Colossians 2:15 says, “Stripping off the rulers and the authorities, He made a display of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” The pronoun “He” refers to God. When Christ was on the cross, God not only wiped out the ordinances of the law, but also stripped off the rulers and the authorities and made a display of them openly, triumphing over them. The rulers and the authorities are evil angels, fallen angels that are subordinates of Satan working for him. While the Lord Jesus was dying on the cross, these rulers and authorities, these fallen angels, were very busy. Actually, during the time of Christ’s crucifixion; there was an invisible spiritual conflict between God and these evil rulers and authorities. God won the victory, stripped off the rulers and authorities, and made a display of them openly, triumphing over them in the cross.
After God created the heavens, the earth, and other items in the universe, an archangel rebelled, and many angels followed him. This archangel became Satan, and his followers became the evil rulers, powers, and authorities in the heavenlies. And after man was created, Satan induced man to fall and man became sinful. The rebellion of the angels and the fall of man put God into a difficult situation. God’s way to deal with this difficulty was the cross. First, God became a man, thereby putting humanity on Himself. Then Christ, God incarnate, went to the cross and was crucified. While He was dying on the cross, many things took place. God judged sin and the sinful old man. At the same time, He nailed the law to the cross. When God was nailing the law to the cross, the evil angels were present and very active. But God stripped them off through the cross.
While Christ was laboring on the cross to accomplish redemption, God was working. At the time of the Lord’s crucifixion, the cross was the center of the universe. The Savior, sin, Satan, we, and God were all there. God was judging sin and nailing the law to the cross. As He was doing this, the rulers and authorities gathered around God and Christ. Both God and Christ were working. Christ’s work was His crucifixion, whereas God’s work was to judge sin and all the negative things and to nail the law with its ordinances to the cross. The rulers and authorities who had gathered around God and Christ were also working, busy in the attempt to frustrate the work of God and Christ, pressing in closely around God and Christ. If they had not pressed in closely, how could God have stripped them off? The words “stripping off indicate that they were very close, as close as our garments are to our body. By stripping off the rulers and authorities God made a display of them openly. He openly put them to shame and triumphed over them. What a great matter this is!
The word “triumph” implies fighting. It indicates that a war was raging. While Christ was accomplishing redemption and God was dealing with the law and with negative things, the rulers and authorities came to interfere, pressing in close to God and Christ. At that very juncture God stripped them off, triumphed over them, and made a display of them openly, putting them to shame.
Now that the law and the evil angels have been set aside, God has a clear ground and a peaceful environment to enliven His chosen ones. He has a proper atmosphere to carry out the pleasant task of dispensing Himself into the very ones He chose in eternity past. As the life-giving Spirit, the Triune God, having stripped off the rulers and authorities, is giving life to us by dispensing Himself into our being.
In His work God also raised up Christ from the dead. Acts 2:24 says, “Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, since it was not possible for Him to be held by it.” Here and in verse 32 Peter says that God raised up the Lord Jesus. Considering Christ as God, the New Testament tells us that He Himself rose from the dead (Rom. 14:9). But regarding the Lord as a man, the New Testament says that God raised Him from the dead (Rom. 8:11). God’s raising up Christ from the dead was His approval of Christ to be the Messiah. Through the resurrection of Christ God was declaring that the resurrected Christ was the real Messiah, the One anointed and appointed by God to carry out His eternal commission.
In Acts 3:15 Peter again speaks about Christ’s being raised up by God from the dead: “The Author of life you killed, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.” Although the Author of life, Christ, as the Originator of life, had been killed, God raised Him from the dead. Considering the Lord Jesus as a man, Acts 3:15 again tells us that He was raised up from the dead by God.
In John 14:26 the Lord told the disciples that the Father will send the Holy Spirit as the Comforter in His name. This took place in Christ’s resurrection. Through Christ’s resurrection God sent His Spirit essentially in the Son’s name. The Son came in the Father’s name (John 5:43), because the Son and the Father are one (10:30). The Spirit is sent in the Son’s name, because the Spirit and the Son are also one (2 Cor. 3:17). John 14:16-20 proves that the Spirit, who is the Spirit of reality, sent by the Father, is the reality, the realization, of the Son. John 15:26 says that the Son will send the Spirit from with the Father, and the Spirit comes from with the Father. This, compared with John 14:26, which says that the Father will send the Spirit, indicates that the Son and the Father are one in sending the Spirit, and the Spirit, in His coming, is not only one with the Son, as indicated by His coming in the Son’s name in John 14:26, but also one with the Father, as indicated by His coming with the Father in John 15:26. This is the Triune God-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit-reaching man eventually as the Spirit.
Home | First | Prev | Next