Instead of allowing our culture to replace Christ, we need to enjoy and experience the all-inclusive, extensive Christ and allow Him to replace our culture with Himself. Amen!
The book of Colossians was written by Paul to both expose culture (which has replaced Christ in the enjoyment and experience of the believers at Colossae) and to present the all-inclusive, extensive Christ who can replace our culture with Himself for the church life.
We need to realize that our growing up into Christ in all things and our arriving at a full-grown man is hindered by our subtle, hidden culture.
We may love the Lord, read His word, meet with the saints, and fellowship with the Lord, yet there’s something in us that develops and eats up all the growth of Christ.
If we look at our situation, without being introspective, we need to realize that in many respects our growth in the divine life does not match the time we have been a Christian and we have been in the church life.
This shouldn’t make us analyze ourselves, see where we did something wrong, etc; we should simply come to the Lord who is light itself, turn our heart to Him, and exercise our spirit with our turned heart, allowing Him to deal with the hidden culture within us.
The Lord is not here to judge us; rather, He wants to shine on us and expose anything that is a substitute for Him, so that He would replace anything else in our being and become our unique constituent for the one new man.
Especially as we realize that, though we know so much from the Word and the ministry, we still don’t have much enjoyment of Christ, we need to come to the Lord and allow Him to expose not only our sin or our failures but even more, our culture.
We need to just let Him shine on us and expose the effect that culture has on us, asking Him to save us from anything of our culture that is a replacement for Him.
Like a little child, we need to come to the Lord poor in spirit and pure in heart, asking Him to save us not only from negative things but also from our natural man, our disposition, our culture and replace all these things with Himself.
He will be pleased to come in and replace anything with Himself as the all-inclusive, extensive Christ.
May nothing replace Him in our heart and in our living, and may He, the all-inclusive, extensive Christ, be everything to us in our daily life and in the church life!
The All-inclusive, Extensive Christ should Replace our Culture with Himself
In His salvation, God saves us not only from sin, judgment, the lake of fire, the world, and the self but even more, He saves us from everything which replaces Christ, including our culture.
In God’s eyes, our culture is hateful, for our culture replaces Christ; in a practical way, culture replaces Christ in our daily life and in the church life.
This is the reason Paul presents to us the all-inclusive, extensive Christ who replaces our culture with Himself in Colossians.
The Christ who replaces our culture is the extensive Christ, the all-inclusive, and extensive Christ.
Such a Christ is not a limited Christ, a Christ who is our Savior and who will come again to take us to Himself; rather, He is all-inclusive and extensive, the reality of all the positive things in the universe.
Now that we have been brought back to Christ and reconciled to God, we need to take Christ as our everything.
There’s no need for us to observe ordinances about eating, for we are eating Christ.
There’s no need for us to keep certain days, feasts, or new moons, for Christ Himself is our feast, our new moon, and the reality of the Sabbath.
Christ is the reality of everything positive in the universe, and He is the reality of our day and even of ourselves.
If we insist on having ordinances concerning food and days, we make up a culture, which can be based on the Scriptures, but it offers others the ground the judge us.
May we realize that, now that we have received Christ, we should enjoy Him and take Him as the all-inclusive, extensive One so that He would replace our culture with Himself.
Christ as the all-inclusive, extensive One is versus and should replace our culture with Himself (Col. 1:18; 3:4, 10-11).
We need to have a great turn from anything else unto Christ who replaces our culture.
And we shouldn’t first pray for some saints in another country to have their culture replaced with Christ, which shows that we are in competition inwardly with that country; rather, we should personally be in the light and allow the Lord to replace our culture with Himself.
We shouldn’t be introspective but rather, be in the light and ask the Lord as the all-inclusive, extensive One to touch and replace our culture with Himself.
May we give HIm the ground to do whatever He needs to do and touch what He needs to touch so that He would become our unique constituent.
The purpose of the extensive revelation of Christ in the book of Colossians is to deal with culture (Col. 2:8; 3:10-11).
Paul doesn’t advise us to change our behavior or adjust our way of living; he doesn’t tell us that we should improve or modify our concepts, for such things only keep us under the authority of darkness.
The answer and solution are simply the all-inclusive, extensive Christ! And He is the wonderful Person in our being, and He is also revealed to us in His word!
Though we cannot see Him, He is Emmanuel, always being with us, and He is within us as the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).
We are people of hope because the all-inclusive, extensive Christ is in us.
In Colossians, Paul presents a vision of the all-inclusive, extensive Christ to impress us with the fact that this Christ should replace our culture.
He is the One who searches our inward parts and our hearts; we should let Him search us, shine in us, expose us, and judge any element of the culture that still replaces Him, and we should simply tell Him,
Lord Jesus, replace our culture with Yourself! Do what You need to do, expose what You need to expose, and touch what You need to touch! Give us the experiences we need so that our culture would be replaced by the all-inclusive, extensive Christ! Here we are, dear Lord: we don’t really know what we need or where we are, but You know. We give ourselves to You. We need You. We trust You. Keep us in the enjoyment and experience of the all-inclusive Christ as the One who replaces our culture with Himself! May You become everything to us. May the all-inclusive, extensive Christ be our Christ in actuality, in practicality, in constitution, in experience, in enjoyment, in living, and in serving!
Allowing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ to Fill our Entire Being and Replace our Culture with Himself!
The kind of Christ who replaces culture is the all-inclusive, extensive Christ, the preeminent One, the centrality and universality of God’s economy (Col. 1:15-18; 2:16-17; 3:4, 10-11).
There are millions of genuine believers around the world who have Christ as their Savior, but they still live in their culture and cannot advance in their growth in life or being built up together.
Their sins are forgiven, they have eternal life, they can be assured of being in the New Jerusalem, but that’s it.
We need to see and enjoy the all-inclusive, extensive Christ to fill our entire being to replace our culture with Himself.
We need the Christ revealed in Colossians, the highest revelation of Christ as the all-inclusive, extensive One.
There are no limitations to Him. There is no need He cannot meet. There’s no capacity that He cannot fill. There is no scarcity with Him. If we have such a Christ in our experience, we shall not need anything else.
When we have Him and enjoy Him, we don’t need any philosophy, religion, culture, Gnosticism, Judaism, or asceticism.
When we have Christ in His fulness, we don’t need culture or even our self-imposed culture.
Many of us still live according to our self-imposed culture, and we may create our own culture according to our own feelings, opinions, principles, and natural being. Oh, Lord!
Based on our culture, we impose restrictions on ourselves and on others, and if we or others don’t measure up to our standard, living according to certain rules and principles. Oh, Lord Jesus!
May we put aside any ordinances, any forms, and any self-made culture, and may we just enjoy Christ as the all-inclusive, extensive One, allowing Him to fill us to the brim and replace our culture with Himself!
He has done this in Paul, and He can do it in us. Paul used to breathe murder against the Christians, and he used to live according to his culture which he perfected in Judaism.
He was such a brilliant man, but the Lord met him, knocked him down, saved him, and reconstituted him; eventually, the Lord allowed Paul to be imprisoned so that he would write Colossians from prison.
Paul may have wanted to do some outward work for the Lord, but the Lord put him in prison to reveal Himself to him and made him an outlet for the heavenly vision. Amen!
The all-inclusive, extensive Christ is in us, and we need to allow Him to fill our entire being and replace our culture with Himself (Eph. 3:17; Col. 1:27; 3:11).
It depends on us, however, if we allow the Lord to fill us and replace our culture with Himself.
He will not do it when we’re passive; Satan takes the opportunity to inject himself into us when we’re passive, but the Lord as a real Gentleman waits for us to give Him our cooperation.
How can we allow the Lord to fill us with Himself and replace our culture with Himself?
It is simply by praying and asking Him to make His home in our heart. May we not be passive toward the Lord but rather, may we just open to Him and ask Him to strengthen us into our inner man so that He may make His home in our heart.
It is our responsibility to open to the Lord and pray to cooperate with His inner working so that we may enjoy and be filled with the all-inclusive, extensive Christ, and so that He may replace our culture with Himself.
Will we allow the Lord? Will we open to Him without any reservation, asking Him to strengthen us into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith?
If we’re passive, nothing will happen; rather, our culture will grow and develop to the point that we express our culture to the uttermost, and Christ will not be manifested.
But if we pray, if we open, and if we give HIm the ground, He will have a way to fill us and replace any element of our culture with Himself.
Lord Jesus, we come to You as an open and empty vessel. We open to You as wide as we can so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith. Amen, Lord, we open our whole being without reservation. Cleanse us and sanctify us through Your complete salvation. Strengthen us with power through the Spirit into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart. Amen, Lord, fill us with the all-inclusive, extensive Christ and replace any element of our culture with Yourself. Have access to all the parts of our inner being. Work Yourself into us and constitute us with Yourself. Replace our culture with Yourself until we live Christ and even become Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, chs. 45, 49 (Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The All-Inclusive, Extensive Christ Replacing Culture for the One New Man (2020 Thanksgiving Conference), week 1, The Urgent Need for Our Culture to Be Replaced by the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Glory, glory, Christ is life in me! / Glory, glory, what a hope is He! / Now within my spirit He’s the mystery! / Then the glory He will be to me. (Hymns #948)
– As I came this morning to Your word / With no strength to even read a verse; / Yet my plea, is “Lord, I do need You!” / How You strengthen me, Your power within to prove. / O that Christ may make His home my heart, / Spread Himself in every part! / Saturate and life impart! / That with all saints, I may apprehend / All the vast dimensions of my loving Christ. (Song on, O that Christ may make His home)
– Riches of Christ we should enjoy / And then His fulness we will be; / Partaking of His very self, / His testimony men will see. / Riches of Christ are what He is / To us who are His members true; / His fulness is what we become / As body doth to man accrue. (Hymns #820)
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