CHRIST ALL AND IN ALL by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 9, 1901

CHRIST ALL AND IN ALL

By Uriah Smith

“Where there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” Col. 3:11. That which brings people into this condition is described in verses 9, 10: “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him: where [that is, in this new man] there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,” etc.

The apostle very emphatically describes two conditions, which he calls the old and the new. In the old state all importance is attached to conditions, which lose all their importance and even their existence in the new. In the old, states and conditions are everything. Much is made of being a Jew or a Greek; of being circumcised or uncircumcised; of belonging to a particular nationality—barbarian, Scythian; or on a particular condition in life—bond or free. But in Christ, no such distinctions are of any account, and are not to be recognized; for, as Alford translates it, “There is no such thing as Jew and Greek, bond and free,” etc.

Two sorts of manhood are brought to view—the old man and the new. In another place (2 Cor. 5:17), Paul expresses the change in these words: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” In the old condition, there are many things which are not in the new, and in the new, many things which are not in the old.

As the new man is the important thing to be studied, let us notice what the apostle declares is not in the new. When we are transformed into the image of Christ, there is an entire obliteration of national distinctions. There is neither Jew nor Greek. When Christ became a man, He did so in the broadest sense, as a member of the human family, the second Adam; not specifically as a Jew, only to show by His genealogy that He was of the seed of Abraham. So when a man is in Christ Jesus, his nationality, and all other human relationships and conditions, sink out of sight in that union. Christ is in all, and transforms all into new creatures. These distinctions are all in Him, and He becomes them all to us. He becomes our nationality, our citizenship, our fatherland, our character, and our condition in life. He becomes our example, our leader, and our king. In Jesus there is combined for us laws, customs, history, genealogy, prestige, privilege, reliance, and power—everything, in short, which the heart can imagine or desire. Jesus furnishes us with new patriotism, new loyalty, new associations as men unite in tribes and clans, which we may indulge in to the utmost.

In Jesus all ceremonial distinctions vanish. There is outwardly neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. The wall of partition and separation is removed. The peculiar privileges of a nation born after the flesh, vanish with it. Those who were regarded as afar off, are brought nigh by the blood of Christ, and Jews and Gentiles are united into one new body, a new man, by the cross.

Social distinctions are also done away in Christ. There is neither bond nor free. That is, it does not impair a man’s privileges nor hopes in the gospel should he chance to be a bondman; nor, on the other hand, does it give him any privileges nor precedence in the promises of the gospel should he chance to be a freeman.

In Gal. 3:28 the apostle goes still further, and says: “There is neither male nor female;” that is, as related to the provisions and privileges of the gospel, one gains no advantage by being a male or a female. Their relation to the salvation of the gospel is the same. How this struck at the heathenish custom of the degradation of women, as it existed outside of the gospel! “For ye are all one,” says Paul, “in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” What a beautiful blending of all men into one body is accomplished by our Lord Jesus.

We have now seen some things that are not in the new relation brought in by Christ. But there are some things that are embodied in this new relationship, that are worthy of notice. The man is a new creature. Christ is all and in all. Christ is the substance and fullness of all things—that which really goes to make the being of everything. Everything that is, was first a thought in the mind of God. There it lay from eternity, till by His will and power that thought became matter. That was creation. Therefore every created thing is the development of the mind of Christ. “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” Col. 1:16, 17. And the two verses that follow are so comprehensive and grand that we can hardly forbear quoting them in this connection: “And He is the head of the body, the Church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father, that in Him should all fullness dwell.”

As all is in Him, all that we have and are must come from Him. All our abilities, attainments, and culture come from Him. David says, “I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.” Ps. 119:100. The sum of all the revelation we have is embraced in Christ. The Jew glories in having received the lively, or living, oracles of God. We glory in having the living exemplification of those oracles in Christ. All our ritual is embraced in Christ. We have no outward circumcision nor uncircumcision, no ceremonies we call the seven sacraments, no burdensome array of carnal ordinances. But all Scriptural ordinances are from Him, and in Him are expanded into the gospel.

In Him is all our science. He is more to us than all the freshest ideas that cross the mind of the Scythian or barbarian. Christ is all our assurance of liberty and freedom. The Scythian has not such unrestricted freedom as we find in Him. Christ is our all in the matter of leader and master. “One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.” We are “bond servants” to Christ. But it is true and only liberty to be united to such a Head.

Is Christ thus our all, and not only our all, but, as the text says, our all and in all? Is He the all in our hopes, our trusts, our joy, our aims, our strength, our wisdom? Paul says He is made unto us “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” 1 Cor. 1:30. Then are we living in all for Him? Are we doing all for Him, because He has done all for us? Augustine says, “Christ is not valued at all, unless He is valued above all.” The following beautiful lines are credited to Giles Fletcher:—

“He is a path if any be misled; He is a robe if any naked be; If any chance to hunger, He is bread; If any be a bondman, He is free; If any be but weak, how strong is He! To dead men life He is; to sick men health; To blind men sight, and to the needy wealth; A pleasure without loss, a treasure without stealth.”

It is recorded of Dannecker, the German sculptor, that he spent eight years in producing a face of Christ; and at last wrought out a face in which the emotions of love and sorrow were so perfectly blended that beholders could not refrain from weeping as they looked upon it. Subsequently being solicited to employ his great talent on a statue of Venus, he replied, “After gazing so long into the face of Christ, think you that I can now turn my attention to a heathen goddess?” “Here,” says Dr. A. J. Gordon, “is the true secret of weanedness from worldly idols,—the expulsive power of a new affection.”

That new affection drives out everything that is antagonistic to the object on which the new affection is placed. So the love of Christ, received into the heart, will expel all rivals. “Purge out therefore,” says Paul, “the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump. . . . For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” 1 Cor. 5:7.

On the words, “Christ is all, and in all,” John Rees, on his dying bed, gave utterance to the following words of trust:—

“Christ, in the divinity of His nature; Christ, in the perfection of His atonement; Christ, in the prevalence of His intercession; and Christ, in the love of His heart, and in the power of His arm, is the rock on which I rest; and now, death, do your worst.”

“Let good or ill befall, It must be good for me; Secure of having Thee in all, Of having all in thee.”

U. S.