Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, August 20th, 1871, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Christ is all in all."–Colossians 3:11.
THE APOSTLE WAS ARGUING for holiness. He was earnestly contending
against sin and for the maintenance of Christian graces, but he did
not, as some do, who would like to be thought preachers of the gospel,
resort to reasons inconsistent with the gospel of free grace. He did
not bring forward a single legal argument; he did not say, "This do,
and ye shall merit reward;" or, "This do not, and ye shall cease to be
the beloved of the Lord." He knew that he was writing to believers, who
are not under the law but under grace, and be therefore used arguments
fetched from grace, and suitable to the character and condition of "the
elect of God, holy and beloved." He fed the flame of their love with
suitable fuel, and fanned their zeal with appropriate appliances.
Observe in this chapter that he begins by reminding the saints of their
having risen with Christ. If they indeed have risen with him, he argues
that they should leave the grave of iniquity and the graveclothes of
their sins behind, and act as those who are endowed with that superior
life, which accounts sin to be death and corruption. He then goes on to
declare that the believer's life is in Christ, "for ye are dead, and
your life is hid with Christ in God." He infers holiness from this
also. Shall those who have Christ for their life defile themselves with
guilt! Is it not inevitable that, if the Holy One of Israel be in them
as their life, their life should be fraught with everything that is
virtuous and good? And then he brings forward the third argument that
in the Christian church Christ is the only distinguishing mark. In the
new birth we are created in the image of Jesus, the second Adam, and in
consequence all the distinctions that appertain to the old creation are
rendered valueless; "there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor
uncircumcision, Barbarian, Sythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all,
and in all": the argument from this fact being, that since the only
abiding distinction in the new creation is Christ, we should take care
that his image is most clearly stamped upon us so that we may not only
confess with our tongues that we are Christians, but our conversation
and our entire character shall bespeak us to be such. As you may
recognize the Jew by his physiognomy, the Greek by his gracefulness,
and the barbarian by his uncouthness; so should the Christian be known
by his Christliness, by the light, love, and life of Christ streaming
forth from him. This is the seal of God which is set upon the forehead
of the faithful, and this is the mark of election which is in due
season graven in the right hand of all the elect.
Now, as the only distinction which marks the Christian from other men,
and the only essential distinction in the new world of grace, is
Christ, we are led to see beneath this fact a great underlying
doctrine. In the realm of grace, things are what they seem. Christ is
apparently all, because he is actually all. The fact of a man's
possessing Christ is all in all in the church, because in very deed
Christ is all in all. All that is real in the Christian, all that is
holy, heavenly, pure, abiding, and saving, is of the Lord Jesus. This
great granite fact lies at the basis of the whole Christian system,
Christ is really and truly all in all in his church, and in each
individual member of it.
We shall, this morning, in trying to open up this precious subject, by
the help of the Divine Spirit, first, notice by whom this truth is
recognised; secondly we shall consider what this truth includes;
thirdly, what it involves; and fourthly, what it requires of us; for if
you observe, the text is followed by a "Therefore;" there is a
conclusion logically drawn from it.
I. First, then, BY WHOM IS THIS TRUTH RECOGNISED? Paul does not say
that Christ is all in all to all men, but he tells us that there is a
new creation, in which the man is "renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him," where all national and ceremonial
distinctions cease, and Christ is all and in all. It is not to every
man that Christ is all and in all. Alas! there are many in this world
to whom Christ is nothing; he scarcely enters into their thoughts. Some
of the baser sort only use his name to curse by; and as to many others,
if they have a religion, it is a proud presumption which excludes a
Savior. The creed of the self-righteous has no room in it for the
sinner's Savior; the justifier of the ungodly is nothing to them. The
worldly, the frivolous, the unchaste, the licentious, these do not
permit themselves to think of the Holy Redeemer. Perchance some such
are now present, and though they will hear about him this morning, and
of nothing else but him, they will say, "what a weariness it is," and
be glad when the discourse is ended. Jesus is a root out of a dry
ground to multitudes, to them he hath no form nor comeliness, and in
him they see no beauty that they should desire him. Ah, what will they
do when he is revealed in the glory of his power? They thought it
nothing to them as they passed by his cross, but they will not be able
to despise him as they stand convicted before his throne. O ye who make
Jesus nothing, kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the
way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Without Christ, you are
to-day without peace, and will be for ever without hope! Nothing
remains for Christless souls at the last, but a fearful looking for of
judgment and of fiery indignation. I could well pause here, and say,
let us pray for those who are unbelievers, and so are living without a
Savior, that they may not remain any longer in this state of
condemnation.
There are others in this world to whom Christ is something, but not
much. They are anxious to save themselves, but since they must confess
some imperfections they use the merits of Christ as a sort of
makeweight for their slight deficiencies. Their robe is almost long
enough, and by adding a little fringe of the Redeemer's grace it
becomes all they can wish. To say prayers, to go to church, to take the
sacrament to observe Good Friday, these are the main reliances of many
a religionist, and then if the coach sticks a little in a deeper rut
than usual they call in the help of the Lord Jesus, and hope that he
will put his shoulder to the wheel. They commonly say, "Well, we must
do our best, then Christ will be our Savior, and God is very merciful."
They allow the blessed and all-sufficient work and sacrifice of the
Savior to fill up their failures; and imagine that they are extremely
humble in allowing so much as that. Jesus is to them a stopgap, and
nothing more. I know not whether the condition of such people is one
whit more desirable than that of those to whom Jesus is nothing at all,
for this is a vile contempt and despising of Christ indeed, to think
that he came to help you to save yourselves, to dream that he is a part
Savior, and will divide the world; and honor of salvation with the
sinner. Those who yoke the sinner and the Savior together as each doing
a part rob Christ of all his glory; and this is robbery indeed, to
pilfer from the bleeding Lamb of God the due reward of his agonies. "He
trod the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with him."
In the work of salvation Jesus stands alone. Salvation is of the Lord.
It Christ is not all to you he is nothing to you. He will never go into
partnership as a part Savior of men. If he be something he must be
everything, and if he be not everything he is nothing to you.
There are many who, unconsciously to themselves, think Jesus Christ to
be much, but yet they do not understand that he is all in all. I allude
to many seeking souls, who say, "I would put my trust in Jesus this
morning, but I do not feel as I ought." I see, thou thinkest that there
is at least a little of thy feeling to be added to the Savior's work
ere it can avail for thee. "But I am not as penitent as I should be,
and, therefore, I cannot rest in Jesus." I see, thy penitence is to add
the topstone to the Savior's yet unfinished work. Perhaps it is one of
the hardest works in the world, so hard as to be impossible except to
the Holy Spirit himself, to drive a man away from the idea that he is
to do something, or to be something, in order to his own salvation.
Sinner, thou art the emptiness, and Christ the fullness; thou art the
filthiness, and he the cleansing; thou art nothing, and he is all in
all; and the sooner thou consentest to this the better. Have done with
saying, "I would come to the Savior if this, and if that," for this
quibbling will delude, delay, and destroy thee. Come as thou art, just
now, even at this moment, for Christ is not almost all, but all in all.
There are some, too, who think that Christ is all in some things, but
they have not yet seen the full teaching of the text; for it saith:
"Christ is all, and in all." He is all, "say they, in justification; he
it is that pardons all our sins and covers us with his righteousness,
but as to our sanctification, surely, we are to effect that ourselves;
and as to our final perseverance, it must depend wholly upon our own
watchfulness. Are we not in jeopardy still? Are there not some points
which depend upon our own virtue and goodness?" Beloved, God forbid I
should say a word against the most earnest watchfulness, against the
most diligent endeavors, but I beseech you do not place them in a wrong
position, or speak us though the ultimate salvation of the believer
were based upon such shifting sand. We are saved in Christ. We are
complete in him. We are sanctified in Christ Jesus: "And he is made of
God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption."
Christ is all, not in my justification only, but in my sanctification
too. He is all, not only in the first steps of my faith, but in the
last. "He is Alpha and Omega; he is the beginning and the ending, saith
the Lord." There is no point between the gates of hell and the gates of
heaven where a believer shall have to say, "Christ fails me here, and I
must rely upon my own endeavors. From the dunghill of our corruption up
to the throne of our perfection there is no point left to hazard, or
set aside for us to supply; our salvation has Christ to begin with,
Christ to go on with, and Christ to finish with, and that in all
points, at all times, for every man of woman born that ever shall be
saved. There is no point in which the creature comes in to claim merit,
or to bring strength, or to make up for that which was lacking. "Christ
is all, and in all." The saints are "perfect in Christ Jesus." He said,
"it is finished," and finished it is. He is not the author of our faith
only, but the finisher of it too. He is all in all, and man is nothing
at all.
This is a truth which every believer has recognised. There are a great
many differences among believers, but there is no difference as to this
essential point. Unhappily, the Christian church has been divided into
sections, but those divisions do not affect our agreement upon this one
point, that Christ is all. It is no uncharity if I say that the man who
does not accept this is no Christian, nor is it too wide a liberality
to affirm that every man who is sound in heart upon this point is most
certainly a believer. He who trusts alone in Christ, who submits to him
as his sole teacher, king, and Savior, is already a saved man; but he
who gives not Christ the glory, though he should speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, though he should have the gift of prophecy, and
all knowledge, and though he should have all faith, and could remove
mountains, and he should appear to have all virtue, yet he is no
Christian if Christ be held in light esteem by him, or be anything less
than all in all; for in the new creation this one thing stands as the
mark of the newly created, that "Christ is all, and in all" to them,
whatever he may be to others.
II. Having thus shown where this truth is recognised, we pass on to
notice WHAT THIS TRUTH INCLUDES.
It was the advice of an aged tutor to a young student not to take too
magnificent a text. I have sounded that warning in my own ears this
morning. This little text is yet one of the greatest in the whole
Bible, and I feel lost in its boundless expanse. It is like one of
those rare gems which are little to look upon, and yet he who carries
them bears the price of empires in his hand. It would not be within the
compass of arithmetic to set down the value of this sapphire test. I
might as soon hope to carry the world in my hand as to grasp all that
is contained in these few words. I cannot navigate so huge a sea, my
skiff is too small, I can only coast along the shore. Who can compress
"all things" into a sermon? I will warrant you that my discourse this
morning will be more remarkable for its omissions than for what it
contains, and I shall hope indeed that every Christian here will be
remarking upon what I do not say; for then I shall have done much good
in exciting meditations and reflections. If I were to try to tell you
all the meaning of this boundless text, I should require all time and
eternity, and even then all tongues, human and angelic, could not avail
me to compass the whole. We will swim in this sea though we cannot
fathom it, and feast at this table though we cannot reckon up its
costliness.
1. According to the connection, Christ is all by way of national
distinction, subject for glorying, and ground for custom. Observe,
"there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor tree," in the new creation, but "Christ
is all, and in all." In the new world there is no difference between
Jew and Gentile; barbarian simplicity and Greek cultivation are as
nothing. I suppose as long as we are in the flesh we shall set some
store by our nationality, and like Paul shall somewhat glory that we
were free born: but surely the less of this the better. Within the
gates of the Christian church we are cosmopolitan, or rather we are
citizens of the New Jerusalem only. As a man, I rejoice that I am an
Englishman, but not with the same holy joy which fills me when I
remember that I am a Christian. When I meet another man who fears God,
I do not want him to think me an Englishman, nor do I desire to regard
him as an American, a Frenchman, or a Dutchman; for we are no longer
strangers and foreigners but fellow-citizens. If any man be a Christian
and a foreigner after the flesh, he is yet in spirit ten thousand times
more allied to me than if he were an Englishman and an unbeliever.
Greatly is it to be deplored whenever the convulsions of nations drag
Christian men into opposition to one another on the ground of politics.
One part of the body of Christ cannot be at war with another. It is a
shameful thing whenever we suffer our earthly nationality to dominate
over our heavenly citizenship. Queen Victoria and President Grant are
well enough in their places, but King Jesus is Lord of all; we are
above all things subjects of his Imperial Highness the Prince of Peace.
Nobody comes into the church as a Jew or a Gentile, nor does he remain
there as a Greek or a Scythian, whatever he may have been before; when
he becomes a Christian, Christ is all. Earthly distinctions of rank, if
they still exist, as they must while we are in this world, are brought
to a minimum within the church, they are almost obliterated, and what
remains is sanctified to sacred ends.
Christ is all in the church by way of glorying. The Greek said, "The
Hellenes are a race of heroes; remember Sparta and Athens. Are we not
foremost in civilisation, and were we not chief in war? Who set bounds
to the Persian tyrant, and bade the boastful monarch bite the dust? We
hold our heads erect when we think of Marathon and Salamis." But when
the Greek joined the Christian church, he forgot his national
boastings, and henceforth gloried only in the cross of him whose single
arm defeated the hosts of Satan, and led captivity captive. The Jew
when despised returned scorn for scorn, and said to Greek and Roman,
"You may speak of Marathon, but I sing of the Red Sea; you may boast of
Persia broken, but I tell of Egypt vanquished, mine are the glories of
the Lord of hosts in the far off ages. We were a people when you were
as get unknown, and we are the chosen favourites of Jehovah." The
moment the Jew sat down at the gospel supper, he laid aside his
hereditary pride and bigotry, and recognised the fact that the Greek
was a, much a brother as the believing Hebrew at his side. So the
Sythian, when he came into the Christian church, was no longer a
Barbarian, he spoke the language of Canaan as correctly as his Grecian
fellow Christian. The slave no sooner breathed the air of the Christian
church than his shackles fell from him. He might be a slave at home
with his master, but he was no slave there. While the freeman, though
he had been born free, or with a great price had obtained his freedom,
never in the Christian church looked down upon the slave. Bond and free
were one in Christ Jesus. Nobody had any personal ground for glory;
neither race, nor pedigree, nor rank, nor position, were of any
account, but Christ was all. "Christianus sum," I am a Christian was
and is the universal glorying of all saints.
This at the same time obliterated all their sinful national customs.
The Greek said originally, "I may certainly indulge in this vice,
because the Lacedaemonians have always observed this custom;" and the
Jew, perhaps, might have said, "I will eat nothing common or unclean,
neither will I consort with Gentiles, because our fathers did not so."
The Barbarian said, "I cannot submit to the laws of civilised life; my
father ranged the desert;" and the Sythian said, "I shall rob, and
pillage, and kill, for I am a wild man; why should I not? Did not my
fathers do so from generation to generation?" When the various tribes
came into the Christian church, down went all separating and evil
customs at once. What hath Christ said? What hath Christ done? What
hath he bidden us? These are law to us and nothing else.
Thus the distinctions of race, the gloryings of the nationality, and
the habitudes and customs of various nations, all sank into nothing,
for Jesus Christ in the Christian church became all in all. That, I
doubt not, is the meaning of the text in its connection. Christ all and
in all by way of distinction.
2. Secondly, Christ is all in all to us in another three-fold way–to
God, before our enemies, within ourselves. Happy art thou, O child or
God, that in all thy relationships to the Great Judge of all the earth,
Christ is all in all to thee. Thou needest a mediator to stand between
thee and God; Christ is that. Thou wantest a high Priest to present
with his own sacrifice thy prayers and praises; Christ is that. Thou
wantest a representative to stand at all times before God, an
intercessor to plead for thee, one who shall be a daysman akin to thee
and akin to God, who can put his hand upon both; Christ is that to
thee. Whenever God looks upon thee in Christ, he sees in thee all that
ought to be there. Did he look upon thee apart from Christ, he would
see in thee nothing he could commend: but thou art "accepted in the
Beloved." Even the omniscient eye of God detects nothing for which to
condemn the soul which is covered with the righteousness of Christ.
"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifieth." Without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, is the entire
church as seen in the person of Christ Jesus, her representative and
head. Christ is all for us before the throne of God.
But, alas! we need some one to stand between us and our enemies. There
is Satan; how shall I meet him? He will accuse me; Who shall plead my
case? Christ is all in all for that. Whatever fiery darts Satan may
shoot, Christ is the shield that can quench those darts. If Satan tempt
me, Christ shall plead for me before the temptation comes. Whenever I
have to contend with Satan, this is the weapon with which I should arm
myself: If I reason with him, if I bring forward any strength of my own
to oppose him, he may well say to me: "Jesus I know; but who art thou?"
But if I bring Jesus into the conflict, and wield the merit of his
blood, and the faithfulness of his promise, the destroying angel cannot
overcome the sprinkled blood. We overcome through the blood of the
Lamb. Christ Jesus is both shield and sword to us, armor and weapons of
war.
So in our conflict with the world. Whatever trials you have, my dear
brother, Christ is all in all to meet them. Are you poor? He will make
you rich in your poverty by his consoling presence. Are you sick? He
will make your bed in your sickness, and will so make your sick-bed
better than the walks of health. Are you persecuted? Be it for his
sake, and you may even leap for joy. Are you oppressed? Remember how he
also was oppressed and afflicted; and you will have fellowship with him
in his sufferings. Amidst all the vicissitudes of this present life,
Christ is all that the believer wants to bear him up, and bear him
through. No wave can sink the man who clings to this life-buoy; he
shall swim to glory on it.
So, too, within myself Christ is all. If I look into the chambers of my
inner nature, I see all manner of deficiencies and deformities, and I
may well be filled with dismay; but when I see Christ there, my heart
is comforted, for he will both destroy the works of the devil, and
perfect that which he has begun in me. I am a sinner, but my heart
rests on its Savior; I am burdened with this body of sin and death but
behold my Savior is formed in me the hope of glory. I am by nature an
heir of wrath, even as others, but I am born into the second Adam's
household, and therefore I am beloved of the Most High, and a
joint-heir with Christ. Is there Christ in thy heart beloved? Then
everything that is there that would make thee sorrow may also suggest
to thee a topic for joy. The saint is grieved to think that he has sin
to confess, but he is glad to think that he is enabled to confess sin.
The saint is vexed that he should have so much infirmity, yet he
glories in infirmity because the power of Christ doth rest upon him. He
is grieved day by day to observe his wanderings, but he is also
rejoiced to see how the Good Shepherd follows him and restores his
soul. So that all the evils and short comings in me which make me weep,
also make me glad when Jesus is seen within. For all I see within
myself lacking or sinful, I see a sufficient remedy in Christ who is
all in all.
Thus I have given you a second way of meditating upon our text. Christ
is not only all by way of distinction, but he is all to God, all
between us and our enemies, and all within ourselves.
3. We may see another phase of the same meaning if we take a third
division. Christ is all for us, he is all to us, he is all in us.
Christ is all for us, the surety, the substitute in our stead to bear
our guilt; "For the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." "The
chastisement of our peace was upon him." "He hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him." He is also the worker standing in our place to fulfill all
righteousness for us. He is the end of the law for righteousness to
every one that believeth. All that God requires us to be, Christ is for
us. He has not presented to God a part of what was done, but has to the
utmost farthing paid all that his people owed. Acting as our forerunner
in heaven, he has taken possession of our inheritance, and as our
surety he secures to us our entrance there. For us all Jesus is all.
And this day he is all to us. We trust wholly in him. I often question
myself upon many Christian graces, but there is one thing I never can
doubt about, and that is I know I have no other hope but in the blood
and righteousness of Jesus Christ. If a soul can perish relying with
all its power upon the finished work of the Savior, then I shall
perish; but if saving faith be an entire reliance upon Him whom God
hath sent forth to be a propitiation for sin, then I can never perish
until God's word be broken. Can you not say that, dear brethren, and
will it not yield you comfort? Have you anything else you could trust
to? Have you one good work that you could rely upon? Is there a prayer
you have ever offered, an emotion you have ever felt, that you would
dare to use as a buttress, or as in some degree a prop, to your hope of
salvation? I know you reply, "I have nothing, nothing, nothing,
nothing; but Christ my Savior is all my salvation and all my desire,
and I abhor the very idea of putting anything side by side with him as
a ground of my dependence before God." Oh, then, assuredly you have the
mark of Christ's sheep, for to all of them Christ is all.
I said also that Christ is all in us, and so he is. Whatever there is
in us that is not of Christ and the work of his Spirit, will have to
come out of us, and blessed be the day in which it is ejected. If I am
growing and advancing, but it is a growth in the flesh and an advance
in self, it is a spurious fungus growth; and, like Jonah's gourd, it
will perish in a night. Wood, hay, stubble, are quick building, but
they are also quick burning; only that which belongs to "Christ formed
in me the hope of glory," will prove to be gold, silver, precious
stones, this may seem slow building, but it will abide the fire. O
Christian, pray much and labor much to have Christ in thee, for he is
all that is worth having in thee. He is only the husk of a Christian
who has not the precious kernel of Christ in his heart. Christ on the
cross saves us by becoming Christ in the heart. Jesus is indeed all for
us, all to us, all in us.
4. Shift the kaleidoscope, and take the same truth in another way
Christ is the channel of all, the pledge of all, the sum of all.
The channel of all. All love and mercy flow from God through Christ the
mediator. We get nought apart from him. "No man cometh unto the Father
but by me." Other conduits are dry, but this channel is always full.
"He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him,
seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."
Christ is the pledge of all. When God gave us Christ, he did as much as
say, "I have given you all things." "He that spared not his own Son,
but freely delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things?" He is a covenant to us, the title-deeds of
the promised rest.
And, indeed, Christ is not only the channel of all, and the pledge of
all, but the apostle says he is all; so I take it he is the sum of all.
If you are going to travel on the Continent, you need not carry a bed
with you, nor a house, nor a table, nor medicine, nor food; if you only
have gold in your purse, you have these condensed. Gold is the
representative of everything it can buy, it is a kind of universal
talisman, producing, what its owner wishes for. I have never yet met
with a person in any country who did not understand its meaning. "Money
answereth all things," says the wise man, and this is true in a limited
sense; but he that has Christ, has indeed all things: he has the
essence, the substance of all good. I have only to plead the name of
Jesus before the Father's throne, and nothing desirable shall be denied
me. If Christ is yours, all things are yours. God, who gave you Christ,
has in that one gift summed up the total of all you will want for time
and for eternity, to obliterate the sin of the past, to fulfill the
needs of the present, and to perfect you for all the work and bliss of
the future.
5. Once more let us view our text in another light. Christ is all we
need, all we desire, and all of good that we can conceive. He is all I
need. Jesus is the living water to quench my thirst, the heavenly bread
to satisfy my hunger, the snow-white robe to cover me, the sure refuge,
the happy home of my soul, my meat and my medicine, my solace and my
song, my light and my delight.
He is all I desire, and when most covetous I only covet more of his
presence; when most ambitious, it is my ambition to be like him; when
most insatiable in desire, I only long to be with him where he is. He
is all I can conceive of good. When my imagination stretches all her
wings to take a flight into realms beyond where the eagle's wing hath
been, yet even then she reacheth not the height of the glory which
Christ Jesus hath promised her; she cannot conceive with her most
expanded powers of anything more rich and precious than Christ, her
Christ, herself Christ's, and Christ all her own. Oh, if you want to
know what heaven is, know what Christ is, for the way to spell heaven
is with those five letters that make up the word Jesus. When you get
him he shall be all to you that your glorified body shall need, and all
your glorified spirit can conceive. O precious Christ, thou art all in
all.
III. I have shown you then, in a very hurried way, what it is that this
truth includes, now, with greater brevity still, WHAT DOES THIS TRUTH
INVOLVE? It involves a great many things. First, it involves the glory
and excellence of Christ. Of whom else could it be said that be is all
in all? There are many things in this world that are good, but there is
nothing that is good for everything. Some plants may be a good
medicine, but not a good cordial; the plant of renown is good every
way. Good clothing is not able to stay your hunger, but Christ the
bread of heaven is also the Father's best robe. You cannot expect any
finite thing to be good for all things, but Christ is infinite
goodness. This tree of life bears all manner of fruits, and the leaves
are for the healing of the nations. He is strength and beauty, safety
and sanctity, peace and plenty healing and help, comfort and conquest,
life here, and life for ever. Glory be to the Lord Jesus Christ! What
can he be less than God, if he be all? "All." Is it not a synonym for
God? We say there cannot be two Gods, because the one God is
everywhere, and fills all space; and who then can he be who is called
"all in all," but "very God of very God?" Worship him, my brethren,
with all your hearts, rejoice in him, bless him from day to day. Let
not the world think you poor who are so rich in him. Never suffer men
to think you unhappy, who have perfect happiness in the ever blessed
Immanuel.
See, in the next place, the safety and the blessedness of the believer.
Christ is all; but the believer can add, "And Christ is mine." Then the
believer has all things–all that he will want, as well as all he does
want. No emperor that has not Christ is half as rich as he that has
Christ and is a beggar. He that hath Christ, being a pauper, hath all
things; and he that hath not Christ, possessing a thousand worlds,
possesses nothing for real happiness and joy. Oh, the blessedness of
the man who can say, "Christ is mine." On the other hand, see the
wretchedness of the man who has not the Savior: for if Christ is all,
you who believe not on him are devoid of all, in being destitute of
Christ. But you say, "I try my best, I attend public worship, I do a
great deal that is good;" you have nothing if you have not Christ. Do
not flatter yourself that you are getting on and adding goods to goods
in spiritual things; if you have not a Savior you are naked and poor
and miserable; you are without all if you are without Christ, who is
all. The Christian, then, is rich, but everyone who is destitute of
Christ is poor to the extreme of poverty.
See, too, in the truth before us a rebuke for the doubts of many
seekers. They will say, "I have not this, I have not that." Suppose
thou hast it not, Christ has it, if it be good for anything. "I would
fain cast myself upon the mercy of God in Christ this day, but,"–Ah,
away with thy "buts." What dost thou want? "I want true belief," saith
one. Come to Christ for it then. "I want a broken heart," says another.
If you cannot come with a broken heart to Christ, come for a broken
heart.
"True belief, and true repentance
Every grace that brings us nigh,
Without money
Come to Jesus Christ and buy."
We have an odd proverb about the folly of taking coals to Newcastle;
but what folly must that be which makes a man think that he can take
something to Christ, when Christ is all. Come, come, come, come to him,
poor sinner, and let him be all in all to thee. Simply rely upon him
and be at peace.
How this, again, rebukes the coldness of saints. If Christ be all in
all, then how is it we love him so little? If he is so precious, how is
it we prize him so little? Oh! my dull, dead, cold heart, what art thou
at? Art thou harder than adamant, and baser than brutish, that thou art
not much more moved with ardor and fervent affection towards such a
Lord us this? Christ is all, my brethren, yet look how little we offer
to him–of our substance how scant a portion–of our time how slender a
part–of our talents how small a parcel! God stir us to holy fervency,
that if Christ be all for us, we may be all for Christ. May we lay
ourselves out without reservation to the utmost stretch of our power,
asking fresh strength from him, that we may do all that can be done by
mortal men, and that all may be done with us by God, that he shall see
it to be compatible with his glory to do.
Again, by our text another lesson is furnished us. We learn here how to
measure young converts. We ought not to expect them to be philosophers
or divines; Christ is all. If they know Christ, and are resting in him,
we are bound to say, "Come, and welcome." Be they poor, be they
unlettered, if Jesus Christ be formed in their hearts, even though we
can see him there only as a dim outline, we are to open wide the gate,
and receive them as Jesus received us.
Here is a measure, too, by which to measure ministers. The fashion of
the world is to admire him most who shall speak most rhetorically.
Accursed be the day in which oratory was tolerated in the Christian
pulpit. It has been the bane and plague of the church of God. This
labor after flowery speech, this seeking after polished periods and
gaudy sentences, what is it but a pandering to the world, and a
prostitution of the ministry of reconciliation. Had men learned what
the apostle meant when he said, "I brethren, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom," they would have preached far other wise than
they have done. We should strive to speak the gospel simply from our
hearts, and then men's hearts will be impressed with the truth. Alas,
this toying with fair words, and seeking after pleasing expressions,
this dressing up of truth in the flaunting finery of falsehood,
degrades rather than adorns the gospel, and it has done incalculable
damage to souls, and to the advance of truth. Measure ministers by
this, What is there of Christ about them? That ministry which hath no
savor of Christ in it, be it what it may, is a ministry which the Lord
will not own, and that you ought not to own; it is not God-sent, and
ought not to be received by you. Give me Christ Jesus, though the
speech in which he be set forth be of the most uncouth kind, rather
than the choicest inventions of the most ingenious thinkers, from which
Jesus Christ is absent, or in which he is not exalted.
Brother, this will also help you to estimate your own devotions. You
came to the communion table the other day, but you did not enter into
fellowship with Christ. Ah! then there was a lost opportunity. You were
in your closet this morning in prayer, but you did not plead the name
of Jesus. Ah! then again there was a lost season of devotion. You are a
Bible reader, and your eye glances over the holy words but you do not
see Jesus in each page; then your reading has failed. You have been
giving to the poor of late; but have you done it for Christ's sake? You
have sought to win souls: have you done it in Christ's strength? If
Jesus be absent, you have offered a sacrifice from which the heart is
gone; and among the Romans, no omen was supposed to be so damaging as
the absence of the heart from the sacrifice. No Christ, then there can
be no acceptance, but a fullness of Christ proves a fullness of
acceptance with God.
IV. There are many other things which I could have said, but time has
failed me, and therefore I must close by noticing WHAT THIS TRUTH
REQUIRES OF US. Christ is all in all; therefore "put on, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of
mind, meekness, longsuffering." The exhibition of the Christ-life in
the saints is the legitimate inference from the fact that Christ is all
to them. If Christ is all, and yet I being a Christian am not like
Christ, my Christianity is a transparent sham, I am nothing but a base
pretender, and my outward religiousness is a pompous pageantry for my
soul to be carried to hell in–nothing more. It is a gilded coffin for
a lifeless spirit. I shall perish with a double destruction, if I have
dared to profane the name of Christ by taking it upon me, when I have
not the essence of the Christian religion within me. Orthodoxy, though
it be of the most assured sort, is vanity of vanities, unless there be
with it an orthodoxy of life: and experience, whatever man may say
about it, is but a dream, a fiction of his own imagining, if it does
not display itself in shaking off the sins of the flesh, and putting on
the adornments of holiness. O brethren, these are searching things to
everyone of us. Who amongst us lives as he should at home? Could you
bear that the angel who visits your house should publish, before the
great cloud of witnesses, all that he has seen there? In your shops, in
your businesses, you professors, are you always upright and
straightforward as Christians should be! You merchants on the Exchange,
are not some of you, who profess to be Christians, as greedy and as
overreaching as others? I charge you, if you have any respect for
Christ, lay down his name if you will not endeavor to honor it you will
be lost, you covetous money-grubbers, you earth-scrapers, who live only
for this world, you will be lost; you need not doubt of that, you will
be lost sure enough; but why need you make the assurance of your
condemnation doubly sure by the base imposture of calling yourselves
Christians. Meanwhile, let the Ethiopian call himself white, if he
will; let the leopard declare that he has no spots; these things shall
not matter; but the falsehood of a man who lives without Christ, while
calling himself a Christian, brings such dishonor upon him who was
nailed to the tree, and whose religion is that of holiness, that I
beseech you, by the living God, give up your profession, if you do not
endeavor to make it true. If you are not living as you should, do not
pretend to be what you are not. Seek ye unto God, that the life of
Christ being in you, you may manifest it in your conversation.
Without Christ ye are nothing, though ye be baptised, though ye be
members of churches, though ye be highly esteemed as deacons, elders,
pastors. Oh, then, have Christ everywhere in all things, and constrain
men to say of you, "To that man Christ is all in all: I have marked
him; he has been with Jesus, he has learned of him, for he acts as
Jesus did. God grant a blessing on these words, for Christ's sake.
Amen.
PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Colossians 3, and 4:1-6.
Sermon Readers are respectfully reminded that the 200 boys at the
Stookwell Orphanage are supported by voluntary contributions, and that
these are always thankfully received by C. H. Spurgeon, Clapham.