Christ is also the reality of every positive thing, such as food, water, air, and sunshine. Verses 16 through 17 say, “Let no one therefore judge you in eating and in drinking or in respect of a feast or of a new moon or of the Sabbath, which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ.” The food we eat, holidays, and the Sabbath day are not real; they are shadows. Christ is the real food, the real holiday, and the real Sabbath. A holiday, a feast, is a happy day, but if we do not have Christ, we cannot be joyful. If we have Christ, every day is a happy day. The Sabbath is for rest. If we do not have Christ, we do not have rest. Christ is also the reality of the new moon, which signifies a new beginning with light in the darkness. When others are disappointed and everything is in darkness, we have a bright new beginning and a new hope in Christ. The first day of the week should not be called Sunday, a word that is pagan in origin, but the Lord’s Day (Rev. 1:10). Christ is our first day of the week, the beginning of a new period. Our new beginning is Christ. Christ is everything to us.
Colossians 3:10-11 reveals that Christ is all and in all in the new man. These verses say, “Put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” The new man is the church. In the new man there is no place for any natural man, because in the new man Christ is all. Christ has the unique place in the new man. He is every member, and He is in every member. This truth is difficult to fully explain, but we need to declare, “Hallelujah! Christ is me, and Christ is in me!” In the new man there are no Americans, Chinese, or any other nationality or race, but Christ is all and in all. Christ is all of us, and Christ is in all of us.
Verse 4 reveals that Christ is our life, and 1:27 reveals that He is our hope of glory. Christ is our life today and will be our glory in the future. Therefore, He is our hope.
We need not merely to know the doctrine but to see a vision that the church is Christ. We also need to see a vision of who and what Christ is. Christ, who is our portion, is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation, and the One in whom, through whom, and unto whom all things were created. He is also the One who is before all things and the One in whom all things cohere. Christ is the Head of the Body, the beginning, and the Firstborn from the dead. He has the preeminence in all things, and all the fullness, the full expression of God in both creation and the church, is pleased to dwell in Him. Christ is also the mystery of God, the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead, and the reality of every positive thing. Every positive thing in the universe is only a shadow, a type, of Christ. The light we see is only a shadow. The body, the reality, of all light is Christ (John 8:12; 9:5). The air we breathe is a shadow of Christ, who is our real air (20:22). The water we drink is not the real water; the real water is Christ (4:14; 7:37-39). The food we eat day by day is not the real food; the real food is Christ (6:35). Christ is our real clothing, our real covering (Rom. 13:14; Gal. 3:27). Christ is everything. We also need to see that Christ is all and in all in the new man, the church. Therefore, every part of the Body is Christ, and Christ is in every part of the Body.
Christ being all and in all in the church should be a controlling vision to us to repel all foreign things from the church. Anything besides Christ is foreign to the church. Christ is the only proper constituent of the church. In the new man there is nothing but Christ. Christ is every part of the church and is in every part of the church. This Christ is our portion; we can enjoy Christ as the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation, the One in whom, through whom, and unto whom all things were created, the One who is before all things, the One in whom all things cohere, the Head of the Body, the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, the One who has the preeminence in all things, the One in whom all the fullness was pleased to dwell, the mystery of God, the One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, the reality of every positive thing, and the One who is all and in all in the church. We should not consider Christ’s being all and in all in the church as merely a doctrine; this needs to be a vision to us. Such a vision will transform our concept, our mentality, our emotion, our sensation, and every part of our being. This vision will also control, direct, safeguard, and preserve us in the proper church life. The foremost truth we need to see in the New Testament is that the church is nothing but Christ.
We need this controlling vision because in today’s Christianity there is much confusion, division, darkness, and death. If we do not have Christ as all and in all in our church life, we will immediately have confusion, division, darkness, and death. Confusion comes in when Christ is missing. Once confusion comes in, division will quickly follow, then darkness, and finally death. If Christ is present, confusion is gone. If we have Christ, we will have a proper order instead of confusion, genuine oneness instead of division, light instead of darkness, and life instead of death. The vision of the church being Christ keeps us under a strict control and direction.