Before Paul wrote Colossians, he wrote the Epistle to the Galatians. In Galatians 3:14 he says, “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Some Christian teachers believe that the blessing of Abraham refers to justification by faith. According to the context, however, this blessing must refer to the good land. In Genesis 12 the blessing God promised to give Abraham was the land. In Galatians 3:14 Paul links the blessing of Abraham to the promise of the Spirit. This indicates that the promise of Abraham, the promise of the good land, is the Spirit. Hence, the Spirit is the good land.
In Galatians 3:14 Paul speaks of the Spirit. This should remind us of John 7:39. This verse says, “The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” The Spirit in Galatians 3:14 and John 7:39 is the ultimate expression of the Triune God. The Spirit is a unique term which denotes the processed God. The Father is the source. The Son of God as the course was incarnated, lived on earth, was crucified, and on the third day was resurrected. Incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection are all aspects of a process. In resurrection, Christ, the last Adam, became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). According to John 1:14, the Word, who was God, became flesh. According to 1 Corinthians 15:45, the last Adam, who is Christ, became the life-giving Spirit. Many Christian teachers argue that the life-giving Spirit in this verse is not the Holy Spirit. To believe this is to believe that there are two Spirits who can give life, the Holy Spirit and the life-giving Spirit. The life-giving Spirit is no doubt the very Holy Spirit who gives life. This Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the processed God. This Spirit is nothing less than the all-inclusive Christ. As the good land is an all-inclusive type of Christ, and as Christ has become the Spirit, so the Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit as the processed God, is eventually the good land to us, the New Testament believers, as a fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed in him (Gen. 12:3).
According to Galatians 3:14, the promise is the promise of the Spirit. But Galatians 3:16 says that the promises were made to Abraham’s seed, which is Christ. It is difficult to reconcile these verses. On the one hand, the Spirit is the all-inclusive Christ. On the other hand, this promise, this Spirit, was given to Christ as the seed. Although this is difficult to explain doctrinally, it is rather easy to understand according to experience. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received Him as the seed, as life. However, this seed is the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit, the reality of the good land. This means that the very Christ whom we received as the seed is the Spirit typified by the good land. Christ came into us as the seed. But as we live by Him, He becomes the land which is our portion.
Just as the good land was the portion of the children of Israel, so Christ today is the portion of the saints. We have pointed out that as Paul was composing 1:12 he had in mind the type of the land of Canaan. In 1:13 he goes on to say, “Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” This verse 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 1:13 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 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 good land. Paul’s composition of 1:12 and 13 is thus according to the picture in the Old Testament.