We need to see what the Lord’s recovery is according to the Word of God. The Lord desires to recover certain things that existed in the beginning but were lost. Therefore, in order to see the Lord’s recovery, we need to see what there was in the beginning. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In the beginning there was God as the Word. Verse 4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” These words are simple, but they signify profound things. God is profound, the Word is difficult to define, and life is mysterious. Furthermore, we cannot logically comprehend how life can be light. We need to see the significance of the Word, God, the life, and the light.
In John 14:6 Christ, who is the incarnate Word, said, “I am the way and the reality and the life.” We first experience Christ as our life; then He becomes the reality to us. If we do not have Christ as our life, we do not have anything real. Eventually, this reality becomes our way.
In order to understand these matters in John, we need to go to Galatians. To see something clearly, a background is necessary to provide a contrast. Thus, to know Christ, who is the Word, God, the life, the light, the reality, and the way, we need to enter into Galatians, which presents a distinct background. The background in Galatians is religion. In 1:14 Paul said, “I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries in my race, being more abundantly a zealot for the traditions of my fathers.” As a young man, Paul was a leading religionist. While he was on the way to Damascus to persecute the believers, the Lord appeared to him. Paul saw not a doctrine or a teaching from man but a vision from the Lord.
Paul said, “It pleased God...to reveal His Son in me” (vv. 15-16). A person was revealed into Paul’s being. Even after being saved for years, many Christians do not have a definite realization that a person has come into them. They often think that they have received only salvation. We need to see that Christ is living as a person in us. To have food in our stomach or money in our pocket is pleasant and easy. However, to have a person who has thoughts, feelings, and activities living in us is not simple. Christ is the Word, God, the life, the light, the reality, and the way. This all-inclusive person has been revealed into every believer. He has nothing to do with religion and is even versus religion. Religion serves as a negative background in Galatians to help us see Christ.
Paul went on to say, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith” (2:20). Christ’s coming into us crucifies us. After Christ comes into us, He is not passive. He never gives in. When He comes in, we have to go out. To have Christ living in us means that we are crucified with Him and that it is Christ who lives in us.
Paul also wrote to the Galatians, “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you” (4:19). The book of Galatians reveals that Christ is everything in the Christian life. Christ is revealed into the believers, Christ lives in them, and Christ is formed in them. This Christ is the One who is revealed in the Gospel of John as the Word, God, the life, the light, the reality, and the way. He is the One who was in the beginning.
In revealing Christ, Galatians is a continuation of John, and Colossians is a continuation of Galatians. In order to adequately know the New Testament and see a new vision of Christ, we need to put these three books together.
Colossians 1:12 reveals that Christ is the portion of the saints. God has allotted Christ to us as a portion. Our portion is a wonderful person who is the Word, God, the life, the light, the reality, and the way. Upon believing into Christ, we receive Him as our portion. He is revealed into us, He lives in us, and He is formed in us. As saints, we are partakers of the all-inclusive Christ, our God-allotted portion.
Verse 15 tells us that Christ is the image of the invisible God. The image is the expression. Although God is invisible, He has an expression, an image. This image is our portion; day by day we enjoy the image of God. Verse 18 reveals that Christ is the Head of the Body, the church, and the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead. As the Head, the beginning, and the first item in the new creation, Christ has the first place, the preeminence, in all things. Verse 19 says, “In Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell.” Then 2:2 reveals that Christ is the mystery of God. A person who is the mystery God lives in us.
Because philosophy had crept into the church, Paul writes in verse 8, “Beware that no one carries you off as spoil through his philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.” The word philosophy in this verse refers to Gnostic teaching, which included elements of Greek philosophy.
In verse 3 Paul says that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. Before we were saved, we were not wise. However, once we are saved, we can experience Christ as our wisdom. All believers should be wise. This is practical. We need to experience Christ as our wisdom in how we spend our time and our money. Christ is real wisdom. When we live by Christ, He is our wisdom. We are not wise when we do not live by Christ or when Christ is unable to live in us. Christ is always in us, but we often do not allow Him to live in us. When Christ lives in us, He becomes our wisdom.
Colossians 2:9 says, “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” 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.” These verses reveal that Christ is the reality of every positive thing in the universe, such as life, light, air, water, and food. The physical food we eat is not the real food but only a shadow. Christ is the real food. Christ is the reality. He is the real feast, the real new moon, and the real Sabbath.
Colossians 3:10-11 says, “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 mentioned in verse 10 is not an individual man, for verse 11 indicates that there are many persons in the new man. The new man is a corporate man—the church. In the new man, there is no nationality, race, culture, or status, but Christ is all and in all. All here refers to all persons. Christ is all the members of the new man. This means that as members of the new man, we are Christ. For this reason, Paul said, “To me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). In the church there is nothing natural but only Christ. Therefore, like Paul, we should seek to gain Christ and be found in Him (3:8-9). We need to be saved from being found in ourselves.
Because the church is purely Christ, the recovery of the church is simply the recovery of Christ as all in the church. In the beginning of the church there was Christ and only Christ, but this was lost. Therefore, the Lord has to come in to recover what has been lost. The Lord’s recovery is to recover Christ.
The Christ who is the many items revealed in Colossians is also our life (3:4). In this age Christ is our life, and in the coming age He will be our glory. Thus, Christ is our life for today and our hope of glory for the future (1:27).