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No.60.
The Epistle to the Colossians (10).
pp. 221 - 226
Having magnified the Lord Jesus Christ and put Him in the first place in material
creation as Creator and spiritual creation as Lord and Head of the Church which is His
Body, and having insisted that the redeeming work of God has united the believer with
Him in His death, burial, quickening, raising and ascension, the Apostle Paul now seeks
to bring the Colossian believers to the practical issue of all this. They were not to be
side-tracked and robbed of their reward by being drawn away to worship false spiritual
powers who in fact had been defeated by the victory of Calvary. They must continually
view themselves as linked with the triumphant Lord Jesus in glory and not view things
just from the earthly standpoint:
"If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where
Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not
on the things that are upon the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, Who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be
manifested in glory" (Col. 3: 1-4 R.V.).
It is evident that the attitude of the mind is of great importance here. As with the
body, the mind of the believer can be allied with and controlled by the `flesh', the sinful
old nature inherited from fallen Adam, or it can be under the domination of the `spirit',
the new Divine nature bestowed at regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Under His control the
mind then can aspire to heavenly things. The unregenerate world with its ways and its
thinking is past and gone as far as the believer is concerned; heavenly places `far above
all', where not only the ascended Lord is, but the believer's inheritance too, can now be
the sphere of his bent of mind. This inheritance is not earthly, like Israel's, for this
`citizenship exists in heaven' (Phil. 3: 20) as a present fact, we are assured, and also as a
future hope. What is at the `back' of a believer's mind is all-important, even though he
has to employ his conscious mind in his daily employment.
The result of this should be reflected in the believer's life, in his words and actions, as
well as his thinking and this should go on until the consummation of his faith is reached,
the realization of the `blessed hope', being manifested in the glory where the Saviour is
enthroned `far above all'. Now the believer is seen to be seated together in the `heavenly
places IN Christ' (Eph. 2: 6). Then he will be WITH Christ in the same exalted sphere.
Christ Jesus expresses all our hope and He also expresses all our life and when this is
realized and acted on, the sins of the flesh have no place (Col. 3: 5-9). The `old man'
and his deeds are `put off', relying on the fact that they were crucified with the Lord
when He died on the Cross. The `new man' is constantly `put on'.
"Mortify" (nekroo) means here `to treat as dead', that is to count on the slaying of the
old man with Christ crucified as being an actual fact. Then Rom. 6: assures us that it
is nullified or `put out of working order' (`destroyed' is too strong in the A.V. of