GOD is not setting men to obtain righteousness through that which quickens sin and works condemnation, that is, the law. Am I saying, I have not done this, or, I have not done that? Where there is the obligation of some act, and it is not fulfilled, there is condemnation. If I take up the Lord’s Supper—that sweet, and blessed, and holy memorial of Christ’s death, the joy of my heart—so as to put it between myself and Christ, I am not “holding the Head.” Christ has taken ordinances out of the way, it is the flesh that does them: let it be penance, it is the flesh that does it—but the flesh is dead; the same thing that dealt with sin put away ordinances; the man who had the sin and was to do the ordinances is dead, because Christ has died. I am alive in Christ, who is alive again from the dead: He is my life. I do not need to obtain a standing before God through any ordinance. Had I to perform the smallest act, as that through which I needed to get completeness before God, it would be a denial of the perfectness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But more, those “principalities and powers” with whom we have to contend (Eph. 6:1212For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)) have been “spoiled”; He has “made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (ver. 15). Does Satan come and accuse me? It is all true, but my sins are gone. God has said He will remember them no more. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Why flee? Because of having already met Christ. Is it temptation through the agreeable things of the world, or the sorrows and trials of life, or the power of death? He has been “spoiled,” his power is gone for faith (Heb. 2:1414Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; (Hebrews 2:14)). Death, to the believer, is but a departing to be with Christ; all that it could be from Satan, or from the wrath of God, Christ has gone through for him; but He has gone through it, and He is now with God. Dead and risen with Christ, yet here in a dying body; if I put it off “absent from the body,” I shall be “present with the Lord.”
And now, having shown us how we have everything in Christ, and not anything out of Him— completeness in the presence of God, and perfect deliverance from all that we are in ourselves, as also from all that is, or could be used, against us, he goes on to say—
“Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an holiday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come: but the body is of Christ” (vers. 16, 17).
What perfect liberty! We need see that we use it holily, but it is a perfect liberty.
A “holy-day” (it is well to call it so, as indicative of its meaning) was one God had made to be esteemed above another. This and other things, the meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances of Judaism, had their time and use. “The body is of Christ.” In Him we have that which they were designed to typify. If I take them up now, I take up the shadow and not the substance. It is a mere shadow, but in setting it up again, I make it substantive, and deny Christ. This may be done through ignorance, still it ought to be treated as a thorough infirmity. The soul has not the knowledge of what it is in Christ. Whilst ignorance has to be borne with, the saint is beguiled of his reward.
“Let no man beguile you of your reward, in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind, and not holding the head” (vs. 18).
I may talk much about “saints and angels in heaven,” their glories and the like, and call this humility, but it is not so; it, in reality, is the very opposite, a being vainly puffed up in my fleshly mind.
What do I know about them? Have I been in heaven? Whilst thus intruding into things I have not seen, I am losing knowledge needed by all saints. The weakest believer is as much one with Christ as an apostle, and as complete in Him. It might seem more humble to say I am this, that, or the other thing; but can we do without Christ? Do you reply, I have not arrived at such a position? Then you are expecting to attain it? That is presumption. It is because we are lost, poor, and blind: we are miserable, naked, and have nothing in ourselves—we have this all in Christ.
The moment he has brought them there, left nothing between them and Christ. “Now,” he says (vs. 19), “there is that which flows down from the Head—that which has to be manifested in the members.” We have not a single grace, or thought of grace, until we are complete. We must be united to the Head. Whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we have to do it all to the glory of God.
In Christ I am not “living in the world,” I am “dead with Him to the rudiments of the world” (vers. 20-23). If this be so, I cannot be looking to ordinances to get the flesh bettered. But the tendency of our hearts is ever to this. And God has met that tendency. If the flesh must be labored to see if any good could be got out of it, He has taken it up and proved that, after all that has been done for it that could be done, there was no good in it—God could get no good from it. Still, here is our danger; religiousness in the flesh is that against which there is this special warning. And with all its specious appearance what does the apostle call it? “Will-worship.” It may have a great character for humility, but it is the most positive and terrible pride before God. It does not look like this, it looks like mortifying the flesh and putting it down. The only thing that will diver from it is the knowledge of our completeness, and a walking in the power of a dead and risen Christ.
Here there is rest for the heart (there will be conflict still, we have not in that sense rest yet), my eye turned from myself, I rest in Christ; there I can delight, and there God delights. I have a common feeling with God. All that I see in Christ is mine, all that perfection that my soul delights in, my perfection before God.
There are these two truths: all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Christ, and we are complete in Him. My need is met. God has come down to me in Christ. Am I troubled about my sins? Where shall I find any as gracious to me as Christ 1 I can tell to Him what I dare not to another. Brethren may be kind and sympathizing, but I can tell out my heart to Christ as to no one else. Well, it is to God, and He does not reproach me. All the infinitude of love is brought down to display itself in kindness to a poor sinner. I meet it by my wants, my sorrows, my failures, my sins. The poor woman of the city had not a mouth to tell it out. She was weeping at His feet about her sins, but she had found One who could so meet her in them as to give confidence to her heart, whilst conscience was awakened in the very deepest way. I never add to that fullness, all the majesty of God is there. On the other hand, conscience is awakened; God is a holy God, and how shall I appear before Him? The same Christ who is God towards man, is Man before God for us. He has come down to meet me in my sins, and He has gone up to be my righteousness before God.
If we desire to manifest Him—the life of Christ in daily walk and conduct, it must flow out from Him; and for this our members have to be mortified and Satan resisted.
“We are not our own, we are bought with a price; let us therefore glorify God with our bodies and spirits which are His.”
In doing anything for myself, I am a dishonest person; He bought me when I was the slave of Satan.
Christian, is your soul honoring God by resting thus in the completeness of Christ? or are you seeking to Honor self in eking out a righteousness—it matters not how—by doings or by feelings? A child ought to have right feelings for its parent; but if that child is making a merit of its feelings, it is destroying the whole thing. Looking for feelings to make out righteousness (while feelings are right) is just as bad as looking to works.
The Lord give us to know that we are complete in Christ, that we may have blessed and happy liberty, loving and serving Him in love, because He has given us all we need, loved us, and saved us, and made us complete.
J. N. D.