A Meditation
N. Anderson.
Colossians 1:19 "… In Him all the fulness (of the Godhead) was pleased to dwell."
Colossians 2:9 "For in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."
Exodus 39:3 "And they beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it artistically into the blue, and into the purple, and into the scarlet, and into the fine twined linen."
In our first Scripture we see our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, Incarnate.
In our second Scripture we see our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, Ascended.
He came into Manhood in tender grace, but in so doing He never ceased to be all that He had ever been in pre-incarnation. He had ever been Son in co-equality of deity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. In assuming flesh and blood He came in all that He ever was. Having trodden His pathway of spotless worth He went down into death at Calvary. The apostle John, in his inspired presentation of our Lord, declared that His death, resurrection and ascension were His own acts.
John 10:18 "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of Myself."
John 2:19 "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
John 20:17 “… I ascend to my Father."
The gold of His Godhead shines through all! John 6:62 "What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before?" He was not previously there as Son of Man — He was there in His Sonship, in pre-incarnate deity. Relationships in the Godhead are Personal, hence eternal. Having taken Manhood, having by His death accomplished redemption, having broken death's power by rising again, He has ascended up where He was before. In doing so He has not ceased to be what He became in incarnation — Man. Neither has He ceased to be what He ever was in the greatness of His Person — God. If then, the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Him in incarnation days, He was, assuredly "God …manifest in flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). Now that He has gone back where He was before He has certainly NOT ceased to be God, and just as surely, if in coming down He became Man, having gone up He has not ceased to be Man. Hence we read, "In Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily".
The gold ever shines in all that He is, and in all that He became. The truth of WHO HE IS shines also in everything He does, and lies behind every office which He fills. So we read in the typical Scripture of Exodus chapter 39:3 that the gold — symbol of deity — was inextricably worked into the fabric of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen.
The Blue — speaks of the heavenly order and character of His holy Manhood.
The Purple — speaks of His imperial and universal glory as the Son of Man.
The Scarlet — speaks of His royal glory as King of Israel — the Son of David.
The Fine Twined Linen — speaks of the perfection and beauty of His moral worth.
Let us view Him in some of the varied incidents of His pathway here. When a demand was made for the temple tribute (Matthew 17:24-27), although he was "greater than the temple" (Matthew 12:6) He exhibited the even texture of the fine linen, the moral beauty of His grace and lowliness. In His humble submission He took the "stranger's" place, "that we may not be an offence." Then He sent Peter to catch a fish and in its mouth was the double didrachma, "for Me and thee." Here was the intricate working of the wire of gold in the linen texture, for the omniscience and omnipotence of Godhead were manifested in the action of our humble, lowly Lord. The Stranger, Lord of the temple, is the Master of the seas.
Consider Him at the gate of the city of Nain. The tender-hearted compassion towards the poor widowed mother, bereft of her only son, and the word of His resurrecting power, bespeak at once the heavenly charm of His kindness and the power of His Godhead. He, the Only Begotten Son, had a heart for her who had lost her only son (Luke 7:11-17). Thus we see the golden wire of Godhead intricately mingling with the charm of His humanity which exhibited the blue of heaven.
In John's 1:43-51, He was presented in the spontaneous testimony of Philip as he poured out his appreciation of the Lord. In the first flush of the attractive grace and power of this all-compelling Person, Philip said to Nathanael, "We have found Him of whom Moses wrote in the law, and the prophets, Jesus, the Son of Joseph, who is from Nazareth." To the scornful query of Nathanael, "can anything good come out of Nazareth?" he could only reply, "come and see."
In the Old Testament Scriptures to which Philip had referred, the scarlet colour of the royalty of "great David's greater Son" is prominently displayed. Immediately Nathanael comes to Him he is made aware by the Lord's description and knowledge of him that he stood in the presence of unique greatness. Nathaniel's spirit was searched by Him of whom the Psalmist wrote (cf. Psalm 139:1-6). He who knows our downsitting and uprising, who understands our every thought. Once more we perceive omniscience and divine constraint eliciting from Nathanael the confession, "Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel." The gold of deity intermingled with the scarlet of His royal rights in Israel.
There is more than this. The same Person would be the link between heaven and earth. The administration of the universe is committed to our Lord as Son of Man. The purple of imperial and universal right is here. The angels are described as, "ascending and descending on the Son of Man." They must first ascend. Are we not reminded of the Scripture, "For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak." In virtue of His position as the exalted Son of Man — the universal Ruler — angels are beneath Him. Let us ever remember that He who stooped beneath angels, to taste death for every thing, is above them all positionally, and is ever above them Personally, because of Who He is — the Son (cf. Hebrews 1).
Thus He is presented, in the closing verses of this remarkable first chapter of the Gospel of John, in the purple of His character as Son of Man, with the outshining of the wires of gold — the purple of His universal supremacy and the gold of His eternal deity — the Son is the Son of Man.
Thus, however, we may view Him — Who He is what He became; what He has done in the charm and grace of His life and in the glory of His redeeming death; where He is now at the right hand of the greatness in the heavens; what he shall be in the day of his manifested splendour, we are constrained to bow in holy adoration before Him — God and Man in One blessed Person.
The wires of gold, artistically and inextricably worked into the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and the fine twined linen, remind us constantly that WHO HE IS lies behind WHAT HE DOES and behind every office WHICH HE FILLS; and that WHAT HE DOES is perfect and abiding because of WHO HE IS that does it.
May we be kept in holy wonder as contemplating His glory, grace and beauty.
"For He is thy LORD; and worship thou Him" (Psalm 45:11).