GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 9–11. Religion a Change of Life.
- Evident by putting off the old nature and its sins (ver. 9).
- By putting on a new nature renewed after the Divine likeness (ver. 10).
- Superior to all conventional distinctions (ver. 11).
- In which Christ is everything (ver. 11).
Ver. 11. Christ All and in All.
I. Christ is all and in all in the realm of creation.—The vast fabric of created things sprang into being at His word. Out of nothing He created all that is. The distance between being and no-being is so great that nothing short of infinite power can cause that to be which never before existed. The heavens are “the firmament of His power.” He made the stars, kindled their brilliant fires, fixed their rank, regulated their motions, and appointed their mission. He formed the earth, robed it in vestments of ever-changing beauty, and endowed it with unfailing productiveness. He fashioned man after the model of His own illustrious image, freighted him with faculties of wondrous compass, indicated the possibilities of his career, and the character of his destiny. Christ is the grand centre of the magnificent systems by which He is encircled, and which He has grouped around Himself by the exercise of His creative hand. On Him their continued existence every moment hangs.
II. Christ is all and in all in the sphere of providence.—He sustains and governs all. Close as population follows on the heels of production, food never fails for man and beast. Study the sublime epic on the Divine preservation furnished by Psalm civ. and consider how the history of human experience in all ages confirms the truth. Christ controls all the forces of nature. The sweep of the heavenly bodies, the surge and re-surge of the tide, the eccentric course and velocity of the wind, the departure and return of the light, the roll of the dreaded thunder, the recurrent phases of the seasons, all are obedient to His nod. He is predominant among the spiritual agencies of the universe. He restricts the power of the great enemy of man. He restrains the power of evil. He governs the complicated passions of human hearts and makes even the wrath of men to praise Him. He guards, guides, and delivers His Church. The greatness of His providential power is seen in His accomplishing the mightiest results by insignificant instrumentalities. He is conducting all things to a glorious consummation.
III. Christ is all and in all in the work of redemption.—He suffered to the death on behalf of the sinning race. He was a voluntary victim. He was unique in His person—comprising in Himself the Divine and human natures. As man, He met all the necessities of sinful and condemned humanity; as God, He answered all the requirements of the Divine righteousness. While the greatest modern philosophers are puzzling their minds with an endless variety of methods for recovering man from his lapsed condition, we behold the problem solved in the life, sufferings, and death of Christ. That was a method of redemption that would never have occurred to a finite mind; and it is now beyond the range of the greatest human intellect to fathom. Christ, and Christ alone, could redeem. In that sphere He is all in all, or He is nothing. His work of redemption is an entrancing expression of the tenderest, deepest, most mysterious love.
IV. Christ is all and in all in the kingdom of glory.—He is the Head of all principalities and powers in the heavenly places. They depend on Him for life and purity, they obey His slightest word, they adore His infinite majesty, they delight in His hallowed fellowship. Christ is also Head over all things to the Church, which is His body; the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. He is the central attraction and source of bliss in the realm of glory. The redeemed cast their crowns before Him and chant His praise in ceaseless anthems. If Christ were absent, heaven would lose its greatest charm.
“I love to think of heaven; its cloudless light,
Its tearless joys, its recognitions and its fellowships
Of love and joy unending; but when my mind anticipates
The sight of God incarnate, wearing on His hands,
And feet, and side, marks of the wounds
Which He, for me, on Calvary endured,
All heaven beside is swallowed up in this;
And He who was my hope of heaven below,
Becomes the glory of my heaven above.”
V. Christ is all and in all to the believing soul.—He appears as the great Emancipator; He delivers from the power of darkness, and translates the benighted but groping soul into the kingdom of light. He gives rest to the weary and heavy laden. He comforts the mourner. He defends and succours the tempted. He is the refuge in every time of distress. All the wants of the soul are anticipated and abundantly supplied. He will conduct safely through all the changeful scenes of this life; and finally invest the soul with the imperishable splendours of an endless future. Christ is the great necessity and the all-satisfying portion of the soul.