There are considerable difficulties in the interpretation of verse 15;
the main question being the meaning of the word rendered in the
Authorized Version "spoiled," and in the R. V. "having put off from
Himself." It is the same word as is used in iii. 9, and is there
rendered "have put off"; while a cognate noun is found in verse 11 of
this chapter, and is there translated "the putting off." The form here
must either mean "having put off from oneself," or "having stripped
(others) _for_ oneself." The former meaning is adopted by many
commentators, as well as by the R. V., and is explained to mean that
Christ having assumed our humanity, was, as it were, wrapped about and
invested with Satanic temptations, which He finally flung from Him for
ever in His death, which was His triumph over the powers of evil. The
figure seems far-fetched and obscure, and the rendering necessitates the
supposition of a change in the person spoken of, which must be God in
the earlier part of the period, and Christ in the latter.
But if we adopt the other meaning, which has equal warrant in the Greek
form, "having stripped for Himself," we get the thought that in the
cross, God has, for His greater glory, stripped principalities and
powers. Taking this meaning, we avoid the necessity of supposing with
Bishop Lightfoot that there is a change of subject from God to Christ at
some point in the period including verses 13 to 15--an expedient which
is made necessary by the impossibility of supposing that God "divested
Himself of principalities or powers"--and also avoid the other necessity
of referring the whole period to Christ, which is another way out of
that impossibility. We thereby obtain a more satisfactory meaning than
that Christ in assuming humanity was assailed by temptations from the
powers of evil which were, as it were, a poisoned garment clinging to
Him, and which He stripped off from Himself in His death. Further, such
a meaning as that which we adopt makes the whole verse a consistent
metaphor in three stages, whereas the other introduces an utterly
incongruous and irrelevant figure. What connection has the figure of
stripping off a garment with that of a conqueror in his triumphal
procession? But if we read "spoiled for Himself principalities and
powers," we see the whole process before our eyes--the victor stripping
his foes of arms and ornaments and dress, then parading them as his
captives, and then dragging them at the wheels of his triumphal car.
The words point us into dim regions of which we know nothing more than
Scripture tells us. These dreamers at Colossae had much to say about a
crowd of beings, bad and good, which linked men and matter with spirit
and God. We have heard already the emphasis with which Paul has claimed
for his Master the sovereign authority of Creator over all orders of
being, the headship over all principality and power. He has declared,
too, that from Christ's cross a magnetic influence streams out upwards
as well as earthwards, binding all things together in the great
reconciliation--and now he tells us that from that same cross shoot
downwards darts of conquering power which subdue and despoil reluctant
foes of other realms and regions than ours, in so far as they work among
men.
That there are such seems plainly enough asserted in Christ's own
words. However much discredit has been brought on the thought by
monastic and Puritan exaggerations, it is clearly the teaching of
Scripture; and however it may be ridiculed or set aside, it can never be
disproved.
But the position which Christianity takes in reference to the whole
matter is to maintain that Christ has conquered the banded kingdom of
evil, and that no man owes it fear or obedience, if he will only hold
fast by his Lord. In the cross is the judgment of this world, and by it
is the prince of this world cast out. He has taken away the power of
these Powers who were so mighty amongst men. They held men captive by
temptations too strong to be overcome, but He has conquered the lesser
temptations of the wilderness and the sorer of the cross, and therein
has made us more than conquerors. They held men captive by ignorance of
God, and the cross reveals Him; by the lie that sin was a trifle, but
the cross teaches us its gravity and power; by the opposite lie that sin
was unforgivable, but the cross brings pardon for every transgression
and cleansing for every stain. By the cross the world is a redeemed
world, and, as our Lord said in words which may have suggested the
figure of our text, the strong man is bound, and his house _spoiled_ of
all his armour wherein he trusted. The prey is taken from the mighty and
men are delivered from the dominion of evil. So that dark kingdom is
robbed of its subjects and its rulers impoverished and restrained. The
devout imagination of the monk-painter drew on the wall of the cell in
his convent the conquering Christ with white banner bearing a blood-red
cross, before whose glad coming the heavy doors of the prison-house
fell from their hinges, crushing beneath their weight the demon jailer,
while the long file of eager captives, from Adam onwards through ages of
patriarchs and psalmists and prophets, hurried forward with outstretched
hands to meet the Deliverer, who came bearing His own atmosphere of
radiance and joy. Christ has conquered. His cross is His victory; and in
that victory God has conquered. As the long files of the triumphal
procession swept upwards to the temple with incense and music, before
the gazing eyes of a gathered glad nation, while the conquered trooped
chained behind the chariot, that all men might see their fierce eyes
gleaming beneath their matted hair, and breathe more freely for the
chains on their hostile wrists, so in the world-wide issues of the work
of Christ, God triumphs before the universe, and enhances His glory in
that He has rent the prey from the mighty and won men back to Himself.
So we learn to think of evil as conquered, and for ourselves in our own
conflicts with the world, the flesh, and the devil, as well as for the
whole race of man, to be of good cheer. True, the victory is but slowly
being realised in all its consequences, and often it seems as if no
territory had been won. But the main position has been carried, and
though the struggle is still obstinate, it can end only in one way. The
brute dies hard, but the naked heel of our Christ has bruised his head,
and though still the dragon
"Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail,"
his death will come sooner or later. The regenerating power is lodged in
the heart of humanity, and the centre from which it flows is the cross.
The history of the world thenceforward is but the history of its more or
less rapid assimilation of that power, and of its consequent deliverance
from the bondage in which it has been held. The end can only be the
entire and universal manifestation of the victory which was won when He
bowed His head and died. Christ's cross is God's throne of triumph.
Let us see that we have our own personal part in that victory. Holding
to Christ, and drawing from Him by faith a share in His new life, we
shall no longer be under the yoke of law, but enfranchised into the
obedience of love, which is liberty. We shall no longer be slaves of
evil, but sons and servants of our conquering God, who woos and wins us
by showing us all His love in Christ, and by giving us His own Son on
the Cross, our peace-offering. If we let Him overcome, His victory will
be life, not death. He will strip us of nothing but rags, and clothe us
in garments of purity; He will so breathe beauty into us that He will
show us openly to the universe as examples of His transforming power,
and He will bind us glad captives to His chariot wheels, partakers of
His victory as well as trophies of His all-conquering love. "Now thanks
be unto God, which always triumphs over us in Jesus Christ."