Now begins the direct exhortations founded on the truth that has been
developed, and adapted to the state in which the Colossians were; that is,
viewed as risen with Christ, but not sitting in heavenly places.
Risen with Christ, they were to set their affections on things above, where
Christ sits at the right hand of God, and not on things on the earth. The
two could not go together. To look, to have one's motives, above and below
at the same time is impossible. Be tempted by things, have to resist them,
we may; but this is not to have them as our object. The reason for this is
however found in our position: we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ
in God. It does not say, "we must die." Man cannot do this by will: we
cannot deny will by will. Nor would the will of the flesh ever do it. If it
acts, it does not abdicate. We are dead: this is the precious comforting
truth with regard to the Christian by virtue of Christ having died for him.
He has received the life of Christ, and all that Christ did for him in that
life belongs to him. Thus he is dead, because Christ died for him. The life
with which the power of temptation, guilt, the attacks of sin, are
connected, exists no longer to faith. By death all that was connected with
it has come to an end. Now that which was connected with the life of the
old man was sin, condemnation, weakness, fear, powerlessness against the
assaults of the enemy-all that is past. We have a life, but it is in
Christ; it is hidden with Him in God. We are not yet manifested in its
glory, as we shall be manifested before the eyes of all in heaven and
earth. Our life is hidden, but safe in its eternal source. It has the
portion of Christ, in whom we possess it. He is hid in God, so also is our
life: when Christ shall appear, we shall also appear with Him.
It will be remarked, that the apostle does not speak here of our union with
Christ, but of our life, of the fact that we are dead, and that our life is
hid with Him in God. He does not speak of the assembly with regard to our
position; he speaks, no doubt, of Christ as being its Head, as to His
personal glory, but not of it as to us. He speaks of us individually. Each
one has his own life in Christ truly, but as his own; it is not union with
other Christians. We have this life in Christ, but it is not here our union
as one body with Him. It is the individual character of the Christian, to
whom Christ, the Head, is everything.
That which is also highly important to observe in connection with this
truth is that in this epistle there is nothing said of the Holy Ghost. The
apostle speaks practically of their love in the Spirit, but in the
instruction of the epistle he does not name Him. Even when he says, "here
is neither Jew, nor Greek," &c., it is in the new man, not because we are
one in Christ. The individual was to cleave to the Head. He was no longer
living in this world; he was dead, and his life hid with Christ in God. But
this was for himself; he was to know it, and hold it fast for himself, as
necessary truth, that he might be preserved from the wiles of the enemy. In
a word, it is life in Christ. Elsewhere we see many of the things which the
apostle here mentions spoken of as the fruit of the Spirit, by which
communion and union are maintained; but here it is simply in the nature of
the life that these fruits have their source. It is quite natural
consequently, that the compass and the assemblage of all spiritual
relationships in one, in Christ, which we find in the divine instruction
when the Holy Ghost is introduced, are wanting here.
In the Epistle to the Ephesians this operation of the Holy Ghost is found
everywhere, and characterises the whole of that which is developed in
communion with the Head, Christ, with whom we are united in one body by the
Spirit. Thus we are individually sealed by the Spirit of promise, the
earnest of our inheritance; we all have access to the Father by one Spirit;
we are also builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit;
the union of the Gentiles in one body is now revealed by the Spirit; saints
are strengthened by the Spirit in the inner man; there is one body and one
Spirit; we are not to grieve the Spirit; we are to be filled with Him; the
word itself is the sword of the Spirit. The union of the body with Christ,
our resurrection with Him, that we are sitting in the heavenlies in Him-all
that flows from this union, is fully developed; but at the same time the
Holy Ghost, who unites us to Him, and unites us all together as one body,
and who here below characterises the presence of God in the church, who
acts in us, secures our future, and becomes our strength in the present-the
Holy Ghost, I repeat, is found every where, to complete the truth and to
give it its present force for us here below.
Many of the exhortations in the Epistle to the Ephesians are nearly the
same as those to the Colossians. But in the Epistle to the Ephesians they
are connected with the Spirit; in that to the Colossians with the action of
the word and of grace in the heart. This gives an immense range and a
connectedness to the doctrine of the Epistle to the Ephesians, in that
which regards our position here below, because it brings in God Himself,
and as dwelling in us by the Spirit, and filling us, whether as in the
individual or in the oneness of the body; and gives the full scope of the
counsels of God.
Yet the possession of life is in its way as important as the presence and
indwelling of the Holy Ghost. It makes the blessing ourselves, not merely
an operation in us, and, as we have seen, the character of divine life is
far more fully developed; whereas in Ephesians it is more contrast with the
previous state.
In the Epistle to the Romans we have (chap. 8) this action and presence of
the Holy Ghost presented in a very remarkable way as to the individual. He
characterises us vitally in the principle of our resurrection, is the
witness in us that we are children filling us with joy and with the hope of
glory as heirs, the support of our weakness and the source of our petitions
and our groans. In the Epistle to the Romans it is in connection with our
personal relationship to God; in that to the Ephesians, as the presence of
God in us in connection with our union to Christ as one body.
There is another thing to be noticed here which throws light on the purpose
of the Holy Ghost in these epistles. The starting-point in that to the
Ephesians is the counsels of God. Man is looked at as he is, without one
pulse of life as regards God; he is dead in trespasses and sins, by nature
the child of wrath. God is rich in mercy; He raises him up with Christ who
in grace went down into death, and places him according to His counsels in
the same position as that Christ is in. We are His workmanship, created
anew in Christ Jesus. God is pleased to bring us into His presence
according to His own counsels and His nature. It is not said that we are
dead with Christ. Man is not viewed as living in the flesh, so that in one
way or in another he had to die. This was not necessary. The Ephesians were
to apprehend, on the one hand, the full contrast between God and man
according to His counsels; and, on the other, man's sinful state according
to nature. In their epistle all is the work of God Himself according to the
original purpose of His own heart, of His nature, and of His will, [see note #21]
man is already dead, and even Christ is not brought in as to His place till
viewed as dead, and thereon risen and exalted on high.
The Colossians were in danger of subjecting themselves to ordinances, and
thereby were in a position to consider man as living in the world; and the
apostle makes them feel that they are dead with Christ. He was obliged in
grace to follow them where they were, for their danger was to take man into
consideration as living on the earth; in order, nevertheless, to shew that
the Christian had already died with Christ, and his life on earth was as
risen with Him.
In the letter to the Ephesians man is not said to die with Christ. He is
dead in his sins when God begins to act towards him. No man is alive to
God. The Christian is quickened together with Christ, Christ Himself first
viewed as dead.
This character of the Colossians however, the dwelling on life or the new
man, has its value for us all, and a great value, because the life, the new
nature, and grace working in it, are much less brought forward in the
Epistle to the Ephesians, where the subject is the energy of God, who
creates men in Christ and unites them to Him, fills the believer and the
assembly here with the nature and the character of the new man, and thereby
of Christ, yea, of God Himself.[see note #22]
I may add here to that which I have said of the Holy Ghost, that, when the
apostle speaks in Colossians of the power of hope in us, he does not
mention the earnest of the Spirit. It is still in us, the hope of glory.
Throughout it is Christ, and Christ as life.
One might suppose that there was only the Holy Ghost acting in the fullness
of His power, and filling the individual and the assembly. But in this
Epistle to the Colossians we find that there is a new nature, an intrinsic
change, not of the flesh indeed, but of the man. For we are viewed, not
merely as quickened by the Son, but as dead and risen with Christ, the Man
who had died, so as to have passed out of-put off- the old standing of a
child of Adam, and into a risen one with Christ-put on the new man. This is
at once a standing and a state before God, a source of tastes, of
sentiments, of desires, of arguments, and of moral capacities, which are in
connection with the very nature of God, who has caused it to spring up in
theheart. We are renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created
us. But this source is a life, which needs that the Holy Ghost should
reveal to it the objects that are suited to it, and that awaken these
tastes and feelings, which satisfy them and cause them to grow. It needs
that the Spirit of God should act in it to give it strength; but it is a
real life, a nature which has its tastes attached to its very existence;
[see note #23]
which, being enlightened by the Holy Ghost, is conscious of its own
existence; and in which we are the children of God, being born of Him.
Neither is it unimportant that we should learn, with regard to the life of
the flesh, and when thinking of it, although it be on the negative side,
that we are dead; that God recognises nothing belonging to the old man;
that He takes pleasure in a new nature, which is indeed ours by grace, but
which is of God Himself, and which is the moral reflection of His own.
We are dead then, and our life is hid with Christ in God. We have members
on earth-no recognised life; and we have to put to death [see note #24] all these
members
of the old man. The Christian has to deny them practically as belonging to
the old man, while his life is there where Christ is. They bring down the
wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Christians walked in these
things when they had their life in them; but this is no longer the case:
and they deny not only gross sins, the fruit of positive lusts (chap. 3:5,
6), but all the workings of an unbroken will and an unsubdued heart, every
indication of the actings of the will of that nature which knows not God,
and is not ruled by His fear, all anger and malice and falsehood flowing
from selfishness or the fear of man. (Ver. 8.) Truth reigns in the heart
which has put off the old man, according to the simplicity of the new man,
[see note #25]
which is renewed also in knowledge after the image of Him who created it.
(Vers. 9,10.) The new man walks in the light. It is not only that there is
a conscience which judges good and evil according to that which man ought
to be according to his nature as a responsible being; there is a new man
who judges the old man altogether, judging good and evil according to the
knowledge of God. Such is the putting off.
Before Christianity, which is the full revelation of God, there were
indeed, as need not be said, souls born anew; but their rule, when a rule
was definitely given, was man's responsibility (whatever piety and grace
might inspire), and the law, which was the perfect measure of that which
man, as a being responsible to God, ought to be. Saints then did not
distinguish between a new and an old man, although of necessity they had
the conscience of the old man and the tastes of the new in measure in many
respects. The sense, for instance, of the evil of falsehood had not at all
the same place as with the Christian. Now the new man is renewed in
knowledge after the image of Him who created him. [see note #26]
God Himself in His nature is the standard of good and evil, because the new
man has the knowledge of what that nature is: he is made a partaker of it,
and he has the light of God. It is an intelligent participation by grace in
the nature of God, which is the marvelous and precious privilege of the
Christian. God works in this nature; but by communicating it He has placed
man in this position. Christ is the perfect model of this image, the type
of the new man.
Other differences have disappeared: there remains but the old man, which we
only acknowledge as dead, and the new man. To the latter Christ is all; so
that there is none but He whom they see and whom they acknowledge, and He
is in all believers. They put on therefore as such, as elect, holy, beloved
(Christ being their life), the character of Christ, mercies, kindness,
humility, meekness, patience, forbearing one another, and forgiving one
another if offence has been given, even as Christ has done to us. [see note #27]
Finally they put on
love, the bond of perfectness, that which gives a divine character to all
the qualities that have been enumerated, and that were manifested in
Christ, and a divine check on taking amiable nature for divine grace, for
divine love is holy.
And note here, that the putting on of these qualities is in the
consciousness of the blessed place before God expressed in the words "elect
of God, holy and beloved." It is as such. Nor can we do it otherwise. It is
in the sense of this wondrous favour that grace develops itself in our
hearts. So in Ephesians, "as dear children."
Several of these qualities may be resembled by things in nature; but the
energy, the features, the bond of divine love, which acts in the sense of
communion with God, are totally wanting in the latter; and this gives a
character, a completeness, a righteousness of application, a perfection, a
propriety, and an energy to the manifestation of these qualities, which
love alone can give. For it is indeed God Himself who is there, acting in
His nature which He has imparted to us. For He who dwells in love dwells in
God, and God in him. With regard to the state of the soul, there is a crown
to this walk, wherewith they who follow it constantly are adorned. The
peace of Christ reigns in the heart, that sweet and ineffable peace which
nothing could disturb, though His spirit passed through everything to try
it, for He walked ever with God. God has also called us to this; He is the
God of peace. And here the apostle introduces the oneness of the body, not
as to its privileges in Christ, but as to the fact that Christians are
called to be together in the unity of which peace is the seal and the bond.
And then there will be thanksgiving; for the soul is conscious of the love
and the activity of God, and everything flows to it from that love.
But, besides peace and thanksgiving towards God, there is the development
of life in the knowledge of what is revealed, its food and joy. This too is
enjoyed in the activity of life and love towards others. The enjoyment of
God and of that which is in His presence leads to this activity of the
soul. When the latter is real, it is the joyful liberty of a nature that is
itself in health, the activity of love that is natural to it, and which
receives its energy from communion with God, according to His nature. The
word of Christ unfolds all that is revealed to the soul as that in which it
lives, and in which it expands itself, and is thus the rule, and active and
directing power, because it is the expression of that nature, and the
revelation of all its ways, and of its active energy in love in Him.
The apostle therefore exhorts that the word of Christ may dwell in them
richly. This is the development, according to the perfection of God, of the
new man, and the wisdom of God to form and direct him. Paul desires that
Christians may fully realise this. It is by communion with the Lord,
holding intercourse with Him, that it is done. The word being that in which
the wisdom is found; also according to this development the saints can
teach and admonish each other. [see note #28]
But in this case it is not only wisdom that we learn, and that is displayed
in us, but affections in connection with Him in whom we have found this
wisdom, so that these expressions of the life of Christ, as true wisdom in
the world, find their voice in our hearts in praise, in thanksgiving, in
singing His excellency. All the intimate affections in which spiritual life
develops itself express themselves, according to what we have learned: they
flow from the Spirit of Christ, and are the expression of the soul's
connection with Him and of the feelings this produces in the heart. Christ
in His Person, in the consciousness of His presence, as the object of our
thoughts, and in the moral fruits proceeding thence, sustains the
intercourse and the communications of the soul that is occupied with His
praises.
But this consciousness of relationship with Christ, in the life which is of
Him in us, applies to everything. Nothing is done without Him. If He is the
life, all which that life does has Him for its end and object, as far as
the heart is concerned. He is present as that which is the governing
motive, and gives its character to our actions, and which preoccupies our
heart in performing them. Everything relates to Him: we do not eat without
Him; (how can we when He is our very life?) we do not drink with out Him;
what we say, what we do, is said and done in the name of the Lord Jesus.
There is the sense of His presence; the consciousness that everything
relates to Him, that we can do nothing-unless carnally-with out Him,
because the life which we have of Him acts with Him and in Him, does not
separate from Him, and has Him for its aim in all things, even as water
rises to the height from which it descended. This is what characterises the
life of the Christian. And what a life! Through Him, dwelling in the
consciousness of divine love, we give thanks to our God and Father.
Observe here that the christian life is not only characterised by certain
subjective qualities which flow from Christ, but by its having Christ
Himself for the aim and object of the heart and mind in all that we do in
every respect. Christ personally reigns in, and is pleasant to, the heart
in everything.
To the inexperienced eye of man nature is often confounded with grace; but
the intelligent consciousness of Christ as the heart's object, of His
presence, of the seal of His approval when one thinks of Him cannot be
confounded with anything. There is nothing, that resembles it, nothing that
can appear to take its place. When He reveals Himself to our heart, and the
heart walks with Him, and communes with Him in all things, and seeks only
the light of His countenance, the seal of His favour on the soul in all
things, then He is known, well known. There is none but He who thus
communicates Himself to the soul when it walks in the way of His will, as
expressed in the word.
After these great and important principles of the new life the apostle
enters into the diverse relation ships of life, giving warnings against
that which would endanger them, by shewing what the christian character of
each one of them is. To the wife, obedience-affection was natural to her.
"Thy desire shall be to thy husband." To the husband, affection and
kindness-his heart may be indifferent and hard. Children are to be
obedient; fathers, gentle, in order that the children's affections may not
be estranged from them, and that they may not be induced to seek that
happiness in the world which they ought to find in the sanctuary of the
domestic circle, which God has formed as a safeguard for those who are
growing up in weakness; the precious home (if Christ is acknowledged) of
kind affections, in which the heart is trained in the ties which God
Himself has formed; and that in connection with the Lord, and which, by
cherishing the affections, preserves from the passions and from self-will;
and which, where its strength is rightly developed, has a power that, in
spite of sin and disorder, awakens the conscience and engages the heart,
keeping it away from evil and the direct power of Satan. For it is God's
appointment.
I know indeed that another power is required to deliver the heart from sin
and to keep it from sin. Nature, even as God created it, does not give
eternal life, nor does it restore innocence or purify the conscience. We
may, by the energy of the Spirit, consecrate ourselves to God outside these
relationships, renounce them even, if God should call us by more powerful
obligations, as Christ teaches us in the gospel. The rights of Christ over
man lost by sin are sovereign, absolute, and complete. He has redeemed him;
and the redeemed one is no longer his own, but belongs to Him who gave
Himself for him. Where relationships exist, sin indeed has perverted every
thing, and corrupted the will; passions come in; but the relationships
themselves are of God: woe to him who despises them as such! If grace has
wrought and the new life exists, it acknowledges that which God has formed.
It well knows that there is no good in man, it knows that sin has marred
everything, but that which sin has marred is not itself sin. And where
these relationships exist, the renunciation of self-will, death to sin, the
bringing in of Christ, the operation of life in Him, restore their power;
and if they cannot give back the character of innocence (lost for ever),
they can make them a scene for the operations of grace, in which meekness,
tenderness, mutual help, and self-denial, in the midst of the difficulties
and sorrows which sin has introduced, lend them a charm and a depth (even
as Christ did in every relationship) which innocence itself could not have
presented. It is grace acting in the life of Christ in us which develops
itself in them.
To be without natural affection is a sin of hopeless apostacy and
estrangement from God, of the complete selfishness of the last days.
I am not drawing a false picture, or speaking poetically, as though the
bright side were all; I only say that God has formed these relationships,
and that whosoever fears God will respect them. Grace is requisite. They
give occasion, through their intimacy itself, to all that is most painful,
if grace do not act in them. The apostle warns us here of this danger. If
the Lord is the bond in them, if our still closer union with Him forms the
strength of our natural relationships, then grace reigns here as elsewhere;
and, to those who stand in these relationships, they become a scene for the
lovely display of the life of Christ.
