“R. A. H.” asks the following questions from Col. 1:11Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, (Colossians 1:1). “The firstborn of every creature;” ver. 15? 2. “All fullness;” ver. 19? 3. What are the “sufferings” of ver. 24? 4. “The dispensation” of ver. 25? and, “The mystery which hath been hid,” &c., ver. 26?
A. 1. The apostle is unfolding the personal glory of the Son of God in these verses (15-19) when the Creator deigned to take a place in that which He created, He must necessarily be “first-born,” or “chief” of it all, in the sense of the dignity of His person. It is a relative name; not one denoting the date at which He did become a man, thus taking a place in it. Just as it is said of Solomon, who was not David’s first-born, “I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth,” in the place of priority given him. He adds, in verse 16: “For by him were all things created... and for him;” explaining and enlarging upon verse 15. He must be the chief of it all, even if He appeared last in order of time, as taking a place in it. Adam could not be this, and his children were only those of a fallen man. When God Himself takes a place in that which He created, He could not have a secondary place; but is “firstborn,” or “chief,” because He had created it. Wondrous and yet simple testimony to the deity of Jesus!
2. We should read verse 19 thus: “For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell.” This was the counsel of the Godhead. In chap. 2:9, we find the fact: “For in him dwelleth all the fullness (completeness) of the Godhead bodily.” The fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Christ. Christ is God; and Christ is man; yet it is Christ who is both. When He, the Son of God, walked here upon earth, it was not a partial manifestation of God, as if He were but a man. If He, the Son of God, wrought miracles, it was by the Spirit of God: “If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God.” (Matt. 12:2828But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. (Matthew 12:28).) Yet, “The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:1010Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. (John 14:10)); the Father wrought in the Son. It was not one person of the divine fullness of the Godhead acting alone, or to the exclusion of the rest. But all having, not merely similar counsels, but one counsel, end and aim; “all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him.”
3. Paul in a special manner suffered those sufferings of which he speaks here. To Christ alone, for Paul, as for all saints, belonged those atoning sufferings which He bore once, and forever; which God never forgets. Still He suffered in many ways here below, in which His love led Him, and He does not exclude us from a share in them with Him— “the fellowship of his sufferings,” and if we are faithful we may know them in measure. Paul knew them in a peculiar way. It was not here so much “the afflictions of the gospel;” as, “sufferings for you”—Gentiles—and “for his body’s sake, which is the ‘church,” of which he speaks. The truths concerning his testimony which led him to prison, mid a life of unparalleled devotedness and suffering, which perhaps few, if any, have ever borne.
4. “The dispensation of God” given to Paul completed the word of God. Creation; Providence; Law; Government; the Kingdom; Incarnation; Atonement, every subject had been unfolded in the word of God, but one. When it was revealed through Paul the full circle of revelation was completed: this was the mystery of Christ and the church. 1st. That Christ should—as man—be set in the heavenlies, having all dominion, by redemption, (personally He had it as God,) as Head over all things in heaven and earth, to the church, His body, united to Him by the Holy Ghost come down from Heaven. 2nd. That He was “in you”—Gentiles—the “Hope of Glory.” This was a new thing. When Christ came He was the “minister of the circumcision (the Jew) for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers;” (Rom. 15:88Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: (Romans 15:8).) Abraham was the vessel of the promises of God; they were repeated to the fathers, Isaac and Jacob; Israel took the promises on the ground of law and man’s responsibility, and forfeited them totally; then Christ came, in whom were all the promises of God, yea and amen. He came to establish the promises, as Heir of them all, to the people to whose fathers they had been made, i.e. the Jews. He was rejected, and instead of becoming the “Crown of glory... unto the residue of his people” (Isa. 28:55In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people, (Isaiah 28:5)), the Heir of glory goes on high, and the poor Gentile believer, who had no promises, comes in on the footing of pure mercy, not promise; as we read, “that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy” (Rom. 15:99And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. (Romans 15:9)): he gets a place in Christ on high, united to Him, who is the Heir of all the glory; and not only are we in Him, but He is in us—not the “crown of glory;” but “the hope of glory.” “Christ in you the hope of glory.”
The church had departed from her first love in the state contemplated in the message to Ephesus, (c. 2.). God had used the persecution, with which Satan had tried to drive her out of the world, as that which brightened her up for the Lord. This is Smyrna Satan had not succeeded thus as a “roaring lion,” and he now tries seduction, as a “serpent,” and had drawn her into the world. This is what we find in the message to Pergamos. “I know... where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is.” Still there were faithful ones. Antipas, a faithful martyr, might be slain amongst them for His name. (Striking meaning, the name Antipas, i.e. “against all,” when all were slipping away into the world.) Now we find the promise to the overcomer in such a state of things—the “Hidden manna,” and the “White stone.” The manna was, in figure, Christ humbled here: there was no place on earth that He could take: doing so would but own the world in its state of departure from God. He was the lowliest on earth. Those who were standing firm in this lowly path, where the church should have trodden in His footsteps, would be fed thus with Him, as the humbled, rejected One, which the church was now ceasing to be. It was the “Hidden manna” too. This is an allusion to the golden pot of manna which was treasured up in the ark for a remembrance. (Ex. 16) The humiliation of that Blessed One God never forgets. It was no mere passing savor of Him, as merely a means to come, in accomplishing His great work. But that which abides in God’s memory and heart forever! Blessed to be fed on such food “God’s treasured store.”
The “White stone” was, according to an ancient custom, a mark of approval—as a black stone was of disapproval it is the approval of Christ to those who were satisfied with this lowly path. In the stone a new name written, known only to him who received it. There are common joys of God’s saints now: there will be common joys in heaven. But there are secret joys now between the heart and Christ, known to him who is recipient of them alone. There will be such in heaven.
A. We learn for ourselves a deeply solemn lesson from this chapter, beside the ways of God with His people Israel, instructive as they are. We find the closing days of one who had once maintained an outward form of piety, and had exhibited much apparent devotedness and zeal in the service of the Lord, but who never had faith. In Saul’s case we see how far flesh can go in an outwardly devoted pathway, yet, when the testing time comes, it proved that there never was any real link with God. His outward zeal had destroyed the witchcraft in Israel, when he was maintaining a religious character; but his conscience never was awakened-he bad not faith. In his extremity in the face of the enemy he trembles, and inquires of the Lord, who did not reply to him by dreams, Urim, or prophets: and he has the solemn conviction forced upon him that the day of outward apparent serving of the Lord was gone. Like the sow that was washed, he has recourse to what he had once destroyed, and which even by natural conscience he knew was evil—to enchantments. Here God meets him, and exhibits a power that causes even the witch to quail—terrified by a power superior to the enchantments which she practiced. He finds now, when too late, that he had given himself up to Satan’s power, and made the Lord his enemy, who tells him his end. Like Judas—who had habitually yielded to temptation, he finds now that the enemy cannot shield him from the judgment of God, whose grace he had traded upon so long.
Poor Saul! Poor Judas! how many a fair vessel, when the day of reckoning comes, will be found like you!
A. They were caught up to heaven. No man had “ascended” up to heaven till Christ. He did so in the calmness of His own divine and indwelling power.