Scripture Reading: Col. 2:2-9
In this message we come to the matter of the experience of Christ as the mystery of God. We shall consider a number of points which help us experience Christ in this way.
If we would experience Christ as the mystery of God, we need to have the full knowledge of Him as God’s mystery. We have pointed out that Paul struggled for the Colossians that their hearts would be comforted “unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ” (2:2). In order to have the full knowledge of such a mystery, our whole being needs to be exercised. If we simply believe in Christ without loving Him, we cannot have this knowledge. Likewise, if we love Him partially but not wholly, we cannot have the full knowledge of Him. We need to love the Lord Jesus with our whole being. For this reason, Mark 12:30, quoting Deut. 6:5, says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.” When our entire being is exercised to love the Lord Jesus, we shall gain the full knowledge of Him.
Some Christians are fond of the hymn, “Oh, how I love Jesus.” However, this hymn may be sung in a superficial way; it is not according to the full knowledge of Christ as the mystery of God. Only by exercising our entire being can we know Christ in this way.
I recommend that all the saints in the Lord’s recovery study three crucial books in the New Testament: Matthew, John, and Hebrews. A number of helpful Life-study Messages have been given on these books. The studies on John and Hebrews are especially thorough. If you spend adequate time on these three books, you will gain a considerable amount of knowledge concerning Christ.
In 2:6 Paul says that the Colossians “have received 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 must apply what we have received. However, only a very small percentage of those who have received Christ apply Him. We all must practice to apply the living Christ in a practical way day by day. To employ a common term, we need to use Christ. For more than fifty years, I have been learning how to use Christ. I can testify that this is difficult because by birth it is not natural for us to use Christ, nor does our training condition us to use Him. Recently, most of my confession to the Lord has been related to my failure to apply Him. The hardest lesson for us to learn as Christians is to apply Christ and to use Him. We have heard a number of messages on living Christ, growing Christ, and producing Christ. Nevertheless, 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 Gospels the Lord charges us to “watch and pray.” I have spent a number of years considering this word. At first I thought that this command was not necessary. But eventually I learned that I certainly need to watch and pray, especially in the matter of applying Christ. As we are waking up in the morning, we need to be watchful not to do anything without applying Christ. Often as we wake up early in the morning, it seems that demons are swarming around the headboard of the bed. Although we are protected by the Lord and covered with His prevailing blood, we still need to be watchful and resist the evil thoughts injected into us by the enemy. Do not think about anything without applying Christ. We certainly need to be on the alert; that is, we need to be watchful and to pray. But very few Christians watch and pray in order to apply Christ.
Although we have all received the Lord Jesus, we are very short in using Him, in applying Him. If we fail to apply Him, then in a practical way in our daily living there is little significance to having received Him. Our experience of Christ should not be so 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 very One we have received.
In 2:7 Paul speaks of having been rooted in Christ. To be rooted in Him is for the growth in life. In this verse Paul views the believers as plants who have been rooted in Christ as the soil. However, many Christians have not been rooted in Christ adequately.
If we have been rooted in Christ properly, there will be no need to talk much about the ground of the church. The ground of the church is oneness. But the base of this oneness is the one Spirit, the one Lord, and the one God and Father, as mentioned by Paul in Ephesians 4. If we have been truly rooted in Christ, in our experience He will be the base of our oneness. Some Seventh-Day Adventists consider the keeping of the Sabbath another testimony on earth in addition to the local churches. Such a statement indicates a lack of being rooted in Christ. If we have been rooted in Him deeply and properly, we would never say that God has set up another testimony. God’s unique testimony is Jesus Christ. If we have been rooted in Him, nothing will be able to distract us from Him. We all should be able to say, “Lord Jesus, I thank You that I have been rooted in You. I have no standing apart from You.” In the Lord’s recovery we can testify that our ground is Christ and Christ alone.
If we consider the situation of today’s Christianity, we shall see that the various denominations and independent groups have something other than Christ as their ground. The Seventh-Day Adventists have as their ground the keeping of the seventh day, whereas the ground of the Baptist denomination is baptism by immersion. Some denominations, such as the Church of Christ, go so far as to insist that only in their water can a believer be baptized properly. Although some groups insist on baptism by immersion, others oppose it; they claim that baptism is strictly spiritual and in the Spirit.
In 1964 I met a man who argued strongly against baptism in water. He insisted that the baptism spoken of in Romans 6 refers to baptism in the Spirit. He interpreted every New Testament reference to baptism after John the Baptist as baptism in the Spirit. He even became quite angry when his position was challenged according to certain verses. A few days later as I was ministering in a certain place, I was challenged by a woman from the Church of Christ concerning water baptism. Just a few days prior, a man argued with me about baptism in the Spirit. Now a woman boldly asked about water baptism. Neither this man nor this woman had been adequately rooted in Christ. This illustrates the shameful fact that Christians are divided because they take as their ground something other than 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.
Having been rooted in Christ, we now are “being built up in Him” (2:7). To be built up is for the building of the Body. Although we have been rooted, we are still in the process of being built up. This is a corporate matter as well as a personal matter. A building is not composed merely of one item, but of many items that have been fitted together. We need to be rooted in Christ and also built up in the church.
Paul was concerned lest the Colossians be distracted from Christ and the church. They 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.
In principle, this is what happened to some saints among us who were influenced by certain concepts. As a result of this influence, they lost their heart for the church life. It was no longer 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.
Verse 7 concludes with the words, “Being established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” The words “in the faith” here mean in our faith, the subjective faith by which we believe. If we are distracted from Christ and turn our attention to things that replace Him, our faith will be weakened, perhaps even shaken. But if we remain in Christ and are built up in the church, our faith will be strengthened.
Those who become dissenting and forsake the church life experience a weakening of their faith. Outwardly they may proclaim to have sweet fellowship with the Lord, but inwardly their faith has waned. When they are alone, they may wonder what is happening inside them. They are troubled by doubts, and they know deep within that they have lost their fellowship with the Lord. Because they have so many doubts and questions, they cannot be established in their faith. By contrast, those who remain in Christ and the church have strong faith and firm assurance.
We have pointed out that “the faith” in verse 7 refers to our faith, the subjective faith. Why does Paul say “the faith” when he is actually speaking of our faith? The answer is that he regards the faith as our faith, and our faith as the faith. We cannot be established in someone else’s faith; we must be established in our own faith. This means that our faith must become the faith and that the faith must be ours. We are established in our faith, which is the faith.
The way to be established in the faith is by abounding in thanksgiving. When we are right with the Lord and in fellowship with Him, we are filled with thanksgiving. But when we are not right with the Lord, we are not able to give thanks. If you ask the dissenting ones if they are abounding with thanksgiving, their mouths will be stopped. If we claim to have good fellowship with the Lord but cannot render thanks to Him, then our claim is false.
According to this verse, the words “abounding in thanksgiving” are related to “being established in the faith.” This indicates that whether or not we have been established in the faith depends on whether or not we are abounding in thanksgiving. If we do a certain thing in fellowship with the Lord, we shall be filled with thanksgiving. However, if we do anything that is apart from Him, we shall not be able to give thanks. For example, are you able to thank the Lord when you participate in a particular form of worldly entertainment? You may claim to be happy, but you cannot honestly thank the Lord. Sometimes it seems that we can thank the Lord for a certain thing, but after a little while we repent of the very thing for which we have given thanks. We must not deceive ourselves. Instead, we should check if we are abounding in thanksgiving. If we are, then we are being established in the faith.
Another way to experience Christ as the mystery of God is to “walk in Him” (2:6). As we have received Christ, we should walk in Him. To walk is to live, to act, to behave, and to have our being. 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.
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 pray that You will be the good land to me in my experience, and that every aspect of my living may be in You.”
In 2:4 Paul says, “This I say that no one may delude you with persuasive speech.” In verse 8 he goes on to say, “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.” If we would experience Christ as the mystery of God, we must take care not to be deluded or carried off from Him. We should not be led away to anything that replaces Christ. We need to remain in Him. As long as we remain in Christ, we shall also remain in the church. Christ must be our only base, our only ground and standing.
In the past few years some were distracted by certain things which they took as their ground instead of Christ. The issue is not whether these things were right or wrong. It is that they were used as a standing in place of Christ. Christ should be our unique focus. We should not allow anything, even the most correct and scriptural things, to replace Him. If we care for anything instead of Christ, we shall be deluded and carried off from Him and thereby become present-day Colossians. Any who have been deluded and carried away from Christ need to receive Paul’s word in this book and return to the all-inclusive Christ. May we all experience Him as the mystery of God!
