In this chapter we will consider who and what Christ is. Christ is not only a person of many aspects, but He is also many things and matters. It is difficult to fully describe who Christ is, and it is even more difficult to describe what Christ is.
God made a plan, a purpose, in eternity past. God’s eternal purpose is to work Christ into God’s chosen people. God has chosen us with the purpose that Christ would be dispensed and wrought into our being to become our constitution. This is God’s eternal purpose, and it has become His economy. The New Testament uses the word economy (Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4), which indicates a stewardship to dispense Christ into God’s children (Eph. 3:2; Col. 1:25).
Regrettably, immediately after God’s dispensation in His New Testament economy began, certain things other than Christ crept into the church. Even while the apostles were still on the earth, before the end of the first century, certain things other than Christ had been brought in by God’s enemy, Satan. Galatians and Colossians were written to deal with two of these things—religion, specifically Judaism with the Old Testament law, and philosophy, specifically Gnosticism.
The Epistle to the Galatians was written with the purpose of clearing up the matter of Judaism and the law. Judaism, the Jewish religion, is versus Christ. Paul wrote in Galatians that when he was young, he advanced beyond many of his contemporaries in Judaism (1:14). He was a leading Jewish religionist. While Paul was on his way to arrest the Christians in Damascus, the Lord appeared to him from the heavens and knocked him to the ground (Acts 9:1-4). Paul saw the heavenly Christ and later testified, “It pleased God...to reveal His Son in me” (Gal. 1:15-16). God the Father revealed Christ in Paul. From that day Paul dropped the Jewish religion, the law, and the traditions practiced by his forefathers. Instead, he began to live Christ. He said, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (2:20). Paul also wrote, “I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you” (4:19). The Christ who is revealed in us, who lives in us, and who is formed in us is absolutely versus any kind of religion.
The book of Colossians deals with Greek philosophy, earthly pondering and human thought, and it reveals many items of who Christ is and what Christ is. The first item of Christ that is revealed in Colossians is the allotted portion of the saints in the light (1:12). Christ is not only our inheritance for the future but also our portion to enjoy today. We have been qualified for a share of Christ as the portion of the saints in the light.
We are the saints and the partakers of Christ as our portion. This portion is the image of the invisible God (v. 15a). God is invisible, but an image is visible. Christ our portion is the image, the expression, of the invisible God, and in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (2:9). In other words, in this portion we enjoy not only the expression, the image, of the invisible God but also all that God is. The fullness of God dwells in Christ, who is our portion for our enjoyment. All that is in Christ is unimaginable. The portion we are enjoying day by day is the embodiment of the fullness of God. Whatever God is, is embodied in this portion. This is beyond our comprehension.
This dear One who is the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead is also the reality of every positive thing in the universe. 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.” There are two categories of things in the universe: positive and negative. There is the day and the night, life and death, light and darkness. All positive things in the universe are shadows of Christ. The light we see with our eyes is not the real light; it is a shadow of Christ. Christ is also our real day. Feasts are times of release, rest, and enjoyment. Such times are only a shadow; Christ is the real feast. Anytime we have Christ, we have the real feast. Food is a shadow of Christ. If we do not have Christ, even if we eat much food, we will still be hungry. Christ is our real new moon—a bright new beginning in a dark time. Christ also is the real Sabbath. If we do not have Christ, we do not have rest.
Colossians 2:16-17 shows that all positive things are a shadow of Christ, indicating that Christ is the reality of every positive thing. He is our food, our drink, our clothing, our rest, our joy, and our everything. When I am wearing my eyeglasses, I often say, “Lord, You are my real eyeglasses. If I do not have You, I am blind. Thank You, Lord, without You I can see nothing, but with You everything is clear to me.” In our daily life we need to realize that Christ is the reality of every positive thing.