Here, then, lies the centre of the apostle’s thoughts in this paragraph: _God’s all-comprehending purpose in Christ_. The magnitude and completeness of this plan are indicated by the fact that it embraces in its purview _the angelic powers and their enlightenment_. So understanding it, our _human faith gains confidence and courage_ (vv. 12, 13). * * * * * I. The textual critics restore the definite article which later copyists had dropped before the word _Christ_ in verse 11. We have already remarked the frequency of “the Christ” in this epistle.[93] Once besides this peculiar combination of the names of our Saviour occurs--in Colossians ii. 6, where Lightfoot renders it _the Christ, even Jesus the Lord_. So it should be rendered in this place. St Paul sets forth the purpose of “God who created all things.” He is looking back through “the ages” during which the Divine plan was kept secret. God was all the time designing His work of mercy, pointing meanwhile the hopes of men by token and promise to the Coming One. The Messiah was the burden of those prophetic ages. That inscrutable Christ of the Old Testament, the veiled mystery of Jewish hope, stands manifested before us and challenges our faith in the glorious person of “Jesus our Lord.” This singular turn of expression identifies the ideal and the real, the promise and fulfilment, the dream of Old Testament prophecy and the fact of New Testament history. For Jesus our Lord is the very Christ to whom the generations before His coming looked forward out of their twilight with wistful expectancy. Not without meaning is He called “Jesus _our Lord_.” The “principalities and powers” of the heavenly places are in our view (ver. 10). These potentates some of the Asian Christians were fain to worship. “See ye do it not,” Paul seems to say. “Jesus, the Christ of God, is alone our Lord; not these. He is our Lord _and theirs_ (i. 21, 22). As our Lord He commands their homage, and gives them lessons through His Church in God’s deep counsels.” Everything that the apostle says tends to exalt our Redeemer and to enhance our confidence in Him. His position is central and supreme, in regard alike to the ages of time and the powers of the universe. In His hand is the key to all mysteries. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning, middle, and end of God’s ways. He is the centre of Israel, Israel of the world and the human ages; while the world of men is bound through Him to the higher spheres of being, over which He too presides.