 |  |
#7.
Rescued out of;
translated into (1: 13).
(concluded).
pp. 119, 120
There is a still further analogy in connection with Israel's deliverance from Egypt.
I Cor. 10: 1, 2 states that when Israel passed through the Red Sea they "were all baptized
unto Moses". Now Col. 2: says of the rescued and translated members of the church of
the one body that they were "buried with Him in the baptism, wherein also ye were raised
with Him through the faith of the energizing of God Who raised Him out of the dead"
(Col. 2: 12).
The overthrow of the principalities and powers in Col. 2: 15 finds its analogy in the
destruction of the Egyptian host, the words "in it" (Col. 2: 15) indicating that the same
sea that was a path of safety for the Israelites was the doom of the Egyptians, and that the
same cross that rescued and delivered the church was the means of destroying the
antagonizing spiritual powers of darkness.
Acts 7: 39-41 shows that when Israel turned back in heart to Egypt they became
idolaters. Gal. 4: 8-11 repeats the lesson:--
"Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are
no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn
ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, wherein ye desire again to be in bondage?
Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have
bestowed upon you labour in vain."
The Galatians had literally been worshippers of idols. If, after having been saved,
they turn back to the weak and beggarly elements of the law expressed in the observance
of days, it constitutes incipient idolatry: they are like Israel in the wilderness, putting up
another golden calf.
No one who knows the teaching of Col. 2: can miss the evident parallel here.
Following baptism and resurrection with Christ, and the spoiling of principalities, so
evidently parallel with the overthrow of the host of Pharaoh, we read:--
"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of
the new moon, or of the sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come . . . . . why,
as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" (Col. 2: 16-20).
A "rescued" and "translated" people should realize that the Red Sea rolls between
them and Egypt. For the church, the Red Sea is the "one baptism" of Eph. 4: which
unites its members with Christ their Head.
The "translation" of Col. 1: 13 is "into the kingdom of the Son of His love", a
complete contrast with the rescue "out of the authority of darkness". It is a scriptural
principle that needs continual emphasis, that the "out of" aspect of redemption demands