It is the special glory of the Gospel, the foundation or the perfection of all the rest, that it first truly and distinctly, in language beyond the uncertainties of conjecture, the refinements of allegory, or even the bright colouring of hope, enlarged the prospects of men into the depths of eternity. It first clearly and authoritatively taught us that the present existence is the least and meanest portion of our inheritance, and death to the undying spirit only the birthday of immortal life. From the hour that this awful and glorious secret was revealed to the sons of men, the whole science of life was for ever changed; a new element entered into calculation that transformed all the rest. Created eternal, the soul is intended, from the instant of its birth, to breathe the air of eternity. It is at home only in its own high sphere of being; connected by a visible frame with the present world, it is itself invisible, and lives by the invisible. Through its own proper organs, and through Faith and Hope and Love Divine, it already commences with the eternal scene, where, hereafter, disburdened of its earthly fetters, it is to dwell and to rejoice everlastingly.
I. This, then, is the great truth implied in the text, that the life for eternity is already begun; that we are at, and from the very hour of our regeneration introduced into the spiritual world, a world which, though mysterious and invisible, is as real as the world of sense around us; that the Christian's life of heavenliness is the first stage of heaven itself. No thought surely can be more awakening than this; none of more urgent and immediate practical importance. Men may forget their past sins, but they cannot be ignorant of their present disposition. We are saved that we may for eternity serve God; salvation itself would be misery unaccompanied by a love for that service. All aspirations for salvation are vain in which that love forms no element; all desire for pardon is self-contradictory if it does not include an earnest present desire for that enjoyment and service of God which are to form the sequel and the value of the pardon.
II. Heaven is our pattern, but of heaven itself we surely can know little. How then shall we regulate our lives by an unknown model? An obvious distinction solves this difficulty. The details of celestial life we cannot know. The abodes in which we are to dwell, the companions with whom we shall rejoice, the bodies bright similitudes of Christ which we shall wear all these and the like, are matters beyond our limited conjecture. But then, it is not in these things that we are bound to practise the celestial life on earth. The principles of that life, the great general laws of heart and spirit that govern it these are to be the principles and laws of this, and these are clear and indisputable. The great preparatory graces are faith, the realising power, hope, the consoling and fortifying power, and love, the uniting power, the consummation and perfection of all.
W. Archer Butler, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical,p. 101.
References: Colossians 1:12. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. vii., p. 221; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty,vol. ii., p. 206; Homilist,2nd series, vol. i., p. 147; E. W. Benson, Boy Life,p. 36 1 Chronicles 1:12-13. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vi., p. 319. Colossians 1:12-20. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 484; H. Crosby, American Pulpit of the Day,p. 10; Plain Sermons,vol. ix., p. 58. Colossians 1:13. T. Guthrie, Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints,pp. 60, 80, 98, etc. Colossians 1:13-16. J. O. Dykes, Sermons,p. 97. Colossians 1:14. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. x., p. 80; G. Calthrop, Words Spoken to my Friends,p. 104.Colossians 1:15. B. Jowett, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 323; Ibid., Church of England Pulpit,vol. ix., p. 307; Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxix., p. 355.Colossians 1:15-17. Homilist,3rd series, vol. vi., p. 23 2 Chronicles 1:16. Ibid.,vol. vi., p. 45.Colossians 1:16; Colossians 1:23. Homiletic Quarterly, vol.iv., p. 448.