THE FULNESS OF GOD AND THE COMPLETENESS OF THE BELIEVER

Col. 2:9-10

Morning Meditation 9/23/2013

Verses 9-10 say, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power."

I tried to take in verse 9 in yesterday's meditation but it got too big before I got to it. So, we will look at it today, along with verse 10. There are a lot of mysterious things in the Bible that one just has to accept by faith. One of them is the incarnation and what it really means. I will not do the impossible and explain it. But I will look and share with you what these verses say.

WHERE GOD DWELLS

Paul says, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." The preposition "in" translates the Greek "en" and is "a primary preposition denoting (fixed) position in place, time or state." It is "in Him" and shows the relationship of the Godhead to the Person of Christ as man. The word "dwelleth" translates "katoikeo" and means, "to dwell, to settle down and be at home." It is a present active indicative verb. This means that this is not only true in His incarnate state in this world but also now in His glorified state. He is in His glorified body, a Man in heaven right now, in the presence of God for us. And yet in Him all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily.

The words "all the fulness" translate "pleroma" which means fulness in the sense that nothing is left out. "Ignatius uses the term in the sense of 'supreme fulness.'" E28093Kittel. This is one of the favorite words of the Gnostics. Paul deliberately uses it and applies it to the incarnation. Pleroma (fulness) was used by the Gnostic teacher in a technical sense to express the sum total of the divine powers and attributes. From the pleroma they supposed that all those agencies (angelic emanations, etc.) issued, through which God has at any time exerted His power in creation, or manifested His will through revelation. These mediatorial beings would retain more or less of the pleroma's influence, according as they claimed direct parentage from it, or trace their descent from the pleroma through successive evolutions. But in all cases this pleroma was distributed, diluted, transformed, and darkened by foreign admixture. They were only partial and blurred images, often deceptive caricatures of their original, broken lights of the great Central Light as Lightfoot would say. Christ may have been ranked with these inferior images of the divine by the Colossian teachers. Hence the significance of the assertion that the totality of the divine dwells in Him. When you have found Christ you have found the fulness. One does not have to look elsewhere or look for something more.

The words "of the Godhead" translate "theotes" and mean, "deity, the state of being God, Godhead." The word "bodily" translates "somatikos" and refers to the physical body or the glorified body in which He was raised in resurrection. We have God in a location. This does not mean that God is no longer omnipresent. This does not confine Him to a given location only, i.e., the physical body of Jesus. But it does mean that nowhere can you go and find God different than He is in Christ. You will never find God with a different look, or more powerful, or more compassionate. He is the totality of the Godhead in Christ. When you look at creation you can tell something about God. When you look at Christ you can learn all about God. Now to summarize the doctrine of the Christ as the incarnation of God:

1. He is God and is designated the Word; John 1:1. As the Word, He communicates God to man.

2. He is Creator; John 1:3; Col. 1:16.

3. He humbled Himself to become a man to save man; Phil. 2:6-8.

4. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself; 2 Cor. 5:19.

5. He was and is before all things; Col. 1:17.

6. He holds creation together at this very moment; Col. 1:17.

7. He knew He was God and revealed it while on earth; John 8:58.

8. The angels worship Him as God; Luke 2:13-15.

9. He is the beginning and the end of time and life as we know it on earth; Rev. 21:6; 22:13.

Next, let's look at . . .

WHERE THE BELIEVER DWELLS

The words of our text say, "And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." The words "ye are" translate "este" and are from "eimi," "I am," and speak of being. It is a present indicative verb. It is saying that this is the present existence (eternal right now and not a goal) of the believer. The word "complete" translates "pleroo." We are dealing with the Gnostics favorite word again. It means, "to fill to the top: so that nothing shall be wanting to full measure, fill to the brim." If applied to filling a cup with water, it means there is no room left, i.e., there is no need for more.

The words "in him" is where the believer is. Just as we were in Adam when He sinned in the Garden, and just as we remained in him until we were saved, we are in Christ now that we are saved. The preposition "in" (en in the Greek) speaks of a fixed location. This means that what He is, we are, where He is, we are, and what His future is, is ours. His acceptance is our acceptance. Does the Bible bear this out? Note the following:

1. Salvation puts us in Him; 2 Cor. 5:17: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." The words "if any man be in Christ" relate completely to salvation. If you are in Christ, you are saved, if you are not in Christ, you are lost. This is not talking about being in a church. It is talking about the miracle of salvation where one is created in Christ Jesus, and he becomes a NEW MAN. It is not the old man made over. It is a new creation of God, created after the likeness of God (Eph. 4:24). Because this is a new man, old things are passed away. In Christ we are free from the condemnation of the past and complete, so that nothing is lacking so far as how God sees us.

2. What He is right now we are. 1 John 4:17 says, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." The words "as he is" translate a present indicative verb and mean, "as He is right now." The words "so are we in this world" translate a present indicative verb. It means as He is on the throne of His glory, accepted as the Eternal Son in a glorified human body, so are we right now in this world. He is our acceptance. It is not that we are glorified right now as He is. It means that God reckons Him to be us and us to be Him, right now in this present world. That is our eternal standing before the throne now.

3. We have been sanctified permanently in Him; Heb. 10:10, 14. Verse 10 says, "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." The words "we are" translate "esmen" which is a first person plural of the "to be" verb. It is present tense which means that we continue to be sanctified right now. Now most of the time when you find a clause like "we are sanctified" it will be the translation of one word. It is not the case here. The word "sanctified" is also a verb and translates "hagiazo" and means, "to purify by expiation: free from the guilt of sin, to purify internally by renewing of the soul." It is a perfect passive participle. The perfect tense represents completed action in the past with the result that it stands complete in the present. The passive voice means that the one who is thus sanctified did not sanctify himself but he was acted upon. The passive voice is where the subject (the sanctified) was the receiver of the action. All of this simply means that the believer has been acted upon by God in salvation and sanctification and that is the way it stands forever. This is POSITIONAL sanctification and is the experience of every believer.

Verse 10 says, "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." This verse tells us what the instrument of sanctification is, i.e., "for by one offering." The cross is the means God uses to sanctify. The words "hath perfected" translate "teleioo" and mean, "to carry through completely, to accomplish, finish, bring to an end." It is a perfect active indicative verb. Again the perfect tense means that the saved, to whom this book is written, have already been perfected to the end.. It stands as a completed action with present results. Excuse me. Someone hold my mules. I'm about to have a runaway!!!

4. He is our righteousness before God; 1 Cor. 1:30: "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Christ is said to be made four things to us in this verse.. But for now let's just look at one. He is made unto us "righteousness." Jesus is righteous. You say, "Oh, if I could just be righteous like Jesus." My dear Christian brother or sister, this verse says you are. He is made unto you righteousness. Rest your case right there. That will set you free. You say, "But preacher, you don't know me." I say, "You don't know GRACE."

5. It is grace alone in Him that makes us acceptable to God. Eph. 1:6 says, "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." Notice it is grace that makes it so. Grace is the unmerited favor of God. The words "he hath made us acceptable" translate an aorist active indicative verb which means that this was done at a point of time in the past by Him (active voice). Notice where this takes place, i.e., "in the beloved." This is positional truth. We are acceptable to God in Him. If God makes us acceptable to Himself, then we as believers ought to accept ourselves as He has made us!

This is termed "positional truth" by many. I agree that the believer has a position in Christ and this takes place at the point of salvation. It will never change. We did not obtain this position by works. We obtained it by the grace of God and the power of God. Fellowship with God can change daily but relationship with God will never change.

Jesus is the fulness of God in a human body. He was never less than God and never more than man. We have in Him uniqueness. There was never another like Him and never will be. He is truly the God-man. We are complete in Him. This is what grace does for the one who will respond to the gospel and receive Christ as Lord and Saviour. We never need to be more than we are in Christ, and we should never be satisfied to be less in our experience. Our stiving should always be to allow Him to have more of us in which to manifest His perfect life.

May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ,

Bro. Earl White