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Colossians 2:2-23 reveals that we may experience and enjoy Christ as the mystery of God. In verse 2 Paul speaks of the “full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ.” This means that, as God’s story and God’s everything, Christ declares God in full. As the mystery of God, Christ is the Word of God (John 1:1; Rev. 19:13); Christ is the definition, explanation, and expression of God. Moreover, as the mystery of God, the mysterious story of God, the all-inclusive Christ is the history of God; the whole story of God is in Christ and is Christ (John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 4:5). God is a mystery. Although God is infinite and eternal, without beginning or ending, He also has a history, a story. God’s history refers to the process through which He passed so that He may come into man and that man may be brought into Him.
According to His good pleasure, God created the heavens and the earth and all the billions of items in the universe. Therefore, God accomplished the work of creation. Genesis 1:1 tells us that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, but Matthew 28:19 speaks of baptizing believers into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We know that the Father, Son, and Spirit are the God spoken of in Genesis 1:1. However, the difference is that at the time of Genesis 1:1, God had not yet been processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. The word in Matthew 28:19 was spoken by the Lord after He had entered into resurrection, having passed through incarnation, human living, and crucifixion. After His resurrection, He charged His disciples to disciple the nations and to baptize them, not into the name of the Creator, whom we may call the unprocessed God but to baptize them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This is to baptize the believers into the processed God. The processed God is God available to His chosen people, and His people can thus be baptized into Him. Although it is not possible to baptize believers into God as He is revealed in Genesis 1:1, we can baptize them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; that is, we can baptize them into the processed Triune God.
Today the processed Triune God is the Spirit. At the time of John 7:39, the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. He had not yet passed through death and entered into resurrection. Now that Christ has passed through death and has entered into resurrection, the Spirit is here. This Spirit is Christ, and Christ is the story of God, the mystery of God. As the story of God, Christ is the processed God, God processed to become the all-inclusive Spirit, who now dwells in our spirit and is one with our spirit.
The Christ whom we have received is the mystery of God and the history of God. The Christ whom we have received is God with His wonderful history — God who passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, glorification, and enthronement. As the history of God, Christ is the mystery of God. Because the Jews do not have Christ, the God in whom they believe does not have such a history. Apart from Christ, there is neither the history of God nor the mystery of God.
As the mystery of God, Christ also is both the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9) and the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17). In order to know Christ in reality as the embodiment of God, we need to experience Him as the life-giving Spirit. The reality of Christ as the embodiment of God is in Christ as the life-giving Spirit. As the mystery of God, Christ is not only the embodiment of the fullness of God but also the life-giving Spirit dwelling in our spirit to be one spirit with us. We should tell the Lord, “I care only for You as the embodiment of God and as the life-giving Spirit in my spirit. Because You are so real, living, and practical in my spirit, I can live by You and with You. Lord, my only desire is to experience You in this way.”
We need to focus our attention upon Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4-6). As the mystery of God, the all-inclusive Christ is the embodiment of God and the life-giving Spirit. As the mystery of Christ, the church is the Body of Christ, His fullness, and the new man to be the full expression of Christ (1:23; Col. 3:10-11). As Christ is the history of God, so the church is the history of Christ. As the history of Christ, the church is the mystery of Christ. In the church we are a continuation of this history.
In Colossians 2:3 Paul says that in Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. In writing Colossians Paul was fighting against the Gnostic philosophy by declaring that Christ, as the totality of all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, is far better, higher, and more profound than the Gnostic philosophy. According to history, the influence of Gnostic teaching, which is a mixture of Jewish religion and Greek philosophy, invaded the Gentile churches in Paul’s time. Those who were influenced by such teaching considered themselves as having much wisdom and knowledge, but they spoke many things concerning God and Christ that were not according to the truth. Hence, Paul told the Colossian believers that all the treasures of genuine wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. This is the spiritual wisdom and knowledge of the divine economy concerning Christ and the church. Wisdom is related to our spirit, and knowledge is related to our mind (Eph. 1:8, 17).
Moreover, wisdom and knowledge refer to all the “stories” of God. All the stories of God are wisdom and knowledge. All the wisdom and knowledge pertaining to God’s stories are hidden in this Christ who is the mystery of God. Therefore, Colossians 2:6-7 indicates that we who have received Christ Jesus the Lord should walk in Him and be rooted and built up in Him and should not listen to the empty words of philosophy and philosophical doctrines of the Gnostics.
God is the unique source of wisdom and knowledge. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in the Christ who is the mystery of God. Because the church in Colossae had been invaded by pagan philosophy, Paul was helping the Colossians to trace wisdom and knowledge to their true source in God. Christ is the mystery of God, who alone is the source of all wisdom and knowledge.
The fact that wisdom and knowledge are embodied in Christ is proved by His spoken words, especially those recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and John. In these books, the Lord spoke about the kingdom and about life. The Lord’s words recorded in these books contain the highest philosophy. None of the teachings of the philosophers, including the ethical teachings of Confucius, compare to them. The concept in the Lord’s words is deep and profound. Anyone who makes a thorough study of philosophy will have to admit that the highest philosophy is that found in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Truly all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Him. Since wisdom and knowledge are stored up in Christ as a treasure, we cannot have wisdom and knowledge unless we have Christ.
If we exercise our being to contact the Lord, Christ as the life-giving Spirit will saturate our spirit and our mind. Then we also will have in our experience the wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Christ. In this way we will experience Him as the mystery of God. We should not be like the Colossians, who allowed pagan philosophy to defraud them of the wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ.
In 2:6-7 Paul says, “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, having been rooted and being built up in Him.” We, the saints, having believed in Christ and having received Him, now walk in Him. Here to “walk in Him” means to live, to behave, to speak, and to have our being in the wonderful, all-inclusive Christ. We walk, having been rooted in Him as a plant in soil and being built up in Him as a building on a foundation (1 Cor. 3:9, 11). Christ is not only the soil in which we have been rooted but also the foundation on which we are being built up. We are both planted and built up in Christ; this indicates that we are altogether in Christ.
In Colossians 2:6 Paul says that we “have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord.” Christ is the portion of the saints (1:12) for our enjoyment. To believe in Him is to receive Him. As the all-inclusive Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), He enters into us and dwells in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22) to be everything to us.
Once we have received Christ Jesus, we need not receive Him again. But we should apply what we have received. We need to daily practice to apply the living Christ in a practical way. To employ a common term, we need to “use” Christ. This is difficult because by birth it is not natural for us to use Christ, nor does our training condition us to use Him. The hardest lesson for us to learn as Christians is to apply Christ and to use Him. In our daily living we spontaneously use the self instead of Christ. There is no need for us to try to use the self; we use it automatically and spontaneously. In the matter of applying Christ, we certainly need to watch and pray; that is, we need to be on the alert.
Although we have all received the Lord Jesus, we are short in using Him. If we fail to apply Him, then practically in our daily living there is little significance to having received Him. Our experience of Christ should not be superficial, and we should not take so many things for granted. We are thankful for God’s salvation in Christ, and we are grateful that we have received Him. But now we must go on to apply the One whom we have received.
Having received Christ, we should walk in Him. To walk is to live, to act, to behave, and to have our being; it implies everything in our daily living. To walk in Christ is to live, move, act, and have our being in Christ. We should not live, walk, move, act, or have our being in anything other than Christ. Furthermore, to walk in Christ means not to have any substitute for Christ. Because of man’s fall, culture replaces God in man’s life. Man was made for God and needs God to be his life, his enjoyment, and everything to him. But because man lost God, he invented culture as a substitute for God. Now in His economy God has ordained that Christ, His Son, should accomplish redemption, bring man back to God, and then replace all the substitutes with Himself. The various factors and elements of our human life are all replacements for Christ, but the factors and elements that have become substitutes for God must now be replaced by Christ. In order for this to be our experience, we need to walk in Christ. Christ is not only the sphere, the realm, in which we walk, but He is also every factor and element of our human life. To experience Christ in this way is to walk in Him.
We should walk, live, and act in Christ so that we may enjoy His riches, just as the children of Israel lived in the good land and enjoyed all its rich produce. The good land today is Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit (Gal. 3:14), who dwells in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16) to be our enjoyment. To walk according to this Spirit (v. 4; Gal. 5:16) is the central and crucial point in the New Testament.
In Galatians 3:14 Paul says, “That the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Here Paul refers to the blessing of Abraham and the promise of the Spirit. This blessing refers to the good land, and the fulfillment of this blessing for us today is Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit. Therefore, according to Paul’s concept, to walk in Christ as the good land is to walk in the all-inclusive Spirit.
In Colossians 2:6 Paul tells us to walk in Christ, but in Galatians 5:16 he charges us to walk by the Spirit. Furthermore, in Romans 8:4 he speaks of walking according to the spirit. These verses indicate that the good land for us today is the all-inclusive Spirit who indwells our spirit. This all-inclusive Spirit is the all-inclusive Christ as the processed Triune God. After being processed, the Triune God is the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit for us to experience. Today this all-inclusive Spirit indwells our spirit to be our good land.
Christ is the embodiment of God and the expression of God. Through incarnation, He became the last Adam, who was crucified for our redemption. In resurrection this last Adam became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Therefore, in 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” Because Christ as the life-giving Spirit dwells in our spirit, we are one spirit with Him. In 2 Timothy 4:22 Paul says, “The Lord be with your spirit,” and in 1 Corinthians 6:17, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Therefore, Christ as the all-inclusive good land is now in our spirit.
Since the all-inclusive Spirit is mingled with our spirit, we should set our mind on this mingled spirit (Rom. 8:6). By doing this, we are spontaneously setting our mind on Christ. Then we must go on to walk in this mingled spirit. This means that we must live, move, behave, and have our being according to the spirit. In this way we will experience Christ and enjoy Him as the good land. Nothing in the New Testament is more central, crucial, and vital than walking according to the mingled spirit. Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit dwells in our spirit to be our life, our person, and our everything. Our need today is to return to Him, to set our mind on the spirit, and to walk according to the spirit. This is to walk in Christ as the mystery of God.
In our experience Christ should be the good land in which we live and walk. This should not merely be a doctrine to us. We need to pray, “Lord, I want to live and walk in You. Lord, I ask that You be the good land to me in my experience and that every aspect of my living may be in You.” To walk in Christ is a way to experience Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 2:6).
After charging us to walk in Christ, Paul in verse 7 immediately adds the words, “having been rooted and being built up in Him.” If we would walk in Christ, we must fulfill the conditions of having been rooted in Him and being built up in Him. Our basis for walking in Christ is that we have already been rooted in Christ and that we are in the process of being built up in Him.
In 2:7 Paul speaks of having been rooted in Christ. Like plants, we are living organisms. As such, we have been rooted in Christ, our soil, our earth, that we may absorb all His riches as nourishment. These riches become the element and substance with which we grow and are built up. To be rooted is for the growth in life. This rooting has been completed already. To be built up is for the building of the Body of Christ. This is still going on. Both these matters are in Christ.
Paul realized the importance of being rooted in Christ. He knew that it was a serious matter to be transplanted from Christ and to be rooted in something else, such as heathen philosophy or Jewish ordinances. He wanted the Colossians to see that philosophy was not the soil in which they had been rooted. They had been rooted in Christ. He is our unique soil. Regrettably, many Christians have not been rooted in Christ adequately. Yet if we have been rooted in Him adequately, nothing will be able to distract us from Him.
In order to be rooted in Christ, we must first be planted into Him. In a number of places, the Bible speaks of planting. In the song of Moses we read these words: “You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, / The place, O Jehovah, which You have made for Your dwelling” (Exo. 15:17). Psalm 92:13 says, “Planted in the house of Jehovah, / They will flourish in the courts of our God.” In Jeremiah 2:21 the Lord says of His people, “I had planted you as a choice vine, / Wholly a faithful seed,” and in 32:41, “I will plant them in this land in faithfulness with all My heart and with all My soul.” In Matthew 15:13 the Lord Jesus said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up.” According to John 15, the Lord Jesus regarded Himself as a vine and the Father as the husbandman, the One who planted the vine and cares for it. In 1 Corinthians 3:9 Paul says that we, the believers, are God’s cultivated land. In Colossians 2:7 we see that we have been rooted in Christ. Christ is the land, the soil, and God has planted us into Him.
In 1 Corinthians 3:6 Paul says that he planted, Apollos watered, and God causes the growth. This also indicates that the believers are plants and that Christ is the soil. Now we need to ask in what part of our being this planting has taken place. Certainly it is neither in the mind nor in the physical body; rather, it is in our spirit. The experience of being planted into Christ and rooted in Him takes place in our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). When a plant is rooted in the soil, it becomes one with the soil. First, the plant gets into the soil; then the nourishment in the soil comes into the plant. In this way, the plant and the soil become one in life. The nourishing element in the soil corresponds to the life in the plant, and something within the plant corresponds to the element in the soil. We may say that there is a fellowship between the plant and the soil. In this fellowship those factors in the plant and in the soil which correspond to each other become one in life. Thus, the plant and the soil become one unit in life.
In our spirit we have the experience of being planted into Christ, for here we are joined to Him and become one spirit with Him. The Lord, who is the soil in which we are rooted, is the Spirit. If He were not the Spirit, there would be no way for us to be planted into Him. Furthermore, if we had only a body and a soul but no spirit, it would not be possible for us to be planted into the Lord as the life-giving Spirit. However, because the Lord is the Spirit and because we have a spirit, there is a correspondence between us and Him. When we were regenerated, Christ as the life-giving Spirit became one with our spirit. As John 3:6 clearly indicates, regeneration takes place in the spirit. When we were regenerated, we were rooted in Christ as the soil. This is the reason Paul uses the perfect tense in Colossians 2:7. We were planted and rooted in Christ when we were regenerated in our spirit.
Only when we remain in the spirit are we actually rooted in Christ and thus able to walk in Him. We have been planted into Christ. But when we turn to our spirit, we have the experience of being rooted in Him. Having been rooted in Christ, we are able to walk in Him. In this way we experience Christ as the good land with the rich soil that affords us the nourishing life element. The more we are rooted in this soil, the more we absorb the nourishment of Christ into our being. This is not the objective Christ in doctrine; it is the subjective Christ in our experience.
We need to continually exercise our spirit. This is the reason that toward the end of the book of Colossians, Paul charges us to persevere in prayer (4:2). However, if, instead of exercising our spirit, we exercise our mind, emotion, and will, Satan will keep us from enjoying the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit. Satan, the subtle, evil one, uses the environment to keep us out of the spirit. Thus, we need to exercise our spirit continually by calling on the name of the Lord in order to become more deeply rooted in the all-inclusive Spirit. Then we will absorb the riches of Christ, grow in Christ, and spontaneously be built up in Christ. As a result, we will walk in Him. This is the practical experience of Christ that we all need.
Having been rooted in Christ, the rich, fertile soil, we should go on to absorb His riches. As a tree absorbs nourishing elements from the soil through its roots, we also should absorb the riches of Christ into us. A tree’s growth depends upon the nourishment it absorbs from the soil through its roots. Since we have been rooted in Christ, we should remain in Him in a practical way. In our experience we need to stay rooted in Christ.
We need to take time to enjoy the Lord as the all-inclusive land so that all the elements of Christ as the rich soil may be absorbed into us in order for us to be made full in Him in our experience (2:10a; 4:2). If we contact the Lord and spend time in the Word with much prayer, we will become deeply rooted in Christ. The only way to become deeply rooted in Christ as the soil is to contact Him and daily absorb the water in the Word. The more we contact the soil and absorb the water, the more we will grow. First we grow downward, then upward. After we have grown downward for a period of time, we will automatically cease to walk in things other than Christ. Instead, because we have been deeply rooted in Christ, we will live, walk, act, and have our being in Christ.
In the morning many saints spend time with the Lord. However, even though they spend a certain amount of time with Him, they may not absorb much of His riches. The reason for this is that they are too rushed. If we are to absorb the riches of Christ into us as our nourishment, we should not be rushed. Every morning we need to take an adequate amount of time to absorb the Lord. We should not be lazy or indolent in this matter. When we take time to enjoy the Lord, the elements of the rich soil are absorbed into us.
We should spend time with the Lord not only in the morning but also throughout the day. We should absorb the Lord all day long; we should be like trees continually absorbing the riches of the soil. This means that we must learn to practice the continual enjoyment of Christ. We should let every physical thing be a reminder of Christ, for all these things are shadows of which Christ is the body (2:16-17). The clothing we put on each day should remind us of Christ. We should put Him on in our spirit and by our spirit. Drinking a glass of water should remind us to drink Christ by the exercise of our spirit. To follow this practice is to be rooted in Christ and to absorb His riches.
In order to absorb the riches of Christ as the soil, we need to have tender, new roots. We should not let ourselves become old but be fresh and renewed day by day. We need to pray to the Lord, “Lord, I want my consecration to be fresh, and I want to open to You anew. I want my roots to be tender so that I may absorb Your riches. Lord, don’t let my roots get old.” If our roots are tender and new to absorb the riches of Christ, we will grow automatically with the riches that we assimilate. This is to enjoy Christ and to subjectively experience Him daily and hourly. We need to forget our situation, our condition, failures, and weaknesses and simply take time to absorb the Lord. As we take time to absorb Him, we grow with the growth of God in us for the building up of the Body of Christ (Matt. 14:22-23; 6:6; Col. 2:7a, 19b; cf. Luke 8:13).
Having been rooted in Christ, we now are “being built up in Him” (Col. 2:7). Paul’s words being built up in verse 7 do not directly refer to the building up of the Body of Christ. Rather, this expression denotes an increase in our spiritual stature, which can be compared to a person’s increase in stature as he grows physically. The only way that a child can grow physically is by assimilating nourishing food. In the same way, we grow spiritually by assimilating the rich nourishment of Christ. This is what it means to be built up in Christ, as mentioned in verse 7. Paul first tells us that we have been rooted in Christ; then he goes on to say that we are being built up in Christ. No tree can grow up without first being rooted. The growing up of the tree is the building up of the tree. By absorbing the riches from Christ as the soil into our being, we are being built up with these riches. What we absorb into us becomes the material with which we are built up. He is the material, substance, and element with which we can have a greater spiritual measure so that we may be built up personally and with others as the Body of Christ.
We are plants, and Christ is the soil to us; we also are the building, and Christ is the material with which we are built. In much the same way that an American child is built up by eating the produce of America, our spiritual measure is built up by our feeding on Christ. At present we may have a small spiritual measure. We need to grow to a greater measure of Christ, and the way to grow is by feeding on Christ, taking Him in, and digesting Him. Then He will be added to us more and more. We will have Christ increased within us, and our measure will grow. Christ is the material for the building up of our spiritual measure.
If we are lacking in spiritual stature, we cannot be built up as the Body of Christ. In Ephesians 4:13 Paul says, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” The Body of Christ has a stature, and this stature has a full measure. We all need to grow until we arrive at the full measure of the stature of the Body of Christ. For us to be built up does not first mean that we are built up as the church, the Body; rather, it means that we are built up in the Lord and experience an increase in stature. Hence, in Colossians 2:7 to be built up actually means to grow in life. First, we are rooted in Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit, and then we grow up into Him. We build ourselves up by growing up. Our being built up depends on our assimilating the riches of Christ as the soil into our being. Having assimilated these riches into us, we will grow and be built up. When we are fully grown, we will be built up. Therefore, to be built up simply means to grow. In order to grow, we need nourishment. Our growth depends on how much nourishment we assimilate into us by being rooted in Christ. Because we are rooted in Him, we absorb into us the riches of the all-inclusive Spirit. Then we grow with the nourishment that we derive from these riches.
The building up of the Body depends upon the individual and personal building up of all the members. If a particular member has not been built up, it will not be possible for him to be built up in the Body. To be built up in the Body we first must be built up in ourselves. When we have become built-up members, we will then be able to be built up with others in the Body.
In keeping with this, Paul in Ephesians 4:15 and 16 says, “Holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” The concept here is similar to that in Colossians 2:19. We must hold to the truth in love so that we may grow up into the Head in all things. Out from the Head in whom we have grown we have nourishment, as indicated by the word supply. Through the supply which comes out from the Head, the Body grows and builds itself up in love. Much is implied here. The focal point of the implications of Ephesians 4:15 and 16 is that we should be rooted in Christ and absorb His nourishment into our being to become the element and substance with which we grow and are built up.
First, we grow individually, then corporately. Individual growth becomes corporate growth. Hence, not only are the members built up individually, but the Body is built up corporately. Our physical bodies illustrate this. Your body is built up through the growth of the individual members. If the members do not grow, the body cannot grow. Without growth, the members of the body cannot build themselves up. This would make it impossible for the body as a whole to be built up. Therefore, the building of the body depends on the building up of the individual members of the body. If all the members grow and build themselves up individually, the body will be built up corporately. The building up of the church is based upon the building up of the individual members. Furthermore, the building of the members depends on their growth, which, in turn, depends upon being rooted in Christ and absorbing the riches of Christ to become the element with which the members grow.
We should not be distracted from Christ and the church. The Colossians had been rooted in Christ, but they still had to go on to be built up in the church. In order to be built up corporately, the Colossians had to forsake the Judaistic observances and the heathen ordinances and philosophies. Otherwise, they would have been transplanted from Christ and rooted in something else. Furthermore, they would have been led astray from the church life. Whenever we take in some kind of philosophy, ordinance, observance, or practice in place of Christ, the church life is annulled. We are divided from those believers who have different opinions concerning these matters. Those who are preoccupied with such things will eventually cease to care about the church life, and it will no longer be possible for them to be built up in a corporate way. How crucial it is to be rooted in Christ and to be built up in Christ and in the church! In this way we experience Christ as the mystery of God.
In summary, we have received Christ as the mystery of God. Now we need to walk in Christ, that is, live, move, act, and have our being in Christ. If we would walk in Christ, we need to absorb His riches by being rooted in Him and built up as individual members of the Body. We need to sink our roots deeper and deeper so that we may absorb more of His riches. Then we will grow and be built up in Him. When we are adequately rooted in Christ and are personally built up in Christ, we will become the expression of Christ. This expression of Christ, Christ lived out of us, will eventually become corporate. This is the church as the Body and the new man. When the church becomes in reality such a new man, that will be the time for Christ to come back.
