The Pulpit Commentary — Colossians — Section 119

. V~rs. 9, 10.- Christ tl1e Fulness of the Godhead, and our relationship to him, "For Ill !nm dwellcth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and in him ye ere made full who is the Head of all prindpality and power." The apostle is here condemninc, on~ of the false principles that underlay the teaching of the Gnostics-the substituti~n of angelic mediators for Christ. I. CHRIST'S TilUE DEITY AND TRUE RUMANTT,·. 1. He is '110 mere emanation from the supreme God, but" al,l the fulness of the Godhead." All the infinite perfections of the essential being of God are in him. The Gnostics taught that the fulness of the Godhead was distributed among many spiritual agencies. The apostle teaches that it is in Christ as the eternal \Vord. "The Word was with God,and was God." 2. This fulness "dwells" in him now and for ever, It is a blessedly abiding fact. It is a per- manent indwelling. 3. It dwells " bodily;" that is, with a bodily manifestation. The false teachers, imagining that matter was essentially evil, could not brook the thought of the Divine Redeemer linking himself for ever with a human body, and they, after Docetic theory, either denied the reality of his body or its inseparable connection with him for c-ver. But" the ,vord was made flesh" (John i. 14), and" The Rpirit which confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,. , • is the spirit of anticbrist" (1 John iv. 3). II. Oun RELATI0NSITIP TO THE FULNESS OF CHRIST, "And in him ye aro made full, who is the Head of all principality and power." 1, Christian life is union with Christ. (l) We can obtain nothing from Christ till we are in Christ (1 John v. 20). "In him we have life" (1 John v.11), as in him we are chosen (Eph. i. 4). (2) We cannot, therefore, look for life from subordinate mediators. 2. Christian life is tlie enjoy- ment of hisfulness. (1) Therefore nothing is to be looked for from angelic mediators. "Out of bis fulness have we all received, and grace for grace" (John i. 16). His fulness is not finite, hut infinite. There can never, therefore, be lack of supply. (2) It ought to be our prayer to receive more largely of this fulncss. 'l'he apostle prayed for the Ephesians that they might be "filled up to all the fulness of God," and "grow unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Epb. iii. 19; iv. 13). (3) To share in this fulness is no privilege of an esoteric few, but is that of all who are united to Christ by faith. Ill THE EXPLANATION OF TfilS RELATIONSHIP OF CHBIST'B FULNESS TO OUR FULNESB. "Who is the Head of all principality and power.'' He is more than Sovereign over. the powers. He is the SoW'ce of their life and activity. This headship over angels is asserted elsewhere (Heb. i. 1-14). Angels are not, therefore, mediators for man, dis- 1,lacing "the one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. ii, 5). They are but fellow-servants under the same Head (Rev. xxii. 8, 9). Therefore we do not seek our fulness in them, but ill OW' Head.-T. C. Ver. 11.-11.e true circumcision. The Colossians did not need the rite of circumcision to make them complete, for they had received the spiritual circumcision, of which the rite was only a type. "In whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ." The apostle censures the ritualistic ideas of the false teachers by showing what is the natUI'e and effect of the true circumcision. L lTs NATURE. It is not external, but internal, wrought by the Spirit and not by the hands of men. It is "of the heart in the spirit, and not in the letter " (Rom. ii. 29). lt is "the circumcision of the heart,'' 60 often spoken of even in Old Testament times (Deut. L 16; l'.XL 6; Ezek. xliv. 7; Acts vii. 51), which ought to have accompauied the external rite. The Colossians, as Gentiles, were circumcised in this spiritual _881168 on the day of their conversion. II. lTs EXTENT. "In the putting off the body of the flesh;" not in the mere"cutting off of a part of the body, as in the external rite of Judaism, This language marks the OH. ll. 1-23.] THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 113