In this message we will begin to consider the aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ revealed in Colossians.
In Colossians 1:12 Paul says, “Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light.” This verse indicates that the portion of the saints is the all-inclusive Christ for our enjoyment. When Paul was writing the Epistle to the Colossians and was speaking of the portion of the saints, he had in mind the type of the good land. When the children of Israel entered the good land and took possession of the land, God commanded them to divide the land into lots and to allot them to the children of Israel so that they would receive a portion of the good land for their inheritance and enjoyment. Paul in Colossians presented the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land allotted to us by God. We, the believers in Christ, have received a portion of Christ as the good land, which Paul calls the portion of the saints.
God the Father has qualified us by the redemption of God the Son and through the sanctification of God the Spirit for a share of the all-inclusive Christ, the embodiment of the processed Triune God, as the allotted portion of the saints. The will of God is that the all-inclusive, extensive Christ is to be our portion. In verse 9 Paul speaks of God’s will. In this verse, God’s will refers to Christ. God’s will for us is that we know Christ, experience Christ, enjoy Christ, be saturated with Christ, and have Christ become our life and person. The will of God is profound in relation to our knowing, experiencing, and living the all-inclusive, extensive Christ.
The New Testament believers’ inheritance, their allotted portion, is not a physical land; it is the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit (2:6-7; Gal. 3:14). He is the allotted portion of the saints as their divine inheritance for their enjoyment. The riches of the good land typify the unsearchable riches of Christ in the different aspects of His bountiful supply to His believers in His Spirit (Deut. 8:7-10; Eph. 3:8; Phil. 1:19). By enjoying the riches of the land, the believers in Christ are built up to be His Body as the house of God and the kingdom of God (Eph. 1:22-23; 2:21-22; 1 Tim. 3:15; Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17).
In Colossians 1:13-14 Paul tells us that the Father delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. As the portion of the saints, Christ is the Son of God’s love, the kingdom of God is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, and in Christ we have redemption. We were redeemed to inherit the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.
Just as the good land was the portion of the children of Israel, so Christ today is the portion of the saints. After revealing in verse 12 the all-inclusive Christ as the allotted portion of the saints, Paul in verse 13 tells us that the Father delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Verse 13 reminds us of the way the children of Israel were delivered out of Egypt and transferred into the good land. Thus, Paul’s concept in verse 13 is the same as that revealed in the exodus from Egypt and in the entering into the good land. In ancient times, God delivered His people out of Egypt and brought them into the good land. God the Father has done the same thing with us. He has delivered us out of the authority of darkness, typified by Pharaoh and Egypt, and has transferred us into the all-inclusive Christ, typified by the good land. Just as the children of Israel were transferred out of Egypt into a land flowing with milk and honey, a land where there was no tyranny, so we also have been transferred into a marvelous realm, called the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. Therefore, to be qualified for a share of the portion of the saints is actually to enter into the reality of the good land. Paul’s composition of verses 12 and 13 is thus according to the picture in the Old Testament.
Verse 13 is the explanation and definition of how the Father has qualified us for a share of the portion of the saints. This verse says that the Father “delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” For Christ to be the Head of the Body, and for us, His believers, to be the members of His Body, God needed to deliver us out of the authority of darkness, the kingdom of Satan (Matt. 12:26), and to transfer us into the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God’s Beloved. This is to qualify us to partake of the all-inclusive Christ as our allotted portion.
If we were still under the authority of darkness, we would not be qualified to share in Christ. But the Father has delivered us out of the authority of darkness, and we are no longer in the satanic kingdom. Our being delivered from the authority of darkness was the first step to be qualified to have a share in Christ. The second step was our being transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. We have undergone both a deliverance and a transfer. Because Satan is darkness, and Christ, the Son of God, is light, Satan’s kingdom is the authority of darkness, whereas the kingdom of the Son of God is the kingdom of light. By being delivered out of Satan’s kingdom and transferred into Christ’s kingdom, we have been qualified for a share of the portion of the saints.
Through regeneration we have been not only delivered out of the authority of darkness but also transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love (John 3:5). The kingdom of the Son is the authority of Christ (Rev. 11:15; 12:10). Moreover, the Son of the Father is the expression of the Father as the source of life (John 1:18, 4; 1 John 1:2). The Father as the source of life is expressed in the Son.
The Son of the Father’s love is the object of the Father’s love to be the embodiment of life to us in the divine love with the authority in resurrection. The Son, as the embodiment of the divine life, is the object of the Father’s love. The divine life embodied in the Son is given to us in the divine love. Therefore, the object of the divine love becomes to us the embodiment of life in the divine love with the authority in resurrection. This is the kingdom of the Son of His love.
It is easier to give an illustration of the kingdom of the Son of His love than it is to give an adequate definition of it. Let us consider our experience. Realizing that the Lord Jesus is so loving and lovable, we begin to love Him. As we love the Lord Jesus, we are conscious of a sweet sense of love. Not only does this sense of love include the Lord Jesus, but it also includes us. We realize that we also are the objects of the divine love. As objects of this divine love, we spontaneously come under a certain control or ruling. Before we loved the Lord Jesus, we were free to do whatever we wanted. But the more we say, “Lord Jesus, I love You,” the less freedom we have. Before we loved the Lord Jesus, we did not sense this ruling or restriction. We could mistreat people or engage in worldly entertainments without any sense of inward restriction. But as those who love the Lord Jesus, we have come under His rule. This rule is not harsh; on the contrary, it is sweet and pleasant. We are restricted and ruled in such a sweet way. Because of the pleasantness of the Lord’s rule in us, we do not care even to speak a vain word or to have a thought that is displeasing to Him. We are ruled and restricted to the uttermost in the sweetness of love. This is the kingdom of the Son of His love.
The more we are willing to be restricted and ruled by the Lord Jesus out of our love for Him, the more we will grow in life, even in the abundance of life. This indicates that the kingdom of the Son of His love is for our enjoyment of Christ as life. Here we are freed from everything other than Christ, not only from evil things but also from things such as philosophy, ordinances, observances, and asceticism. When we were holding to our philosophy, ethics, asceticism, and ordinances, we were under the authority of darkness. But God has delivered us out of this authority and has transferred us into a kingdom of love that is full of life and light. Here we have no observances, rituals, ordinances, practices, philosophies, mysticism, Gnosticism, or asceticism. We just have Christ, the Son of His love. Here we have love, light, and life. This is to live by Christ.
To live by Christ means that we do not live by anything other than Christ. If we see what it is to live by Christ, we will realize that many of us are still under some form of control established by the self, a control set up and carried out by the self. This kind of control is the authority of darkness. If we are under this authority, we receive no light in reading the Bible, and we have no utterance in prayer. Although the Father has delivered us out of the authority of darkness, out of our natural thought, emotion, preference, and behavior, we may still remain in some aspect of our natural being. This causes us to be held under the authority of darkness. Because in actuality we are under the authority and control of darkness and are not in the kingdom of the Son of His love in a practical way, we have little enjoyment of Christ as the portion of the saints.
To insist on a particular ordinance or practice is to be under the authority of darkness. Our Father has delivered us out of the authority of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Here we are restricted by the divine love in the divine life. Instead of ordinances, observances, religion, or philosophy, we have Christ and Christ alone. If we see this, there will be no disputes or divisions in the church life.
To be transferred into the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love is to be transferred into the Son who is life to us (1 John 5:12). The Son in resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 6:4-5) is now the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). He rules us in His resurrection life with love. This is the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. When we live by the Son as our life in resurrection, we are living in His kingdom, enjoying Him in the Father’s love.
We have been transferred into a realm where we are ruled in love with life. Here, under the heavenly ruling and restriction, we have genuine freedom, the proper freedom in love, with life, and under light. This is what it means to be delivered out of the authority of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Here in this kingdom we enjoy Christ and have the church life. Here there is no opinion or division. Here we have one thing: the church life with Christ as everything to us. This is the revelation of the book of Colossians.
In Colossians the authority of darkness refers to the good aspects of culture and of our character, disposition, and natural being. The authority of darkness includes our virtues, religion, philosophy, observances, ordinances, principles, and ethical standards. God has delivered us out of all this and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, where we live under a heavenly rule and restriction. In this kingdom we are not under a harsh rule but under the loving rule of the Son. Here we do not sense that we are under righteousness, power, or authority but under the loving and lovable Lord Jesus. The more we tell the Lord Jesus that we love Him, the more we are freed on the one hand, and the more we are restricted and ruled on the other hand. Because we love Him, we desire to take Him as our person and as our life. This is the proper Christian life for the church life.
The kingdom of the Son of God’s love comprises three ages: the present age, in which the church is; the coming age, in which the millennial kingdom will be; and the eternal age with the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. These three aspects are considered by Paul in Colossians 1:13 as the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
The words the Son of God are a delight to the Father’s ears. When the Lord Jesus was baptized, the Father declared, “This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight” (Matt. 3:17). When the Lord was transfigured, the Father made the same declaration (17:5). Because the Father delights in His Son, the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love is a pleasant thing, a matter of delight.
The emphasis in Colossians 1:13 is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love in this age, which is the reality of the church. The church life today is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, which is as delightful to God the Father as the Son of God is. We, the believers, all have been transferred into this delightful kingdom of the Son of God’s love. God the Father loves the delightful part of the kingdom, just as He loves His delightful Son as His own. Hence, the church, as the delightful part of the divine kingdom, is considered a great blessing to God’s redeemed people by the apostle Paul in the book of Colossians, a book which is on Christ as the all-inclusive portion of God’s people.