Chapter V: AUTOGRAPH CONCLUSION.--1. The Judaisers' motive (ch. vi. 12, 13) (32)

It is an impressive spectacle to see a well-armed body of troops drawn up in compact military order, resisting with calm, unflinching courage the terrible charge of the enemy. Every point of attack is strongly guarded, every vacancy occurring in the exposed front line is instantly supplied, and the broad, deep phalanx remains impenetrable and invincible. The enforced companionship of the apostle with the soldiers of the prætorian guard, in his imprisonment in Rome, where he would be a daily witness of their exercises, might suggest some such metaphor as this to the mind. And as he foresaw the confusion and ruin that would be introduced into the Colossian Church if the fatal errors of the false teachers were triumphant, in this verse he _expresses his joyous satisfaction in being assured of the orderly array and firmly set stability which their faith in Christ presented against the assaults of the foe._ Note:--

+I. The apostle commended the external order of the members of the Church.+--"Beholding your order." This is mentioned first, because it first meets the eye, though all external discipline and order must necessarily spring out of and accompany a genuine faith. There is no form of ecclesiastical government that can claim an exclusively Divine sanction. The New Testament lays down broad, general principles; and the Christian Church has been left to shape itself according to circumstances and in harmony with the indications of Divine Providence. True order depends, not upon the form of Church polity we adopt--whether prelacy, presbytery, or congregationalism--as upon the consistency, fidelity, and union of the individual members of the Church. Order that is not based on a vigorous Church-life, and regulated by it, is empty and powerless; it is like the ice of the Polar regions, which sometimes assumes forms of exquisite and wondrous beauty, but is cold, heartless, dead. The Scriptural directions on this subject are brief but pregnant with meaning: "Let all things be done decently and in order"; "God is not the Author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the Churches of the saints"; "Let all things be done with charity"; "The rest will I set in order when I come" (1 Cor. xiv. 40, xiv. 33, xvi. 14, xi. 34). While organisation that is not instinct with a moving, pervasive and aggressive life is cumbersome, vapid, and useless; on the other hand, Christian steadfastness is imperilled where order is disregarded.

+II. The apostle commended their stability in the faith.+--"And the steadfastness of your faith in Christ." These words describe the internal condition of the Church; and the picture of a firm, confident reliance on Christ which he beheld delighted the soul of the anxious apostle. Order is the fence and guard, steadfastness the end in view, order is the garb and ornament, steadfastness the substance of the Christian character. Faith girds and strengthens the soul with its unchanging and invincible verities; the shafts of error and profanity assail it in vain. When the Roman proconsul, from his judgment-seat, urged the holy Polycarp to save his life by cursing the name of Jesus Christ, the venerable martyr calmly answered: "For eighty-six years I have served Him; He has never yet done me harm. How can I blaspheme my King, who has saved me?" Man is great and noble, not by what he possesses, not by what he says, not by what he gives, not by what he does, but by what he _believes._ The most magnanimous outward conduct may be, after all, a very imperfect representation of the soul's deepest faith. What a man believes is not therefore a matter of comparative indifference, but a question of supreme importance; he must have a clear, definite creed. True a creed is but the visible, expressive mould of the inward conception of the truth believed; but as the tendency of all life is to assume form and can be understood by us only as it does so, so faith, as a vital and irresistibly active principle, must inevitably shape itself into some outward expression. Where there is no creed, there is no faith; a creedless man believes in nothing, and he is himself that nothing. He has no more cohesion in him than the separate particles of sand in the hour-glass. All true faith takes its rise "in Christ," and gathers its stability by continuing in Him.

+III. The apostle cherished a deep, personal interest in their welfare.+--1. _In spirit he was present with them._ "For though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit." We have no satisfactory evidence that the apostle had as yet personally visited Colossæ. Epaphras, the faithful and anxious evangelist, sought him out in Rome, perhaps for the purpose of laying before him the state of Colossæ and of the neighbouring Churches on the banks of the Lycus. The apostle's interest in Colossæ was further excited at this time by meeting with Onesimus, a runaway slave, belonging to the household of Philemon, a Colossian. The apostle was the means of bringing the runaway to repentance and to the enjoyment of the liberty of the spiritually free. These circumstances deepened St. Paul's concern in the affairs of the Colossian Christians; he grasped all the points of the situation, was keenly alive to the gravity of the dangers with which they were threatened, and, as though he were personally present in their midst, expressed his sincere sympathy with them in their trials, and his profound satisfaction on hearing of their steady adherence to the truth. It is not necessary to be locally near in order to hold spiritual intercourse; oceans may roll between individuals whose souls participate in the highest communion. The soul is where it loves: thither it directs its affections, wishes, and hopes.

2. _He rejoiced in their fidelity._--"Joying and beholding." As though an actual spectator of their order and steadfastness, his soul is filled with joy. The expression of his hearty interest in their state, and his praise of their fidelity, prepared them to give heed to his cautions against the seductions of false teachers, and to his exhortations to perseverance. No disappointment is so poignant as that arising from the failure of Christian toil, and no joy so exquisite as the joy of success. The spectacle of a Christian Church poised in beauteous order and strengthened with the might of an unfalteringly aggressive faith, is a subject of unspeakable joy to God, to His angels, and to all true ministers.

+Lessons.+--1. _Attention must be paid to the outward as well as the inward state of the Church._ 2. _While the Church preserves its order and stability it is invulnerable._ 3. _It is cause of rejoicing when the Church faithfully maintains the conquests already won._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6, 7.

_Suggestive Features of the Christian Life._

The Christian life is essentially progressive. The law that governs its existence involves perpetual, active increase; if it did not grow, it would cease to live. Unlike the principle of growth in the natural world, we cannot conceive a point in the religious life where it necessarily becomes stationary, and then begins to decline, on the other hand, every provision is made for its unceasing expansion in the highest moral excellencies.

+I. The Christian life begins in a personal reception of Christ.+--"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord" (ver. 6). Religion is not a self-development of innate human goodness, as many in the present day believe and teach. The soul of man is infected with the virulent poison of sin; no part has escaped the destructive moral taint. The utmost exercise of the unsanctified powers of the soul can therefore tend only towards the development of its own inborn corruption. As the vinegar plant reproduces itself with great rapidity and impregnates every branch and fibre with its own essential acid, so the evil reigning in man reproduces itself with marvellous rapidity and permeates the whole soul with its debasing poison. Religion is a receiving--the receiving of a gift, and that a Divine gift. It is the growth and development of the supernatural in man. "Christ in you the hope of glory."

1. _Christ is received as_ THE CHRIST.--The Colossian heresy aimed at subverting the true idea of the Christ, the _Anointed One,_ commissioned by the Father to effect the reconciliation of the world to Himself; it interposed a graduated series of angelic mediators, and thus thought to discredit the sole and absolute mediatorship of Christ. To receive the Son of God effectually is to receive Him in all that He claimed to be, and all that He came to do, as the Divine, specially anointed Son, who alone and fully manifested the Father, and who is the only mediator between sinful man and God. It is of unspeakable importance to catch the true idea of the character and office of Christ at the beginning of the Christian life.

2. _Christ is received as Jesus the Lord._--Jesus is the name by which He was known among men, and points out how completely He has identified Himself with humanity as the Saviour. "It behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." He is also Lord, the supreme Governor in all spheres, in nature, providence, and grace. To receive Jesus aright, He must be trusted as the Saviour, able to save to the uttermost, acknowledged as the Sovereign and universal Ruler, and homage and obedience rendered to His rightful authority. Our reception of Christ does not place us beyond the reach of law but creates in us the capacity for rendering an intelligent and cheerful obedience to its holy requirements.

3. _Christ is received by an act of faith._--To receive Christ is to believe in Him; and faith in Christ is simply the reception of Christ: the only way of receiving Him into the soul is by faith. The soul accepts, not only the testimony concerning Christ, whether furnished by Himself or by His witnesses, but accepts Christ Himself. The great, final object of faith that saves is Christ, and all testimony is valuable only as it brings us to Him. The sin-tossed spirit finds rest and peace only as it reposes, not in an abstract truth, but in a person--not in love as the law of the moral universe, but in a person who is Himself love.

+II. The Christian life is governed by the law of Christ.+--"So walk ye in Him" (ver. 6). The word "walk" expresses the general conduct of man and the process of progression in the formation of individual character. The will of Christ, as indicated in His character, words, spirit, and example, is the ruling principle in the life of the believer.

1. _To walk in Christ implies a recognition of Him in all things._--In everything that constitutes our daily life--business, domestic relations, social engagements, friendships, pleasures, cares, and trials--we may trace the presence of Christ and recognise His rule. Everywhere, on road, or rail, or sea--in all seasons of distress or joy, of poverty or wealth, of disturbance or rest--we may be conscious of the encompassing and regulating presence of Christ Jesus the Lord.

2. _To walk in Christ implies a complete consecration to Him._--He has the supreme claim upon our devotion and service: "We are not our own; we are bought with a price." Our life consists in serving Him: "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord." The best of everything we possess should be cheerfully offered to Him. Carpeaux, the celebrated French sculptor, was kept in comparative retirement for some time before his death by a long and painful illness. One Sunday, as he was being drawn to church, he was accosted by a certain prince, who exclaimed, "Carpeaux, I have good news for you! You have been advanced in the Legion of Honour. Here is the _rosette d'officier._" The emaciated sculptor smiled and replied, "Thank you, my dear friend. It is the good God who shall first have the noble gift." Saying which, he approached the altar, put the _rosette_ in his button-hole, and reverentially knelt down to pray.

3. _To walk in Christ implies a continual approximation to the highest life in Him._--The Christian can rise no higher than to be most like Christ. The highest ambition of the apostle was to be "found in Him." Life in Him is a perpetual progress in personal purity and ever-deepening felicity. Our interest in the vast future is intensified by the Christ-inspired hope that we shall be for ever virtually united to Him, that we shall delight in ever-changing visions of His matchless glory, that we shall be like Him, and reflect and illustrate the splendour of His all-perfect character. Every triumph over sin is a substantial advance towards this glorious future destiny.

+III. The Christian life is supported and established by faith in fully declared truth.+--1. _There is the idea of stability._ The believer is rooted in Christ, as a tree planted in firm, immovable soil; he is built up in Christ, as an edifice on a sure foundation; and in both senses, as a tree and as a building, he must be established in the truth which has been demonstrated to him as Divine and all-authoritative. It is not enough to preserve the appearance of an external walk in Christ; but the roots of our faith must be worked into Him, and the superstructure of holiness rest on Him as the only foundation laid in Zion. The soul thus firmly established will survive the heaviest storms of adversity and the most furious assaults of error.

2. _There is the idea of progress._--Walking implies a continual advance to a given destination; a tree is planted in order to grow; the building, after the foundation is laid, rises to completion. The word "built" is in the present tense and describes a work in actual process. So the believer, having become attached to the only foundation that is laid, which is Christ Jesus, is ever rising in conformity with the foundation and with the outlines of that grand spiritual edifice of which Christ is the pattern and glory. Faith is the cement that fastens one part of the building to the other; but faith as a living, active principle, also admits of increase. With respect to every individual effort after a higher spiritual life, according to our faith it is done unto us.

+IV. The Christian life has its most appropriate outflow in thanksgiving.+--"Abounding therein with thanksgiving" (ver. 7). The end of all human conduct is thanksgiving. It should be expressed in every word and appear in every action. Life should be a ceaseless, ever-abounding outflow of gratitude. We should never forget the magnitude of the blessings we have received, the wealth of mercies now offered to us, and the source whence they all issue. A thankful remembrance of past benefits cheers and strengthens the heart under difficulties and disposes the bounteous Donor to confer further benefits. There is nothing in which Christians are more deficient than in a devout and heartily expressed gratitude. Gratitude expands our sympathies for the race. What a triumph of disinterested thankfulness was that of the invalid who, though confined to his room, "thanked God for the sunshine for others to enjoy"! The spirit of Christian progress is one of unceasing thanksgiving.

+Lessons.+--1. _The Christian life is Divinely bestowed._ 2. _The Christian life is Divinely sustained._ 3. _The reality of the Christian life is evidenced by effusive and practical gratitude._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 6, 7. _Retrospection the Basis of Progress._

+I. The Christian consciousness in its apprehension of Christ.+--1. _There are two opposing theories prevalent on the person of Christ--the rationalistic and the revealed._ The one rules out His Godhead; the other is the basis of the Christian faith. 2. _Two systems of theology, widely distinct from each other, are dependent on these theories._ The one puts man at its centre, and is wholly human; the other enthrones God, and is essentially Divine. 3. _There is only one Christ, one faith, one salvation._ 4. _It is within the one or the other of these two systems that we must posit our decisions._

+II. The Christian consciousness in its reception of Christ.+--1. _Faith receives the whole Christ._ 2. _Christ asks and gets the whole man._ 3. _The life of faith, as embodied in the moralities of Christian living, is thus provided for and follows this consecrating act._

+III. The Christian consciousness in its subjection to Christ.+--1. _The sphere of the lordship of Christ is the human mind._ 2. _The claim of this lordship is absolute._ 3. _The mind is free and unconstrained in its surrender to the authority of Christ.--John Burton._

Ver. 6. _Moral Imitation._

+I. The text assumes that man possesses the faculty of imitation.+

+II. He requires an example to imitate and that example is Christ.+

+III. A model must be seen to be imitated, so Christ has presented
Himself to us for that purpose.+--_W. Frazer._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 8.

_The Marks of a False Philosophy._

Philosophy plays an important part in the investigation and discovery of truth. The use of the word arose out of the humility of Pythagoras, who called himself a lover of wisdom. The noblest intellects of all ages have been devoted to the pursuit of the same coveted prize. Philosophy represents the highest effort of the human intellect in its search after knowledge. It explores and tests phenomena in the realm of physics and of morals and discovers the subtle laws by which those phenomena are governed. It elevates man to his true rank in creation, and teaches that he must be estimated, not by his physical relation to the outward world, but by the sublime endowments of his mind, into which it is the special function of philosophy to inquire. The philosophic mood never reaches its highest development till it is Christianised. The apostle does not stigmatise all philosophy as in vain; he knew the value of a true philosophy, and in his estimation the Christian religion was the embodiment of the highest philosophy. But he warned the Colossians against a false philosophy that was deceptive in its pretensions and deadly in its influence.

+I. A false philosophy is known by its profitless speculations.+--The absence of both preposition and article in the second clause shows that "vain deceit" describes and qualifies philosophy. A celebrated Roman sophist summed up his deliberate judgment on the efforts of the learned in the painful search after wisdom in these words: "The human mind wanders in a diseased delirium, and it is therefore not surprising that there is no possible folly which philosophers, at one time or another, have propounded as a lesson of wisdom." When the most highly cultured intellects have been gravely occupied with tricks of magic, the casting of nativities, the random guesses of soothsaying, and the pretended marvels of a mystic astrology; when the best of life has been spent in discussing transcendental questions as to the eternity of matter, fate, the mortality of the soul, the worship of angels, and their mature endowments and habits, and in definitional hair-splitting as to what constitutes the chief good of man; when the truest and best discoveries of human reason are used to disparage Divine revelation and discredit the absolute authority of saving truth--then philosophy falsifies its name, frustrates its lofty mission, and degenerates into vain, empty, profitless speculations. The student of the theories and contradictions of certain philosophic schools may begin with extravagant expectations, only to end in chagrin and despondency. The errors which assailed the Colossian Church were a mixture of the Oriental system of Zoroaster with Judaism, and with the crude, half-comprehended truths of Christianity. It was a mongrel system of philosophy, containing the germs of what afterwards developed into an advanced Gnosticism and became the prolific source of many forms of heresy. Its abettors became "vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves wise, they became fools" (Rom. i. 21, 22).

+II. A false philosophy is known by its purely human origin.+--"After the tradition of men."

1. _The human mind is limited._--The stream can never rise higher than its source; so the wisdom that comes from man is necessarily bounded by the range of his mental powers. The human mind cannot penetrate far into any subject without discovering there is a point beyond which all is darkness and uncertainty. It is impossible for the circumscribed and unaided mind of man to construct a philosophy that shall be universally true and beneficial. Tillotson has said: "Philosophy has given us several plausible rules for attaining peace and tranquillity of mind, but they fall very much short in bringing men to it."

2. _All human knowledge is imperfect._--"If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." The _traditions_ of men are the accumulation of mere human theories transmitted from age to age until they have assumed the pretensions of a philosophy, imposing a number of uninspired and unauthorised observances and austerities. The imperfection of human knowledge is not obliterated but aggravated by its antiquity. A philosophy that builds solely on man is baseless and full of danger.

+III. A false philosophy is known by its undue exaltation of elementary principles.+--"After the rudiments of the world." The source of the false teaching against which the apostle warned was found in human tradition, and its subject-matter was made up of "the rudiments of the world"--the most elementary instruction conveyed by external and material objects, suited only to man's infancy in the world. The legal rights and ceremonies instituted by Moses are evidently referred to here; they were the first rough elements of an introductory religion fit only for children--shadows at best of great and deeper truths to which they were intended to lead, and yet, by the tendency of the soul to cling to the outward, gendering to bondage. "Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements [rudiments] of the world. But now, after that ye have known God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements?" (Gal. iv. 3-10). The apostle shows the Colossians that, in Christ, they had been exalted into the sphere of the Spirit, and that it would be a sad retrogression to plunge again into the midst of the sensuous and ceremonial. A true philosophy, while starting necessarily with elementary principles, conducts its votaries into a pathway of increasing knowledge and of spiritual exaltation and liberty. A false philosophy fetters the mind by exaggerating the importance of first principles and insisting on their eternal obligation.

+IV. A false philosophy is known by its Christlessness.+--"And not after Christ." Christ is neither the author nor the substance of its teaching; not the author, for its advocates rely on human traditions; not the substance, for they ignore Christ by the substitution of external ceremonies and angelic mediators. Such a method of philosophising may be after the Jewish fanatics, after the Pythagoreans or Platonists, after Moses and his abrogated legalism; but is it _not after Christ._ There is no affinity between Christ and their inventions; the substances cannot amalgamate. As it is impossible, by any process, to convert a baser metal into gold, so it is impossible to elevate a vain philosophy into Christianity. All true saving knowledge must be after--_i.e._ according to--Christ. It is in Him alone the deepest wants of man's nature can be met and satisfied. Any philosophy, though championed by the most brilliant intellects, that tends to lure the soul from Christ, that puts anything in the place of Him, or depreciates in any way our estimate of His glorious character, is false and full of peril.

+V. A false philosophy is known by its destructive influence.+--"Lest any man spoil you." The meaning of the word "spoil" is very full and significant: it is not simply to despoil--to strip off--but to carry away as spoil, just as the four kings, after the battle in the vale of Siddim, plundered the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and bore away as spoil the people and all their property and victuals (Gen. xiv. 12-16). The Colossians had been rescued from the bondage of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of light; they were settled there as free and happy citizens; and now there was danger lest they should be tampered with by some crafty marauder, seized and carried away as booty, and fall into a worse state than their former slavery. There are worse losses than loss of property, or even of children: man is never so grievously spoiled as when his soul is debased and robbed by the errors of wicked seducers. Men who have contemptuously given up the Bible as a book of fables, lost their peace of mind, wrecked their moral character, and blasted their prospects for ever, began their downward career by embracing the apparently harmless ideas of a false philosophy. "The thief cometh not," saith Jesus, "but to steal, to kill, and to destroy; I"--the infallible Teacher, the incorruptible Guardian, the inexhaustible Life-giver--"am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John x. 10).

+VI. Against a false philosophy the Church must be faithfully warned.+--"Beware."

1. _Because it is seductive in its pretensions._--It seeks to refine and elevate the plain Gospel by a show of lofty intellectualism; it dignifies some particular religious rite into an unjustifiable importance; it elaborates a ritual marvellous for spectacular display and musical effect; it flatters the pride and ministers to the corruption of the human heart; and, stealing through the avenue of the charmed senses, gains an imperious mastery over the whole man.

2. _Because it is baneful in its effect._--It not only misrepresents and distorts the truth, but injures the faculties of the soul by which truth is obtained and kept. It darkens the understanding, pollutes the conscience, and weakens the will. It robs man of his dearest treasure, and offers in exchange a beggarly system of crude, unsatisfying speculations. The soul is goaded into a restless search after rest and cursed with its non-attainment.

+Lessons.+--1. _Human philosophy is essentially defective._ 2. _The true philosophy is the highest knowledge of Christ._ 3. _All philosophy that weans the soul from Christ is false and should be shunned._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9, 10.

_The Divine Fulness of Christ a Pledge of the Believer's Perfection._

Christianity is the true philosophy. Here are its profoundest depths, its loftiest themes, its most substantial discoveries. The philosophy that is not after Christ is vain and misleading. It was a false conception of the Colossian heresy that the Divine energy was dispersed among several spiritual agencies. The apostle boldly declares that in Christ dwells the whole πλήρωμα the entire fulness of the Deity, and that it is in vain to seek for spiritual life in communion with inferior creatures.

+I. The Divine fulness of Christ.+--1. _In Christ is the fulness of the Deity._ "For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead" (ver. 9). A small text, but a great subject. These words contain the sublimest truth in the narrowest compass. Fulness is a term used to signify all that anything contains. Hence, we read of the fulness of the earth, the fulness of the sea, and that the Church is Christ's body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. In Christ inhere all the perfections, attributes, and qualities that essentially constitute the Divine nature--power, wisdom, eternity, self-existence, omnipresence, truth, love, holiness. The deities of the heathen never pretended to possess more than a few Divine attributes, some portion of Divinity. But Christ contains in Himself the totality of Divine powers and excellencies.

2. _The fulness of the Deity in Christ is present and permanent._--"Dwelleth." The present tense is used. It is not as a transient gleam or as a brilliant display to serve a temporary purpose, but as an ever-present and unchanging reality. Mystery of mysteries! the body that hungered and thirsted, that bled and died, that rose and ascended on high, is still the temple of illimitable Deity! The manifestations of God through angels and prophets were brief and partial. The Shekinah, or visible glory, that hovered over the ark of the covenant was a symbol only of a present deity and disappeared as mysteriously as it came. But in Christ, the transcendent fulness of the Godhead finds its permanent home, never to depart, never to vanish.

3. _The fulness of the Deity in Christ has a visible embodiment._--"Bodily." In the person of Christ every moral perfection of the Godhead was enshrined and brought within the range of human vision. He presented and proved the fact of the Divine existence. He embodied and declared the Divine spirituality. He delineated the Divine disposition, and character in the days of His flesh. Gleams of the Divine nature occasionally broke forth. "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of God" (John i. 14). And now, from that subtle, glorified human form of our exalted Mediator, the splendour of the Deity rays forth, filling the universe with light and glory and joy. In Christ the Godhead is revealed, not as a changing, shadowy phantasm, but as a positive, substantial reality.

+II. The supreme authority of Christ.+--"Which is the Head of all principality and power" (ver. 10).

1. _Angels are the principalities and powers of the universe._--They are called _spirits_ to express their nature, and _angels_ to designate their office as messengers sent by God. They are called _sons of God,_ to indicate their lofty relationship; _cherubim,_ because of their composite nature, and because they are placed under the presence of Jehovah, whose moving throne they appear to draw; _seraphim,_ because of their burning ardour in executing the commands of God; _stars of the morning,_ to set forth their brightness; _a flaming fire,_ because of the fierceness and celerity with which they carry out the vengeance of Heaven; and they are called _principalities_ and _powers_ on account of their exalted rank and superior endowments.

2. _Among the principalities and powers of the universe Christ has supreme authority._--He is the Head of all angelic hierarchies. He called them into being. He endows them with vast intelligence. He designates their rank. He controls their beneficent ministries. He fills the circle of their bliss. To worship angels, or to seek their mediation in the affairs of the soul, is not only gross idolatry, but an insufferable insult to the fulness of the Deity in Christ.

+III. The believer's fulness in Christ.+--"And ye are complete in Him" (ver. 10).

1. _In Christ is the inspiration of the believer's life._--The soul finds its true life by believing on the Son of God. "He that hath the Son hath life" (1 John v. 12). In ourselves we are like empty vessels; but in Christ we are filled up to the brim. As there is an original and Divine fulness of the Godhead in Christ, so there is a derived fulness communicated to us. Every advance in Christian experience, every aspiration after a more exalted spiritual tone, every yearning of the soul after clearer light, every struggle for victory over self and sin, is prompted and accelerated by the impetuous inflow of the Divine life.

2. _In Christ is the perfect ideal of the believer's character._--Christ has exalted human nature. He took not on Him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham. He has shown what human nature can become, and what it can do. In Him we have the illustrious pattern after which our souls are to be fashioned and rounded off into a full-orbed completeness. "Christ is the mirror that glasses God's image before us, and the Spirit is the plastic force within that transfers and photographs that image; and so, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

3. _In Christ is the interminable bliss of the believer's future._--The present life is a training for the future. The more it is in harmony with the will of Christ the happier will it be. Every attempt, amid the multiform relations of life, to do our duty in a Christly spirit, is bringing us into closer sympathy with Christ, and preparing us for a joyous life with Him hereafter. The apostle expressed the condition of the highest conceivable bliss to the believer in the words, "And so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. iv. 17).

+Lessons.+--1. _Christ is essentially Divine._ 2. _There is an ineffable fulness of salvation in Christ._ 3. _All secondary mediators between God and man are superfluous._ 4. _The soul is complete in Christ only as it believes in Him._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 9, 10. _A Presentation of Two Great Truths._

+I. That all Christianity centres in Christ.+

+II. That union to Christ makes the soul independent of
others.+--_Dykes._

Ver. 9. _The Fulness of Christ._

+I. Christ is full of the power of God.+

+II. The love of God.+

+III. The grace of God.+

+IV. The faithfulness of God.+

+V. The purpose of God to punish sin.+--_Preacher's Magazine._

Ver. 10. _The Completing of the Soul._

+I. We are made complete in Christ by inspirations.+

+II. We have ideas and ideals in Christ.+

+III. We are set in a various scheme of relations that we may have a
training in virtues equally various and be perfected in them
and by means of them.+--_Bushnell._

_The Believer Complete in Christ._

+I. Complete in Him with respect to the work which He hath already performed.+--1. _His obedience and atonement were precisely what God Himself had prescribed._ 2. _That He obeyed and atoned, we have the perfect evidence of observation and testimony._ He Himself declared, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." "It is finished." To this the Father and the Spirit have expressly borne testimony: by signs and wonders; His resurrection; His ascension; the descent of the Spirit; conversions; the glorification of His people. 3. _Into His righteousness thus perfect the believer is admitted._

+II. Complete in Him with respect to the work which He is now performing.+--1. _Interceding in heaven._ 2. _Ruling on earth,_ and thus giving grace and affording protection.

+III. Complete in Him with respect to the work which He is hereafter to perform.+--1. _As the Resurrection._ 2. _As the Judge._ 3. _As the Glorifier._ 4. _As the Consummation and Communicator of eternal blessedness.--Stewart._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 11, 12.

_Christian Circumcision._

There were two principal errors lying at the root of the heresy that was doing so much damage at Colossæ. One was the theological error of substituting inferior and created angelic mediators for the Divine Head Himself. The other was a practical error, in insisting upon ritual and ascetic observances as the foundation of moral teaching. Thus, their theological speculations and ethical code alike were at fault. Both errors flowed from a common source--the false conception that evil resides in matter, a fruitful source of many fatal heresies. Some contended the Colossians could not be complete in Christ without submitting to the Jewish rite of circumcision; but the apostle showed that they were the subjects of a superior circumcision.

+I. Christian circumcision is inward and spiritual.+--"Ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands" (ver. 11). The hand-wrought circumcision of the Jews was simply an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. This is abundantly clear in the language of the Old Testament: "No stranger uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My sanctuary." "The Lord Thy God will circumcise thine heart, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and all thy soul" (Ezek. xliv. 9; Deut. xxx. 6). The argument of the apostle is that the Colossians had secured all the spiritual results aimed at in the ancient rite, and that by a better circumcision, even that made without hands, by the spiritual and almighty power of Christ, so that it was unnecessary for them or any other Gentiles to submit to the abrogated Hebraic ordinance. The true circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter (Rom. ii. 28, 29).

+II. Christian circumcision is complete.+--"In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh" (ver. 11); or, as Bengel translates, _putting off the body of the sins_--that is to say, _the flesh._ Manual circumcision, according to the law of Moses, was the cutting away of only a small part of the flesh. But the true spiritual circumcision consists in putting off, renouncing, and casting away with disgust the _whole body_ of our corrupt nature--the entire fleshly principle. The whole bulk of sin is fitly compared to a _body,_ because of the weight of guilt there is in it (Rom. vii. 24), and the soul is completely compassed by it, as it is with our natural body (Gen. vi. 5). When the heart is circumcised, the total mass of sin is put off, as the porter puts off his burden, the beggar his rages, the master his false servant, and the serpent its skin. Old things pass away; all things become new.

+III. Christian circumcision is Divine.+--"By the circumcision of Christ" (ver. 11). It is wrought, without hands, by the inward, invisible power of the Divine Spirit of Christ. It supersedes the external form of the circumcision of the law and fulfils all its spiritual designs in a far more perfect manner than even the spiritually-minded Jew could adequately conceive. What can never be effected by the moral law, by external, ascetic ceremonies, or by philosophic speculations, is accomplished by the circumcision of Christ. The whole body of sin is mortified, the soul is quickened and renewed, and brought into the possession of the highest moral perfection.

+IV. Christian circumcision is realised by the thorough identification of the believer with Christ in His death and resurrection.+--"Buried with Him, wherein also ye are risen with Him" (ver. 12). Burial implies previous death; and to secure the true circumcision we must be spiritually identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. It is the familiar teaching of the New Testament that he who believes in Christ is said to die with Him, to be buried with Him, and to rise with Him (ver. 13; Rom. vi. 11; Eph. ii. 5). A circumcised heart, a new nature, cannot be obtained by mere human effort, by stern resolutions, painful processes of self-mortification, or by the most advanced and rigorous mental culture. It is secured only by a complete, vital union and incorporation with Christ, and a sympathetic participation with Him in all He has done and suffered. With Christ the believer enters the grave where the vast body of sin dies and is buried; and with Christ he emerges into a new and heavenlier life that transforms the soul into a Diviner beauty, and fills it with unutterable rapture and melodious praise.

+V. Christian circumcision is wrought in the soul by a spiritual baptism.+--"Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him" (ver. 12). Baptism by water, like legal circumcision, is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. But it does not appear that there is any allusion here to the ordinance of baptism. The leading ideas and figures used in these two verses refer to spiritual realities: the death, burial, and resurrection, the circumcision without hands, and the putting off of the body of the flesh, are all spiritual; and the baptism is evidently of the same character. It is by the baptism of the Spirit--the quickening and renewing power of the Holy Ghost--that the soul is so united to and identified with Christ that the believer may be said to be buried and to rise with Him. It is possible to die with Christ and to rise with Him without being baptised with water; but it is impossible to do either without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Spiritual baptism is the grave of the old man and the birth of the new. As he sinks beneath the baptismal waters, the believer buries there all his corrupt affections and past sins; ans he emerges thence, he rises regenerate, quickened to new hopes and a new life.

+VI. Christian circumcision is received by faith.+--"Through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead" (ver. 12). Faith is not a natural production of the human heart. It is a Divine gift and is bestowed on man by a Divine operation. Man _can_ believe because God has given him the power to believe. No unbeliever can receive the baptism that effects the spiritual resurrection. The faith specially referred to is to be fixed on the power of God as exerted and displayed in the resurrection of Christ from the tomb. The same power is employed in that mysterious baptismal process by which the soul throws off its mass of moral vileness and rises into newness of life. Faith opens every gateway of the soul, so that it gratefully welcomes and exults in the transforming operations of the Divine energy.

+Lessons.+--1. _All external ordinances are powerless to change the heart._ 2. _The true circumcision is accomplished by the baptism of the Holy Ghost._ 3. _To realise the renewing power of God faith is indispensable._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 11. _The True Circumcision._

+I. Is not an outward rite, but an inward change.+

+II. Is an excision of the body of sin by our union with Christ, who
has conquered sin.+

+III. Is not an external observance, but a spiritual experience and a
holy life.+

Ver. 12. _The True Baptism_--

+I. Is spiritual regeneration.+

+II. Is being buried and raised again with Christ.+

+III. Is secured by an active, realising faith in the power of God.+

+IV. Renders circumcision and all outward rites valueless as means
of salvation.+

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13, 14.

_The Transition from Death to Life._

In relation to man, the physical order is a descent from life to death, the spiritual order an ascent from death to life. The soul of man is held captive in the dark and dismal prison-house of sin, and the Divine law--at once its judge and gaoler--has declared its condemnation to death. The great Mediator offers Himself a ransom for human sin. He is accepted. The sentence of condemnation is cancelled, and spiritual liberty proclaimed.

+I. That the natural condition of humanity is one of moral and spiritual death.+--1. _Man is in a condition of spiritual insensibility._ "You, being dead in your sins" (ver. 13). The dead know not anything. They are as unconscious as the dust in the midst of which they slumber. The sweetest sounds or the brightest scenes appeal in vain to the locked-up senses. This figure strikingly depicts the moral condition of man. The soul may be keenly alive to the relations and interests of the outer world, and at the same time dead to the grandest spiritual realities. He is insensible to the character and claims of God, to the sublimest truths, to the most ravishing prospects. With faculties to appreciate all that is lovely in nature and wonderful in art, he is insensible and unresponsive to the highest moral beauty.

2. _Man is in a condition of moral corruption._--"And the uncircumcision of your flesh" (ver. 13). Death unbinds the forces that brace up the body in life and health and leaves it a prey to the ever-active power of corruption. The _flesh_ is the carnal principle--the old corrupt nature; and its uncircumcision indicates that it has not been cut off, mortified, or conquered. It is the loathsome, putrid fruit of a nature spiritually dead--the outworkings of a wicked, unrenewed heart, through all the channels of unchecked appetites and passions--moral putrescence fattening on itself. No description of sin can surpass the revolting spectacle of its own self-registered results.

3. _Man is in a condition of condemnation._--(1) The Divine ordinances record an indictment against the transgressor. "The handwriting of ordinances that was against us" (ver. 14). A _handwriting_ imports what any one writes with his own hand, and is usually applied to a note of hand, a bond, or obligation, as having the signature of the debtor or contracting party. The primary reference in the terms used is to the Jews, who might be said to have signed the contract when they bound themselves, by a curse, to observe all the enactments of the law (Deut. xxvii. 14-26). _Ordinances,_ though referring primarily to the Mosaic ordinances, includes all forms of positive decrees (ordinances) in which moral or social principles are embodied or religious duties defined. Man everywhere is under law, written or unwritten; and he is morally obligated to obey it. That law has been universally violated, and its ordinances and sanctions are against us. We are involved in legal condemnation; we owe to God what we can never pay. (2) The Divine ordinances are hostile towards the transgressor. "Which was contrary to us" (ver. 14). We are often painfully reminded of our broken bond, as the debtor is often distressingly reminded of his undischarged obligation. Our peace is disturbed, our conscience troubled, our prospects darkened. The sense of condemnation pursues us in every part of life and haunts us with visions of terrible vengeance to come.

+II. That the believer is raised into a condition of spiritual life.+--1. _Spiritual life begins in the consciousness of liberty._ "Having forgiven you all trespasses" (ver. 13). Sin enthrals the soul in an intolerable bondage and smites it with a deathly blow. There is no return to life until liberty is bestowed. Forgiveness confers that liberty. Pardon is the point at which spiritual life begins. The sense of liberty is the first glad thrill in the soul of a new and nobler life. The pardon is ample; it is all-comprehensive--having forgiven you _all_ trespasses. Every legal barrier is removed. All guilt is cancelled. Every stain is purged away. Every vestige of corruption disappears. The Divine mercy triumphs in the prompt, generous, loving, full forgiveness of sins.

2. _Spiritual life implies a freedom from all condemnation._--(1) The indictment recorded in the Divine ordinances is cancelled and abolished. "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross" (ver. 14). Every assurance is given to the trembling believer that his guilt is pardoned, and his condemnation removed. The handwriting is blotted out--as it were, cross-strokes are drawn through it; and that all suspicion it may again become legible, may be allayed, it is added, "and took it out of the way"; it is entirely removed. But lest, haply, it should again be found and produced, it is declared--it is destroyed, torn, nailed to the cross, and so made utterly useless ever to witness anything against the believer. "Now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held" (Rom. vii. 6). The handwriting against us is removed and destroyed by the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. There we behold the cancelled sentence torn and rent by the very nails that pierced the sacred body of the world's Redeemer. (2) Freedom from condemnation is effected by the cross. "His cross." Much as the doctrine of salvation through the vicarious sufferings of Christ may be misunderstood and despised, it is the only method by which pardon can be bestowed, condemnation removed, and spiritual life imparted. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."

+III. That the transition of the soul from death to spiritual life is a Divine work.+--"You hath He quickened together with Him" (ver. 13). God only can raise the dead. He who first fashioned us in His own image, who raised from the dead Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, rescues man from the gloomy domain of spiritual death, and inspires him with a new and holier life. It is a life of blessed union with the Divine. Its activities are spontaneous and Godward in their tendencies. It has the power of growth and endless development. Its aspirations are the purest and noblest. It is intensely individual. It is the movement of the Divine in the sphere of the human, not defacing or destroying the human, but exalting and perfecting its worthiest traits.

+Lessons.+--1. _All men are dead in sin._ 2. _Law condemns but cannot deliver._ 3. _Pardon of sin is the gateway of spiritual life._ 4. _Pardon is obtained only by looking to the cross._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 13. _Death and Spiritual Life._

+I. Man by sin is spiritually dead and disabled from exercising
spiritual acts.+

+II. Man is quickened into spiritual life by virtue of the
resurrection of Christ.+

+III. Spiritual life is obtainable only by the pardon of sin.+

Ver. 14. _The Handwriting of Ordinances._

+I. Describes our condemnation.+

+II. Must be cancelled in order to pardon.+

+III. Cancelled by the sufferings on the cross.+

+IV. Is blotted out against us when we accept the Crucified.+

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 15.

_The Triumph of the Cross._

The apostle has shown the worthlessness of the Jewish ceremonies and the galling tyranny of their yoke. He has exposed the emptiness of the philosophy that was of human fabrication, with its illusive theories about angel mediators, its vast accretions of conflicting traditions, and its intolerable impositions. He has declared that they are all transfixed to the cross--torn, lacerated, illegible, cancelled--and exhibited there as a spectacle for the perpetual consolation and assurance of the believer. And now the apostle, rising with the grandeur of his theme, compares the scene of the cross to the splendid triumph of a Roman general, in which the captives taken in battle were led in gorgeous procession through the city as substantial trophies of the victor.

+I. The triumph of the cross was over the powers of evil.+--"Principalities and Powers."

1. _The existence of evil is a painful fact._--We meet with it everywhere and in everything. It mars the beauty of external creation and loads it with a burden of unutterable woe. It flings its shadow over the brightest sky, transforms the music of life into a doleful monotone, and translates the softest zephyrs into sighs. It impregnates man's moral nature, deflects the purest principles, shatters the noblest powers, arrests the loftiest aspirations and drags the soul down to the lowest hell.

2. _Evil is embodied in invisible and potent personalities._--They are here called _principalities_ because of their excellency, their deep penetration, vast knowledge, and exalted station. They are called _powers_ because of their ability, the mighty influence they can wield, and the terrible havoc they can work. Their dominion extends over the whole realm of sin. They exist in vast numbers (2 Pet. iv. 2; Jude 6), but they are inspired and guided by one great master-spirit--the prince of the power of the air. They are animated and bound together by one spirit--a spirit of bitter hatred and savage hostility towards God, and of contemptuous scorn for His authority. They are eager to obey the slightest behest of their malignant leader.

"He spake: and to confirm his words outflew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs,
Of mighty cherubim: the sudden blaze
Far round illumined hell: highly they raged
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms
Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance towards the vault of heaven."

These hosts of evil spirits are the great foes of man with which he has incessantly to contend (Eph. vi. 12). The struggle would be hopeless had not Christ defeated them.

+II. The triumph of the cross was achieved after severe conflict.+--"Having spoiled."

1. _The conflict was continuous._--It was fought from the earliest period between Satan and man, and the day was lost. The woeful issues of that conquest are with us to-day. The battle has been raging ever since. The enmity existing between the serpent and the seed of the woman is still active. The symbols and foreshadowings of the great strife appeared on many occasions during the Mosaic period. But when Christ assumed our humanity and stepped upon the field as the great Captain of our salvation, the conflict reached its climax.

2. _The conflict was fierce._--Hosts of demons swarmed around the solitary Warrior, and with incredible fury sought to gain a victory over the human nature he had assumed. Again and again, they rushed to the attack; but each fresh assault ended with a new defeat. In the wilderness He was tempted by Satan; but the arch-tempter was compelled to retire, baffled and conquered. Through the voice of His chief disciple the temptation was renewed, and He was urged to decline His appointed sufferings and death (Matt. xvi. 23). But Satan was again foiled.