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"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 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 the reverse order, we shall have the following logical
progress:
(1)
Col. 1: 26, 27. The riches of the glory of this Mystery is explained, as "Christ in
you the hope of glory".
(2)
Eph. 1: 18. The appreciation of this high glory as the outcome of spiritual
enlightenment.
(3)
Eph. 3: 16, 17. The indwelling of Christ in the heart, the experimental echo of
Col. 1: 26, 27.
The words of Col. 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 Eph. 3: 16? Some
say yes, come say no. Moffatt renders Col. 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 Matt. 2: 6
"among the princes of Juda" not "in". "His sepulcher is with or among us unto this day"
(Acts 2: 29) not "in". So in I Pet. 5: 1, 2 "the elders among you . . . . . the flock among
you". So therefore we must read "This Mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ
among you" in Col. 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 alien, 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, 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 far 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. Col. 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 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 eleven. His inheritance is "in the saints". This is