Please turn to the letter to the Colossians, Colossians chapter 1. We would like to read from verses 9 through 20.
Colossians 1:9. I am reading from a new translation, and you may have a different version, but the substance is the same.
For this reason, we also, from the day we heard of your faith and love, do not cease praying and asking for you to the end that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
so as to walk worthily of the Lord, unto all well-pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing by the true knowledge of God;
strengthened with all power, according to the might of His glory, unto all endurance and longsuffering with joy;
giving thanks to the Father, Who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light;
Who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love;
in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.Who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation;
because in Him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, lordships, principalities, or authorities: all things have been created by Him and for Him.
And He is before all things, and all things subsist together by Him.
And He is the Head of the body, the assembly; Who is the beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, that He might have the first place in all things.
For in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,
and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace by the blood of His cross—by Him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.
Will you please turn to the second chapter, Colossians 2:9-10?
For in Him, that is, in Christ, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
And ye are complete in Him, Who is the Head of all principality and authority.
May we look to the Lord.
Dear Heavenly Father, how we do praise and thank Thee that we can gather together under the name of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We do praise and thank Thee because it is Thy will that one day every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord.
O Father, how we praise and thank Thee that even before that day comes, we, as the firstfruits of creation, can come and bow our hearts before Thee and confess Thee truly as our Lord. O, it is Thy mercy; it is Thy grace. Thou hast enabled us to do this, and for this we are thankful.
Our Father, as we gather here this evening, we do ask Thee to breathe by the Holy Spirit upon Thy Word and make it living to us. We pray for a spirit of wisdom and revelation unto the full knowledge of God. To Thee be all the glory, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I believe we all know that this letter to the Colossians was written by the Apostle Paul when he was in prison in Rome. He was there as a prisoner, not of Rome, but of Christ.
From that prison he wrote four letters: Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. This letter to the Colossians, together with the letter to the Ephesians, touches upon the height of God’s revelation.
Here in the letter to the Colossians, we find that Paul reveals to us the mystery of God, which is Christ. There in the letter to the Ephesians, he shows us the mystery of the Christ, which is the church. As a matter of fact, the revelation of Christ and His church is the greatest and the main revelation that you will find in the whole Bible.
Strangely, this letter was written to the saints in Colossae. Most probably Paul had never seen or visited that place. Colossae was a very small place, and probably there were only a very small number of believers.
Paul himself had never visited that place. Those who believed in the Lord Jesus probably were indirectly the fruit of the Apostle Paul. When Paul was in Ephesus for three years, all Asia heard the gospel. Most likely people from Colossae came to Ephesus, perhaps for some secular reason. There they heard the gospel of Jesus Christ through the Apostle Paul.
Some people were saved, and they went back to that little city. They began to witness for the Lord, and some people came to the Lord. It was a small place, perhaps a small church; and yet we thank the Lord that this great letter was written to a small church.
Because in the sight of God, it is not a matter of numbers. It is not a matter of big or small. It is a matter of whether it is related to the eternal purpose of God.
So we are thankful to the Lord for this letter, because in this letter we are given a revelation of Christ as we cannot find in any other place. This time, we would like to concentrate ourselves upon this letter to the Colossians.
Now, of course, we are not going to go through the whole book and try to explain a little bit here and a little bit there. But our purpose is to see whether there is a message in this little letter—little in size, but great in essence and substance. Is there a message for us today? What is the message that the Holy Spirit tried to convey to the saints in Colossae, and to us today?
Epaphras founded the church in Colossae. Evidently, this man Epaphras, a servant of God, was saved through the ministry of Paul when he was in Ephesus.
This man visited Rome and saw Paul, probably on the one hand to bring to Paul the greetings and sympathy of the saints in Colossae, because Paul was a prisoner in Rome. On the other hand, he brought to Paul a report of the situation in that church.
We find that the church in Colossae had faith in the Lord Jesus, and they had love for all the saints because of the hope that was laid up for them in the heavens.
In other words, this group of believers in Colossae had faith in the Lord Jesus. I think this is, of course, the most basic thing: they believed in the Lord Jesus. Because of their faith in the Lord Jesus, they had love for all the saints.
Not just some of the saints, you know. Our love usually is very selective. We love only those who are lovable. We love those who are near to us. We love those who may be of the same temperament as we are, or perhaps those who believe in the same doctrine or have the same experience as we do.
But here you find these people had faith in the Lord Jesus, and that faith produced in them a love for all the saints. This is brotherly love. They loved the saints not because they were simply suitable or agreeable to them. They loved the saints because they were the Lord’s. That is brotherly love: they loved all the saints.
Why did they have such faith in the Lord and such love for all the saints? Because they had a hope reserved for them in heaven: the hope of the heavenly inheritance—an inheritance that is incorruptible, indestructible, unfading, eternal, heavenly, and spiritual.
A heavenly inheritance was before them. So these brothers and sisters had faith, they had love, and they had hope. We remember Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, that great chapter. He concluded that chapter by saying that there are faith, hope, and love. These are the three most essential things.
The church in Colossae had all of them. Because they had faith, there was work. Because they had love, there was labor. Because there was hope, there was endurance. So the foundation of that little church was very firm and secure, even though the great apostle had never visited them.
You know, sometimes people say that there can be no church if there is no apostle. But here you find there was a living church with a firm foundation, and no apostle had ever visited them. It was the work of the Holy Spirit, the work of God—a firm foundation in that church.
Because of such a good foundation, we would think that certainly upon that foundation they would be able to be built up together into a beautiful testimony, the house of God. But, strange to say, even though they had such a good foundation and every reason to be built properly in the Lord, yet you find they had real problems.
Their problem was not because of a lack of love for the Lord, not because of a lack of zeal, and not because they were lazy or slow. On the contrary, their problem was caused by their zeal for the Lord and their desire to grow up.
They were so anxious to grow up into perfection, into maturity. Because they had such a desire to grow and such a desire for perfection and maturity, the enemy suddenly crept into their midst. Some people came into their midst and offered them an easy way, a quick way, to maturity and perfection.
We do not know today exactly what the Colossian heresy was. But from the letter itself, we can gather that some people came in and began to instruct them, teach them, and show them an almost instant way of perfection.
You know, dear brothers and sisters, among God’s people you find problems of different natures. Some people are saved and are the Lord’s, but they have no desire to go on. All they desire is that one day they will go to heaven, and that is good enough for them.
Even though it is not good enough for the Lord, they are quite content. They think that as long as they are saved, that is all that matters. They have no desire to really go on into perfection and maturity.
Probably the Corinthian believers were like that. They believed in the Lord, and yet they wanted to live their own lives and have a good time on earth, with the assurance that one day they would go to heaven. That is a problem with some believers.
But then you find, on the other hand, believers who are so anxious to grow up that they simply cannot wait. It is by faith and patience that we inherit, but they have no patience. They want to get there quickly.
Sure enough, you find the enemy will offer you something of an instant nature. Especially today, in this country, we have that mentality of instantness. Everything must be instant. We are so impatient.
Not only in our food are we impatient. We want instant rice, instant noodles, and instant coffee. Everything must be instant. Even that mentality is carried over into the spiritual realm. We want everything to be instant.
Not only is salvation instantaneous—and thank God for that—but we want to get the kingdom instantaneously. Everything has to be quick, instantaneous.
We are actually no different from the Colossian believers. Their desire to grow up was good. Their intention was good. But because of their over-anxiousness, they were open to the wiles of the enemy.
So some people, used by the enemy, came in and spread among them what we today call the Colossian heresy. Now, Colossian heresy is not a complete denial of Christ.
These people did not come in and say, “Now, do not believe in the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus cannot save you.” If people had come in that way, probably the Colossian believers would not have fallen into the trap, because they knew the Lord Jesus. They believed in the Lord Jesus, and they had experienced the Lord Jesus.
The heresy was not something that came in to deny the Lord completely, to take away the Lord completely, and substitute something else. In other words, they did not say, “You do not need Christ; you need Moses. If you have Moses, you have everything.”
If that had been the way they came in, certainly the Colossian believers would have been aware of it. No, these people who came in to deceive them did not deny Christ completely. They said, “You need Christ, but you need something more.”
In other words, Christ is not enough. You need Christ plus. If you have Christ plus something else, then you are perfect. Now, that is the subtlety of the enemy, brothers and sisters.
The end result is almost the same. If people come in and say, “You do not need Christ; you need Moses,” that takes away Christ. But if people come in and say, “You need Christ, but with Moses, then you will be complete,” even though they do not deny Christ, they take away Christ in great measure.
So the end result is the same. From the letter to the Colossians, you find that they tried to add something to Christ as the secret to what they called perfection.
What were the things they suggested should be added to Christ in order to make one perfect? There are a few things scattered throughout this letter. Number one, of course, is philosophy.
In the second chapter, you find that they came in with vain philosophy—deceitful, vain philosophy according to man, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ. Philosophy, wisdom: we want wisdom, but this was vain philosophy, deceitful philosophy.
In other words, it was a kind of philosophical speculation. People came and said, “There is a wisdom that cannot be known by all people. There is a wisdom reserved only for the elite few, and we have the secret.”
“You need to be initiated into that mystery, into that secret. If you have that secret, if you have that wisdom, then you are above all. You know everything. You know the secret of the universe. You know the secret of all things.”
Actually, it was a kind of philosophical speculation. They speculated that in the universe there was God, yes—but matter was evil. How could God create matter, because God was good?
So they speculated and said that God was at the very top of the universe, but there were emanations from God—something coming out from God. From stage to stage to stage, those things which emanated from God became lesser gods, lesser gods, lesser gods.
Because they were further and further from God Himself, the nature of God became less and less in them. Finally, there was a god who created the world, which was evil. That is speculation.
Instead of seeing that God created all things in His Son, they followed vain philosophy, a kind of Gnosticism—questioning the Creator and trying to explain with human reasonings, appealing to human rational and logical thought.
It feels logical to fallen men: a kind of philosophy trying to explain the secret of the universe according to the wisdom of man, not according to Christ. That was one addition.
Another addition was something from Jewish legalism. Here you find, “Do not touch. Do not taste. Keep the Sabbath and the new moon. Do not eat meat. Keep away from this and abstain from that.”
We know this had some background in Judaism. So, in other words, it was not only Gnosticism, as we see in vain and deceitful philosophy, but also a kind of legalism that came in through Judaism.
Circumcision: “You need to believe in the Lord Jesus, but you also need to be circumcised in order to be complete. You need to believe in the Lord Jesus, but you need to abstain from meat. There are certain things you should not touch and should not do. Then you are perfect.”
So you find it was something added to Christ: legalism.
Yet, at the same time, there was also a touch of asceticism. “Live an ascetic life. There are certain things from which you must refrain. You must put yourself under discipline. You must ill-treat your body.”
The whole background was that matter is evil. Therefore, this body is evil; and since this body is evil, you have to ill-treat it in order to overcome it. So a kind of asceticism began to creep into their practice.
Strangely enough, you find another addition: the worship of angels. It was a kind of false humility. “You cannot worship God directly. He is so transcendent. Therefore, you need to approach God step by step through different mediators.”
There you find this matter of angel worship brought in. As one commentator said, “According to the elements of the world,” at that time, referred to astrology. They believed in the stars, reading the stars, fortune-telling, and everything.
Astrology, mysticism—you find it was a combination of all kinds of things. Sometimes you think, “How can these things be put together?” They seem to be opposite to one another, and yet, strangely, they all come from the same source.
Because they all came from the same source, even though they appeared to be opposite, they came together when it came to that level of being against Christ.
So here you find the problem with the Colossian believers: they accepted a kind of Colossian heresy. It was a combination of Gnosticism and Judaism, expressed in so-called philosophy, philosophical speculation, asceticism, angel worship, astrology, and legalism.
All these were combined, and the result was that they were led away from Christ into something else.
In other words, their problem was that they failed to see Christ as He is. Because they did not see Christ as He is, they failed to hold fast the Head.
Brothers and sisters, I believe the message in this letter to the Colossians is one: Behold Christ, and hold fast the Head.
We need to see Christ. If we really see Him, then we will hold fast to Him as our Head.
Dear brothers and sisters, even though this letter was written about two thousand years ago, is it relevant to us today? Do we have the same problem today?
It is true that we may not have exactly the same heresy. We may not have the so-called Colossian heresy, and, after all, we do not even know exactly what that heresy was. We only know that it was a combination of all kinds of things.
But, dear brothers and sisters, do we not see that even today we have the same problem as the Colossian believers had?
With some Christians, their problem is more like the problem the Corinthian believers had. Among God’s people, there are some who really have no heart for the Lord. They are saved, thank God for that, but beyond that they have no desire to follow the Lord, seek the Lord, or do the Lord’s will.
They just want to live their own lives and have a good time on earth. Their problem is more of the Corinthian type.
But, thank God, among God’s people today there are many—not of you—who are of the Colossian type. We thank God that we have people who really desire to go on with the Lord.
But because of their over-anxiousness, they fall into some traps of the enemy. It may be legalism, which we find a great deal among believers today. It may be formalism or rituals. It may be mysticism, asceticism, intellectualism, or vain and deceitful philosophy.
Dear brothers and sisters, even today we are exposed to similar dangers. The enemy tries his best to take away Christ from us. If he cannot take away Christ from us completely, then he will try to blind us with something that, in essence, takes Christ away from us.
Christ plus. The suggestion is that Christ is not sufficient for us. In other words, Christ is made smaller than what He really is.
Brothers and sisters, consciously or unconsciously, are we making Christ lower than what He is? Do we really take Him as He is?
Or are our eyes being led away from Him? Even though in the beginning our eyes were upon Him, now perhaps our eyes are no longer upon Him. Our eyes are on something other than Him.
All the time, we may think it is simply to complete us or perfect us. We think we have not gone away from Christ, and yet, in actuality, we are involved in things, thoughts, concepts, and searches that are other than Christ Himself, instead of seeing that in Christ there is everything.
So I do believe that today Christians need to be reminded of this. I believe that the Holy Spirit longs to remind us: Behold Christ.
We need an enlarged vision of Christ. This enlarged vision of Christ is given in this very letter to the Colossians. If we really see Christ in our spirit as God sees Him, then, brothers and sisters, I think it is easy for us to hold fast the Head.
The reason why we do not hold fast the Head is because we do not see much of the Head. Therefore, we hold on to something else as our head. But if we can really see Christ, then it will be easy for us to hold fast the Head.
Now this evening, we would like to consider together just one thought concerning Christ: the fullness of Christ.
In this little letter to the Colossians, you find words such as “filled,” “full,” and “fullness.” This letter is a letter of fullness.
For instance, in the first chapter, in the prayer Paul prayed for the saints in verse 9, he said, “Do not cease praying and asking for you to the end that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of His will.”
The whole matter is one of being filled. It is not merely a question of whether you have Christ or do not have Christ. You have believed in Christ; you have Christ. But are you filled with Him?
It is not merely a matter of whether you have the knowledge of God’s will. You may have some knowledge of God’s will, but do you have the full knowledge of God’s will? It is a matter of being filled, full, having fullness, being fulfilled.
That is really at the back of this letter. It shows us in Colossians 1:19:
For in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell.
Here you find a statement—an eternal statement, a statement of eternal fact. The statement is this: In Christ all the fullness dwells.
In the original, there is not the phrase “of the Godhead” in this verse. In some versions, you may find it in parentheses. In other words, the original simply says that all the fullness dwells.
But we know that, even though “of the Godhead” is not there in the original of Colossians 1:19, it is there in Colossians 2:9:
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
So we know that, even in Colossians 1:19, when it says, “In Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,” that fullness refers to the fullness of the Godhead.
All the fullness of the Godhead, all the fullness of deity, was pleased to dwell in Him. It was the good pleasure of God to fill Christ with His fullness.
The word “dwells” means to settle, to abide, or, to put it in simple language, to make home. All the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to make its home in Christ.
Now, can you imagine what that fullness is?
Bishop Lightfoot comments on this, saying that the fullness of the Godhead names the totality of all the divine attributes, virtues, and energies.
Another great scholar says that the fullness of the Godhead is the glorious total of the divine—the glorious total of what God is.
And Robert Govett says that the fullness of the Godhead is the community—that is, the Father and the Spirit—pleased to reside in the Son.
So what is it? Here you find all the fullness of the Godhead: that is what God is. Whatever God is—not just something of God, but all of God, the totality of God, His attributes and His energies—everything, with nothing left out, resides in Christ.
Because all the fullness of the Godhead resides in Christ, Christ is the fullness of God. He is the fullness of God.
Brothers and sisters, we cannot imagine what that fullness is. From eternity to eternity, it is an eternal fact that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, in the Son.
But then you find in the second chapter, verse 9, that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. Why does it use the word “bodily”?
It conveys to us that even though all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in the Son, one day the Son came to this earth. The Son was incarnated. The Word became flesh. He became a man.
Even when He was a man, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily.
In one sense, it is true, as Philippians 2 tells us, that He, being equal with God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of a slave, even the likeness and fashion of a man.
That is true. But, dear brothers and sisters, do not make any mistake by thinking that when He emptied Himself, He emptied Himself of His deity. Not at all. Not at all.
He emptied Himself of the glory and the position and the honor connected with being the eternal Son in heaven, making Himself empty in order to become a humble man. But still, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him.
All the attributes of God, all the virtues of God, all the energies of God—the glorious total of what God is—the Father and the Spirit, all made their home in this Man called Jesus.
Why is it so important? Because immediately in verse 10 you find it said, “And ye are complete in Him.”
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him. He is the fullness of God. But because all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily, He has brought that fullness to earth.
Through His incarnation, His death, His burial, and His resurrection, He has made the fullness of the Godhead in Him available to us today.
Formerly, it was in Him, but now, through the work of His redemption, He has brought that fullness down to us. In other words, this fullness is available, open, and for us all. The Bible says that you are in Him made full.
This is why you find in Ephesians 1:22-23 that God has made Him Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all.
First you find Christ, the fullness of God. Then you find the church, the fullness of Christ. The fullness of God in Christ is now made available to His own church. Because of this, the church becomes the fullness of Christ.
Isn’t that wonderful, brothers and sisters? When we think of all the fullness of the Godhead in Christ, it is wonderful. Yet perhaps we think, “Well, it is wonderful, but what has it to do with us?”
We may think that we can only worship Him from afar because He is so wonderful. But, brothers and sisters, when you see that all the fullness of God dwells in Him bodily, and that He has brought the fullness to us, then in Him we are complete.
This is our position in Christ. If you are in Christ, then this is your portion. Whether you realize it or not, this is something we have to attain to in experience, but it is yours.
It does not say, “You shall be complete in Him.” So far as eternal truth is concerned, you are complete in Him. All the fullness of the Godhead in Christ is yours, and you are to express His fullness.
Of course, we need to possess our possession. We need to enter into and experience Him more and more until we become a glorious church, without wrinkle or any such thing, to be presented to Him as His bride.
But, dear brothers and sisters, this is what Christ is: the fullness of God. Everything you can think of God is in Him. He is in Him, and you are complete.
To put it negatively, outside of Him, God has nothing else to give. If you can find anything outside of Him, it is not of God. It is of man. It is of the world.
That is the answer. The answer to the Colossian heresy is Christ. Because everything is in Him, and you are complete in Him, why try to add something more and be diverted from Him?
Behold Christ, and hold fast the Head. If you hold fast the Head, then you will experience His fullness.
Now perhaps let us illustrate this a little. All we can do is illustrate, because who knows the fullness of God?
When the Apostle John wrote the Gospel of John, he ended by saying that what he had done was only to illustrate something of what Christ had done and said. If he were to write everything that Christ did during those three years or so, even the whole world could not contain the books.
Brothers and sisters, it is the same thing. We cannot describe or exhaust the fullness of the Godhead in Christ. Even in a message, you cannot exhaust Christ. We can only illustrate a little bit.
What are the attributes of God? Probably the first attribute of God is His eternity. The eternity of God is God’s attribute; that is God’s nature, what God is.
For instance, in Psalm 90, the psalm written by Moses—most probably after he led the children of Israel through the wilderness, when they came to the border of the promised land on the other side of the Jordan—he looked back through the years and wrote Psalm 90.
It is a beautiful psalm. In Psalm 90:2, he says:
From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.
From eternity to eternity, You are God. In other words, our God is the Eternal One. He has no beginning, and He has no end, because He is the beginning and He is the end, and He is all that is in between.
Our God is eternal. Because He is eternal, there is no change in Him. You cannot think of God as progressive, progressing from one level to a higher level. No. He is the same, eternally the same.
There is no shadow, no shade, no change—eternally the same. Because of this, He is perfect. Can you think of God as becoming perfected? No. That would take away eternity from Him.
The very attribute of God is that He is the eternal God. He is the same. In the Old Testament, one name of God is “the Same,” because He never changes. He is perfection. He is the great “I AM THAT I AM.” That is what God is.
Now look at Christ. In Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. In the letter to the Colossians, you find that all things are created in Him, by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things.
Before anything was, there He was: the eternal Son of God. This is a mystery. We do not know how to explain it, but we know from the Word of God that our Lord Jesus is the eternal Son of God.
Even when our Lord Jesus was on earth, you know what He said? He said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” They said, “You do not look fifty years old.” Actually, He was only thirty. There is the eternity of Christ.
Even when He was on earth as a man, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily. There is eternity in Him. Because of this, whatever He says is eternal, and whatever He does is eternal.
His cross is the eternal cross. His redemption is the eternal redemption that you find in the book of Hebrews. There is nothing with Christ that is passing away, fleeting, or temporal. No. Everything about Him is eternal.
That is why, when you come to the last chapter of Hebrews, it says that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That is the eternity of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, do we look for eternal life?
There is one verse in the Old Testament that says God created all things beautiful in their season, but He put eternity in the heart of man. In other words, in the heart of man there is a desire for eternity.
Even though we are created in this body of dust, I often say, “Dust we are, and to dust we return.” That is very logical, especially if that is all we know. But I do not believe that was God’s original design.
Even though this body is made of dust, God is going to transform it from mortality to immortality. Why is it from dust to dust? Because of sin. If there were no sin, it would not merely return to dust; the dust would be transformed into gold, silver, and precious stones.
So you find that in the heart of man there is always a longing for eternity. Even if you live to be one hundred years old, you still feel it is too short.
Is it not a tragedy when people begin to live for sixty or seventy years of age, begin to accumulate enough knowledge and experience in life, and then off they go? Life is cut off. Why? Because we know we are made not for time, but for eternity.
That is why people always have a longing to seek eternity. But where can you find eternity? There is no medicine that will give you eternity.
Qin Shi Huang, the emperor who unified ancient China, sought for a formula for eternal life. He was deceived by a politician by the name of Xu Fu, who went to Japan. Yet today, the tomb and burial place of that emperor have been excavated.
When he died, he had a whole army buried with him—not a whole army of people, but statues of a whole army. Where can you find eternity?
Brothers and sisters, you find it in Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily, and you are complete in Him.
He that hath the Son hath life.
He that believes in the Son has eternal life. O brothers and sisters, do you see that it is out of His fullness that we receive? His fullness becomes ours.
In the letter to the Colossians, you find that it is not only that He has given us eternal life, but that He is our life. In Colossians 3, Christ is our life.
O brothers and sisters, do not think of eternal life as something other than Christ. Do not even think of eternal life as a gift from Christ. Think of eternal life as Christ Himself being given to you.
Because Christ is your life, what you receive is not merely a gift of eternal life, an insurance policy for you to go to heaven. What you receive is a Person. It is Christ. This Christ is your life today and forever.
Many can testify that when they see Christ as their life, it transforms their whole life. Why? Because it is not a matter of “Do not touch, do not taste.” It is not a matter of “Keep away from this, keep away from that.” It is not a matter of circumcision, knowledge, or secret knowledge. It is a matter of Christ.
Christ is your life. What then? Let Christ live. You do not need to struggle and strain as if you had to make it. You will not make it. But Christ in you is the hope of glory.
Do you want glory? The glory is already there, but let Christ live. Step aside. You were dead with Him, buried with Him, raised with Him. No longer you; it is Christ Who lives in you.
He is your life. If He is your life, He is your all. He is everything. You are delivered from all these things other than Christ, as though those other things could make you perfect. You are complete.
Here is another illustration. When we think of God, immediately we think that He is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. In other words, He is all-wise, He is everywhere, and He is all-powerful. That is what God is.
I love Psalm 139. David wrote that psalm. We do not have time to go into it, but if you read that beautiful psalm, you will find these words:
Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising;
Thou understandest my thought afar off.
Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there:
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, Thou art there.
I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
Marvellous are Thy works;
And that my soul knoweth right well.
Here you find the omniscience of God: He knows everything. The omnipresence of God: He is everywhere. The omnipotence of God: He is all-powerful. These are the attributes of God, the fullness of God; and the fullness of God dwells in Christ bodily.
If you read the Gospel according to John, you find something very striking. It says that no one needed to tell Him anything, because He knew. Many believed in Him, but He would not commit Himself to them because He knew what was in them.
Our knowledge comes from information that we receive, but His knowledge is intuitive and direct. He knows. He searches the reins, and everything is naked before Him. He knows your very thoughts. When the disciples were thinking about something, the Lord knew.
He knows everything. He knows you and me more than we know ourselves. We do not know ourselves. Because of this, why not trust Him?
Another striking saying of the Lord is found in John 3. He said that no one has ascended to heaven but He Who came from heaven, and even while on earth, He was in heaven. He is everywhere.
Even though, in one sense, being in this body, when He was in Judea He was not in Galilee, yet in another sense He was everywhere. After His resurrection He said, “Lo, I am with you always.” Why? Because of the presence of the Lord with you. He is with you. He is everywhere. He is all-powerful.
There is nothing impossible. Dear brothers and sisters, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily, and you are complete in Him.
His all-wisdom is today to be made manifest to the principalities and authorities through the church. His power is today to be made perfect in our weakness. He said, “Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” We are complete in Him.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we realize His omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, then our life will be very different—individually and collectively.
We will not try to flee away from Him. We will not try to hide anything from Him. We will be very open and honest with Him because He knows anyway. Then we will trust Him more.
We will learn to live by faith and not by feeling or by sight. We are complete in Him.
Perhaps one more illustration, and then I will stop, because I have talked too much.
You cannot think of God without thinking of love and light. God is love. God is light.
God loves not because of something outside of Him that makes Him love. God loves because He is love. He cannot help but love. Everything He does is because of love.
The Old Testament God is the same God as you find in the New Testament. Some people think that the Old Testament God is a God of vengeance, while the New Testament God is a God of love. That is not right. That is not true. God is the same.
Even in judgment, it is love. In love, He judges, because He loves His age. Love.
Look at Christ, brothers and sisters. We remember John 3:16:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
But do we remember 1 John 3:16?
Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us.
Christ is love. The fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily, and we are complete in Him.
Now, brothers and sisters, we do not have love. Do not think that you have love. Our problem is that we think we love. That is our problem. That was Peter’s problem. He thought he loved the Lord so much that he was willing to die with the Lord. Well, wait until he met that little maid.
Then he discovered that he had no love. But, brothers and sisters, that does not mean that because we do not have love, we cannot love. No, we can love because we do have love. Why? Because Christ is love.
He in you is love. If only you look to Him, you will be able to love those whom you cannot love. That is why He commands us to love one another as He has loved us.
Our love is very selective. We choose whom we love. But you find that He loves us. Therefore, let us love one another.
God is light. In Him there is no darkness at all. When the Lord was on earth, He said, “I am the light of the world. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness.”
O brothers and sisters, what a transparent life our Lord Jesus lived, because He is all light. There is no darkness, no shadow, no shade.
If we try to live by ourselves, brothers and sisters, there are so many shadows and so much darkness. But in Him, you are complete.
In Him, we are able to live a life that shines, so that the radiance of the gospel of Jesus Christ will not be hindered by us.
So you find how wonderful it is when you discover what a Christ we have. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily, and we are complete in Him.
Brothers and sisters, if only the Colossian believers had seen this, they would have had no need of vain philosophy, asceticism, legalism, angel worship, or mysticism. They did not need all these things.
Brothers and sisters, do we know these things? We do not. We do not. The problem with us today is that we have lost sight of Christ.
O, that we may be filled with a vision of Christ and see that God has made Him Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all. In Christ, that is true.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee because it is Thy good pleasure to put all the fullness that Thou art into Thy Son.
This is not only true in eternity past, but it is true even today, because Thy fullness does dwell in Him bodily. O, how we praise and thank Thee that, because this is true of the eternal God, it is always true.
Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that it is not only true in Him, but through Him it is true in us. O, may it become truer and truer to us.
We pray that Thou wilt fix our gaze upon Thy Son, that we may find in Him all sufficiency; that we will not go away from Him; that we may not be found seeking or being filled with things other than God Himself.
O Lord, all we need is Thyself, and to Thee we return, in the name of our Lord Jesus.