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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
THE CHRISTIAN’S COMPLETENESS IN CHRIST
MAN is prone to corrupt whatever proceeds from God. He himself came pure out of his Maker’s hands: hut he soon corrupted his way; as it is said, “God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions [Note: Ecc_7:29.].” As man has effaced the law originally written upon his heart, so has he, by imaginations of his own, obscured the revelation which God has given to the world. The Mosaic code was perverted by the Jews: the Christian code has been no less perverted by those who have called themselves Christians. Even in the apostolic age, and whilst the Apostles were yet in the full exercise of their ministry, persons arose to mutilate and destroy the faith of Christ. The very professors of Christianity, instead of receiving implicitly the truth as it was revealed, introduced into it their own corrupt notions: the heathen converts retaining their predilection for their former idolatry; and Jewish converts striving to encumber it with their former superstitions. It is against such persons that St. Paul is cautioning the Colossian Church: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ [Note: ver. 8.].” The heathen philosophers having multiplied their deities, and assigned to them a variety of ranks and offices, those who had been converted from amongst them still felt inclined to look to subordinate deities as their mediators and protectors: whilst others from among the Jews, who had, or pretended to have, a great veneration for Moses, could not part with the traditions which they had received from their fathers, and which they supposed to he highly conducive to their spiritual benefit. But St. Paul tells both the one and the other, that they needed no help from the creature, since “in Christ dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead;” and no created power could do any thing for them, any farther than he was expressly commissioned by Christ to do it: in a word, that “they were complete in Christ;” and all attempts to add any thing to him, would retard, rather than advance, their conformity to his will, and would ultimately deprive them of all the benefits which they were thus erroneously labouring to secure.
This being the scope of the whole passage, we will draw your attention to the two things mentioned in our text; namely
I. The Christian’s completeness in Christ—
In Christ we have all that we can possibly need or desire—
[As God, he has “all the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily;” and consequently is an almighty and all-sufficient Saviour. But as man also, he has, by virtue of his mediatorial office, a fulness committed to him for the supply of his believing people; according as it is said, “It hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell [Note: Col_1:19.].” In our corporeal frame there is, if I may so say, a fulness imparted to the head for the use of all the members, that being the chief depository of all the senses: so there is in Christ, for the use of all his members: all that we need is treasured up in him: and he of God is made unto us “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption [Note: 1Co_1:30.]” — — —]
Nor can the creature add any thing to us—
[What, I would ask, can “philosophy, with all its vain deceits,” add to us? Can it suggest one single truth which is not contained in the Holy Scriptures, or give us one atom of spiritual discernment? — — — Can it devise any other way for a sinner’s justification before God, besides that which the Scripture reveals, through the blood and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ? — — — Can it add any thing to the operations of the Holy Spirit for the transformation of our souls into the Divine image? — — — Can it further, in any one respect, the everlasting redemption of our souls, so that we shall say, this is the work of philosophy, and not of Christ? — — — If the maxims of philosophy cannot effect any thing, can its deities? Can they help us, either by their personal efficiency, or by their mediation with any other? I ask further, can Jewish rites, whether those that have been devised by man, or those which were originally ordained of God, add to us in any of these respects! No; we confidently say, that the Christian is “complete in Christ:” he has in Christ all that he can stand in need of; and to confide in any other is to rob him of his glory, and fatally to deceive our own souls.]
But besides the Christian’s completeness in Christ, we are called to notice,
II. His conformity to Christ—
That Christ is an example to us, is what every Christian well knows. But there is a distinction which is not generally adverted to, which yet it is of importance to remark; namely, that as he is an example to us in his life, so is he also, if we may so express it, an exemplar or pattern to us in his work. We will explain our meaning.
Christ having undertaken to redeem our souls, submitted to all that was necessary for that end: he was circumcised, as being made under the law for us: he died under the curse of that law; and after having been buried in the grave, he rose again for our justification before God. Now all this which was done in him corporeally, is to be done in us spiritually: the one was intended to be a pattern of the other. This is very minutely set forth by the Apostle Paul, who tells us that the power exercised towards us who believe, exactly accords with that which was exercised towards our Lord Jesus Christ in all the fore-mentioned particulars: his quickening from the dead, his rising from the grave, his ascension to heaven, and his session at the right hand of God far above all the principalities and powers of heaven or hell, have all a counterpart in us, wrought by the same divine Agent [Note: Compare attentively Eph_1:19-22; Eph_2:4-6.].
Consider distinctly wherein this conformity consists—
[Was he circumcised? We have the true circumcision of the heart; that “which is made without hands, and which consists in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh:” and this we have by virtue of our own union with Christ, in whom we have experienced this mystically, and through whom we derive it spiritually. Was he buried? We also, in our baptism, were, as it were, buried with him; and coming up also from the water, (for here immersion seems to be referred to, as sprinkling evidently is in other places, the mode being not determinate to either, but left optional according to circumstances,) we are risen with him to a new and heavenly life. That this is the true import of the passage is beyond all doubt; as any one will see by comparing what the same writer has stated in his Epistle to the Romans [Note: Rom_6:3-11.] — — — Here, I say, the parallel between what was corporeally wrought in Christ, and spiritually to be wrought in his members, is clear and manifest: we, “by faith in that power which raised him from the dead,” experience a similar resurrection to newness of life — — —]
In reference to this then, as well as to the former, we ask,
What can philosophy add to us?
[Has philosophy any principles whereby we can be stimulated more entirely to crucify the flesh with it? affections and lusts, than we are led by the Gospel of Christ; or can it impart to us any strength beyond that which we derive from Christ? Did it ever operate thus in any instance from the foundation of the world? No; it never did, nor ever can. We further ask, Is there any such virtue in Judaizing principles, that we should have recourse to any of them for aid? No; we are expressly told, that by seeking aid from philosophical conceits or Jewish superstitions we shall not only not add to our safety, but shall actually be “beguiled and robbed of our ultimate reward [Note: ver. 18.].” It is to Christ alone that we must look, and from Christ we must receive all that is necessary for the carrying on and perfecting of our everlasting salvation.]
To improve this subject, we say to all,
1. Be thankful to God that your lot is cast where the Gospel is plainly and faithfully dispensed—
[The corruptions which began in the apostolic age have since been carried to such an extent as altogether to subvert the Gospel of Christ. If I be asked before God, what popery is; I am constrained to answer, that, whatever it be in theory, it is in practice little better than a compound of Pagan idolatry and Jewish superstition. For want of seeing it before our eyes, we are apt to conceive of it as differing but little from the religion we profess: but it is in all its masses, penances, indulgences, such a system of delusion and impiety as makes one’s very blood run cold. It is inconceivable how such a system of tyranny and imposture should have ever gained footing in the world. Little do the Protestants of the present day reflect on the obligations which they owe to their forefathers, and on the responsibility attaching to them for the advantages they enjoy. But could your eyes see in what darkness and bondage those who are of the Roman Catholic persuasion are held, you would never cease to bless God, that you have been born in a Protestant land, and been brought up members of a Church that is alike free from the errors of fanaticism, and the bonds of superstition. I know indeed that even in our Protestant Church there is still, in some places, as there was even in the apostolic age, a leaven of these deadly evils: but we speak, to those who have learned to seek a completeness in Christ and a conformity to Christ, as the unalienable privilege, not of themselves only, but of every true believer.]
2. Beware of that false humility which would lead you to intrench upon the sufficiency of Christ—
[It was a false humility that led those in the apostolic age to seek other mediators or protectors besides Christ, and other means of obtaining his blessings than by faith alone. But whilst they assumed this “voluntary humility,” they in reality were “vainly puffed up with a fleshly mind [Note: ver. 18.].” So it is with those in the present day, who look for something to recommend them to Christ, whilst they should be receiving all out of his fulness as a free unmerited gift. Their principle is precisely that of which the Apostle complained in the Colossian Church. They think it would be presumption in them to go directly to Christ, and to expect to be admitted by him with such a load of guilt and corruption as they feel: and therefore they hope to make themselves better before they go, that so they may find a readier acceptance with him. But this is to dishonour Christ, and to take from him both the sovereignty, and the riches, of his grace. We must never forget the terms on which alone we are to obtain the blessings of his salvation: we are to buy them, it is true; but we are to “buy them all without money and without price” — — —]
3. Live simply by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—
[It is “through faith in the Divine power” that all our completeness in Christ, or conformity to Christ, is to be obtained; and to exercise that faith, we are encouraged by the recollection of what that power has effected “in raising Christ from the dead [Note: The text.].” Take a view then of the Lord Jesus after his crucifixion: see him dead, and buried, and guarded by a host of enemies who were determined in a few hours to prove him an impostor. Is he beyond the reach of Divine power? No; at the appointed moment he rises, and ascends to heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God, far above all the principalities and powers of earth and hell. Are you then in a more desperate state than he? or is not the power of God alike able to effect this change for you? Yea, is it not as much pledged for you as it was for him? Fear not then, “nor stagger at the promises of God through unbelief;” but as Abraham before you was, “be strong in faith, giving glory to God.”]