The focus and center of the heavenly vision is Christ Himself, the reality of all the positive things in the universe. The heavenly vision centers on Christ and takes Him as the focus, and this One is everything to us.
The all-inclusive Christ lives in us to be our all, and He in us is the obedience to the heavenly vision – all of His complete obedience is available to us. In the Lord’s recovery we are being brought back to Christ, the center and focus of God’s economy.
Before he was met by Christ, Paul was focused on many other things; after the Lord appeared to him, he “watched three days of heavenly television” of Christ and he was captured by Christ. In his first epistle to Corinthians Paul brings forth at least twenty aspects of the all-inclusive Christ, and in Colossians he emphatically speaks of the all-inclusive and all-extensive Christ as the center and focus of God’s economy.
In our Christian life Christ is everything to us, and we can experience Him as the reality of every positive thing in our life. The real thing is Christ, and the other positive things are but a shadow of Him.
The food we eat is not the real food – Christ is the real food, the food that really nourishes our being, the food that never fades away and is always good, new, delicious, and so supplying. In the same way, the real drink is Christ: He is not only “water” but living water, water that comes into us to give us life, enliven us, and make us living, inwardly quenching our real thirst.
The clothes that we wear also point to Christ as the real clothing – He covers our nakedness with Himself as our righteousness, He keeps us warm and protects us, and He imparts real beauty to us, He Himself being our beauty wrought into us and lived out of us.
The house we live in is a type of Christ as our real dwelling place, our real covering, our real rest, and our real home. Christ is our joy, our peace, our real rest, our satisfaction, our light, our air, our food, our drink, our feast, our home, and the reality of all the positive things!
May no one defraud us of our prize of enjoying Christ as the reality of every positive thing in the universe. May no one steal our enjoyment or deprive us of enjoying Christ as the reality of all positive things!
The All-Inclusive Christ is the Reality of All the Positive Things in the Universe
When the Lord Jesus was on earth He pointed out that so many positive things in the universe are a type of Him, He Himself being the reality of all the positive things. In Colossians especially we see that Christ is the reality of all the positive things, and this One is the all-inclusive and all-extensive One.
Let no one judge us or defraud us in eating, drinking, or in respect of a feast or of a new moon or of the Sabbath – which all are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ; the enjoyment of Christ is our prize and no one should defraud us by judging us unworthy of this prize (see Col. 2:16-18).
Let no one judge us or defraud us. Don’t be cheated by anything or anyone – just enjoy Christ! The eating, drinking, feasts, new moon, Sabbath, or anything else that is positive, all are but shadows – but the body of the shadows is Christ, the reality of all the positive things in the universe.
Let no one defraud you or cheat you from the enjoyment of Christ! Let no one delude you, judge you, or steal you away from your prize, the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ! The only prize that is enjoyable is the enjoyment of Christ, and this One is the all-inclusive and all-extensive One!
Christ is the reality of all the positive things in the universe, and we should experience Him in our daily living and walk. In aspect after aspect, Christ must be real, practical, and experiential to us in our daily life.
In all the small matters and things of our daily life we need to enjoy Christ. When we eat, we should be reminded to eat Christ as our real food. When we drink, we should exercise our spirit and take Christ in as our real drink.
When we travel, we need to realize: Christ is the real means of transportation, and He bears us upon His wings all the way into His glory. When we rest, we can enjoy Christ as our real rest, comfort, and satisfaction. He is all-inclusive and also all-extensive, being the reality of all the positive things in the universe.
As such a One, He wants to be experienced and enjoyed by us in our daily life. May our vision of the all-inclusive Christ be uplifted and our enjoyment of this One be intensely upgraded!
Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly Christ is the Reality of Every Positive Thing – He’s Universally Extensive and All-Inclusive!
Col. 2:16-17 Let no one therefore judge you in eating and in drinking or in respect of a feast or of a new moon or of the Sabbath, which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ.
In Col. 2:16-17 we see four categories of things that refer to Christ: eating and drinking is daily, Sabbaths are weekly, new moons are monthly, and feasts are yearly. All these positive things are shadows of Christ, the reality and body of all positive things.
This means that daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly we need to enjoy Christ and experience Christ as the reality of all the positive things in many aspects and in many ways. As with a man’s physical body, the body in Col. 2:17 is the substance; like the shadow of a man’s body, so the rituals and the law are a shadow of Christ, who is the substance and reality of the gospel.
This Christ, the all-inclusive and all-extensive One, is the focus of God’s economy (see Col. 1:17, 18, 3:11). The fact that Christ is the reality of every positive thing daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly implies that He is universally extensive, filling time and space with His all-inclusiveness.
Daily Christ is our food and drink for our satisfaction and strengthening (see 1 Cor. 10:3-4). We need to eat and drink daily, and the real food and drink is Christ Himself. Christ is the One who can satisfy our hunger, quench our thirst, and strengthen us inwardly to live a life for God’s purpose.
We should not eat anything other than Christ and we should not drink anything other than Christ every day. When we drink something, we should be reminded of drinking Christ as our real beverage. Don’t be defrauded of your enjoyment of Christ – as you eat and drink daily, eat and drink Christ!
Weekly Christ is our Sabbath for our completion and rest in Him. He calls us to come to Him with all our toils and labor, and He will give us real rest (Matt. 11:28-29). His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He is our real rest and satisfaction. Rest comes from completion and satisfaction.
The reality of our rest and satisfaction is Christ, the only One who can complete what He has begun in us (His organic salvation). As we rest on the bed at night or take a nap during the day we can enjoy Christ as our real rest. Actually all throughout the day we can enjoy Him as our rest inwardly.
Monthly Christ is our new moon as a new beginning with light in darkness. Christ is the light of the world, the light of life, and the real light coming to shine on us (see John 1:5; 8:12), and monthly we can experience Him as a new moon, a new beginning. Christ is the reality of the new beginning, and when we touch Him we have a new beginning.
When we touch the Lord, we forget all things behind and stretch forward to Christ to enjoy Him and experience Him in a fresh way, taking Him as our new beginning. When we touch the Lord we have a new beginning, and He shines on us to dispel all the darkness.
Yearly Christ is our feast for our joy and enjoyment. The children of Israel were commanded by God to keep certain feasts yearly, and in our Christian life we need to keep the feast by enjoying Christ as the unleavened bread (see 1 Cor. 5:8).
Our entire Christian life should be a feast where we enjoy Christ both personally and corporately as our banquet, our rich supply of life. God called us into the fellowship and participation of His Son (1 Cor. 1:9) – we are not called to a religion, a ritual, a ceremony, or anything else, but into Christ and into the enjoyment of Christ.
Praise the Lord! We need to experience and enjoy Christ as the reality of all the positive things every day. All the positive things in our daily life, weekly life, monthly life, and yearly life must be Christ and must lead us to the enjoyment of Christ. Christ is vast and extensive, and at the same time He is the detailed aspects of our daily living.
We need to enjoy Christ and experience Him daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly with new beginnings, feasting, full of rest and satisfaction, and eating and drinking Him all the time. Just enjoy Christ in all things in a detailed way!
Lord Jesus, You are our food and our drink. We take You as our new beginning, our rest, our satisfaction, and our feast. We want to feast on You continually day by day in our Christian life. Lord, may our entire Christian life be filled with the enjoyment of Christ as our banquet! You are our satisfaction and strengthening, our completion and rest, our new beginning, and our joy and enjoyment! Lord, We want to find You and enjoy You as the reality of all the positive things in our daily life, weekly life, monthly life, and yearly life! We want to enjoy and experience You as the all-inclusive and all-extensive One!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians (msgs. 15, 24-25), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Heavenly Vision, week 2 / msg 2, The Vision of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Oh! Christ, expression of God, the Great, / Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet! / God mingled with humanity / Lives in me my all to be. (Hymns #501)
# I am one with Thee, Lord Jesus, / One in spirit now with Thee; / All Thyself I now possess, Lord, / All Thou art now lives in me. / One with Thee, one with Thee, / One with Thee, one with Thee; / Day by day I share Thy riches, / Thou art everything to me. (Hymns #474)
# I’ve found the One of peerless worth, / My heart doth sing for joy; / And sing I must, for Christ I have: / Oh, what a Christ have I! (Hymns #510)
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