7. I AM THE WAY, AND THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. (Concluded,)

The threefold character of this title suggests fulness of manifestation. Christ as "the Way" is the One through-whom the Father is reached; as "the Truth," that which reveals and makes manifest-the perfect revelation of the Father. As "the Life," communicative and divine, He is the power and energy in which all is made real, and all is enjoyed by those who accept Him as the way of approach to God.

If we take Col. 1:14-20, in connection with this threefold title, we shall find a divine commentary upon each of these characters of Christ. These verses in the epistle divide into two distinct parts. The first (14-19) falls into three sections, each applying to the respective parts of the title before us. The second (ver. 20) is the uniting of these three sections in a brief but comprehensive summary which gives the full breadth of meaning found in them.

In the first section (ver. 14) "in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins,"we have Christ as "the Way." It is the avenue of approach to God so that those who take this way can say, We have "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus " (Heb. 10:19). We know that every child of Adam is shut out of God's presence, for all have sinned and come short of His glory, and the result of this is death and consequent judgment. The wages of sin is death:and as death is banishment from this life, so is it the doorway to that judgment which banishes the rebel sinner for eternity from God and His blessing. This is the universal condition, and no way of escape can be found among men. But though God as Light must fully manifest this condition, yet He is also Love, and love ever acts on behalf of the needy, whoever they may be. Thus we hear the voice of Him, who came forth from the Father, sounding in the midst of the awful spiritual darkness in which He found men, declaring that He is "the Way" through which alone any one could come to the Father. But how He is this, is the question which naturally ensues. It is answered in the verse before us. He is the way of approach to God because He has obtained eternal redemption for us through His blood, even sins forgiven. All that which alienated us from God and brought the curse of His wrath upon our guilty heads has been met and fully answered by Christ suffering, the just One for the unjust, upon the cross.

Thus He has redeemed us from our lost condition, and on the ground of His perfect work we have all sins forgiven. Yea we are justified freely from all things by believing in Christ as our Saviour. Thus God has been fully satisfied, every divine claim of righteousness and holiness fully met.

In all this the light of the glory of God's love and grace bursts upon the anxious soul; and " the Way" by which access to the Father is obtained, is at once made perfectly plain-Christ is the Way.

He is also "the Truth," and thus is the manifester, the revealer, of the Father. This surely is just what truth is-that which makes known. This we have in the second section of our passage in Colossians (vers. 15-17), "Who is the Image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation, because by Him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships, or principalities, or authorities:all things have been created by Him and for Him." Christ, the Creator, having taken up creaturehood and been manifested before men, is the Image, the full expression of what God is. And, of course, by virtue of what He is, He be-comes in this place the "firstborn of all creation." As come into the world in this way He is the revealer of God; the "effulgence of His glory;" He fully presents God's glory; He is "the expression of His substance," or His essential being. Here the light of the glory of the knowledge of God bursts in upon the soul. How tender and blessed are the ways in which God has revealed Himself in Christ, May our hearts turn afresh to meditate upon that glorious Life manifested among men in which the truth is written in the indelible characters of mighty power, love, and grace. " The truth shall make you free" and "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:32-36).

Christ as "the Life" brings in now the next part of our passage in Colossians. "And He is the Head of the body, the assembly; who is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead, that He might have the first place in all things " (ver. 18). In His place of headship over the assembly, He is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead. He had gone into death and all the consequences of sin, out of which no creature could ever of itself come forth to life. But He, the worthy One, was raised up by the glory of the Father, thus becoming the glorious Firstborn. In Him, then, is life indeed; life beyond the touch of death. But we are told that in this character He is "the beginning"-therefore there must be others who are to follow in His glorious wake and become firstborn ones after the pattern of this blessed, mighty Beginner. And so it is. He is "Head of the body, the assembly." As the Firstborn among many brethren, with Him are linked an innumerable company to whom He has communicated the life which is in Himself. Thus, too, is the new creation formed and established.

This is the creation God owns; the old has been disowned. Christ is "the beginning of the creation of God "(Rev. 3:14). We find then here that perfect and divine order of life, in which we are to enjoy as our portion the place and position into which Christ as " the Way and the Truth " has brought us. The life of God is now our life; and that which we could not enjoy, or even approach unto, as natural men possessing only the natural life under condemnation, we can now take in to the full, because we have a life in accord with God. The natural man does not desire God or His knowledge. How then shall I enter into all this blessing? I need a new life in accord with it all. I turn to Him and find in Him " the Way, the Truth, and the Life,"and He gives it to me Now I have that which enables me to enter fully in all and have its fullest blessing. Thrice blessed Saviour! In Him, truly, "all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell," that it might thus be made good to our souls. Well may we say with the apostle, "O depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him and through Him and for Him are all things:to whom be glory forever. Amen." J. B. Jr.