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Scripture Reading: Col. 1:27; 2:2, 15-17; 3:4, 10-11, 16; Eph. 6:16-18; John 6:63; 16:8-9
In the universe there are three parties — God, man, and Satan. Satan, under God’s sovereignty, is the negative party. The other two parties, God and man, should be identical. But when man fell, he took a direction other than God’s. This was the beginning of the discrepancy between God’s economy and man’s concepts.
The matter of God’s economy is foreign to most Christians. This term economy, anglicized from the Greek, is not easy to define. The meaning in Greek is “a dispensing,” or “an administration for dispensing.” God’s economy is to dispense Himself into His chosen people. That God would dispense Himself into man, and that certain ones would be the recipients of His dispensing, was not a decision made in response to conditions that were going on in time. It was not accidental, nor was it determined by circumstances. Rather, it was purposed by Him in eternity past and pertains also to eternity future.
This matter of God’s economy is made abundantly clear in the four books that form the heart of the New Testament — Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. I hope you will prize these books, even unto the New Jerusalem! In Ephesians, for example, the Greek word is used in 1:10 and 3:9, where it is translated “economy,” and in 3:2, where it is translated “stewardship.” In Colossians 1:25 it is also translated “stewardship.”
God dispenses Himself into us organically. The life He imparts to us is not like a set of dentures, which may be worn year after year without ever becoming part of us. His dispensing is more like the grafting of one piece of skin on another. The two pieces grow together and within a short time cannot be separated. They have become organically joined and share a common life.
God is life. Life is organic. The Bible tells us that God created man in His image (Gen. 1:26). Man was created in God’s image so that He and man could be organically one. It is not like the kind of oneness formed by putting several volumes of a book next to each other. It is rather the growing together of two like entities. You may argue that the divine life and the human life are not like entities. There is some truth to this: one is human, and the other is divine. But for man to be in God’s image means that the function of both lives is the same.
Our relationship to God is likened to grafting in Romans 11:17, 19, 23, and 24. We are the branches grafted into the olive tree. Two pieces of dry wood cannot be grafted together; they would have to be joined inorganically by a carpenter. Only a living branch and a living tree can be grafted together. Grafting is an organic process.
The Christian life is a hybrid life; that is, it is the product, or result, of the blending of two different lives. We were born human, but in our second birth we were born of God (John 1:13). By the new birth the divine life has been imparted into us. As sons of God, we are divine dignitaries! It is not a small thing for anyone to harm us. We are divinely human and humanly divine. Our life has been grafted into God. He is working Himself into us organically.
John 15 clearly pictures this organic relationship. The vine and the branches are not united by a carpenter’s hammer. The branches are not like dentures artificially held in place. We are the branches of God, organically one with Him. We are part of God, just as my arm is part of me. Some may say that this is heretical teaching; such ones are in darkness. If we are in the light, we will see and rejoice that as the branches of Christ, we are part of Him organically; we are organically joined to God. This is His economy.
However, we have our own ideas. Where have all our concepts come from? We are buried in the deep, dark tomb of our concepts.
Our concepts are first the result of the fall. God’s intention was that the man He had created should partake of the tree of life. This was to be man’s life supply. God warned man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; if he did, he would surely die (Gen. 2:17). Man disobeyed and thus fell. He rejected the tree of life and chose the tree of knowledge. This tree of knowledge became a tomb, where man today is still buried.
Culture arose after the fall. Genesis 4:17-24 describes its beginnings in the inventions that were made. Culture is not from the tree of life. Its source is the tomb of knowledge. Our concepts are rooted in our culture. Some are based on our national origins. Some are from the past; others are modern.
Religion, philosophy, and ethics have all influenced our concepts. Religion, especially Judaism, appeals to the Jewish mentality. To the Greeks, philosophy is what matters. To the Chinese, ethical behavior is all-important. In fact, all of us have the desire for good behavior deeply rooted in our concepts. The concepts we have taken from religion, philosophy, and ethics are a hindrance to our initial receiving of the Lord and then to our living by Him.
Within all human beings there is the thought of being virtuous. We like to be thought of as kind and generous. We like to have a reputation for being mild mannered and patient. We like to give the impression that we are pleasant and gracious. Wherever I have been — in many different parts of the world — I have found this same aspiration in people.
The spiritual seeking of Christians is in this same realm. First they seek for salvation; then they strive for victory over sin, the world, and the flesh. The only interest of such Christians is in being spiritual.
These are the seven layers of the tomb in which we are buried: the fall, culture, religion, philosophy, ethics, individual virtues, and spiritual seeking. The reason it is hard for us to live by Christ is that most of us still remain in this tomb. We have no condemnation for the good things of our culture. We respect religion. We admire philosophical thought. We justify ethics. We appreciate human virtues. We are impressed by people with a spiritual air about them, who are seeking to live a holy life; we do not realize that while they are caring for their spirituality and personal holiness but disregarding the church, they are still buried in the tomb of concepts.
In God’s economy there is no place for religion or ethical behavior or human virtues. God’s concern is only for Christ. He wants Christ expressed in us, not human virtues. But the thought of living by Christ does not have much meaning for us. We have no idea, or very little idea, of what it means.
Consider these verses in John 16 about the Holy Spirit: “When He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe into Me” (vv. 8-9). The Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin. How sinful the world is! There is robbery, murder, and fornication. Surely, the world will be convicted for this. But, no. The Lord said the conviction for sin is “because they do not believe into Me.” In the New Testament economy the first commandment given by God is that we believe in the Lord Jesus. To break this commandment is sin. Those who perish do so not because of committing robbery or fornication but because of unbelief.
The universe is God’s, not ours. He is the Administrator. To disobey His commandment that we believe in His Son is rebellion. Whether we are a gentleman or a bank robber, God’s commandment is that we believe in His Son. In Moses’ time there were ten commandments, but now there is only one. To refuse to believe in the Son is the sin for which mankind will perish.
Many Jewish people think that they are worshipping God. They do their best to live by the Ten Commandments. But they do not know that in the New Testament economy, God has given a new, different commandment. Because they will not believe in Christ, they are guilty of rebellion.
After we are saved, God gives us another commandment: walk according to the spirit. But instead of heeding this basic commandment, we pay attention to the exhortations that suit our natural mentality. We try to love our wives or submit to our husbands, but exhortations like these are not basic.
If we are not saved, God’s commandment is that we believe in His Son. Once we are saved, He commands that we walk according to the spirit. We can all experience that by our believing in the Lord Jesus we inherit all things. Holiness, victory, spirituality, and every spiritual blessing become ours.
Seek Christ. Do not seek spirituality. To seek anything other than Him is to miss God’s economy. Paul wrote to the Galatians because they had been distracted from Christ by the Jewish religion. He wrote to the Colossians because they had been distracted from Christ by Gnosticism, including Jewish and heathen philosophies.
Christ is presented to the Colossians as a mystery. Colossians 1:27 refers to “this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” A mystery is a secret. Christ is the secret of the gospel. Strange as it may sound, the gospel is not merely for salvation. The gospel is for Christ. He is its center and reality. When we receive the gospel, we of course participate in God’s salvation, but that is only an issue; it is not basic. Christ Himself is what is basic to the gospel.
In Colossians 2:2 Christ is called the mystery of God. God Himself is a mystery. Christ is the mystery of this mystery. He is the secret of this mystery. Then in verses 16 and 17 Paul goes on to point out how the Colossians had been influenced by the Judaizers in their eating, drinking, feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths. All these things — whether daily, yearly, monthly, or weekly — “are a shadow of the things to come.” The light may cause a table, for example, to cast a shadow, but that shadow is not the body of the table. Paul says that their practices under the Levitical law were all shadows, “but the body is of Christ.” How sad for the Colossians to miss the body and care for shadows!
Christ is the body. In other words, Christ is the real food, the real drink, the real Sabbath, the real new moon, and the real feast. He is the reality of everything positive.
In Colossians 3:4 Christ is called “our life.” This mystery of God, the body of all positive things, is to be our life. In the new man “there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all” (v. 11). In the new man there is no room for you or me. Christ is all; He is each one of us. The only person in the new man is Christ.
How can we contact Christ? In this book of Colossians Paul does not deal with the matter of the Spirit. After revealing Christ as the mystery of God, as the body of all positive things, and as all in all to the new man, Paul exhorts the Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (3:16). The thought in this verse is that the word of Christ should have a house, or dwelling place, in us, “in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.”
We must take in the word of Christ but not as knowledge. Christ said in John 6:63, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” We must take this word in as life.
We must also take the Word in “by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit” (Eph. 6:18).
God wants you to take Him as your life. He wants you to live by Him. Forget your culture, your philosophy, your ethics, and your spiritual seeking. Live by Christ. When you see this as a vision, you will condemn even your best virtues. You will fear your virtues more than your sins. You will realize that expressing your virtues is a rebellion against God’s administration. You will not sanction anything but Christ. You will have no way but this narrow way of Christ.
This is the testimony, Christ Himself. Spending time in the Word is not the testimony. Nor is fellowship. Even the church life without Christ is not the testimony. Only Christ living in us and lived out of us is the testimony.
