"For in Him [the Lord Jesus] dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete [filled full] in Him, which is the head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:9-10).
In Christ dwells the glorious, whole, totality of who God is. All that God is can be found in Christ. All of God's glorious Person inhabits and dwells in the Person of Jesus Christ. All that God is, all that can be found of God is embodied in Christ. If you want to have access to God, Jesus Christ is the way to get to God. All of God, not part of God, is in Christ. God is able to perfectly represent Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the GOD-MAN.
In verse 10 we read that we are "complete in Him" or "filled full" in Him. The word "complete" in verse 10 (the verb) is related to the word "fullness" in verse 9 (the noun). The word involves completeness and perfectness. The verb in verse 10 is in the perfect tense. You have been filled full with the result that you continue to be filled full. You were complete in Christ when you were saved and you presently stand in a position of total spiritual completeness in Him. "And you are in Him, having been completely filled full with the present result that you are in a state of fullness in Him" (Kenneth Wuest's rendering). It is in the passive mood meaning that God, not the believer, does the filling, and this took place the moment we were saved. When you received HIM (John 1:12) you received God's FULLNESS. You are filled full in Him! This is a momentous truth. God is to you, in Christ, EVERYTHING that you will ever need! Are you living in light of this glorious fact?
Christ in all of His fullness is IN YOU (Col. 1:27). "Christ in you," if you are saved, is God's fullness. Christ is your FULLNESS! Not only is Christ in you (Col. 1:27) but you are in Christ (Col. 2:10). To be in Christ is to be in the middle of the fullness of God. In Christ is all the fullness of God and the believer is found in the middle of Christ, positioned in God's beloved Son. And Christ is found in the middle of God and all of God's fullness. "And of His fullness have all we received" (John 1:16). "And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19; compare 4:13). All of the fullness of God is in Christ and you are complete in Christ! Christ is the fullness of God. There is nothing else you need to be complete. Christ is your complete sufficiency. Having Him you have all!
Believers are in vital union with the very One who is the fullness of God and who has supplied them with all they could ever need. If you have Christ, what more joy do you need? Is He not your joy (John 15:11)? If you have Christ, what more hope do you need? Is not He your hope (1 Tim. 1:1)? If you have Christ what more peace do you need? Is not He your peace (Eph. 2:14)? If you have Christ what more comfort do you need? What more power do you need? What more wisdom do you need, seeing that in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3)? Having Him, how do you lack? "Having all sufficiency in all things!" (2 Cor. 9:8), what can be added? What else is missing? We are in Christ and we are to draw upon His fullness!
Jesus Christ, in me, makes the exercise and experience of fullness a rightful reality. The fullness that I have as a believer is Christ. Not only is Christ in the believing heart, but the believing heart is in Christ. In Christ the believing heart finds all the fullness of God. The believing heart is in Christ, in the middle of God's fullness. God has done a marvelous thing. God has placed us in Himself, in the middle of all His fullness. My fullness, my sufficiency, my completeness is not to be found in me; it is to be found in Christ even in Christ who is in me. This is why I can do all things through Christ (Phil. 4:13). This is why I can "work out" my own salvation because "it is God that worketh" in me! How rich am I as a believer? All the riches and fullness of God is found in Christ and Christ is in me! We have this TREASURE in earthen vessels (2 Cor. 4:7). "Ye in Me, and I in you" (John 14:20). Precious mystery! Blessed relationship!
In and of ourselves we are bankrupt. We are empty. We lack any kind of fullness, excepting that we are full of SELF and full of SIN. We are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked (Rev. 3:17). But in Christ we have all and abound, lacking nothing. There is nothing in a believer; everything is in Christ. As the old hymn says, "Jesus Christ is made to me, all I need, all I need; He alone is all my plea, He is all I need. Wisdom, righteousness and power, holiness this very hour. My redemption full and free. He is ALL I NEED!" (compare 1 Corinthians 1:29-31). Putting no confidence in the flesh, may we glory and boast in Him! Are you finding Him to be ALL YOU NEED?
There is the expression: "I Find Christ Adequate." It also could be said, "I Find Christ All-Sufficient! He is SUFFICIENT for every SITUATION. Are you resting in the complete adequacy of Christ? Are you completely sufficient in an all-sufficient Saviour? Because we are complete in Him, "there are resources in Him from which we may be filled, that nothing be lacking in us" (Calvin). Charles Wesley expressed it in this way, "Thou, O Christ, art all I want,/More than all in Thee I find." The Apostle said it this way: "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (2 Cor. 9:8).
Christ is the FULLNESS of God and we are COMPLETE in Him! Because we can partake of His fullness we do not need to lack in an area. "And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace" (John 1:16). Because we have received of His fullness, we have an endless supply of GRACE! The word "for" in John 1:16 means "instead of, in the place of." Think of the waves of the ocean. One wave crashes in and it is replaced by another wave, and then another wave. Wave upon wave upon wave! They keep coming! There is an endless supply of waves, one after the other continually. So it is with God's grace. Of His fullness we have all received, grace for grace, grace upon grace! God's grace rolls in the direction of the believer wave upon wave, an endless supply, all that we need! "He giveth more grace" (James 4:6, present tense, "He keeps on giving more grace!"). "God is able to make all grace ABOUND toward you" (2 Cor. 9:8).
The Lord Jesus Christ is more than enough! Of His fullness we have all received. As believers we are in Him and He is in us and we are complete in Him. We lack nothing. We have everything in Christ but we must appropriate the sufficiency of Christ in the light of our bankruptcy. We are sufficient in His sufficiency. "And who is sufficient for these things?....our sufficiency is of God" (2 Corinthians 2:16; 3:5). May Christ, who is the fullness of God, be ALL and EVERYTHING to you in these days and may you find in Him your completeness and the fountain and source of all that you need. "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:19).
Complete in Thee – each want supplied, And no good thing to me denied; Since Thou my portion, Lord, wilt be, I ask no more, complete in Thee. Dear Saviour! when before Thy bar all tribes and tongues assembled are, Among Thy chosen will I be, At Thy right hand, complete in Thee!
– Aaron R. Wolfe
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