Visions of God's Purposes in Christ
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
As an introduction to our study in the Pauline Epistle to the Colossians, we thought it would be worth the while to observe Paul's salutations in the various Epistles which he wrote in the Spirit.
1. The salutation to the Romans: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God." In this salutation we press the statement, "Separated unto the Gospel of God." The Gospel of God was concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. It was a Gospel concerning Christ crucified, Christ risen, and Christ coming again. No matter when one might have dropped in to listen to Paul preach, he would have found him clustering his message around this threefold Gospel.
2. The salutation to the Corinthians: "Paul, called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God." Paul in each Epistle emphasizes his Apostleship. In this Epistle he particularly emphasizes that he was an Apostle through the will of God. Every one of us who claim to preach should know who it is who called us into service. If we are going where we are not sent we are not an Apostle, a sent one. If we are going where men have sent us we cannot call ourselves sent of God.
3. The salutation to the Galatians: "Paul, an Apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father * *). To the Galatians Paul stresses not only that he was sent of God but that he was not sent of man. To the Galatians Paul said that when it pleased God who called him by His grace, to reveal His Son in him, that he might preach Him among the Gentiles; he did not confer with flesh and blood. We who preach today should find out whether we are under the commandments of men or of God.
4. The salutation to the Ephesians : "Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus." A great many today have an idea that they are sent only to preach to sinners and to "get people converted." To the Corinthians Paul said: "An Apostle * * unto the Church of God." To the Galatians He said: "Unto the Churches of Galatia." To the Ephesians, "To the saints which are at Ephesus."
Surely there is, of necessity a particular message which needs to be declared to members of the Body of Christ.
5. The salutation to the Philippians: "Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi." We find something similar in the other salutations. However, we would like to call the young people's attention to the fact that Paul was not merely an Apostle, that is, a sent one, but that he was a servant. The word servant signifies a bondslave under abject orders. Those sent of God must obey the Lord and do what He says.
6. Other salutations. In the salutation of Paul to the Thessalonians we observe that his opening words, after the statement of his personal address, are: "We give thanks to God always for you."
In the Second Epistle he says: "Grace unto you, and peace." To the Romans he said: "Beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace." To the Corinthians he said, "Grace be unto you, and peace." To the Galatians he said: "Grace be to you and peace." To the Ephesians he said the same thing, while to Timothy he said, "Grace, mercy, and peace." This he also said to Titus. To Philemon he said, "Grace to you, and peace."
This salutation is not formal, but it is expressive of Paul's real desire toward those whom he addressed. Mark the works in their order. It is not peace, and then grace; but it is grace first, followed by peace. There is no peace of God until a manifestation of the grace of God has brought us into the place of Divine reconciliation.
As we observe these salutations, let us endeavor in our letter writing to follow this wonderful example.
I. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST (Colossians 1:1-3)
We do not want to appear overexacting to you, and yet we believe it will profit us to observe the naming of our Lord in these opening verses of Colossians.
1. In Colossians 1:1 we read: "Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ,"
2. In Colossians 1:2 we read: "From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
3. In Colossians 1:3 we read: "God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
4. In Colossians 1:4 we read; "Your faith in Christ Jesus."
Thus we might go on throughout the Epistle. What is the deeper meaning of these namings of Christ? We find nothing in this Epistle nor in any of the others wherein the Name which we so commonly use is found. We mean that our Lord is not spoken of as "Jesus." We grant that you may use the word "Jesus" in all sincerity and good intent. However, His Name is not so used in the Epistles, nor after His resurrection."
The Gospels speak continually of "Jesus" as He moved among the people teaching and working miracles, because He was there as the One who came to earth to save His people from their sins. The moment, however, that His Calvary work was completed, He entered into a new phase of service for us. He rose from the dead and ascended up on High as Jesus Christ, Jesus the Anointed. He took His seat at the right hand of the Father as both Lord and Christ.
When, therefore, we speak of our Lord as "Jesus" we are in danger of confining our conception of Him only as the One who died; forgetting that He is risen, and seated, and clothed with all authority and power as the Head of the Church.
Let us suggest a few of the titles in the four Chapter s of Colossians in addition to those already named in the opening verses:
In Colossians 1:7 we read of "a faithful minister of Christ."
In Colossians 1:27 we read, "Christ in you, the hope of Glory."
In Colossians 1:28 we read of being presented "every man perfect in Christ Jesus."
In Colossians 2:6 is this expression: "Christ Jesus the Lord."
In Colossians 2:8 is the expression "Christ."
Three other times in the chapter our Lord is called Christ.
In Colossians 3:3, our life is hid with "Christ in God."
In Colossians 3:4 it is "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear."
In Colossians 3:11 it is, "but Christ is all, and in all."
II. THE NAMING OF BELIEVERS (Colossians 1:2)
1. Believers are called saints. The word saints has a twofold meaning. First, it suggests they are holy. God does not mean, however, that saints are inherently holy. They are holy in this: their sins are placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and they themselves have obtained the righteousness which is by faith.
The word saints also suggests "separation." Children of God are not only called of God unto separation from the world, but they are called of God in separation unto God.
We are both to "come out," and we are also to "enter in"; there are many things to give up, there are also many things to receive, or to get. If, therefore, we are saints, let us live saintly, bringing our daily life and walk up to our standing in Christ.
2. Believers are called faithful brethren in Christ. Let us consider the word "brethren" first. This word suggests two things:
(1) It suggests our relationship to Christ. We are His brethren for the simple reason that we are sons of God, and He is the Son of God.
Jesus Christ after His resurrection said to Mary, "Go tell My brethren." There is another verse of Scripture which reads: "For which cause He is not ashamed to call [us] brethren."
(2) It suggests our relationship to one another. We have a relationship to each other because we are joined together in our relationship to Him. It is written, "How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity"!
It may seem old-fangled, but we still delight in calling our brethren, brother this, or sister that. If we are members of one great Family, we are members one of another. Let us rejoice in this relationship. Since we are brethren, let us by all means be faithful brethren.
III. THE THREEFOLD HERITAGE OF BELIEVERS (Colossians 1:4-5)
1. The first heritage of the believer is faith. Our key verse says, "Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus." They could not have been brethren if they did not have faith. They were saved by faith, and having been saved, they lived by faith; they walked by faith; they wrought in faith.
We must remember that faith is a very active thing. It is far more than intellectual assent. It is a living, vital, active gift of God. Just read the 11th chapter of Hebrews, or the 2d chapter of James, and you will see some of the accomplishments of faith in the Christian's life. Read concerning faith in its relationship to prayer, and how it gets tilings from God; and you will see that faith is far from a dead, inactive thing.
2. The second heritage of the believer is love. Love is the second of a trinity of graces. Every young person will grant us that love is anything but inactive. Love never counts the cost, nor does it weigh the sacrifice. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all his possessions, he would find that true love is not for sale.
The love in Colossians 1:4, is spoken of in Colossians 1:8 as, "Your love in the Spirit." Love is the fruit of the Spirit. It is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit.
3. The third heritage of the believer is hope. Hope is the third of the three graces. Our verse says: "For the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven." Hope is that principle within us which takes hold of the things to come. What a man hath, why does he yet hope for?
IV. THE TWOFOLD SCOPE OF THE GOSPEL (Colossians 1:5-6)
1. "The Gospel; which is come unto you." We can remember the day that the Gospel came unto us, and so can you remember when it came to you. You had heard the Gospel many times, no doubt, but it never reached home in the true sense, of the word, until it brought forth eternal life.
The Gospel means "good news." It is like water to the thirsty ground. It is a good word from a far country. It is a note concerning salvation. It is salvation which centers in Jesus Christ our Lord.
2. The Gospel which has come unto the whole world. The second statement of our verse is, "as it is in all the world." Thank God, the good news from Heaven which came to us, came also to others. We must never consider ourselves the sole and only recipients of grace, nor the sole and only inheritors of Glory. The scope of the Gospel reaches to the last man on earth. It is just here that we catch our own responsibility to others.
"Have you had a kindness shown?
Pass it on:
'Twas not given to thee alone,
Pass it on:
Let it go along the years,
Let it wipe another's tears,
'Til in Heaven the deed appears
Pass it on."
What greater joy can be ours than to be heralders of the Gospel?
3. The Gospel which came to us and to the world, bringeth forth fruit. When the Holy Spirit, through Paul, wrote to Titus, He gave commandment concerning the kind of deacons and elders, concerning the kind of old men, old women, young men, and young women, and also the kind of servants that should characterize the Church of God.
The Spirit of God wrote, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation [teaches] us that * * we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world."
V. PAUL'S PRAYER FOR THE COLOSSIANS (Colossians 1:9-11)
1. He prayed that the Colossians might walk worthy of the Lord. This was a great longing of his soul. He knew that after life, comes walking, and living. He wanted the children of the light to walk in the light. To all of us, the prayer of Paul may seem startling. How can the creature glorify the Creator? How can one in the flesh give honor to Christ in the Heavens? How can a sinner, saved by grace, walk worthy of the One who saved him?
The Apostle, however, went further and prayed that the Colossians might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. We must suggest that Paul had no thought at all of the equality of saints with the Saviour. A little child may be far beneath the dignity and the power of his parent and yet he may walk worthy of that parent unto all pleasing. This should be the greatest desire of our heart.
2. He prayed that they might be fruitful in every good work. Here is something more than living. Here is service, doing things for God. Surely this too is a crowning desire of us all, that we might be fruitful in every good work.
3. He prayed that the Colossians might increase in the knowledge of God. Surely none of us know it all. therefore all of us can grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, through the study of His Word, and through our fellowshiping with Him.
4. He prayed that the Colossians might be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power. Their might, therefore, was not a might of their own. It was His might. The purpose of being clothed with His might was not merely that we might be fruitful in every good work, but that we might be clothed with all patience and long-suffering, with joyfulness.
5. He prayed for the Colossians relative to their giving thanks, because they had been made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Here is an inheritance which belongs to us all, and which is ours by grace. God grant that the prayer of Paul for the Colossians may be realized in us.
VI. THE HOLY SPIRIT GLORIFIES CHRIST (Colossians 1:13)
1. The Spirit glorifies Christ in His deliverance of sinners from the power of darkness. How wonderful it all is we were dead in trespasses and in sins, walking according to the prince of the power of the air; we were the children of darkness, even as others; but God sent His own Son and delivered us.
We remember how Christ stood in Nazareth, and said, "He hath sent Me to * * preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."
What a wonderful Saviour is this! He takes our feet out of the miry clay and places them upon the rock. He turns our darkness into light; our rain into sunshine; our gloom into glory. There is a vast difference between what we were in the days of our sin, and what we are in the days of our regeneration. It seems to us that the distance is as great as Heaven is from hell.
2. The Spirit glorifies Christ in His translating us into the Kingdom of His dear Son. This is not the Millennium Kingdom, although when we are saved, we are heirs of that Kingdom, if so be we suffer, that we may be glorified together.
This Kingdom is the Kingdom of God, and of the Son. It is the Kingdom into which we are lifted when we are born again. It is a Kingdom of light, and of life, and of love. It is the very antithesis of darkness. It is the Kingdom of a new power, even the power of conquest and victory over every power of darkness.
3. The Spirit glorifies Christ as the One in whom we have redemption, even the forgiveness of sin. The Spirit even carries us to the Cross of Christ, and tells us that our wonderful redemption is through the Blood. Just here we might pause and sing, "In the Cross of Christ I Glory."
VII. CHRIST AND HIS GLORY CONTINUED (Colossians 1:15-19)
1. The Spirit speaks of Christ as the image of the invisible God. In the Book of Hebrews we read: "His Son * * who being the brightness of His glory, and the express Image of His Person."
In the Gospel of John, we read: "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."
The word "declared" means that Christ told out the Father; that He interpreted Him. It was for this cause that Jesus said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,"
2. The Spirit speaks of Christ as the First-born of every creature. When the Holy Spirit uses the expression "Firstborn" in the Book of Hebrews, He says, "The First-begotten." Our minds go back into the eternity before the world was, and we think of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Eternal Son of God, destined in the purposes of God to be the image of the Father in His incarnation.
When God created Adam and Eve, He created them in the image of God, that is, in the image that Jesus Christ was destined to bear when He became flesh. It is for this reason that we have borne, in our earthy body, the. image of the earthy, and that we are destined, in our resurrection body, to bear the image of the Heavenly.
Our earthy body was fashioned after the predestined earthy body of our Lord; our resurrection body will be fashioned after the present glorified body of our Lord.
There is another thought here. Jesus Christ is the Firstborn of every creature, in that He was the First-begotten from the dead, and, therefore, the first to bear the resurrection body.
3. The Spirit speaks of Christ as the Creator of all things, visible and invisible. He says concerning Christ, "For by Him were all things created, that are in Heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist."
AN ILLUSTRATION
What a wonderful Christ is He.
Some few years since a minister was preaching at Plymouth, when a request was sent to the pulpit, to this effect: "The thanksgiving of this congregation is desired to Almighty God, by the captain, passengers, and crew of the 'West India-man,' for their merciful deliverance from shipwreck during the late awful tempest."
The following day the minister went on board, and entered into conversation with the passengers, when a lady thus addressed him: "O sir, what an invaluable blessing must personal religion be! Never did I see it more, exemplified than in my poor Negress, 'Ellen, during the storm. When we expected every wave to entomb us all, my mind was in a horrible state I was afraid to die Ellen would come to me and say, with all possible composure, 'Never mind, Missee: look to Jesus Christ. He made He rule de sea.' And when, sir, we neared the shore, and were at a loss to know where we were, fearing every minute to strike on the rocks poor Ellen said, with the same composure as before 'Don't be fear, Missee: look to Jesus Christ He de Rock: no shipwreck on dat Rock, He save to de uttermost. Don't be fear, Missee: look to Jesus Christ!'"
The colored woman was right. There is no "wreck on that Rock." Those who look to Jesus in life's storm never come to shipwreck. Those who make shipwreck of their faith are those who take their eyes off Him. "He rule the seas" is right. He is the Sovereign of the sea. The Wonderful Word.