`What (is) the Riches of the Glory of His inheritance in the saints'.
`That He would grant you, according to the Riches of His Glory, to be
strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may
dwell in your hearts by faith'.
`The Mystery ... now is made manifest to His saints: to whom God would
make known what is the Riches of the Glory of this Mystery among the
Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory'.
If we take these passages in a different order, we shall have the
following logical progress:
(1)
Colossians 1:26,27. The riches of the glory of this Mystery is
explained, as `Christ in you, the hope of glory'.
(2)
Ephesians 1:18. The appreciation of this high glory as the outcome
of spiritual enlightenment.
(3)
Ephesians 3:16,17. The indwelling of Christ in the heart, the
experimental echo of Colossians 1:26,27.
The words of Colossians 1:27 `Christ in you, the hope of glory' need
careful treatment. Does the apostle mean by this, the indwelling that is the
theme of Ephesians 3:16? Some say yes, some say no. Moffatt renders Colossians
1:27,28 `in the fact of Christ's presence among you as your hope of glory. This
is the Christ we proclaim'. The Companion Bible draws attention that `in' is
the same word as `among' in this verse. The grammatical rule is, that where en
`in' is used with a plural, the meaning is generally expressed by `among' not
`in'. We could pour the contents of a gallon jar into another gallon jar, and
say that the liquid was `in' the other jar, but if we poured the contents of a
gallon into four separate quart pots, we could not so truthfully use the word
`in', for the gallon would be distributed `among' the four rather than `in'
them. So Matthew 2:6 `among the princes of Juda' not `in'. `His sepulchre is
with or among us unto this day' (Acts 2:29) not `in'. So in 1 Peter 5:1,2 `the
elders among you ... the flock among you'. Therefore we must read `This Mystery
among the Gentiles, which is Christ among you' in Colossians 1:27.
What does the apostle mean by `Christ among you'? Before the revelation
of the Mystery, the ministry of Christ was limited, first to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel (Matt. 10:6), and then to those Gentiles who were joined to
Israel under the New Covenant as branches in the olive tree. Gentiles as such
were aliens, without God, without Christ, and consequently without hope. When
Israel were set aside, as they were in Acts 28, the salvation of God was sent to
the Gentiles, irrespective of Israel, and in the preaching of Christ by the one
appointed apostle of the Gentiles, Christ is said to have come `and preached
peace to those who were afar off as well as to those who were nigh' (Eph. 2:17).
The preaching of Christ `among the Gentiles' therefore was a sufficient
pledge of their `hope of glory', for it indicated a change of dispensation, and
a change in their favour. Colossians 1:26,27 links the two petitions of the
Ephesian prayer together; `what is the hope ... what the riches of the glory'.
`What (is) the riches of the glory of this Mystery among the Gentiles; which is
Christ in (among) you the hope of glory'. Something of the peculiar nature of
these riches of glory is expressed in the phrase `of His inheritance in the
saints'. It is not their inheritance, but His, and we have already seen this is
the revelation made in verse 11. His inheritance is `in the saints'. This is
blessedly true as Ephesians 1:11 reveals, but there is more in this expression
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