Scripture Reading: Col. 2:6; Deut. 8:7-10; Rom. 8:11; 2 Tim. 4:22; Phil. 1:19; 1 Cor. 6:17; 4, Rom. 8:6; Gal. 5:16, 25
In the previous message we spoke about experiencing Christ as the mystery of God. Now we shall go on to consider how to walk in such a Christ. In 2:6 Paul says, “As therefore you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.” To walk in Christ as the mystery of God is to live, act, behave, and have our being in Him.
In chapter one of Colossians Paul presents a profound revelation of Christ. The first aspect of Christ unveiled in this chapter is Christ as the portion of the saints (v. 12). The good land in the Old Testament typifies Christ as the saints’ portion or lot. In this chapter Paul also shows that Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, the Head of the Body, the firstborn from among the dead, and the One in whom all the fullness is pleased to dwell.
Paul opens chapter two with a word about his great struggle for the Colossians that their hearts would be comforted “unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ” (v. 2). Only when the hearts of the saints in Colosse were comforted, cherished, and warmed, could they have a proper understanding of Christ. This would enable them to have the genuine experience of Christ. The Colossians needed a comforted heart and a sober mind in order to have the full knowledge of the Christ they had received and from whom they had been distracted. This Christ, the mystery of God, is the One in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden (v. 3). Furthermore, He is the One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (2:9). Once the Colossians had the full assurance of understanding concerning the all-inclusive Christ, they could then walk in Him.
We have pointed out that the word walk in 2:6 means to live, act, behave, and have our being. The One in whom we are to walk is the all-inclusive One who is revealed in a profound way in chapter one. As such a One, Christ is the portion of the saints and the mystery of God’s economy. Like the Colossians, we need to be exhorted to walk in the Christ who is everything to us.
As Paul was writing this chapter of Colossians, he was considering the picture of the good land in the Old Testament as a type of the all-inclusive Christ. There is a suggestion of this in 1:12, where Paul says that Christ is the portion of the saints. Then in 2:6 Paul tells us to walk in Christ. This implies that Christ is the land, the territory, the realm, in which we may walk. Furthermore, his reference to being rooted in Christ in 2:7 also indicates that he was thinking of the good land. In order to be rooted in Christ, He must be our land, our soil. All these are indications that the Christ revealed in Colossians is our good land.
Paul had a strong background in the Old Testament. As he was writing such Epistles as Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Colossians, and Hebrews, he must have had the Old Testament Scriptures very much in mind, and he wrote many things according to them. In particular, as Paul was writing the book of Colossians, he had before him the picture of the land of Canaan. He was aware that God’s chosen people in Old Testament times enjoyed the good land as their portion. Furthermore, he realized that the good land was everything to them. It was through the good land that they could worship God and build the temple for God’s testimony and for His unique dwelling place. It was through the good land that God’s purpose could be fulfilled through the children of Israel. Fully realizing what the good land meant to God’s chosen people, Paul composed the Epistle to the Colossians with the portrait of the good land in mind. Therefore, if we would experience the all-inclusive Christ as revealed in this book, we need to realize that such a Christ is typified by the land of Canaan. The Christ who is typified by the good land is the processed Triune God as the life-giving Spirit. I admit that I emphasize this point again and again. This is my commission and burden from the Lord.
If we would walk in Christ as the mystery of God, we must see that, according to Paul’s concept, the Christ in whom we are to walk is the good land. Concerning this matter, we need the full assurance of understanding. Message after message could be given on the subject of Christ as the good land. This matter is inexhaustible.
The first major conference held in the United States in December, 1962, was on the all-inclusive Christ typified by the land of Canaan. Those messages have been published as The All-Inclusive Christ. A very good hymn on the experience of Christ as life was inspired by these messages. The last stanza of this hymn (Hymns, #499) is given below:
Oh, what a prize! Oh, what a gain!Christ is the goal toward which I press.Nothing I treasure, nor aught desire,But Christ of all-inclusiveness.My hope, my glory, and my crownIs Christ, the One of peerlessness.
In that conference a number of messages were given on Deuteronomy 8:7-10. Based on these verses, we considered the unsearchable riches of the land: the water, the food, and the minerals. What we shared in those messages was only an introductory word. A great deal remains to be said about the riches of Christ typified by the land of Canaan.
Students of the Word realize that the Bible is not easy to understand. When I was a young Christian, I told the Lord that I did not agree with the way He wrote the Bible. According to my opinion, He should have written it in a systematic way, covering each of the major points systematically and putting all the material together under various major headings and subdivisions. Nevertheless, we must recognize that the Lord’s way is the best. In the Bible the Lord speaks about a particular subject in various places. Take justification as an example. This subject is covered in more than one book. Because our capacity is so limited, the Lord knew that He could reveal only a little at a time concerning spiritual matters such as justification. This is true all the more of the revelation of Christ as our good land.
On the one hand, the good land is revealed in the Old Testament. On the other hand, it is concealed there. Although this statement appears contradictory, actually it is not. Because Deuteronomy describes the good land, we may say that the good land is revealed in the Old Testament. But because the meaning and significance of the good land are concealed, we may also say that the land is concealed in the Scriptures. As the Lord’s children, supplied by His mercy and grace, delved into the Word, they began to realize that the good land promised by God to His chosen people is a type of Christ. If the Passover enjoyed in Egypt and the manna experienced in the wilderness were types of Christ, then the good land must also be a type of Christ.
In Joshua 5:11 and 12 we see a hint that the good land typifies Christ as the continuation of the manna. Verse 11 says that the children of Israel ate of the produce of the land. Verse 12 is especially clear: “And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the produce of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year” (Heb.). Manna was a type of Christ as the life supply for God’s people. As these verses in Joshua point out, the produce of the good land is the continuation of the manna. Therefore, if the manna typified Christ, the produce of the good land must also typify Him. By means of the supply of manna in the wilderness, God’s people were able to build the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place. In the same principle, through the supply of the rich produce of the land they were able to build the temple as a more solid dwelling place for God. No doubt, the good land enjoyed by the children of Israel is a significant type of Christ, for through the enjoyment of it the temple was built. We may even say that it is the ultimate type of Christ found in the Scriptures. It is a complete and all-inclusive type of Christ.
To have our hearts comforted and knit together in love unto the full knowledge of Christ as the mystery of God includes having the full knowledge of Christ as typified by the good land. We need to know in detail how Christ is typified by all the items mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:7-11. He is the water that springs from valleys and hills. He is the wheat and the barley, which signify respectively the incarnated and crucified Christ and the resurrected Christ. We must go on to see how Christ is typified by the wine, oil, figs, pomegranates, and minerals. Without these verses in Deuteronomy 8, we would be short in our understanding of the all-inclusiveness of Christ.
The land is the crucial focus of the Old Testament. This is the reason that in the Old Testament the Lord speaks of the land again and again. He called out Abraham and told him that He would bring him into a certain land, which was the land of Canaan. Consider how many times from Genesis 12 to the end of the Old Testament the Lord referred to the land. Actually, the center of the Old Testament is the temple within the city built in the good land. If we know the Scriptures and have light from God, we shall realize that the center of God’s eternal plan, speaking according to the type, is the land with its temple and city. Beginning with the book of Genesis, the Old Testament takes the land as the center and mentions again and again something related to the land. As we have pointed out repeatedly, the land is the figure of the all-inclusive Christ, a type of Christ as everything to us.
Satan, the enemy of God, has been doing his utmost continually to frustrate the people of God from enjoying the good land. He will do whatever he can to spoil the enjoyment of Christ as the land. Not long after God created the heavens and the earth, with the intention of giving the earth to mankind as an enjoyment, Satan did something to frustrate Him. Because of Satan’s rebellion, God had to judge the universe, and due to that judgment the earth was buried beneath the waters of the deep. After a period of time, God came in to work and to recover the land from the waters of the deep. Upon this recovered land, an abundance of life came into being, and there came forth a life with the image of God, a life committed with the authority of God. However, not long afterward the enemy of God came in again to deceive man and to put God in a position where judgment upon the earth was again imperative. At the time of Noah, the recovered earth was once more put under the waters of the deep. Speaking according to the type, man was separated from the enjoyment of Christ as signified by the land. But through the redemption of the ark, Noah and his family obtained the right to possess the land and enjoy all its riches. The flood separated the people from the earth, but the ark brought Noah and his family back to the enjoyment of the earth. Once again man took possession of the land and enjoyed its riches.
However, it was not too long before the enemy did something further to spoil the enjoyment of the earth, this time through the rebellion at Babel. Therefore, out of the fallen race made rebellious by Satan, God called one man, Abraham, and told him that He would bring him into a certain land. However, even this chosen one gradually drifted away from the land into Egypt, and the Lord had to bring him back to the land. Eventually, his descendants left this land and went down into Egypt. After a long period of time, the Lord brought His people out of Egypt and back to the good land. Centuries later, the enemy moved again and sent the army from Babylon to spoil the land and capture the people. But after seventy years the Lord brought them back once more to the good land. By all this we see that the history of the Old Testament is related to the land. God’s work is always to recover the land, whereas the enemy’s work is always to frustrate, spoil, and hinder the enjoyment of the land and do something to bring the land into chaos. The enemy’s intention is to assault the land and take it over. But after the enemy makes his attempt, God moves to fight for His people and to recover the land again.
We need to be deeply impressed that this good land typifies the all-inclusive Christ. We have pointed out that in Colossians 2:7 Paul says that we have been rooted in Christ. If we have been rooted in Christ, then He must be our soil, our earth. Have you ever realized that Christ is the very land in which you are rooted, that you are a plant rooted in Christ as the soil? I deeply feel that most of the Lord’s children are still in Egypt. They have experienced the Lord only as the Passover lamb. Others have come out of Egypt and enjoy Christ as their daily manna as they wander in the wilderness. But very few believers experience Christ as the realm, the sphere, in which they walk. May the Lord open our eyes to see that Christ is our good land and that we must daily walk in Him!
In Galatians 3:14 Paul says, “That the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Jesus Christ, 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 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.
A number of books written by Paul, including Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Philippians, indicate that Christ today is the all-inclusive Spirit. Christ is the embodiment of God and the expression of God. Through incarnation, He became the last Adam, who was crucified on the cross 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, “Now the Lord is that 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 thy spirit,” and in 1 Corinthians 6:17, “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” Therefore, Christ as the all-inclusive good land is now in our spirit. Concerning this, we all need the riches of the full assurance of understanding.
Having the full assurance that the all-inclusive Spirit is mingled with our spirit, we should set our minds on this mingled spirit (Rom. 8:6). By doing this, we are spontaneously setting our minds 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 shall 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 minds on the spirit, and to walk according to the spirit. This is to walk in Christ as the mystery of God.
