Christ, the Secret of God, the Image of God, and the Redeemer and Reconciler — Lance Lambert

You turn with me to the Colossian letter, end to the first chapter, first chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians. I'm going to read from verse twelve. Giving thanks unto the Father who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who delivered us out of the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things have been created through him and unto him.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 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 preeminence.

For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fullness dwell, and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him, I say, whether things upon the earth or things in the heavens.

And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind, in your evil works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him.

The Lamb Who Opens God's Scroll

I would like to add to that, in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, in chapter 5. We haven't time to read both chapter 4 and 5. I will just read from verse 1 of chapter 5 of Revelation. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back, close sealed with seven seals.

And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a great voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereon? And no one in the heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look thereon.

And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not. Behold, the lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath overcome to open the book and the seven seals thereof.

And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a little lamb standing as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.

And he came and he taketh it out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the little lamb, having each one a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and made us them to be unto our God the kingdom and priests, and they reign upon the earth.

And I saw and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a great voice, Worthy is the lamb that hath been slain to receive the power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

And every created thing which is in the heavens and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things that are in them heard I say unto him that sitteth on the throne and unto the lamb be the blessing and the honor and the glory forever and ever.

And the four living creatures said, Amen, and the elders fell down and worshipped. Just a word of prayer. Beloved Lord, we are here this evening in your presence, we're conscious that we are gathering together to you, Lord.

And dear Lord, we want just very simply to recognize that, Lord, you have made a provision for us this evening for the speaking of your word, for the translating of your word, and for the hearing of it.

Into that provision we stand by faith. Manifest your power in all our weakness, Lord. And grant that somehow this time will be a meeting with yourself, that that word of Christ will come to dwell in us richly in all wisdom.

Oh, Lord, we need you. We are living in tremendous days. We can become almost immunized to the turmoil and tumult and noise all around us. But, oh Lord, we pray that you will by your Spirit challenge us, wake us up, Lord, make us alert and alive to you.

By your Spirit, oh Lord, bring us into a new place with yourself, we pray. And we shall be careful, dear Lord, to give you all the praise and all the glory for answering this, our prayer. We ask it in the name of our Messiah, the Lord Jesus.

Christ as the Center of God's Eternal Purpose

Amen. My responsibility in the theme of these days is the eternal purpose of God as seen in Christ, and particularly to do with the letter to the Colossians. And I said on the last occasion when I spoke that there is no eternal purpose apart from Christ.

God is not dealing in a whole number of things. He is dealing in and through a person. And this eternal purpose of His is centered in our Lord Jesus. There is no salvation apart from Him. There is no new birth apart from Him.

There is no Christian life apart from Him. There is no gross apart from Him. There is no fullness apart from Him. There is no completion apart from Him. There is no hope of glory apart from the Lord Jesus.

There is no church without the Lord Jesus. There is no bride without the Lord Jesus. God has given us everything of Himself in the Lord Jesus, and nothing outside of the Lord. We can build Christian organizations, institutions.

We can call them churches. We can do all a thousand and one things, and Christendom itself is a monument to this. But it is not necessarily the work of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit always begins with the Lord Jesus, and it always ends with the Lord Jesus.

The initiation is through Him. The introduction is through Him. The power to go on is in Him, and the completion is through Him. And that is basically the message of the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians.

I spoke last time about Christ as the heir of all things, the firstborn of all creation. The firstborn is always the heir, and really basically when it speaks of the firstborn of all creation, everything that has been created was created through the Lord Jesus and for the Lord Jesus.

And even more remarkable, the statement begins with, in Him all things were created. Now think about that. In Him were all things created. It speaks about things in the heavens and things on the earth, things visible, things invisible.

Everything was created in Him. Amazing! Just to consider it for principalities, powers, all were created in Him. Everything that is created was created through Him and for Him. He is the heir of all things.

He is before all things. And in Him all things hold together. It's just simply tremendous when you see it like that. Now, it then goes on to say, and He is the head of the church, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.

Something happened to that whole natural creation and something happened to man as he was originally created. But the Lord Jesus is the firstborn from the dead. He is the head of a new man, as we heard this morning.

A new beginning, a new beginning. And the Lord Jesus is once again the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. It is wonderful when you begin to see it like this. And every child of God here in this place this evening, every one of you who has been born of the Spirit of God, you are in this new beginning.

You are in this new man. You are part of this new creation. Well, may the Lord help me, I feel extremely disjointed this evening. But I want to speak about the Lord Jesus this night in three ways. The eternal purpose of God as seen in Him.

I want to talk about first Christ as the secret of God. God's secret. And secondly, I want to speak about Christ as the image of the invisible God. And then I want to speak about the Lord Jesus as the Redeemer and Reconciler and the Inheritor.

Christ as the Mystery and Secret of God

Now, I don't know whether we'll get there. But by the grace of God, we'll trust the Lord for all of this. I just hope that I don't send you to sleep. Christ, the secret of God. This word mystery, you will find it three or four times in the Colossian letter.

You find it in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 2 and 3. That their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hid.

Isn't that marvelous? These phrases, they are so tremendous. There's almost a universe in every phrase. Spiritually, a universe in every phrase. Chapter 1, verse 25,. Whereof I was made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which was given me to you all, to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which hath been hid for ages and generations.

But now hath it been manifested to his saints, to whom God was pleased to make known, what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in, or again in Colossians chapter 4 and verse 3, With all praying for us also that God may open unto us a door for the word to speak, Christ for which I am also in bonds.

This word mystery in the original is something fathomless, something beyond us, something absolutely, it is impossible for us to understand, is revealed through this word mystery from something that was common in Hellenic or Greek.

You had to be a member of these cults. You had to be an initiate. You had to be, as it were, someone who had been initiated into the cult, and then you had a right to understand the secret of this thing.

And the apostle took this and carefully to me, for the church, for the believer, for the redeemed, what he was saying is this, If you are born of God, you have a divinely given right to understand the mysteries.

There are a number of secrets we have. There is the mystery of Christ. He sums up nearly everything in himself. There is the mystery of Israel, which for many people is a total secret. I'm talking about Christian believers.

The mess over Israel is unbelievable. People have got the weirdest ideas about Israel. Either it's all finished and done with, or it's all going to only happen in the millennium or whatever else. But it's a secret, and only the Holy Spirit can reveal it.

But it belongs, it is the right of every child of God to have this mystery. There is the mystery of lawlessness, which we are now beginning to witness ourselves. All around us in human society, world society, we are seeing something.

It's not gangsterism as such. It's not just terrorism. It is a living a life and producing a society that is outside of the revealed law of God. It is against what God has revealed as principles for living and for life.

But I mustn't stay with these things. I want to talk about God's secret, even Christ. He is God's secret. I think, for instance, of the mystery of the incarnation. Can anyone understand the incarnation?

That's something that the most intelligent person in the world cannot, by just intelligence, understand. You see, the secret of God is withheld from the wise and understanding, that is, the humanly wise and understanding, and revealed to babes.

Have you been born again? It's not that God is saying, are you stupid? Are you so stupid that you are dumb? You can only wail. You can't even articulate yet? Then I can reveal things to you. I don't think it means that.

He said to babes and sucklings, those who are so young, they're dependent. Those who are so young, they haven't yet got concepts. To these, God reveals his secrets. To the wise, the Einsteins of the world, the secret of God is withheld.

From the Freuds of the world, the secrets of God are withheld. From all the great intelligences of the world, Darwin, and I don't know who else, I can think of Marx, Karl Marx, as one of them. He was certainly not unintelligent.

Or I think even of Mao Zedong with his thoughts. All this is nonsense to them. It is not revealed. They cannot understand it. They cannot pierce it. They cannot somehow come to an understanding. What is it all about?

But to the simplest child of God, born of the Holy Spirit, the incarnation is a reality. I don't believe you can trap this in a formula. We speak of it, the Trinity. It's a word not found actually in the Word.

I believe in the Trinity. I like to speak of the triunity much more. That's also not found in the Word. The fact is found in the Word, not the Word itself. But all I know is this. You cannot reduce the Lord Jesus to being a human being merely.

He was a human being, but you cannot reduce him. How could it be that in him all things were created if he is a human being? How could it be that things visible and invisible, things in heaven and on earth were created in him?

How can all things hold together in him if he's a mere man? Here you have a mystery. Here you have a secret. I don't think my little mind will ever comprehend it. Not in a million, million years in eternity, in the ages to come, will my little mind ever comprehend this secret.

But what I do know is that in Christ I meet God. In Timothy it speaks of the mystery of godliness. It is a secret. How did God, how did God conceive the Lord Jesus? Did God become a baby, as helpless as a baby, in the arms of a human being?

How is it possible that God was carried from place to place as a baby? Did he suspend his Godhead? Was he purely man, only to become God later? That would be as nonsensical as many of the other theories.

The fact is you have a mystery. You have a secret that human intelligence cannot comprehend. But when we are children of God, we have met God in the Lord Jesus. I could go on and on. I don't want to take anything away from Dana or from Brother Stephen and give them a little more problem.

But I mean when I think of Romans chapter 16 in the last verse almost, it speaks of the mystery, this gospel according to the mystery. In other words, I used to think every time I preached the gospel, I am so stupid.

Here I am preaching the gospel and I know very well that it is, to those who listen, it is stupidity. I'm talking about God coming into this world and being born of a woman and dying on the cross. And these people in front of me look at me as much as to say, are you intelligent?

You are trying to tell us something that is like some Greek myth that the gods have come down to us. But it is through the foolishness of preaching that God saves men and women. Isn't it so? You feel sometimes, well, we must try to be more clever.

And the more clever we try to be when we preach the gospel, the less people are saved. I remember very well, a very well-known academic coming in to the meeting at Halford House when we had four missionaries from the Congo.

These missionaries were the simplest people you've ever seen. One of them was black, three of them were white. The white were far more simple than the black brother. I had never forgotten them singing, count your blessings in some dialect of the Congo.

And as one of them thumped on the piano, they went out of one key into another, to another, to another. And all they did was something like, count your blessings in the one time. And I thought to myself, oh God, of all the meetings that this academic atheist should come in, he's come into this one.

And I spent the whole time, uptight in myself, thinking about this atheist, this academic, and what he would think what a loony lot in this place. And afterwards, this man came to me with tears running down his face and said, this is the first time I have ever seen something real in Christianity.

I remember, some of you will remember, that wonderful brother, Airy Shaw, Kenneth Airy Shaw from Monroke, who came then to Halford House, who was a Cambridge Don and a classical Greek scholar. And you will remember how, or you won't, but I do, how he got saved.

He went with Brother Harrison, when they were young undergraduates in Cambridge. He took him to a meeting because one of the very learned Christian ministers was going to preach, but he didn't preach.

He was ill. And the man who replaced him was W. P. Nicholson. Now, that doesn't mean anything to you, but W. P. Nicholson was Irish. And he was the funniest man. He was known all over Britain for being one of the funniest preachers.

He couldn't help it. He just couldn't help it. And Brother Harrison told me, he said, I sat next to Airy Shaw and I thought, oh my God, what have I done? He's damned to hell now. He'll never, ever come.

And Airy Shaw got saved that day in the midst of all the laughter and the preaching of the Gospel. He got saved. It is amazing the mystery of the Gospel. Yet, the simplest child of God, for them, the Gospel is the sweetest sound on earth.

It means life. It means salvation. And I could go on and on all through all kinds of things talking about this, but all I really wanted to say was this. You and I can never, with this brain of ours, understand some of these things.

But in our spirit, we touch God in the Lord Jesus. We come into His salvation. We experience what it is to be born again. We experience what it is to grow in the Lord. For as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so you walk in Him.

It's the same process. You saw Him. You responded in faith. You received Him. Now, every further step on the Christian way in your life, in your progress, in your growth, is when you see the Lord afresh and respond to Him in faith.

And then you find you've moved forward. It is, I think, so wonderful when you begin to see it like this. And then I think of this, of the church. I won't say too much on this because our brother's already dealing with it, but all I want to say is this.

What a mess we've made of the church because we have never seen it. It's a secret. We consider the church to be something from the old covenant which can be put together and set up with all its organization.

The church does have an organization, but it's a different kind of organization. The organization comes from within the life. Do you understand? Just like your body has an organization, an incredible organization.

Just at present, mine is breaking down. But normally, these bodies of ours have an incredible organization. I always use the illustration, your body says you're getting too warm, so you perspire. I didn't read a book that said, now perspire when you get too warm.

Something inside an inbuilt organization so complex, so sensitive, so fine with its thermostatic control. When you get cool, you start to shiver. You generate warmth. It's an inbuilt thermostatic control you have within your body.

There's a thousand and one other things we can talk about. Your body is an incredible organization, so it is with the church. When it is a living organism, born, that's why Stephen said, the church has to be born.

It has to be born of God and when the church is born of God, you have within it, and it's an organism, and within the organism, you have an organization which expands and contracts as it is necessary.

But when you put the whole thing together, then it becomes top heavy. And then it becomes an institution and then it kills the spiritual life that is within it. It's a secret. Christ in you. Christ in me.

I'm all for, I personally use the American Standard Version of 1901. Isn't that strange? For me, to use an American Standard Version instead of the English Revised. But actually, the American Standard Version is better than the English Revised.

I must say that straight away. But I'm talking about years ago. I'm talking about 1881, the English Revised. 1901, the Standard Version. I'm not against modern versions at all. But I must say that one of the sadnesses of modern versions is that you cannot tell in English when you is plural or when it is personal, individual.

In other words, in the old version, if it was, what is this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in thee, the hope of glory. It is Christ in you, because that's the plural. That is Christ in you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you.

Do you understand? Christ in each one of us. That is the hope. Because the glory of God is far too much for one single human being to contain or express. It needs all the saints together. And then again, think of Colossians 2, in verse 19, holding fast the head.

Oh, my goodness me. Here's a secret. This is part of the secret. Christ dwelling in us, isn't that a…. How can Christ dwell in us? Now, isn't that a good question? Our Lord Jesus, in the body that he was here on this earth, in which he will return, is at the right hand of the majesty on high.

How can he dwell in you and in me unless it is by the Spirit? It is a secret that can only be revealed. It doesn't make sense when you think. So you have a whole kind of Christianity which is, and purely objective.

He is at the right hand of God, and that is my Savior and my Redeemer. But he doesn't speak to me. I do have the book, and I must study the book. But it never comes alive to me. That's getting mystical.

But if Christ dwells in you, he's bound to speak to you. What a strange thing if the Lord Jesus is in you and you never hear him making real his word to you, applying his word to you, if he is in you and with the eye of your heart you never see him.

I mean, that would be very odd and very strange. Yet to the child of God, this is a divine right. In Colossians 2 and verse 19, it speaks of problems they had in the church in Colossae. And then it says, and not holding fast the head, I better read it so that I don't misquote it, and not holding fast the head from whom all the body being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands increases with the increase of God.

You know, it is very interesting that whenever trouble hits an assembly of a fellowship, the first thing we all try to do is to hold one another. And then we get into trouble. In fact, when error comes and we all try to hold one another, slowly we all move off center.

The only way you discover the body is by holding fast the head. So when you hold fast the head, you discover the body. And the body increases with the increase of God. Well, now, I say that this is some secret, this mystery.

Don't you think so? I think so. The only certain hope of glory you have is Christ in you. So the more there is of Him in you, the more glory there will be. So simple. The less of Christ in you and the more of you, the less glory.

Very simple, isn't it? And then I think of this universe. Perhaps we see it most clearly here when we take the whole universe. Don't despise the universe. The Bible from the first chapters of Genesis to the last of Revelation emphasizes the fact that God is the maker of heaven and earth and all that is within them.

Don't think for a moment God is going to throw away this universe. Even when the whole thing is renewed through fire, there will be a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. And the most amazing thing about this something that scientists have not been able to understand is that this whole universe was created through the Lord Jesus and for Him.

But even more, in Him it was created. What does that mean? When it says, and all things hold together in Him as if He is the basic energy of the whole, Einstein never discovered that. The greatest scientific minds hadn't discovered that.

And yet, this is a secret that the simplest child of God understand by the Spirit of God. The mystery of God. In other words, when we speak of Christ as God's secret, He is the key that unlocks everything.

Did you get it? He is the key that unlocks everything. He unlocks the secrets of the universe. He unlocks the purpose in the universe. He unlocks the destiny of the universe. He unlocks the fall of man, God's original purpose for man and then His fall.

It is the key that unlocks the redemption and salvation of man. And it is the key that unlocks the eventual glorifying of man in Christ in union with Him. He is the key to everything. He is the key to the church.

The key to the growth of the church. The key to the completion of the church. He is the key to the bride. And everything to do with the bride. He is the key. Well, I don't know whether that's too much for most of you this evening, but that's my first point.

The eternal purpose of God as seen in Christ. He is God's secret. There's no other way for you to understand the universe, the earth, everything within it, man, God's original purpose, the redemption of man, and the reconciling of all things into Him.

Christ as the Image of the Invisible God

I love that phrase. In the Greek, it's just as He has reconciled all things into Him. Amazing. Well, I must leave it or we'll never go on. Now, I would like to speak for a little while about Christ, the image of the invisible God.

You have it in verse 15 of chapter 1, Christ who is the image of the invisible God. And then if you will turn to Hebrews and to chapter 1, I will read from verse 2 and 3. Hath at the end of these days, God hath at the end of these days, spoken unto us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, who being the effulgence of His glory and the very image of His substance and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.

This word, image of the invisible God. First of all, you must understand, I know, I think all of you will know this, that God is by His very nature invisible. It's spoken of a whole number of times in the Word.

God is, let me try to put it in a few words to try and get it over to you. God dwells in unapproachable light. That means that you and I, if we came near to Him, would be shriveled up, like electrocuted.

There's no way you and I could approach God in ourselves. And then there's something else. God is unknowable. There's no way your finite little mind, my finite little mind, I don't know about you, but I think of myself when it comes to God as having a brain the size of a pea.

How in the world am I to understand God? God has no beginning and no end. Every single person I know has a beginning and an end. You all have beginnings and you'll all have ends. I mean, it's part of life, isn't it?

Everything has a beginning and everything has an end. It is impossible for us to comprehend someone who never had a beginning, who always was there. Well, you say, where did he come from? Well, that's the point.

He was always there. You see, you just can't fathom it. You can't take it in. Well, you say, no, just wait, just wait. He must have had a beginning somewhere. Somewhere. He came from somewhere. No, no, no, no.

He was always there. No beginning, no end. Infinite. Uncreated. Living in unapproachable light for us human beings. Even, listen to me, even if we were not sinners, even if we were not fallen, unintelligible, unknowable, incomprehensible.

Our little minds could not take this in. Have I got it over? Do you want me to give you a whole number of scriptures that speak of this? No man hath seen God at any time. John chapter 1, verse 18. But it's not just there.

It's all through the Word. Then, just wait. If you know your Bibles, one of you is bound to say, well, who did Adam talk with in the garden? I mean, if he's unapproachable, unintelligible, incomprehensible, entirely beyond us, who walked in the garden?

And when he spoke, Adam, whilst when he sinned, he hid himself. Before that, he didn't hide himself. Who spoke to Adam and Eve? Who spoke to Abraham when he saw when the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham?

Who, who wrestled with Jacob when he said, I have seen the face of God. Now, mark it, the face of God and I have lived. Who spoke to Moses when he said, Lord, show me your glory. And the Lord said, I will hide you in the cleft of the rock.

You shall see me from the back, but not the front. Who was it? Who did Isaiah see, high and lifted up, whose train filled the temple? If no man has seen God at any time, if God dwells in light inapproachable, who is this one, long before the birth of the Lord Jesus, that so many of the saints in the old covenant actually saw?

So remarkable is it with Abraham on one occasion that the Lord came with two angels and Sarah cooked them a meal. Interestingly, it wasn't a kosher meal either. She put milk and meat together. Do you remember?

And the Lord said about this time, your wife will surely bear a son. And Sarah was in the tent, preparing the meal behind the tent flap. And she laughed. And the Lord said, why did you laugh? And immediately Sarah said, I didn't laugh.

I always find that one of the most humorous stories in the Bible, because it's all through a closed tent flap. The Lord saying, you laughed, Sarah. Why did you laugh? And she didn't open the thing and say, I'm so sorry.

She just said, I didn't laugh. And then the Lord said through the tent flap, when your son is born, you will call him laughter. Yitzhak, laughter. Who was it? Now, the amazing thing is that the Lord Jesus is called the image of the invisible God.

And the word, it's hard for us to understand because the word image is not a nice word for us. We think immediately of idols or icons or something like that immediately. But the word is really impress or imprint.

I have a ring here. If I took off this ring, it has a family thing in it. And I were to impress it in wax, there is an imprint. Now, that may not, again, help you very much. But what it means is this, that the Lord Jesus is the exact impress of the substance of God.

I know it sounds almost impossible, almost blasphemous to say, but that's what the writer in the Hebrew letter says. The very, the exact imprint or impress of the substance. In other words, when you see the Lord Jesus for the first time, you can know the unknowable.

You can understand the incomprehensible. For the first time, you see God, if I may so put it, with a human face. You see someone that you can relate to. And suddenly, you begin to understand who God is.

The Lord Jesus, the image of the invisible God. Do I make any sense at all to you tonight, or are you having a little snooze back there? The impress of God's substance. What an amazing, what an amazing statement, huh?

Let me take you a step further, if I may. The Lord Jesus is called by the Apostle John, the Word. In the beginning, he said, was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then listen, he says, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

This word, translated Word, Logos, really has the whole idea of something that you, is verbalized, articulated. Let me put it another way. If I think, but don't speak, you have no idea what's going on in there.

If I feel, but don't express anything, you have no idea what's going on in there. Jesus is the mind and the heart of God revealed. For the first time, you understand what is in the mind of God, because it is verbalized.