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Scripture Reading: Gal. 1:13-16a; 2:20a; 4:19; Col. 2:2, 6-9; 3:4, 11; Phil. 1:19-21a; 3:7-8; Eph. 3:8-11, 17a, 19b
These four books that are arranged together in our New Testament — Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians — are the heart of God’s revelation. They tell us that Christ and the church are the focal point of the divine revelation. The apostle Paul, through whom this mystery has been revealed, tells us that until the New Testament economy this mystery was hidden in God (Eph. 1:9).
What is it that hinders our seeing this mystery, even though it has been fully revealed?
The first hindrance is religion, which is what Paul deals with in Galatians. When the Lord Jesus came, there was among the Jewish people a religion, not pagan but one formed and established according to God’s word. The basic element of the Jewish religion was the law, which was given by God. In addition, there were the traditions made by man. This religion, with its God-given law and its man-made traditions, was the strongest opponent to the Lord Jesus and His ministry.
Later, when the apostles went forth to preach the gospel, most of their opposition came from these same Jewish religionists, not from the heathen. It was in order to preserve the traditions inherited from their fathers and the law given by God that these Judaizers tried their hardest to resist the evangelists and the gospel they preached.
One of their number, an aggressive, offensive young man named Saul of Tarsus, was heading one day for Damascus, intending to bring the disciples of Jesus who were there back to Jerusalem to be punished. Such was his intention, and he was proceeding on his way to carry it out. Yes, he did have the freedom to make up his mind to do this, but to bring it about was not up to him. His mission was interrupted by a heavenly Visitor. Falling on the ground, Saul addressed this One from the heavens as Lord: “Who are You, Lord?” (Acts 9:5). The answer was, “I am Jesus, whom you persecute.” Saul thought that he was persecuting the disciples of Jesus; now he found out that he had been persecuting Jesus Himself.
On that day something happened to Saul not only outwardly but also inwardly. Outwardly, he was knocked down and blinded by the brightness of the light. But from Galatians 1 we can see that something happened inwardly as well. He tells us, “I persecuted the church of God excessively and ravaged it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries in my race, being more abundantly a zealot for the traditions of my fathers” (vv. 13-14). He was doing well in his religious zeal, and then God came in. “It pleased God,” he tells us, “to reveal His Son in me” (vv. 15-16). Inwardly, a vision was imparted to him.
What was the vision? It was Christ versus religion. Religion is the highest invention of human culture. Yet Christ stands in opposition to it. Christ is against the law and against tradition. He has nothing to do with religion. Through all these centuries since then, this battle between Christ and religion has been going on. Religion hates Christ. If you hold on to your religion, you miss Christ. If you cherish Christ, religion hates you.
Saul of Tarsus was snatched out of religion by Christ. While he was surpassing his contemporaries in religious zeal, Christ not only laid hold of him but also imparted His life to him.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul speaks of his experience of having the Son revealed to him. Then in 2:20 he tells how he experienced Christ living in him: “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Christ was revealed to him and then was living in him. A further development is indicated in 4:19, where he says, “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.” Christ was already formed in him but not in the Galatians. It is not adequate, then, to have Christ revealed in us and living in us. He must also be formed in us.
Romans 9 tells us that we are vessels made by God (vv. 20-23). We human beings were made to be containers of Christ. We are like a glove, designed to contain a hand. For a hand to be formed in the glove, the thumb and the fingers must be fitted into the glove exactly. Two fingers of the glove must not dangle empty. Has the Christ who has come into us been formed in us?
Perhaps some of you have not yet been snatched out of religion. I am sure that you are not trying to keep the law of Moses, but you may well have your own laws. You may have made up more than ten commandments that you are trying to keep. You try to be a gentleman. You try to suppress your bad temper. You try to love your wife. Are you still expecting to keep these laws? Do you think that you have a way to do this? You pray for God’s help that He would so enable you, yet He does not seem to come in. Still you hold on to your laws.
What about the more recent commandments that you have been trying to keep? You have been getting up early to spend time in the Word and in prayer. You have been reading three chapters in the Old Testament and one in the New. You have been setting aside several times a day to pray. Do you think it is good to keep these laws? Well, you may say that I was the one who proposed these to you. Whether it is good to keep these laws I will not venture to say, but if you are to experience Christ revealed in you, living in you, and formed in you, you must be snatched out of whatever laws you are trying to keep.
To say this may make the elders anxious lest the young people become loose and will no longer rise early for morning watch! After the law, however, comes Christ. Now we come to Christ.
The message of Galatians, the first of these four books, is that we must be out of religion in order to have Christ revealed, living, and formed in us. He is apart from religion, law, and tradition.
Let us take the last of the four books next. Paul gives this warning to the Colossians: “Beware that no one carries you off as spoil through his philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ” (2:8). Not too long after the churches were established, various “isms” put in their appearance. When Paul refers to philosophy and the elements of the world, he means especially Gnosticism, mysticism, and asceticism. Gnosticism was a compilation of Jewish and heathen (Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek) philosophical thought. Mysticism was also a philosophical belief with some mysterious elements in it. Asceticism was the severe treatment of the body. All these “isms” invaded the church and subtly began to replace Christ.
Paul wrote to declare that Christ stood in opposition to the Jewish religion, to Gnosticism, to mysticism, and to asceticism. He told the Colossians that Christ has nothing in common with philosophy, that He cannot be compared to mysticism, and that asceticism has nothing to do with Him.
Paul says that Christ is incomparable. He is in a class apart. Who is Christ? He is the mystery of God. He is the embodiment of all the fullness of the Godhead. Who or what can be ranked with Him? This peerless One is our life. He is within us a mystery, the hope of glory. He is the component of the new man, the church. In the church there is no room for anyone but Him. In this new creation all others are excluded, both “Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man” (3:11). In this new man Christ is all and in all; that is, He is every member and He is in every member. Can anything or anyone be compared with such a Christ?
To value any other thing above Him is to be buried in a seven-layered tomb. These seven layers are implied in the religion, law, tradition, and philosophy that Paul condemns so strongly. We need to be snatched out of the fall, the natural life, culture, religion, ethics, morality, virtues, and spiritual seeking. They are burying us, even those of us who are Christians. We must be freed from these layers in which we are wrapped.
From Galatians we know that to live Christ has nothing to do with religion. From Colossians we know that to live Christ is entirely apart from philosophy. These two matters, religion and philosophy, are highly esteemed in society and are closely related to each other. Both are enemies of Christ. Both are frustrations to our experiencing Christ.
Do you realize that you must be out of religion, out of philosophy, and out of culture? This is not a doctrine for you to understand but a reality for you to experience. If you still consider yourself as an American, you are still in your culture. The Bible says there is no room in the new man for any nationality, whether American, Chinese, or German. All the national and cultural distinctions have been buried. Now your status is Christ. He is all.
I trust that we have all gotten the message of these two books. We, as those who are living Christ, have nothing to do with religion, the law, its traditions, and regulations; nor have we anything to do with philosophy and culture.
Philippians again brings up the matter of religion. Paul describes himself as “circumcised the eighth day; of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to the righteousness which is in the law, become blameless” (3:5-6). The word translated “persecuting” here is the same as the word pursuing. Before Paul was snatched out of religion, he was pursuing Christ in a negative way. After he got saved, his pursuit of Christ was positive.
Because Paul, in his pursuit of Christ, rejected religion, this book tells of sufferings, afflictions, and trials that came to him (1:12-13). Are troubles desirable? In nature they are not, but in function they are. The difficulties became golden opportunities for Paul not only to live Christ but also to magnify Him. Whether he lived or died mattered little. What concerned this follower of Christ was to live Him and to magnify Him in his body. He wanted Christ to be expressed through him.
In speaking of his suffering, Paul says, “I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (v. 19). The all-inclusive Spirit renders us the bountiful supply, while the suffering turns out to be a salvation for us. By this bountiful supply Paul magnified Christ and lived Him out (vv. 20-21).
Ephesians deals with the issue of a life that lives Christ.
This book tells us that the church is the Body of Christ and that it is the fullness of Him who fills all in all (1:22-23). How could the church possibly be His fullness? It is by the unsearchable riches of Christ dispensed into all the members who live Christ out. The more we live Christ out, the more His riches will be dispensed into our being. In the very next verse after the unsearchable riches of Christ are mentioned, the economy of the mystery is mentioned (3:8-9). The mystery, therefore, is the economy of the Triune God: the Father as the source, the Son as the course, and the Spirit as the flow.
The outcome of the economy of the Triune God into His chosen people is the church (v. 10), which is to display God’s wisdom “according to the eternal purpose” (v. 11).
Have you noticed the sequence in these four verses (vv. 8-11)? The unsearchable riches of Christ in verse 8 are the economy of the mystery in verse 9. The issue is the church in verse 10, which is according to God’s eternal purpose in verse 11.
Practically speaking, God’s eternal purpose is realized by our participating in Christ’s riches. This we do by taking Christ as our life and as our person. If He is our life and our person, we can say that He lives in us and makes His home in us (v. 17). We have nothing in common with religion, law, and “isms.” Our only concern is to take Christ as our life and our person. As we do this day after day, we enjoy all His riches. This enjoyment is the economy of the mystery.
This way of living issues in the church. The church is not a group of people with the Christian faith who come together to sing hymns. The church is a Body. My body is not just a few bones stuck together and covered with skin, then dressed in some clothing. To claim that that is my body is an insult. My body is made up of organs, which are organically interrelated. A group of Christians singing hymns together do not necessarily have any organic relatedness. Some Christians could perhaps be likened to a set of dentures, placed in the body but not part of it.
Is our relationship to the Body of Christ like that of a set of dentures? No. We are growing together organically, not placed together by organization. When those of different nationalities are put together, the relationship is not easy. In the church we have many different nationalities and backgrounds. Nonetheless, we can all grow together.
What makes us grow? It is by getting the proper nourishment. If a little piece of flesh is taken from one part of our body and grafted onto another, within a few days the graft will become part of the flesh in the new location. Yet without nourishment that little piece could not grow together with the body. Both are organic, but they need nourishment.
Our nourishment is the unsearchable riches of Christ. As we live by Him and He is magnified in our body, we will all grow together as His Body. Thus, we must learn to participate in Christ. If all we have is in the realm of knowledge, the result will be dissension. If, on the other hand, we enjoy Christ as our food and drink, His unsearchable riches will make us grow, and the church will be the result.
It was for this that Paul prayed in Ephesians 3. He bowed his knees unto the Father “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith...that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God” (vv. 14-19). The Father strengthens us through the Spirit that the Son may make His home in our hearts, that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God. This is the church.
If we look around us at Christians today, we can see how much attention is focused on knowledge and how little is focused on the experiential enjoyment of the riches of Christ. This is why there is so little church life, in spite of the multitudes of Christians.
Some of us have been Christians for years. With whom have we been growing together? If we live Christ, the issue is the church life. If we find that we are still individualistic, it is an indication that our experience of Christ is not genuine. The experience of Christ is not for individuals but for the corporate Body. Our enjoyment of Christ must result in the corporate church life.
May we all be so clear that Christ stands against religion, philosophy, and culture. We must care only for Him. When the thought comes to us that we must be loving or pleasant, we must reject it. We must say no to all such considerations and have regard only for Christ, this all-inclusive Spirit who is in our spirit.
We should pray, “Lord, thank You that I have been crucified with You. You are against religion, philosophy, and culture. I have nothing to do with them either, because I have been crucified with You. Now I am one spirit with You. I want to care only for You. I would keep contacting You and walking in You. I want to converse with You and be one with You all the time.”
If we keep praying and practicing this, our mind will be set on the spirit. The life supply will be infused into our being and become our nourishment. We will grow and even grow together. We will be able to say, “To me, to live is Christ. It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”
