Friday, June 01, 2007

In Him

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
(Colossians 2:9-10 – ESV)

This is a big statement; the whole fullness dwells bodily. Jesus is both fully God and fully man. He does not have a measure of deity resident within Him, and He is not just a deity, He has the fullness, He is a part of the Godhead, THE deity, and this fullness dwells in a man. He has not just the aspects of deity but the totality. Jesus was and is God.

Here with these words Paul destroys much heresy. A false teaching related to this in the early church was called Docetism, which claimed that Jesus had no actual human body; He only seemed to have one. Another false teaching was called Cerinthianism, and it said that the “Jesus the man” was separate and distinct from “the Spirit of Christ.” These ancient heresies have come to us in new forms throughout the centuries, seemingly resurrected because we are too often ignorant of church history, as well as considering the whole counsel of God.

Christological heresies deny the deity of Christ or they deny the humanity of Christ, and/or they place overemphasis on one to the detriment of the other. They lessen the extent to which Jesus was divine or human. Some also confuse or commingle the two natures of Christ in an inappropriate way.

If we mess up our understanding of Jesus, by necessity we will also mess up the ramifications of who He is and what He means to us. Paul says that Jesus is full and we are filled from Him. Christ is the fullness of which we partake (John 1:16 / 2 Corinthians 3:18 / 2 Peter 1:4). In Christ we find our every spiritual want (Ephesians 1:3, 3:19).

We have been filled, and are complete in Him. This can only be true because Jesus is truly God. If He were not God, we couldn’t be complete in Him. Anything that says we are not complete in Him also takes away from the deity of Jesus.

Paul says that this is a done deal, a fact to be enjoyed, not a status to be achieved. In Christ we have it all (1 Corinthians 1:30). There is no need to go anywhere else; any practical sanctification in this life is an outworking of our justification, not the in-working of some other power. It is the in-reach of the gospel. It is all about Jesus. Jesus isn’t an authority He is THE authority and He delegates any authority anything else has (Matthew 28:18 / Ephesians 1:21-22). In Him who is the fullness we have the fullness of Him.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heavenly Warrior here. Amen to that brother. Great post.

donsands said...

"If He were not God, we couldn’t be complete in Him."

Amen brother.

Jesus does it all. He saves us completely. He gives a new heart, so that we love Him, and hate sin.

Thanks for a fine teaching.

Halfmom said...

I love this statement,

"There is no need to go anywhere else; any practical sanctification in this life is an outworking of our justification, not the in-working of some other power."

How do you suppose that relates to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling"?

Anonymous said...

Throughout Scripture, God’s Spirit teaches those with ears to hear the doctrine of the triune God. It’s ironic that universalists, who almost never accept the Trinity, often use Gen. 1:26-27 to support universalism, for the Trinity’s there as well- “Let Us make man in Our image & according to Our likeness...”

Col. 1 & 2 is a great passage to refute poor Christology, it goes on at length to expound upon Christ’s glory. Isaiah 9, John 14-17, Hebrews, & 1 John are also among the many which speak of the full glory of the Godhead.

Universalists often rip three words, “God is love” from the context of 1 John 4, to build their creed upon, but we should ask them to place it back in context & discover why John declares “God is love.”

“He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:8-10

This passage combats so much of the heresy in universalism- “only begotten Son” opposes the notion that we’re all “sons” naturally, we “live through Him” instead of finding divinity within us & “living” through that; but it’s strongest statement is that love is defined by the Father sending His only Son to save us from our otherwise hopeless destruction.

Kim said...

If we mess up our understanding of Jesus, by necessity we will also mess up the ramifications of who He is and what He means to us.

Amen to that. Also, if we mess up our understanding of Him, then we mess up our understanding of who we are before Him, and what He expects of us.

David said...

That's a wonderful, profound message, JD. It was good to read this morning.

Even So... said...

Talk about encouragement! Thanks, folks, this is just what I needed today...and it came from those, who like me, are in Him...all praise to His name!

Even So... said...

/How do you suppose that relates to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling"?

That is from Philippians 2:12, and your answer is in verse 15...

We are to work out what He has worked in, and shine as lights in the world...

J. Ed Komoszewski said...

If we mess up our understanding of Jesus, by necessity we will also mess up the ramifications of who He is and what He means to us.

I sure wish that more pastors would preach this unflinchingly to their flocks!

Even So... said...

Whoa!

I had to check to make sure that was who I thought it was, and, wow...

I am humbled that you came over here to comment sir...

Even So... said...

BTW, if you do see this, please check out the post immediately prior to this one...

Your work with Dr. Sawyer and Dr. Wallace is much appreciated, I practically lived at Bible.org from 2001-2004...

J. Ed Komoszewski said...

I just ran across your posts on Christology. Great stuff! I'm always thrilled to see a pastor talking about these things, so I had to drop you a note of encouragement. Your sheep are fortunate to have such a Christ-centered, clear-thinking pastor!