All and All in All
(No. 2501)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 24, 1897.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY
3, 1885.
"Christ is all, and in all." Colossians 3:11.
"That God may be all in all." 1 Corinthians 15:28.
IN our two texts there are three "alls" rising, one out of the
other–the first leading to the second and the second conducting to the
third. You will notice at once that the first two are in the present
tense. "Christ is all" and, "Christ is in all." The third one refers to
the future–it is yet to be fulfilled. When the great consummation
shall come, then shall God be, "all in all." I shall not detain you
with any sort of preface, for my sole endeavor at this time will be to
impress these texts upon your memory–in the hope that the Spirit of
God may make them a living and abiding influence upon your hearts and
lives–that to you, Christ may be all, that Christ may be in you all,
and that so, in all that you do, and say, and are, God may be all in
all.
I. We begin at THE FOUNDATION WHERE ALL BLESSING BEGINS. "Christ is
all."
These are but few words, yet what Divine shall ever fully expound them?
"Christ is all." Here is sea-room enough for all godly mariners! Yet
with the best wind that ever blew to speed the ship along, and with
every sail set and filled with the breeze from Heaven, who shall ever
be able to go from one shore of this great Truth of God to the
other–"Christ is all"? I shall not venture upon such a voyage! I can
but look across this sea and ask you to kindly notice the connection in
which the text stands that we may learn exactly what the Apostle meant.
Writing, "to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at
Colosse," Paul says, "There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor
uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all."
That is to say, in the matter of salvation, ' "Christ is all." That
which had often seemed the most important thing in the world is here
thrown into the background by the Apostolic declaration, "There is
neither Greek nor Jew." For a long time it seemed as if the eternal
Light of God was only revealed to the eyes of the seed of the house of
Israel. They sat in the brightness and all the rest of the world lay in
dense darkness. But, behold, the Christ has come, "a Light to lighten
the Gentiles," and henceforth salvation is "not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man," but, "Christ is all."
It is a great privilege to be born of godly parents, to have come of a
race that for generations has feared the Lord. But let no man trust
merely in his natural descent. If you had sprung from a lineage of
saints. If every one of your progenitors had feared God, yet still,
nothing of all this could matter for your own salvation. "Christ is
all." Now may the Gentile dog eat of the crumbs that fall from the
Master's table where He feeds His Israel! No, the dog is transformed
into a child–he who was far off is made near! In the Person of the
Lord Jesus Christ, both Jew and Gentile are made one and all the sheep
of the Good Shepherd are sheltered in the same fold! We who believe in
Jesus are children of him who was called the father of the faithful and
though, according to the flesh, "Abraham was ignorant of us, and Israel
acknowledges us not," yet by faith we become the spiritual seed of the
great father of all Believers! As he believed in a son being born
according to God's promise, and in a seed to which the Covenant
promises were given, even so do we. And entering into union with Christ
Jesus, that blessed Son of the promise, we become joint-heirs with Him,
"heirs of God, and jointheirs with Christ." You see, then, dear
Friends, that it is not race, or pedigree, or descent that saves the
soul, but that "Christ is all."
Then Paul goes on to say, "There is neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision," from which I gather that there is nothing in outward
ceremonies which can save. Everything is still of Christ–"Christ is
all." That circumcision in the flesh was ordained of God and it was the
mark of the seed that He had chosen. It was not, therefore, lightly to
be spoken of. But now, "we are the circumcision, which worship God in
the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh." At this day even the ancient Divine ordinance is put in the
background, for, "Christ is all." So is it with every other ordinance,
whether ordained of God or of man. It must never be placed in the
front, as if it were the means of salvation! I say to you who may have
been sprinkled, or to you who may have been immersed–to you who may
bow at your altars, or to you who may come to the Communion Table–I do
not place all these rites on a level, certainly, for some are of God
and some are not, but I do place them all on a par in this
respect–that they enter not into the essence of our salvation! And I
say to all of you, "These things cannot save you, for, 'Christ is
all.'" Be you who you may, and do you what you may, you shall not be
saved because of your natural birth, nor because of any supposed holy
acts that you may perform! Neither shall you be saved by any
transactions that may be the work of a human priest! You must have
Christ as your Savior and you must rest in Him, alone, or you cannot be
saved! He is the one foundation and, "other foundation can no man lay
than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ," for, "Christ is all." The
Lord Jesus Christ sums up everything that ordinances can possibly mean
and all that pedigree and descent can possibly bring–and He is
infinitely more than all of them!
Read on in this Epistle and you will find that as race and
ceremonialism are both put into the background, so also is culture.
"There is neither Barbarian nor Scythian, but Christ is all." Of course
it was for many reasons much better to be a Roman citizen than to be a
rude barbarian. And it is much better, now, to be a civilized man than
an untutored Indian of the Wild West. But so far as vital godliness and
the soul's salvation are concerned, there is no difference! The
simplest and most illiterate, upon believing in Jesus Christ, shall
find that "Christ is all." And the most learned and most fully
instructed, if they bring any of their learning and their culture and
put it side by side with Christ as a ground of trust, shall sorrowfully
discover that none of those things can be placed on an equality with
Him, but that, "Christ is all."
I rejoice, Brothers and Sisters, in this Truth of God! If the Gospel of
Christ were something eclectic which could only be received by a
superior few, what a poor prospect there would be for the great mass of
people among whom we dwell! If the Gospel of Christ were a matter so
deep and profound that it could not be understood except by years of
educated thought, where would they be who have never had any culture
and, perhaps, can scarcely read the letters of a boy's schoolbook, if,
this day, they were lying upon the bed of sickness, expecting soon to
stand before God? Blessed be God, we have a remedy for sin's sickness
which the Great Physician understands! And if He is well acquainted
with it, it matters not whether the patient fully comprehends it or
not! Blessed be God, the effect of Christ's medicine does not depend
upon the degree in which we can realize how it acts, but if we receive
it by faith, if it penetrates into the heart, if it takes possession of
the affections, it will work in us that wondrous change by which we
shall be delivered from the love of sin and saved both from its
condemnation and its power! Thank God for a simple Gospel! Blessed be
His name that "Christ is all"! If, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit,
you have learned that Christ died for the ungodly. If you know that He
is the Son of God and the one great Propitiation for sin, and if you
accept Him as such, you have that which has delivered you from going
down into the Pit, for God has found a ransom even for you!
Once more. By this expression, Paul means us to understand that all
conditions and position of men in this life are put on a level before
Christ, for He adds, "There is neither bond nor free; but Christ is
all." When the Gospel of Jesus Christ came into the world, it
contemplated the saving of bondmen as well as of freemen. Of course
there was a great distinction between being bond or free, and the
Apostle wrote, "If you may be made free, use it rather," but as to the
real power of God's Grace, there was no distinction between the noblest
citizen of Rome and the poor slave who wore an iron collar and was
fastened, like a dog, at his master's gate! Christ's Grace could enter
into the heart of the servile, as well as into the heart of the
noble–and could work alike in each.
Now, hear you, Sirs! It is well that you should be industrious, that
you should be thrifty and that you should make your way in the world.
But this is not the way to eternal life! What if you should work till
your fingertips were raw? What if you labor during the livelong day and
night and deprive yourselves of needed sustenance, that you may hoard
up gold and silver? With all this, you cannot buy salvation, or be an
inch nearer to it. "Christ is all." And if you lie penniless upon a
workhouse bed, there is that in Christ which can save you! If you beg
your food from door to door, yet shall you not stand at a disadvantage
with this great and blessed Gospel, for it comes freely to you with
this message and, as it asks of you no learning, so it asks of you no
wealth, no rank and no position–for, from first to last–"Christ is
all."
Thus have I taken the words in their connection and they are full of
important teaching. Remember that they mean just this–that to the man
who is saved, Christ is all his trust Our healing lies in His stripes.
Our life lies in His death. Our pardon lies in His having suffered the
punishment due to us. Our eternal life is in the fact that He once died
for us and that He now lives to make intercession for us. "Christ is
all." You must not add anything to Christ as your ground of confidence,
but just lean the weight of your sin, your sorrow, your needs and your
desires wholly and entirely upon Him who lives to stand for you before
God. Christ, then, is all our trust!
And, as for our belief, Christ is all our creed. What He has taught us
personally and by His Holy Spirit through the Epistles–what He gives
us in His Word–this is what we believe, and nothing else! The Bible
and the Bible, alone, is the religion of a Christian! "Christ is
all"–and all the Truth that there is in this Book is in Him. This
revelation of the Word of God is the same revelation as that which is
made in the Christ, Himself, who is the true Logos, the Word of God.
"Christ is all" as our creed.
And, further, Christ is all as our example. You may safely do what He
did and you may not do what Hewould not have done. You may judge of the
right or wrong of everything by this question–What would Jesus Christ
do in these circumstances? You may thus know what you should do. And
what you cannot suppose He would have thought of doing, you must not
venture to do, for, "Christ is all." He draws a ring around us and we
must not go outside that circumference. He is the atmosphere in which
we are to live. He is about us. He is above us. He is beneath us. He is
within us. He is everywhere and, to us, if we are Christians, "Christ
is all."
There is the foundation of all our faith and hope–and I want you who
preach and you who teach the children to always keep to this one Truth
of God–that "Christ is all." Many other things have a measure of
instruction in them, but Christ is all that is necessary. If you want
to save men, if you truly wish to elevate men, if you desire still
further to exalt them to the very highest degree of which human nature
is capable, remember that "Christ is all" as your lever, and in Him is
your fulcrum, and in Him is the power to use the lever! "Christ is
all." You need not go abroad for anything, for "you are complete in
Him." The ship is furnished from stem to stern in Him. The house, from
its foundation to its rooftop, is all complete in Him. "Christ is all."
Oh, to know Him! Oh, to have Him as our own! Oh, to live wholly upon
Him! Oh, to grow like He and always to keep before our mind's eyes this
great Truth that, "Christ is all"!
II. Now we are going a step farther to consider the second part of our
first text–"Christ is all, and in all "This is a matter of experience
and it reveals to us HOW THE WORK OF GRACE PROCEEDS. Christ is in all
His people, this gracious possession is the work of the Spirit of God,
by whose means Christ is formed in us, the hope of Glory.
To my mind it is a very beautiful thing that the Lord Jesus Christ,
when He comes into the soul, does not annihilate any part of the
personality, but shines in each separate being, for He is not only all,
but He is in all His people! There is, for instance, the Greek–the
"Gentile"–shall be the word. Very well, the Grace of God does not turn
the Gentile into a Jew. He remains a Gentile, but Christ is in him and,
therefore, he is made into a new creature. There have been some
beautiful specimens of holiness and Grace found in many of the Gentile
nations dwelling in the islands of the sea, or among all sorts and
conditions of men scattered up and down the world–and Christ has shone
gloriously in them. Then comes the Jew. When he is saved, Christ is in
him. The Apostles of Jesus were mostly, at least, of that race, and
many later Believers have been of the seed of Abraham. But Christ has
been in them and He has gloriously displayed Himself in them. The Lord
Jesus Christ, dwelling in the Jew, leaves him still a member of the
house of Abraham, but, through the Presence of the Lord Jesus within
him, how wondrously his whole character is exalted!
Then you have the man who is circumcised and the man who is
uncircumcised–and in each of these, if he is saved, Christ dwells. And
each one, therefore, lives according to his light, his knowledge and
his standing. Christ enters into the barbarian and though in certain
natural respects he remains, to a large extent, what he was before,
yet, as soon as Christ enters into him, all of his barbarism that is
sinful disappears! He still retains the free spirit of the child of the
wilderness or the son of the woods, but how grandly has Christ
displayed Himself in such men as he is! The personal piety of a Red
Indian, or of an African freshly taken from the wilds of the Dark
Continent has been as brilliant and as beautiful–certainly as fresh,
bright, clear and striking as the piety of the most educated of the
Caucasian race! Whether he is barbarian or Scythian, if Christ is
formed in him, the hope of Glory, it is only another form of the same
exquisite beauty!
It is always a pity when our missionaries try to make other nations
into English people. If we have pride enough to think so, we may regard
ourselves as the model for others to imitate, but it would be a great
pity if we should be such a model that every native of India must copy
the Englishman! I like the worship of our Black friends in Jamaica and
in the Southern States of America, with its delightful simplicity, its
vivacity–yes, and I venture to say, even its grotesqueness. And I
would not have a black man begin slavishly to imitate the white man.
Let him continue to be a black man and let Christ shine in the black
man's face right gloriously. Yes, let a man be a brown man, or a yellow
man, or a red man, or whatever color God made him! The more he keeps to
his own nationality and reflects the Glory of Christ from that angle,
the more will Christ's Gospel triumph and the more will Christ Himself
be honored!
The Apostle adds, as we have already noticed, "Neither bond nor free,
but Christ is all and in all." May the day speedily come when there
shall not be a bondsman under Heaven! But in those days of the worst of
all slavery, the Christian slaves were among the most brilliant gems in
the Redeemer's diadem. Oh, what brave deeds they did for the Crucified
One! I should think that it was harder to be a Christian freeman, in
those days, than to be a Christian slave. But whether bond or free,
whether the man took his place in the Forum among the senators, or his
lot was cast yonder among the slaves–either case, if Christ was in
him–the Light of God shone gloriously from Him and God was magnified
thereby! Christ is all, and Christ is in all His people, each one
remaining the same in His individuality, but Christ shining in each
one!
I must again refer you to the connection of our text and ask you to
read in the 9th and 10th verses, where Paul says, "You have put off the
old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." You recollect
that Adam was made in the image of God and that he lost that image by
his sin. But when Christ enters into a man and he is created anew in
Christ Jesus, then he receives afresh the image of God. The image of
God is Christ Jesus, for He is the express image of His Father's Glory.
He that has seen Christ has seen the Father and, inasmuch as Christ
enters into all Believers and makes them like Himself, the image of God
is thereby restored in all Believers.
So, note again that because Christ dwells in him, every Believer
becomes a copy of Christ Read the 13th verse– "Forbearing one another
and forgiving one another, if anyone has a quarrel against another,
even as Christ forgave you, so also do you." Is not that
beautiful–Christ in every Believer–that Christ the image of God, and
that Christian the image of Christ so that, just as Jesus freely
forgave, so does every Christian freely forgive! Do you find it
difficult to forgive one who has wronged you? Then you will find it
difficult to get to Heaven! If you cannot enter Heaven unless you are
like Christ, how can you be like Christ unless you can freely forgive?
This seems a grand opportunity for you to stand on the same platform
with Christ and, in some respects, to do the works of Christ when,
having been slighted, ungratefully treated, misrepresented, slandered
and injured, you can say, "I as freely forgive you as the Lord Jesus
Christ forgave me." This is the token and evidence that Christ is in
you–when you become imitators of Christ as dear children!
It is a remarkable fact, as I have often said to you, that, although
our Lord Jesus Christ is more perfect than any other example–indeed,
the only perfect example–yet it is more easy to imitate Christ than it
is to imitate some of the best of His people! That is curious, but it
is a fact. I know a Brother whom I greatly admire, an eminent
Christian–I would not mention my own name in the same day with his, he
lives so near to God and is such a truly gracious man–yet I could not
imitate him. It is quite impossible that my nature should ever become
exactly like his. Another Brother, whom I used to know–he is now with
God–was equally good, but he was as different from the other good man
as anyone could be. They were as opposite as the poles in their
temperament and behavior. The first Brother I mentioned is solid, calm,
quiet, unexcitable. And I should think that he very seldom laughs and
that even then, he does not know that he has done it!
My other friend used to, sometimes, literally roar with laughter! He
was full of earnest love for the souls of men and God blessed him
greatly in his service. He had a merry vein and a humorous spirit–and
I was more at home with him than I was with the first one. Yet the Lord
Jesus Christ is far more easy to imitate than either of my two friends,
for sometimes I am so depressed that I cannot show all the cheerfulness
of the one. And at other times, having such a humorous vein in my
nature, I would be hypocritical and unnatural if I suppressed it and
always acted as if I were as solemn as death itself! But in the case of
our Lord Jesus Christ, albeit that there is never any mention of
laughter, yet there were ripples of holy pleasantry in His life and in
His Character though He was "a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with
grief." He is more of a Man than the best of other men, and more
imitable, though altogether inimitable, than those who can be imitated
and, perhaps, can even be excelled.
What is more, Christ in each one of these Believers creates them all
into one body. Read the 14th and 15th verses– "And above all these
things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace
of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are called in one body
and be you thankful." The same life is in all Believers–in you and in
me–well, then, we are one1 The same life is in ten thousand
Christians–then they, also, are all one! If the same life quickens
them and they live under the same influences, and they act according to
the same rule, then are they one and Christ becomes the glorious Head
of a body which He renders glorious by quickening it with His own
indwelling!
I like to think of this blessed Truth of God–Christ in all Believers
creating them into one body–this is the beginning of true unity. Here,
for instance, is a man who says that he is baptized as I am, but if he
has not the life of God within him, I cannot get on with him, whatever
he may call himself–I am not in union with him. There, perhaps, comes
a Methodist, and we begin to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and I
find that he loves Him with all his heart, and I know that I do, though
I wish that I loved Him more. And directly we two get on together–we
feel that we are one in Christ because of the one Life which quickens
us. Do you not feel it to be so? Have you not been reading a book,
sometimes, and said to yourself, "Oh, what a blessed book this is! How
full of the Divine life"? Yes, and after you have read it, you have
been surprised to find that the person who wrote it was a Romanist–for
there are many books of that kind–or the writer was a member of some
church that, in many respects, lies in very dangerous error! You say to
yourself, "I do not care where this man lived, or what he did, I am one
with him as far as he is one with Christ."
The one common feeling of union to Christ and Christ being in us makes
us feel that we are one with each other. Wherever there is, as
Augustine used to say, "aliquid Christi"–"anything of Christ"–there
our love must go forth, we cannot help it! Christ in you all makes you
into one body and unites you together in a mysterious and unique
manner. There is not a parallel to it anywhere else–it gives such a
living, loving, abiding, undeniable unity that even if you wish to
forget it, you cannot! If the man is in Christ, you must love him, do
what you may, for you are one body with him.
Such is this manifestation of Christ in His people, that it leads,
further, to the offering of one oblation. Read the 16th verse–"Let the
Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and
admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with Grace in your hearts to the Lord." Yes, all God's people
love God's Word! They all find a great sweetness in "Psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs." They all delight to sing praises unto the Most
High. Montgomery truly wrote–
"The saints in prayer appear as one,"
but it is equally true that the saints in praiseappear as one. And the
saints in love to the Word of God appear as one because Christ, being
in them, and Christ being one, they are knit to one another. Oh, how
blessed it is for us to have Christ in us!
And lastly upon this point, all that I have said leads up to each one
acting to the glory of one name, for if Christ is in you, the 17th
verse is true of you–"Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him."
What a life to lead–Christ taking such entire possession of a man that
everything he does, he does as if Christ, Himself, were doing it,
because he does it in Christ's name and by Christ's power! As Paul
wrote to the Corinthians, "Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or
whatever you do, do all to the glory of God," so that it shall no
longer be yourselves that do it, but Christ that dwells in you. This
shall sanctify the most common actions of everyday life and make the
whole of the Christian's career to be sublime, so that while he treads
the earth beneath his feet, literally, he is also doing it
spiritually–and all the while his conversation is in Heaven.
I must just linger one minute here. You all agreed with me when I spoke
about Christ being all. You understood clearly that He is the only
ground of our hope. Can you also go with me in this part of my
subject–Christ is in all His people? Is Christ formed in you, the hope
of Glory? Do you know anything about an indwellingChrist? Verily I say
unto you, the Christ on the Cross will never save you unless there is
also Christ within yod It is the Christ on the Cross in whom we trust,
but the outcome of that trust is that He is born in our hearts! His
power comes from His love, His Grace, His truth, Himself–and we live
because He lives in us. Do you understand this? If you do not, I pray
God that you may, for, unless Christ is in you, you know what the
Apostle says–"Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; prove
yourselves. Know you not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in
you, unless you are reprobate?" If you are disapproved of God, Christ
is not in you. If Christ is not in you, you are disapproved of God. But
if He lives in you, you are "accepted in the Beloved" and that life of
yours shall never die out, but you shall, by-and-by, behold your
Savior's face in the kingdom of His Glory.
Brothers and Sisters, we are not what we ought to be! We are not what
we want to be, we are not what we shall be! But we are something very
different from what we used to be. The change in us is as great as in
that blind man who said, "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind,
now I see." The change is not merely external, but it is vital! The
Lord has taken away the heart of stone out of our flesh and given us
back the heart of flesh which belonged to man in his unfallen
nature–and then upon this heart of flesh He has also worked
wondrously, making it conscious to spiritual influences which once did
not affect it, and writing upon the fleshy tablets of that renewed
heart, His perfect Law. Glory be to the name of Jehovah, a notable
miracle has been performed upon us! A miracle so marvelous that it is
comparable to the resurrection from the dead and, in some respects, it
even surpasses the wonders of creation, itself! We shall tell this
story in the streets of the New Jerusalem and we shall draw around us
attentive crowds as we narrate our experience and tell the tale of the
sin which ruined us, and of the mercy which reclaimed us!
Thus have we gone up the second rung of this golden ladder. First,
"Christ is all." Next, "Christ is in all."
III. Now kindly turn back in your Bibles to our other text–the 1st
Epistle to the Corinthians, 15th chapter, and 28th verse–"That God may
be all in all." First, Christ is all. Next, Christ is in all His
people, but THE CONSUMMATION, the top-stone of all is "that God may be
all in all."
The passage in which this text stands seems to be a very difficult one
to understand. The common meaning that is given to it by nearly every
interpreter I have ever met with, I do not believe or accept. It seems
to a great many to be taught here that there is to come a time, called,
"the end," when the Lord Jesus Christ, having conquered all His
enemies, is to resign His position, abdicate His Throne and cease to be
King, "that God may be all in all." Let us read the connection of the
passage–"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits;
afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then comes the end,
when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father;
when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For
He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He has put all things under
His feet. But when He says all things are put under Him, it is manifest
that He is excepted, which did put all things under Him. And when all
things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son, also, Himself, be
subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in
all."
The general meaning given to these words is that there is to be a time
when the mediatorial Kingdom of Christ will come to an end of itself
and He will deliver up the Kingdom to God, ceasing, Himself, to be
King. I can only say that if this is the teaching of this text, it is
not taught anywhere else in the whole Bible–nobody can find any
parallel passage to it, or anything like it. Neither do I believe that
it is taught in the Bible at all–neither here nor anywhere else! And I
can say that for this reason I cannot see that there is to be any end
whatever to the mediatorial Kingdom of Christ.
You perceive that it is the Son who is to be subject to the Father but
it is of the Son that we read in the first chapter of the Epistle to
the Hebrews, "Unto the Son He says, Your Throne, O God, is forever and
ever," where the Father, manifestly speaking to the Son, in His complex
Person declares that His Throne is to be forever and ever. Brethren, in
the day when the Christ shall have overcome all His enemies and Death,
itself, shall be destroyed, there will be no abolition of His
mediatorial kingdom! There still stands in the Scriptures this promise
of our Lord Jesus Christ–"To him that overcomes will I grant to sit
with Me on My Throne, even as I, also, overcame, and am set down with
My Father on His Throne." Does that mean that we are to have a
temporary reign with a temporary Christ–a brief rule with a
short-lived Monarch? I do not believe it!
Moreover, the priesthood enters into the mediatorial office most
eminently, yet "the Lord swore and will not repent, You are a priest
forever after the order of Melchisedec." If the priesthood is to
continue forever–and Melchisedec was king as well as priest–then the
kingdom of Christ is to continue, world without end. Moreover, in the
Book of the Revelation–not to mention the almost innumerable passages
to the same effect–we find that when the kingdoms of this world become
the kingdoms of our Lord, it is added, "and ofHis Christ; andHe shall
reign forever and ever"When the kingdoms are brought back, they will be
the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ. Then we read of "the throne
of God and of the Lamb." And when all kingdoms are subdued and the Lord
God Omnipotent reigns, then we are told to expect the announcement,
"The marriage of the Lamb is come and His wife has made herself ready."
What does all this mean but a continuance of that dispensation in which
the Christ, the Son of Man, as the Son of God, shall be still at the
head of His people, still their Priest and still their King and still
reigning? And that is exactly what this passage says, if you will
kindly look at it again and dismiss all previous prejudices from your
minds!
The fact is our Lord Jesus Christ has performed and is still
performing, a work which will end in putting everything into its proper
order. Now, the proper order, according to the first Epistle to the
Corinthians, the 11th chapter, and the third verse, is this–"I would
have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the
woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." This is how it
stands–the woman with the man for her head, the man with Christ for
his Head–and Christ with God for His Head. Such is the Scriptural
order–an order which has been disturbed all through except with regard
to the Father and the Son, for God has always been the Head of Christ!
Now, Christ has come into the world to restore that right order from
the bottom, right up to the top! And it is to be so restored, first, by
Christ becoming the Head of men–when He shall have put down all His
enemies under His feet and when He shall have put down all rule and all
authority and power, "for He must reign till He has put all enemies
under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
Christ is come into the world that all the evil that is in the world
should be subdued. And He will drive it out of the world. There shall
remain no power that shall dare revolt against the majesty of Heaven!
Over the whole surface of this globe, beneath the new heavens and on
the new earth, there shall yet be the Kingdom established of which
Jesus Christ shall be the supreme Head and over which He shall reign
forever, King of Kings and Lord of Lords! The Lord hasten it in His own
time!
Well, and what then?" asks one. "Does it not say that He is to deliver
up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, and to be subject to the
Father?" Exactly so. Supposing that India had been in revolt against
our Queen and that a Viceroy had been sent there, and that he had
warred against all the rebellious tribes and kingdoms, and they had all
been conquered. He telegraphs to the Queen, "Your Majesty's empire is
at your feet." Does he therefore cease to be Viceroy? Not necessarily
in the least degree! He may still remain as ruler and yet have
delivered up the kingdom. I believe that to be the meaning of this
passage–that Christ has so conquered the Kingdom that it is all God's.
But what does it mean when it says that then shall the Son also be
subject unto the Father? It means that He is subject, now, and that
eventhenHe will continue to be subject to the Father, that is all. It
cannot mean that at a certain time Christ will become subject to God,
because He has been so ever since that day of His glorious humiliation
when, for His people's redemption, he took upon Himself the form of a
Servant–and that condition is not to cease. He is still to be the
Representative of God even when He shall have put down all power and
all authority under His feet and when God has put all things under His
feet. It is manifest that He that did put all things under Him is not,
Himself, under Him. And it is clear, from the text, that even then, God
shall be the Head of Christ. I do not know whether you catch my thought
yet, but it is just this–all evil subdued, all the saints having
Christ dwelling in them, Christ the Head of all these saints, and then
God, still as God, all the more surely and securely supreme over all
things–for the Head of Christ is God and God is all in all.
The conclusion of the whole matter is this, that every day this should
be the great consummation to be kept in view, "that God may be all in
all." For this, the heroic labors of the Son of Man here on earth! For
this, His cruel death! For this, His rising again! For this, His
grasping of the mediatorial scepter! For this, His ruling in
Providence! For this, His management of the world's affairs! For this,
His Second Coming and the glory of His saints! All this, while it
continues to bring Glory to Him, has been done in subjection to His
great Father's will. He has accomplished it all as the Father's
Representative and Messenger, sent by Him to do it and then, when it is
all done, and He shall reign forever and ever, even then, the Son,
Himself, shall continue in that position in which He put Himself long,
long ago, "that God may be all in all." Then will the whole universe,
restored and brought back to its proper place, be ordered according to
the eternal Covenant arrangement.
And the practical outcome of it all is this. I want you, beloved
Friends, so to live as to be persuaded that it will be so one day, that
God shall be all in all–that there shall come a time when we shall
stand before the Throne of God, God in us all, and everything in us of
God, when all His elect, all His redeemed, all to whom Christ is all,
and all in whom Christ is, shall only know God as their All in All! God
all in their very existence. God their all in every hymn. God their all
in every pulsing of their joy. God their all in every hope. God their
all in every memory. God all to them and God inall of them to the very
fullest–all redeemed, all delivered from the power of sin, all
quickened into the Divine and God-like life, all summed up in Christ,
Christ comprehending them all–and then Christ Himself Head over all
things to His Church, standing and giving unto God the Glory forever
and ever, that the Father may be All in All.
I see no abdication of a throne here. I see not even a change of
dispensation and I do not believe in any! But, as surely as God lives,
our King lives, and our Priest still ministers before Him. And He shall
still be King over His people, though still, as the Christ, in His
infinite goodness, abiding as subject unto God, Himself, God forever
and ever, and yet, in His complex Person, making the Father to be All
in All. Looking forward to that glorious consummation, we can join
again in the jubilant hymn we sang just now–
"Hallelujah!–hark! the sound, From the center to the skies, Wakes
above, beneath, around, All creation's harmonies! See Jehovah's banner
furled, Sheathed His sword! He speaks– 'tis done! And the kingdoms of
this world Are the kingdoms ofHis Son. He shall reign from pole to
pole, With illimitable sway. He shall reign when, like a scroll, Yonder
heavens have passed away! Then the end–beneath His rod, Man's last
enemy shall fall! Hallelujah! Christ in God, God in Christ is All in
AH."
Now let us begin at the beginning. This is very simple–"Christ is
all."Then may the Spirit of God help us to go on to the next rung of
the ladder–"Christ is in all His people." There is the difficulty! Is
He in you, Beloved? Have you received Him by faith? Then comes the
third step–this may be, at present, full of mystery, but we shall see
it in brighter light, by-and-by–God shall be all in all. So shall He
be to us even now! Amen and Amen.