The atonement and its blessed results.
"And you, being dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you, I say, did he quicken together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses." These words add no new thoughts to the passage, but are a more detailed explanation of the matters involved in the work of Christ in the soul.
I. CONSIDER THE PERSONAL QUICKENING OUT OF A STATE OF DEATH AND DEFILEMENT.
1. The condition of all men by nature—spiritual death. This death is viewed in two aspects.
2. The quickening energy of God. "You did he quicken together with him." Spiritual death is put away by the quickening energy of God, which flowed into your hearts out of the risen life of Christ. You are brought up with him objectively in his resurrection, subjectively in his application of the power of his resurrection (see homiletical hints on Ephesians 2:1).
II. CONSIDER THE GROUND AND CONDITION OF THIS QUICKENING. The pardon of sin. "Having forgiven us all our trespasses." Thus spiritual life is connected with pardon, and presupposes pardon. The sins of men must be pardoned before life could properly enter. Our Lord could not have been quickened till we, for whom he died, were potentially discharged (Romans 4:25). So, indeed, the quickening presupposes at once pardon, the blotting out of the handwriting, and the victory over Satan.
III. CONSIDER THE INDISPENSABLE ACCOMPANIMENT OF THIS PARDON. The removal of the condemning power of the Law. "Having blotted out the handwriting in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross."
1. The mature and effects of this handwriting in ordinances.
(a) Not that the Law was in itself offensive, for it was holy and just and good" (Romans 7:12); but
(b) because our inability to fulfil it or satisfy its righteous demands exposed us to the penalty attached to an undischarged obligation. It was, in a word, a bill of indictment against us.
2. The blotting out of the handwriting. It was blotted out, so far as it was an accusing witness against us, by Christ wiping it out, taking it "out of the way, and nailing it to his cross." It was not done by an arbitrary abolition of the Law; moral obligations cannot be removed in this manner; but by the just satisfaction which Christ rendered by his "obedience unto death." It was nailed to his cross, and thus its condemnatory power was brought to an end. Strictly speaking, there was nothing but Christ's body nailed to the cross; but, as he was made sin, taking the very place of sin, "bearing our sins in his own body on the tree," the handwriting, with the curse involved in it, was identified with him, and thus God condemned sin in Christ's flesh (Romans 8:3). Christ exchanged places with us, and thus was cancelled the bill of indictment which involved us in guilt and condemnation.
IV. CONSIDER THE RELATION OF THE ATONEMENT TO THE VICTORY OVER SATAN. "Having put off from himself the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." It was the cross that gave the victory over the principalities and powers of darkness, because sin was the ground of their dominion over man and the secret of their strength. But no sooner had Christ died and extinguished the guilt lying on us, than the ground of their successful agency was undermined, and, instead of being at liberty to ravage and destroy, their weapons of warfare perished. Christ on the cross, as the word signifies, reft from him and from his people those powers of darkness who could afflict humanity by pressing homo the consequences of their sin. He cast them off like baffled foes (John 12:31), made such a show of them openly as angels, if not men, could probably apprehend. He made the cross a scene of triumph to the irretrievable ruin of Satan's kingdom.—T. C.
Condemnation of ritualistic observances and ascetic severities.
The apostle draws a practical inference from the view he had just given of the work of Christ. "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or of a new moon, or of a sabbath day: which things are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ's."
I. THE PROHIBITION. It is twofold, respecting first the distinction of meats and drinks, and then the observance of times.
1. The distinction of meats and drinks.
(a) Our Lord hinted at the approaching abolition.
(b) There was a formal annulment of the distinction in Peter's vision (Acts 10:11, etc.), where the distinction between those within and those without the covenant was being done away.
(c) The abolition is implied in Hebrews 9:10, where the rule as "to meats and drinks" is said to have been "imposed until the time of reformation."
(d) It is also implied in the action of the Council of Jerusalem, and in the language of Peter respecting "the yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear" (Acts 15:10).
(a) Christians are not justified now in making such a distinction or in imposing it upon others. Thus the Roman Catholics are condemned for their distinction of meats: "Commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving" (1 Timothy 4:3). It is not "that which teeth into the mouth that defileth the man" (Matthew 15:2, Matthew 15:11).
(b) Christians in apostolic times had a liberty in these matters which they were to exercise for edification.
( α) It was allowable for a believer neither "to eat flesh" nor to drink wine "so long as the world standeth" (1 Corinthians 8:13).
( β) It was allowable in the transition state of the Church, while, it consisted of two diverse elements—Jews and Gentiles—for liberty to be exercised in these matters, with a due regard to the rights of conscience (Romans 14:2).
(c) But we in our different circumstances must resist any attempt to impose upon us a distinction of meats. "Let no man.., judge you in meat, or in drink." It is not in man's power to make that a sin which God has not forbidden. "It is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment" (1 Corinthians 4:3). "Why dost thou judge thy brother?" (Romans 14:3, Romans 14:10). Besides, we must remember the spiritual nature of Christianity: "The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Romans 14:17). We must "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made his people free" (Galatians 5:1).
2. The observance of times and seasons. "Or in respect of a feast day, or of a new moon, or of a sabbath day." The apostle said to the Galatians, "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years" (Galatians 4:10).
(a) The "feast day" referred to the annual festivals, like Pentecost and Passover.
(b) The "new moon" referred to the monthly festival.
(c) The "sabbath day" referred to the Jewish sabbath, which was always observed on the Saturday. "But does the apostle not seem to strike at the obligation of maintaining the observance of one day in seven for the worship of God, and sunder the connection that exists between the Jewish sabbath and the Christian Sunday?" We answer that:
( α) The observance of the Lord's day never came into question in apostolic times. It was universally observed from the beginning both by Jews and Gentiles. It cannot, therefore, be affected by anything said as to "days" in Romans 14:1-6 or in this passage.
( β) The devotion of a seventh part of our time to God rests on considerations as old as creation, for the sabbath was made for man even before sin entered the world.
( γ) The sabbath of the Jews was typical, and therefore was abolished in Christ, and therefore, as well as for other reasons, the Lord's day, which took its place from the beginning of the gospel dispensation, was changed from the last to the first day of the week. The sabbath day was so long and so deeply associated with the stated feasts, the sabbatical year, and the jubilee year of Judaism, that it partook of their typical character, and thus passed away with the other institutions of Judaism. But this was not the original aspect of the sabbath, which had nothing in it typical of redemption, for it began while there was no sin and no need of salvation. Thus, just as baptism is the Lord's circumcision according to Romans 14:11, the Lord's day is the sabbath of Christian times.
II. THE REASON FOR THE PROHIBITION "Which things are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ's." They were useful as shadows before the Substance came, but after it they were useless.
1. The shadow. The word implies:
2. The substance. "The body is Christ's;" that is, belongs to Christ. The reality is verified in Christ and the benefits of the new dispensation. The blessings they prefigured are to be realized by union with Christ.—T. C.
A warning against angel worship.
The apostle now notices the theological error of the false teachers, which was the interposition of angelic mediators between God and man. "Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, dwelling in the things he hath seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind."
I. ANGEL WORSHIP IS CLEARLY CONDEMNED.
1. The angel whom John would have worshipped, said, "See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant, worship God" (Revelation 22:9).
2. God will not share his rights with another. "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." The first commandment forbids all other worship.
3. There is but one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5, 1 Timothy 2:6). Papists say that the apostle merely condemns such worship of angels as excludes Christ, but the condemnation is most absolute and simple. Besides, Christ is declared to be the one single and only way to the Father, to the exclusion of all angelic mediators. "No man cometh unto the Father but by me;" "If ye shall ask anything in my Name, I will do it" (John 14:6, John 14:14). "We offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, by Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5).
4. The worship of angels implies an omniscience on their part which belongs only to God. God only knows the hearts of men (2 Chronicles 6:30).
5. Our Lord's superiority to all angels, as asserted in Hebrews 1:1-14. and it implies the same condemnation; for they are merely "ministering spirits, sent to minister to the heirs of salvation."
II. THE MOTIVE OF THIS ANGEL WORSHIP. "A voluntary humility." The idea of the false teachers, like that of modern Papists, was that God was so high and inaccessible that he could only be approached through the mediation of inferior beings. It was remembered that the Law was given "by the ministration of angels" (Acts 7:53), and that angels exercised a certain tutelary guardianship (Daniel 10:10-21). But it was, after all, a mere parade of humility to approach God through the mediation of such inferior creatures. It implied, besides, a serious misrepresentation of the fitness of the one Mediator, of whom it was said, "It behoved him to be made like to his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God" (Hebrews 2:17). He surely can sympathize with us even more closely than angels, for he shared our human nature. It was, therefore, a false and perverted humility that sought the intercession of angels.
III. THE SPIRIT THAT SHAPED THIS DOCTRINE OF ANGEL WORSHIP. "Dwelling in the things he hath seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind."
1. The false teachers claimed to have visions of the heavenly world and a knowledge of angels which they could not possibly possess. They claimed to know the secrets of a region which they had never seen.
2. They were filled with great self conceit, notwithstanding their parade of excessive humility. "Vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." The Gnostic tendency was always associated with an assumption of superior knowledge, but it was an utterly groundless assumption. It was "in vain." It was without reason or ground. God would resist it (James 4:7); men would not regard it (Proverbs 11:2); and they themselves would inherit nothing by it but folly (Proverbs 14:8; 1 Timothy 6:4). Even where real visions are vouchsafed, there is a temptation to self elation, as in the case of the Apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7). But, in the case of false visions, the tendency would be still more manifest. The mind would be "the mind of the flesh," as it is literally; not "the mind of the Spirit." It was "the carnal mind that is enmity with God." Let us rather seek to become "fools that we may be wise" (1 Corinthians 3:18), and not be "puffed up one against another." It is knowledge that puffeth up (1 Corinthians 8:1); it is only love that edifieth.
IV. THE NEGATIVE SOURCE OF THE HERESY OF ANGEL WORSHIP. "Not holding the Head from whom the whole body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God." The Colossian errorists invented angel worship because they did not see in Christ the true and only Mediator who was to bridge the chasm between God and men. They put inferior beings in the place of him who is the only Source of spiritual life. They did not "hold the headship' doctrinally; they had no individual or vital adherence to the Head as the Source of life to them.
1. Jesus Christ, as the Head, is the true Source of spiritual life and energy. He who is "at once the lowest and the highest," who is "the Word made flesh," "raises up man to God, and brings God down to man" The fulness of the Godhead resides in him bodily, and out of that fulness he communicates freely to us.
2. The relation of the body to the Head. "From whom the whole body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands."
(a) The supply of nutriment. Christ is the sole Source of supply to our souls—"through the joints." God calls us "to this fellowship with his Son" (1 John 1:7).
( α) We can have no spiritual nutriment from Christ till we have believed in him.
( β) The joints through which our supply of grace comes cannot be broken. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Romans 8:39).
( γ) It is through these joints we receive Christ's "unsearchable riches" (Ephesians 3:9); all spiritual blessings in heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:3); so that we come behind in no spiritual gift.
(b) The compacting of the frame into a perfect unity—"knit together by bands." Christ is the Source of the Church's unity. "He hath made both one" (Ephesians 2:14). There is a unity of faith, a unity of spiritual life, a unity of ordinance, a unity of love, a unity of final destiny, in the Church, by virtue of her connection with her Head.
3. The end of this relation. "Increaseth with the increase of God;" that is, with the increase which he supplies.
V. THE DANGER OF ANGEL WORSHIP. "Let no man rob you of your prize." The apostle implies that the prize of eternal life—"the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus"—would be lost by turning aside from the Head to angelic mediators. We must not "lose what we have wrought" in this way (2 John 1:10). "Let no man take thy crown" (Revelation 3:11). Let us, therefore, avoid "profane babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called" (1 Timothy 6:20), and hold fast "the faith once delivered to the saints" (Jud Hebrews 1:4).—T. C.