The new man has Christ as all the members and in all the members, leaving no room for race, religion, culture, or social status. After referring to the new man in Colossians 3:10, Paul goes on to say in verse 11, “Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all and in all.” The word “where,” referring to the new man in verse 10, means in the new man. There is no natural person in the new man. Furthermore, there is no possibility, no room, for any natural person. Vincent says that in the Greek language the words rendered “cannot be” are very strong and mean that there is no possibility. In the new man there cannot be Greeks, who are for philosophical wisdom, and Jews, who are for miraculous signs (1 Cor. 1:22). There cannot be circumcision and uncircumcision. Circumcision refers to the observers of the Jewish religious ritual; uncircumcision refers to those who do not care for the Jewish religion. Furthermore, in the new man there cannot be barbarian, Scythian, slave, or freeman. A barbarian is an uncultured person, the Scythians were considered the most barbarous people, the slaves were those sold into slavery, and the freemen were those who had been freed from slavery. In the new man there is room only for Christ, not for any kind of natural person.
In the new man “Christ is all and in all.” In the new man there is room only for Christ. He is all the members of the new man and in all the members. He is everything in the new man. Actually, He is the new man. In the new man Christ is the centrality and universality.
The word “all” in verse 11 refers to all the members who make up the new man. Christ is all these members, and He is in all the members. Because Christ is all the members of the new man, there is no room in the new man for any race, nationality, culture, or social status. For us to experience the reality of Christ being all the members of the new man, we need to take Christ as our life and person and live Him, not ourselves. If Christ is the living of all the saints, then in reality only He will be in the new man. When all the saints, whatever their nationality may be, live Christ, then in a way that is real and practical, Christ will be all the members of the new man. Christ will be you, and Christ will be me. Because we all live Christ, not ourselves, Christ will be all of us, every member of the new man.
In 3:11 Paul says not only that Christ is all but also that He is in all. On the one hand, Christ is all the members; on the other hand, He is in all the members. We may wonder what need there was for Paul to say that Christ is in all. If Paul did not say that Christ is in all, only that He is all, we may think that in the new man Christ is needed and that we are not needed. We should not think that, because Christ is all the members in the new man, we are nothing and are not needed. On the one hand, the Bible does say that in the new man there is no place for the natural person because Christ is all the members. Nevertheless, Paul says that Christ is in the members. The fact that Christ is in the members of the new man indicates that the members continue to exist.
When we take Christ as our life and person and live together with Him, we shall have the sense deep within that we are one with Christ and that Christ is us. But simultaneously we shall have an even deeper sense that Christ is in us. Therefore, it is true to say that Christ is both in us and that He is us. We are part of the new man with Christ in us. We continue to exist, but we do not exist without Christ; we are those indwelt by Christ. In the new man Christ is everyone, and He is also in everyone.
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