Colossians 2:16-17 says, “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.” These verses reveal that Christ is the reality of every positive thing in the universe. There are many positive things in the universe, and all the positive things are shadows of Christ. The day is a shadow of Christ; He is our real day. Every kind of light—moonlight, sunlight, electrical light, the light of an oil lamp—is a shadow of Christ; He is the real light. Every kind of food is a shadow; Christ is the real food. Christ is the real water and the real air. Even the feasts, the holidays, are a shadow; Christ is our real holiday. Christ is our real Sabbath and our real new moon. A new moon signifies a new beginning with light in darkness. Christ is the real new beginning with light in darkness. Furthermore, our Christ is our real clothing and our real house, our real dwelling place. This is not my thought; it is revealed in the Bible. Psalm 90:1 says, “O Lord, You have been our dwelling place / In all generations.” Christ is our eternal dwelling place, our eternal home. Christ is everything.
Colossians 3:4 says that Christ is our life. Our life is the all-inclusive Christ. What a life! Colossians 1:27 reveals that Christ is in us as our hope of glory. Today the wonderful, all-inclusive Christ is our life. In the future He will be our glory; therefore, He is our hope.
Colossians 2:6-7 says, “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, having been rooted and being built up in Him.” The revelation in these verses is crucial. We not only have believed in Christ but also have received Him. To receive something is to take, possess, or lay hold of something that is given to us. We have all received Christ in this way. Because we have received Him, we can now walk in Him day by day. Moreover, we have been rooted in Christ, and we are being built up in Him. Our being rooted in Christ is for the growth in life, and our being built up in Him is for the building of God’s house. Thus, we need to walk in Christ for our growth in life and for the building of God’s house.
Christ is not a concept; He is a person. We can receive this person, walk in Him, be rooted in Him, and be built up in Him. We all need to see this Christ. If we see a vision of Christ, we will have no time or capacity to care for anything else. We will not care for our concept of what a low meeting, a high meeting, a living meeting, a silent meeting, or a loud meeting is. We will have no room in our being to care whether or not guitars or tambourines are used in the meetings. If those who would normally oppose the use of tambourines are filled with Christ, they will say, “Whoever would like to play can play. I do not care if one plays or a hundred play. I have no time to talk about that.” Moreover, if those who play the tambourines are filled with Christ, they will lay down their tambourines and say, “Christ is our real tambourine. We do not want to have the shadow; we want to have the reality.” However, if some want to keep the shadow, this is not wrong. Regrettably, because most Christians are void of Christ, they pay attention to many unimportant things. When we are filled with Christ, we have no room for other things.
Although Christ is beyond our understanding, we need to experience Him, for He is our portion. He is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation, the One in whom all things were created, the One in whom all things cohere, the Head of the Body, and the Firstborn from the dead. He is preeminent in both the old creation and the new creation, and God’s fullness, that is, God’s full expression in both creation and the church, dwells in Him. Christ is also God’s mystery and the reality of every positive thing in the universe. For the present, Christ is our life, and for the future, He is our hope of glory. Moreover, since we have received Christ and possess Him, we need to walk in Him, be rooted in Him, and be built up in Him.