Two truths to savour

In Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. Colossians 2:9-10

In these two verses (actually one verse plus half a verse) Paul makes two statements, both of them quite extraordinary. Because they take up just twenty-one words in our translation (merely fifteen in Paul’s Greek) they are easy to skim over. But that would be a serious mistake.

I heard of an old-fashioned Scottish preacher who used to ask his congregation to take a Bible truth and “suck it like a sweetie” – no crunching it or swallowing it whole, but really getting the full flavour and richness. In that spirit I invite you to slow down and read these two statements as if you have never read them before, and so allow them to work their work as the Holy Spirit sees fit.

1.   The first statement is about Christ: in him all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form.

That takes some getting our heads round. Various commentators do a good job of explaining what it means. But in fact no better explanation is needed than one given by Jesus himself during his time on earth.

In John 14:1-10 he aims to comfort and reassure his disciples, troubled as they are by the thought that he will soon be leaving them to return to “my Father’s house”, heaven itself. Philip latches onto the word “father” and makes a request: “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us”.

To which Jesus, instead of laughing out loud at the naivety of the request, replies completely seriously, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”. To see Jesus is tantamount to seeing the Father. Isn’t that exactly what Paul is saying in our verse? Putting it another way: Everything that makes God God (that’s “all the fullness of the Deity”) is wrapped up in this man Jesus of Nazareth.

His disciples weren’t to know it at the time, of course – to them, Jesus was certainly a very special and wonderful man. But - God in the flesh!...

If you had told Mary that she had changed the nappy of God-in-the-flesh I suspect that she would have given you a very odd look. If you had told the twelve disciples that that leader they were following – the one snoring in the night, the one tired and requesting a drink of water from the woman at the well, the one who used his own spit to restore the gift of speech to a needy man – that that man was actually God-in-the-flesh, they too would have found it hard to take.

But that’s how it is, and Paul is just spelling it out. The wonder of it is simple: how available to us God has made himself! (The same truth is spelled out at greater length in Philippians 2:5-11 – if you like, an even bigger sweetie to suck.)

The question that arises is: Have I been looking for God in all the wrong places? In ceremony? In miracles? In learned books? In “spiritual gifts”? In long sessions of fasting and prayer? These aren’t all necessarily bad, of course. But… keep it simple! An old hymn used to say “Turn your eyes upon Jesus…” Do that, and you won’t go far wrong.

2.   The second statement is about us, we who have put our trust in Jesus: in Christ you have been brought to fullness.

Slight differences of translation are possible here, but in essence they boil down to the same thought: it is by faith in Jesus, and ongoing obedience to him, that we find our true selves, our fullfilment.

You may, if you are an older Christian of, say, twenty-plus years’ standing, look back in your life and wonder how it would have turned out if you had never become a Christian. You may, of course, have gained  many of the things this world longs for: money, fame, success, popularity, you name it. These things are not necessarily wrong in themselves, but they can so easily become a snare, a ruining of the Christlike person God always wanted you to be.

Then again, you may be able to see people you once knew as being far from God and indifferent to the things of God – people you see now as truly transformed into the likeness of Christ. You shake your head in real wonder: Who would have guessed it! Who indeed?

Perhaps you find yourself doing that as you look back on your own life. Yes, I may not be perfect - in fact, I’m very certainly not perfect! But neither am I the man or woman I was. Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:17 suddenly spring to life: “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation…” Yes, all that stuff in John’s Gospel about being “born again” really is true!

We are not yet the finished article, that’s a fact. But we are called to live as if we were. In Colossians 3:1-4 there are some great past tenses: we “have been raised” with Christ; we “have died”; our present life “is now hidden with Christ in God”.

Christian, live that life, that resurrection life, that eternal life! – for the finished article, Christlike perfection, is only a matter of time away.

Lord and Father, I confess that I am not the person I ought to be; I am not the person I would like to be; I am not the person you made me to be. But at the same time I am not the person I was, and I am not yet the person who, by your grace, I will one day be. Please help me to live today as what I am: someone dead to sin and raised with Christ. Amen.