace”; the way of the enemy without and of man’s flesh within all met. We are united to Christ, the glorified Man, in the midst of the all-pervading glory.
January 18th, 1884. From Words of Grace for the Household of Faith 2:107-112.