The Amazing Colossal Christ Part I: Unmasking the Man-Made Counterfeit of the Glorious Christ

“In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Desiderius Erasmus, 1536 A.D.

“All the wretched mess that exists in the organization of Christianity today would have never come about. It is because something specific in itself, either a movement, a mission, a teaching, a testimony, a fellowship, has taken the place of Christ…Now beloved, an inward revelation (of Christ in you the hope of Glory) is the cure of all that.”  T. Austin Sparks

Five-stories tall, and ever-growing, a gigantic man steps out on center stage, and likely does not disappoint the ant-like crowd he towers over, rewarding those with total satisfaction who have journeyed the four corners of the earth just to catch a glimpse of him. Their jaws drop, their mouths hang open, and all eyes gaze upon him, whose strength and power is unequaled among mortal men. Monstrously huge and awe inspiring,  this human colossus commands their fullest attention…and their worship.

He has many names

Vastly popular throughout the world, he is known by various names, penned by people with good intentions. In some parts, he is called missional. In others, he goes by the name of movements. He also has been known to answer to a whole slew of others like disciple making, free thinkers, bible-centered, and apostolic network, ect… And, now most recently, he has added organic, simple and home church to his list of aliases. Often, this man-made colossus is actually a conglomerate of most, or all, of these meshed together. If you have not guessed already, this “colossal man” does not make his grand appearance at a circus, or even a concert, but…within a church meeting.

He has several locales

He shows up…in temples, chapels, tents, buildings, warehouses, or even living rooms. He gives satisfaction to the masses, many times over, who have craved for growth in numbers and increase of activity over the knowing of Christ, deeply and intimately. Self-expanding and self-increasing, and amazing really only from a human perspective, this counterfeit of organic church life has been crafted from something specific about Christ and has grown to such proportion, or actually out of proportion, when the church has sought to pattern itself after what men think God wants rather than what truly satisfies His heart.

He is created in the “blindness” of the heart

This “amazing colossal man” looks a whole lot like the “one-eyed king” in the famous 16th-century Erasmus poem where a society of incapables set a man over themselves who is only a tad bit more capable — and only slightly less disadvantaged — than they are. Likewise, it is in the absence of an inward revelation of Christ, the blindness of the heart, where people create for themselves, in their own minds, a christ who is only a little stronger, a little bigger, a littler smarter than themselves. Many of us, at one time or another, have spent far too much time in the “kingdom of the blind” when what began with something of Christ had grown monstrously and sinisterly out of control soon replacing Him altogether. We have pushed an aspect about Christ, a function of Him that has so impressed us, and have turned that into our own version of Christ without surveying the consequences.

He is an imposter

The word “colossal” comes from the greek word “kollosai” which means referring to the colossus… something so enormous, so gigantic and great in force and power that it elicits awe in us. This word is perfect in describing eternity’s true colossus, Jesus Christ. Christ is the colossus who is so astounding, and so entirely amazing and immense, that we can’t see Him in His fullness because our minds cannot contain Him. He becomes bigger, in our understanding of Him, as we grow in Him. It is because of the illumination of the Holy Spirit that we discover Him, in His infiniteness, living in us. He is altogether Glorious, the true embodiment of organic church life, and like with most things that are true, there has always been a crude counterfeit.

“Institutionalized religion”, “religious flesh”, and “institutional church” are some terms that are frequently used to describe this imposter today. And after saying that, please allow me to share my concern, even though at times I use these words as well. I think that they can depict the root problem from many angles, but far too often, from what I have seen, these terms have also been used by some, in their all-right or all-wrong thinking, to label their own brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, and to be involved in a whole new type of sectarianism.

This is not good, and does not glorify Christ in any way. I am sure this was never the purpose of the penning of these terms, but I have found it necessary to see it the way Paul the apostle saw it. When he saw Christ on the road to Damascus, brighter than the noon day sun, it was through the inward revelation where the Son was revealed in Him. It is in the backdrop of this Amazing Colossal Christ, where we can truly see the crude, man-made substitute of Him lurking in the shadows.

The three main characteristics of the “amazing colossal man” — the man-made substitute of the Glorious Christ

Though introduced with such high claims as some great new movement, awakening or revival, in reality, so often, it is not the Glorious Christ people are referring to, but the religious flesh posing as Him — originating from something specific about Christ that has been used to sum up Christ altogether. And, sadly, the best that this poor substitute can ever be resembles the incredibly growing man in the 1957 science fiction movie classic “The Amazing Colossal Man.”

1. Exogenous growth — where “life” originates from outside the body, not from within

In this low-budget film, Lt. Col. Glenn Manning is involved in an accident at a Nevada testing facility where he becomes exposed to radioactive fallout from a nuclear blast.  He survives the ordeal with third-degree burns over his entire body, but then remarkably, his body begins to heal itself.  Later, it is discovered that he is completely healed, and that he is rapidly increasing in size each day, and cannot stop growing.

The doctors study his condition and conclude that it is something outside his body, the radioactive material, that had caused his amazing growth spurt. In biology, it is called the exogenous factor where any material that is present and active in an individual organism or living cell has not grown organically from within, but that originated outside of the organism. One of the ways of this is through carcinogens, like radioactive material.

This illustrates how organic church life can be counterfeited. This occurs when the organism, the body of Christ, is manipulated through artificial means in attempts to cause increase or growth. Many of today’s seminaries train pastors and ministers to “grow” their churches with many techniques borrowed from business marketing strategies.  Many of these men go on to become obsessed with church growth and use things such as outreaches, concerts and community dinners to bring new converts through the doors in order to bring addition to the church community. Also, methods of disciple-making and evangelism often become inter-weaved into this marketing strategy as the obsession for church multiplication replaces the mutual caring for the members of the local body of Christ.

It is in God’s divine order that all life functions in an endogenous way where it originates within an organism and that life grows and manifests without. God’s grand design for this is the indwelling Life of Christ within a believer. Christ in you the hope of Glory was the focal point of the gospel that Paul the apostle preached where believers heard the necessity of living by the person and revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ Himself is always the foundation from which the church grows and increases, not from the platform of preaching or teaching about something of Christ in order to make it grow.

2. Body Life is artificial, not Organic

In the movie, the doctor revealed that the incredible increase of this “amazing colossal man” was actually preventing normal growth in his body to occur, and was in fact — killing him. His incredible growth had hidden the fact that while his body grew immensely, his heart did not, and was soon going to stop because it was unable to pump blood to the rest of the body.  This artificial life truly had it’s consequences: the body was breaking down and soon death would be imminent.

Though he stood as a “colossus” among men, picking up a bus like it was nothing, when no one was looking, he would clutch his chest, drop to his knees and gasp for air like it was his last. This is the same when body life among the brethren is merely artificial, and the members of the body of Christ are not living by the indwelling Life of Christ and sharing His Life together but are manipulated by a leader or group of leaders to grow and increase in size and activity instead of submitting to Christ being formed in and among them. So, true body life of loving one another and serving one another suffers greatly and is given the death sentence.

This artificial form of body life is when the saints are gathering together for meetings where they are sitting  in a seat next to others they barely know as they watch a show-like performance. Instead, when Christ is allowed to have the room to live and move and have His being, there is the sharing of His Life together in relationships where there is a mutual loving of one another and serving one another as Christ is expressed gloriously through all.

3. The Emphasis on Body Growth apart from an Inward Heart Change results in Death to Body Life

In the film, the doctors attempted to cure Manning with a huge needle to inject his heart with a syrum in hopes that it would restore it and save his life. This is the same with those, who had created the artificial body life and had founded it on something other than Christ Himself,  then try to use man-made methods in order to cure it. Better preaching, better strategies, better music, better buildings, ect… Improvements are made all the time in order to be more efficient, and more organized.  But none of this can cure this counterfeit of the Glorious Christ and of organic church life. There is only one cure for it – living by the person and inward revelation of Jesus Christ.

The emphasis on body growth and increase apart from an inward heart change results in death to body life. And, likewise, the return to where body life has it’s origin, the transformation of the heart, is where true body life functions at it’s organic best. The Spirit of God illuminates the heart of the believer and brings revelation inwardly of the Son of His Love living within it. This leads to true organic church life. The inward revelation of Christ is the only cure for all this monstrosity when something of Christ has been patched together with other man-made concepts and pawned off as the Glorious Christ. Only Christ being formed in the heart through the person and revelation of Jesus Christ can replace all that tries to mimic it.

So, the crude counterfeit of the Glorious Christ is unmasked. We can see him clearly now and we have learned what it takes to cure ourselves of it. So, let us move on to learn to live more fully by the indwelling Life of Christ and sharing His Life together.  And, let us also be fixated upon the Amazing Colossal Christ, Eternity’s True Colossus, who does not get any bigger really, but as we grow, He expands amazingly before our very eyes.

[Coming Soon:  The Amazing Colossal Christ Part II: Paul's concept of Jesus Christ.]