Good morning. I would like to ask you to turn with me to Colossians. These are verses I think you all know, but just a few verses I would like us to consider this morning: Colossians 1:18-19.
Speaking of the Lord Jesus:
And He is the head of the body, the assembly;
Who is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead,
That He might have first place in all things.
For in Him all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell.
For in Him all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell.
Then in Colossians 2:9-10, again speaking of our Lord Jesus:
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
And ye are complete in Him,
Who is the head of all principality and authority.
Sounds familiar, does it not? For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him, Who is the head of all principality and authority.
Finally, in Colossians 3:11, the last part of the verse:
But Christ is everything, and in all.
Or, as it reads in the Authorized Version:
But Christ is all, and in all.
Let us pray.
Lord, we know, first of all, when we come to Your Word, that Your Word is inspired. We know that when we come to Your Word, we are utterly and absolutely dependent upon the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our heart. We are not able to communicate the living things of Christ apart from the Holy Spirit.
Our desire and passion this morning is that the Lord Jesus would be lifted up and revealed, and that somehow the eyes of our heart and the eyes of our understanding would be opened. In a transforming way, may we behold together the Lord Jesus.
If that happens, Lord, then we are pleased. But more importantly, we believe You are pleased. We ask this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Some months ago, these verses from Colossians seemed to begin to impress me, by the Holy Spirit, with their magnitude. If you think about it, think how large these verses are: “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.” That is a huge, huge dimension.
I am not sure how else we can explain it, but as I meditated, considered, and thought about these verses—the one in chapter 1, the twin verse in chapter 2, and the verse in chapter 3—it seemed the Holy Spirit had one impression for my heart. That singular impression was this: the immeasurable fullness of our precious Lord Jesus.
Now, if you need a title, brother, that is the title. You can shorten it: The Immeasurable Fullness. That is what we want to talk about today.
It says extraordinary things: that in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Just think of that.
And you know, Jonathan—where is Jonathan? Is Jonathan forward here today? I have to be careful; he corrected me last week. I am so tempted to say something, but I will resist with every fiber of my being.
In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Think of the magnitude. Think of the fullness. Think of the immeasurable fullness that is captured in that verse. I think that is astounding.
But then there is another part of that verse in chapter 2: “And ye are complete in Him.” Think of that. Sometimes, when we think of such grand things, all we think about is what is in the Lord Jesus.
But it appears to me that the Holy Spirit has a marvelous message for us in this verse. Not only is everything that is in Christ Jesus absolutely true and immeasurable—all the fullness of God—but that is to be communicated to us. We discover all of our wholeness, if you will, in Christ Jesus. That is the message of the gospel.
And ye are complete in Him. You think of it: every human being—I do not care whether you live here or in Afghanistan—every human being is looking for completeness. Every one of us.
You know, when you meet somebody and think they sort of have it all together, whatever that means, you say, “They are a whole person. They are complete.”
But do you know, brothers and sisters, for us—for those of us who believe in the Lord Jesus—our completeness is in Him. Not only is our completeness in Him, but God, in His mercy and wonder, has released to us as the people of God all the fullness of the Godhead. That is incredible.
That is incredible. Sometimes people always say, “Woe is me, woe is me. I am so little. I am so insignificant. I do not mean anything.” But when it comes to the Godhead, all the fullness that is in the Lord Jesus has been brought to us, and we can discover that fullness and be complete in Him.
To me, that is astounding. What a measure.
Now, actually, when you consider the book of Colossians, you discover that this letter was written because of a great problem in the church. Some people think that when they discover the church has problems, they have really discovered something. That amazes me.
Do you know that every letter in the New Testament, with the exception of Romans, was written to address a problem in the church? Do you know that? To me, that is amazing.
People say, “Oh, the church has problems.” Well, go figure. You are in the church. I am in the church. Surely we have problems.
But we never focus on problems. What the apostle said here was very clear: the whole issue in addressing that great problem in the church was to see the Lord Jesus.
If we see the immeasurable fullness that is in the Lord Jesus, and if, by the grace of God and through the work of the Holy Spirit, we discover that fullness, come into that fullness, and realize our completeness in Christ Jesus, then the problems disappear. Is that not marvelous?
It was a great problem in the church. Heresy was being preached in the church—heresy of the worst kind. Terrible heresy, which derailed Christianity.
But in response to that problem, the Lord Jesus was lifted up in all His fullness, and a discovery of that infinite Christ solves the issue. To me, that is the message behind Colossians.
When you look at the other letters, it is amazing to me. In Corinthians, look at the problems. Just read Corinthians.
You know, the kids say—oh, the young people say, excuse me; I apologize. I will offend anyone in this day of political correctness. You have to be real careful not to offend anyone. But the kids say, “He rules.” You know, I think I am beginning to understand what “rules” means. I think it is a good thing, right?
Well, when you go to Corinthians, flesh rules. Have you ever seen such a mess? My goodness, what a mess. A son having his father’s wife; flesh abounding; what disorder in their meetings together. It is incredible.
When you go to Galatians, something was being brought in to change the very nature of Christianity. If that problem, brought into the church from Judaism, was set into the Christian life, it would forever have changed the nature of the gospel.
Then the apostle Paul, in his wisdom, set the record straight in three little phrases:
That is Christianity—not what we do, not what we are. Huge problem.
When you think of Ephesians, people say, “Well, Ephesians does not have any problems.” But apparently it did. There is no other explanation to me for the way that book ends.
When you look at Ephesians 6 and that great warfare spoken about there, it seems to me that what they are saying is this: the full counsel of God brings you into the worst of all warfare. You will experience warfare. That is Ephesians.
Look in Philippians. There were two of the most spiritual sisters in the church, and they could not get along. Sometimes I think we need the Rodney King philosophy in the church: “Can we all just get along?”
The two most spiritual sisters almost wrecked the church. But the church does not have problems? Oh, excuse me. You understand the point. You get it.
In Colossians, it was the most horrible heresy. It was not just, “You believe the rapture will happen here, and I believe the rapture will happen there.” It was not just, “You believe so many people will be in the kingdom, and I believe all the people will be in the kingdom.”
It was not like that. It was the worst kind of heresy. It touched the very Person of the Lord Jesus. It touched the nature of the only begotten Son. It was the worst kind of heresy.
But these problems all became opportunities to discover a more infinite Christ. Brothers and sisters, here is the point, in case you did not get it: all of our problems are opportunities so that we might discover a more infinite Christ.
Do you think the Christian life is problem-free? It will never be. Do you think the church is problem-free? It will never be.
But in the midst of those problems, there is an opportunity to discover the fullness that is in the Lord Jesus, and even to enter into the fullness that is in the Lord Jesus, where we can understand and apprehend absolute wholeness.
That is the message of this book of Colossians.
Look at Thessalonians. My goodness—and I know you are not supposed to say that; we do not have any—but my goodness, look at Thessalonians. They had people who refused to work. Very good reason: they were waiting for the coming of the Lord.
They believed the Lord was coming back, and they refused to work. The apostle Paul had to write a letter to address this problem. He said, “If you do not work, you do not eat.” They had problems.
It seems to me that in Timothy and Titus, the apostle Paul was addressing these young ones on how to help the church with all of its problems. That was their mission. That was what he helped them with.
It seems to me that when you go to Philemon, this beloved brother, who had a slave, was being helped with his problem: to receive Onesimus with a right spirit and not exclude him.
When you come to Hebrews, brothers and sisters, had what was fought or dealt with in Hebrews happened, Christianity would have forever been changed. It would have been turned back, and the clock would have been turned back to the old covenant.
All we would have been left with is tradition, outward service, and outward conformity. The singular message brought to the church of the living God was this: Christ is better. The singular message.
The church had problems. I hope I am not boring you. Go to James. Look at James; read the book of James.
Oh, I tell you, there is a problem in James. It is always called the tongue. Oh, my. Be careful. There is a problem: that most wicked, unruly little element in all our body. James had to address it.
When you go to Peter, the saints were suffering great persecution. Discouraged, he called them to remember what they had been called to, and thereby encouraged the flock.
When you go to John, already in the letters of John—the three epistles—there was a falling away. John, that great apostle, brought them back to the beginning. He brought them back to the first thing, and he reminded them that the greatest of all things to do is to love one another.
The church has problems. I hope I am making this clear.
Jude is amazing. Jude is amazing. Apostasy was in the church. Go figure.
I do not know about you, but if it were me, I would say, “Lord, be done with these groups. You need to begin again. They have missed the boat. You need to start all over. They have not measured up.”
But the Lord, in His mercy, never does that. Read the letters.
I will just mention this last as I move from this introduction. Read the letters to the seven churches in Revelation. Now, Jim always tells us we have to sneak in Revelation here, so I am filling the bill, brother.
But, I mean, the condition of the churches in the letters of Revelation: Ephesus left their first love. Unbelievable. Thank God He was not done with them.
Smyrna had great sufferings in the church of God. Pergamum—Satan was there. Can you imagine? Can you imagine saying, “Satan is there”? But that is what the Lord said of the church in Pergamum.
When you look at Thyatira, good grief. The woman Jezebel was there, teaching and leading servants astray to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols. Unbelievable. You would think that could not be the church. It is impossible. But it is the church.
Then you read in Sardis, “You have a name that you are living, but you are dead.” Think of it. Most of us would say, “That church is dead. It is not the church.” But the Lord says, “You have a name that you are living, but you are dead.” Do you understand?
Oh, I think that is very significant for us, brothers and sisters. Philadelphia had a little power. Laodicea was lukewarm: “Would that you were cold or hot.”
I hope you understand. Not once did the Lord say, “Go.” Not once.
Brothers and sisters, if we are the church, we will have problems. The good news is that in the midst of the problems, the Lord, in His mercy, is trying to bring us into an enlarged Christ.
If we are able to discover that fullness that is in the Lord Jesus, then we can be enlarged, and then we will be complete. Oh, I hope you understand that. I do not see it any other way.
All through the New Testament, God is bringing us out and bringing us in, and solving all our problems by seeing the Lord Jesus.
Now, the specific problem—let me just mention it, and then we will get into the three things I want us to look at. The specific problem, I think Lightfoot called it “the Colossian heresy.” He was probably the one who coined that phrase.
Jack, you shared on this one time, and I cannot do it. I think it was you, on your sort of Star Wars rendition of what the Colossian heresy was—or Star Trek. Yes, so Gnosticism and the big-head thing. I remember that big-head thing you did. Maybe you want to do that again.
But this heresy, which would have changed the nature of the Christian life, had a twofold error. The first error was Gnosticism.
Now, most of us do not even know what Gnosticism is. But Gnosticism simply is a special knowledge. It says that God, who is holy—there is some truth to it; there is always some truth to error—the truth is that God is holy. Absolutely, He is holy. We all agree God is holy.
But then it says, because God is holy, He cannot touch matter, because matter is evil. That was the problem.
Therefore, they said that we cannot really have any direct relationship with God because we are in matter. We are down here, where the earth is evil, and God, who is holy and exalted, cannot touch that.
So they thought the only way we can have a relationship with God is through a series of emanations. Now, I do not know if you understand what emanations are, but it is a series of emanations: God, the holy God, ever distancing Himself, until finally He comes to us in the form of an angel.
Then we can have some relationship with Him through intermediaries and through angels. That is Gnosticism. It perverts the relationship.
Do you understand, brothers and sisters? The message of Colossians is that we can have a direct, full, complete relationship with the Lord Jesus—no intermediary whatsoever between us. We can come into His fullness and know Who He is.
That was a huge error. Then there is the Judaistic side of that error. They said, you remember from the book, “Touch not, taste not.” It was all this outward conformity in the way of religion to the things of God.
Brothers and sisters, our relationship is in Christ Jesus, and it is full. Our relationship and our religion come from Christ being in us. It is not conforming to outward things. It is not, “Do this, do that.” It is not, “Do not do this. Do not do that.”
Some people—that is their understanding of the Christian life. It boils down to religion.
Dear saints, it seems to me the key to the Christian life is Christ in us, living out His fullness. I hope that is understandable.
So that is the error they seemed to address. The way the apostle addressed this error was to unveil the immeasurable fullness of the Lord Jesus.
I have said this before. Some of you are probably bored to death with it. But it seems to me that if we get a sight—a glimpse—if we can see the Lord Jesus in a new and living way, all our problems are solved.
I remember recently having the privilege of being at a meal with Brother Stephen. I will never forget. There were a few of us there. Sandy was there, and I remember the Blanchards were there. It was one of those rare opportunities when Stephen opened his heart.
All these years I had known that dear brother, I had never heard him open his heart like that. He told us a story. He said that when he was delivered from the communist regime, and when finally, by the grace of God and the work of miracles, he was brought into India, he went to a dear sister’s home, where the Lord used her to receive the saints.
There, as he was before the Lord, he discovered the infinity of Christ. And that changed him. That changed his life.
Oh, saints, to me, that is the clear message of Colossians. What we need to discover is the infinity of Christ.
I will never forget that moment. Brothers and sisters, I thought I was looking into that man’s soul. I thought I was finally seeing what moved him, what motivated him, what filled him. He saw the infinity of Christ.
In Him is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. What do you think we need to see?
That seems to me to be what the apostle has on his heart. As you read this letter, turn with me to the first chapter of Colossians. You discover that the word on the apostle’s heart is fullness.
One of the great Bible teachers of all time, Graham Scroggie, said that the key word to understanding the book of Colossians is a singular word, and that word is fullness. Miss that word, and you miss the whole understanding of what this letter is about. This whole letter has to do with that singular word: fullness.
If you begin in Colossians 1:9, you discover Paul’s prayer. He says:
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 long-suffering with joy.
Now, that phrase, “to the end that,” occurs in the book of Colossians at least four or five times—or the phrase translated “to the end that.” You should notice things like that when you read the Word of God. They are markers.
It is something like going down the road and disobeying all the speed-limit signs. You will get in trouble; I guarantee you. Just try it. If you ignore every sign, you will miss it, and you will surely get in trouble.
This is one of those little markers: “to the end that.” And he says, “To the end that you may be filled.” That is the thought here in Colossians 1.
In Colossians 1:27, look at the second part:
Christ in you, the mystery hidden from the ages, Christ in you, the hope of glory; Whom we announce, admonishing every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ.
That is complete. To the end that—the burden of the apostle was that we would enter into completion.
Look at Colossians 2:1-2:
For I would have you know what combat I have for you, and for those in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, to the end that their hearts may be encouraged, being united together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.
You get that picture. Fullness is the burden. Not only was it his prayer; it was his burden that every man be presented complete in Christ. It was his burden that they would enter into the full knowledge of Christ, not a partial knowledge—that infinity of Christ.
Well, I will read you one more “to the end that.” Turn to Colossians 4:12. Pay attention to these things:
Epaphras, who is one of you, the bondman of Christ Jesus, salutes you, always combating earnestly for you in prayers, to the end that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
Now, does the apostle have a burden for them? It seems to me that the apostle’s burden for them is fullness, and for them to be a complete people.
God has destined us for fullness. Is that not grand? Think of it. Sometimes we think like the woman at the table with the Lord, and we say, “Lord, if You can only give us a crumb off the Master’s table, that would be enough.”
Brothers and sisters, what He has for you is all the fullness of the Godhead. That is glorious.
It seems to me there are three ways that Colossians expresses this immeasurable fullness. Let us turn back to our text verse. There seem to be three ways, and this is what we will concentrate on.
First of all, it says, “All the fullness of the Godhead.” Now, again, if you can just for a moment free up your mind from all the things that are troubling you right now, and think of the magnitude of that verse: all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him.
If that was not enough, He says it again—essentially the same thing—in Colossians 2:9-10: all the fullness.
Now, all might be a little word, but here it has profound meaning.
I remember just recently—some of you may not have heard this story; it may bore some of you. Everybody has heard of shrink-swell problems, I think. But there was a huge problem, speaking of problems being solved, in the building industry.
Jonathan, being a—we call them dirt engineers, by the way, because that is what they deal with; nothing personal—will know what I mean. These guys refer to themselves as dirt engineers.
They took stuff called fly ash, which is a byproduct of the power industry—Carter has all of it you could ever want; just ask him—and they put it in the soils under buildings as part of the fill to build new buildings on.
I do not know if you know this, but brand-new whole buildings have had to be completely destroyed because of that fatal error. Home Depot—is it Home Depot? A brand-new Home Depot, shiny and orange, built with all the stuff on the shelves, and they discovered the darn thing was built on fly ash.
The problem was that the slabs were doing a dance. They would heave up and heave down, and heave up and heave down. It created a huge problem.
We were involved in a number of these investigations. I will never forget recently—we are still involved with one—they actually tried to save some of these buildings. As you know, Home Depot was completely razed: a brand-new building, thousands of dollars, just level the thing. What a problem.
We were trying to save some apartments, and they said in the specifications, “All fly ash shall be removed.” Well, that did not leave much leeway.
But in our wisdom, one of my partners said he was under the building and saw a quarter inch of fly ash. Now, just between me and you, okay? There is no way a quarter inch of fly ash will do anything to your building. You can sleep assured. I guarantee you.
So we made the decision, wrong as it was: you did not have to remove it. And this other engineer comes along and says, “What part of all do you not understand?”
Well, we said, “You are right. All is all.” So the dirt engineers had to get under there and figure out a way to remove a quarter inch of fly ash.
This is the point: all means everything.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in the Lord Jesus. Can you think of the magnitude? It is just enormous.
Sometimes—you may not appreciate where my mind goes—but sometimes, you know, Carl Sagan said, “Billions and billions.” Think of the magnitude of the Lord Jesus: all the fullness of the Godhead.
It does not say some. It does not say most. It does not say a third. Now, if you and I were writing the book of Colossians, we would say a third. It is a triune God.
A third of it goes to the Father, a third of it goes to the Son, and a third of it goes to the Lord Jesus. That is enough. But here it says all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in the Lord Jesus. That is amazing to me.
He is the source of everything. He is the repository of everything. All the fullness is in Him.
I have spent my career, as short as it is, trying to quantify things. I think that is all I do: just quantify things, the magnitude of things.
You know, engineers are basically boring people. That is all we do: add and subtract, and sometimes a little higher math. But we quantify things. We have a measure for everything. It might be a pound. It might be a meter. It might be a hectopascal. It might be a coulomb. It might be a newton-meter. Good grief, it could be anything.
But we, in our wisdom, have a measurement for everything. But how can you measure all the fullness of the Godhead? Have you thought about it? It seems enormous to me.
I love that hymn, “The Love of God.” We sing this hymn:
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
Or were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure,
The saints’ and angels’ song.
If this one aspect of God is measureless, think of all the fullness of the Godhead. It is extraordinary. It is in the Lord Jesus.
May we see the infinity of Christ.
Not that long ago, I took an economics course. Some people say economics; some people say economics. You will forgive me. I am not sure whether it is tomato or tomato, but it is one or the other.
There is a fixed rule in the study of economics: economics is the science of what nations do with limited resources. We do not think of it that way, do we? We think of it as what a nation does with wealth.
It does not have to do with what nations do with wealth. It has to do with what they do with limited resources. Believe it or not, even in this great nation, we have limited resources. Ask every state employee in this room. The governor just told them that.
Terrible decision. Oh, that is where we can get political. But you will forgive me: limited resources.
But when it comes to God’s economy, it is unlimited. There is no limitation. It is absolute fullness.
How did one brother put it? He said, “Fathomlessly, an infinite sky.” Dear friends, that is what is in the Lord Jesus.
The second point you discover is that it says absolutely clearly: it is in Him. Do not ever forget that.
So often, our problem as Christians, and our problem in the church, is that we are looking in the wrong hole. You understand? We are looking in the wrong place.
It is not in you. It is not in me. It is in Him. The Word of God makes that absolutely clear. All our focus, all our attention, all our sight should be upon Him.
In Him—what two marvelous words: in Him.
Not only that, as we read this, we begin to understand that it permanently dwells in Him. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in the Lord Jesus.
Now, that word dwells does not mean merely a temporary state or temporary condition. It means the permanent abode is in the Lord Jesus.
You do not have to worry that all of a sudden next year God is going to change the standard and you have to look somewhere else. All of a sudden, next year, you will say, “Oh well, this is where the fullness is.”
In the Old Testament, God’s glory dwelt temporarily in the tabernacle in the wilderness. In the temple of Solomon, God’s glory dwelt temporarily.
But when it comes to the New Testament, there is a fixed abode. He is all we need.
Oh, what a song: “He’s all we need. Jesus is all we need.” How true. How true when you make that discovery.
All the fullness of the Godhead is in the Lord Jesus.
You remember the story in Luke 8:43-48, that woman with an issue of blood. You remember she had spent all her living. You remember that? All her living.
She thought that if only she could touch the hem of His garment, she would be whole. And sure enough, this lady had light. I do not know what you think of her in her problem, but this lady had light.
Then the Lord Jesus’ response to her was:
Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole.
You are complete. When you touch the Lord Jesus, you are complete. You cannot explain it; it takes revelation. But you know, the moment you touch the Lord Jesus—even if it may be just the hem of His garment—when you touch Him, you discover you are complete in Him.
That is the story of the woman with the issue of blood. Oh, it permanently dwells in the Lord Jesus. You never need to look anywhere else. He is all we need.
Now, there is a second phrase used in the book of Colossians. These last two are considerably shorter, but if you miss them, you really miss the importance.
There is this phrase in Colossians and elsewhere in the Bible: all things. That is a very important phrase.
We read over it as though these are just filler words, like something with stuffing in a pillow to make it full, or to fill out a paragraph. I am not sure I even understand what a paragraph is.
But they are not filler words, dear brothers and sisters. This is what the Holy Spirit is trying to communicate: that all things are in the Lord Jesus.
Turn with me. I will show you a few places of how important this is. This is not just a figure of speech.
Colossians 1:15. This is speaking of the Lord Jesus. This is said by some to be the grandest explanation of Christ in the whole Bible:
Who is the image of the invisible God,
Firstborn of all creation;
Because by Him were created all things,
The things in the heavens and the things upon the earth,
The visible and the invisible,
Whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or authorities;
All things have been created by Him and for Him.
And He is before all, 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.
Brothers and sisters, you need to notice these phrases. This is the way the Holy Spirit shows us the immeasurable fullness that is in our precious Lord.
And by Him, Colossians 1:20:
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.
All things have been created for Him and by Him. He is before all things. By Him all things consist; they hold together. Everything has its meaning in the Lord Jesus.
Now, saints, this is not just an isolated place. Look at Romans 11:36:
For of Him, and through Him, and unto Him, are all things.
To Him be the glory for ever. Amen.
Ephesians 1:10 says:
Which He purposed in Himself for the administration of the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth—in Him.
All things. Brothers and sisters, sum up all things in Christ. I think our problem is that we see too many things. What we need to see more is one thing.
I do not know how to explain this. Maybe I will attempt again. Some people are afraid of calculus. I can understand that. They said Winston Churchill, as he went to take his college entrance exams, called calculus “the theory dragon.” He dreaded it.
But it is really quite simple. This is why people go into literature for their major, I will tell you. But it is really quite simple. It is only two things. It either means something very small or something very big.
That is all it means. You need to differentiate a differential, or you sum up—you integrate. Does that make sense to anybody?
You either have something real small, delta D, almost so small you cannot even see it, or you have something very big that means the sum of all things.
There is this wonderful symbol in integration. It is just a lazy S, you know; it is just a smooth S. You put down at the bottom, maybe zero. That means you are going to sum up everything from zero. Sometimes you put up at the top infinity, and it means you are going to sum up all things from zero to infinity.
The end of that integral is the sum of all things. Now, I hope that illustration helps.
Christ is the integrand. Christ is the integral of God. Christ is the sum of all spiritual things. It is God’s eternal purpose to sum up all things in Christ.
Christ. Oh, saints, do we see the infinity of the Lord Jesus? Has it gripped us?
If it has not, all you are going to see is problems. If it has not gotten hold of you, all you are going to see is flaws. But if you see the infinity of the Lord Jesus, it will transform your life. Let me tell you this: it will transform my life.
He is the sum of all things. We have nowhere else to look. We have nowhere else we need to go.
The reason, brothers and sisters, this is so utterly important is because, as Christians, we have a tendency to look for things. You know that. We are looking for joy. We are looking for good things, Christian things: peace, righteousness, holiness.
A sister read the other night in the prayer meeting about the fruits—she quoted with prayer—the fruits of the Spirit. There is no such thing as the fruits of the Spirit. It is the fruit of the Spirit.
Do you understand the difference? It is singular. It is Christ. It is in Him. Everything is summed up in Him. That is the infinite Christ.
May the Lord help us so that we will not just seek things. Oh, I think David knew this secret. David said in Psalm 27:4:
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
One thing.
Mary—you remember Mary? You remember the story of Mary and Martha? Martha said, “Lord, get Mary to help.” That was the new something version: “Get Mary to get off of her guff and help me.”
She was busy about much service. The Lord Jesus corrected dear Martha. She was serving with all her heart; service is not wrong. But He said, “Martha, Mary has chosen the one thing. It will never be taken from her.”
That is the message of Colossians. Oh, do we know the one thing?
The final phrase used in the book of Colossians comes from chapter 3:
Christ is everything.
That is extraordinary. Not only is all the fullness of the Godhead in Christ Jesus, not only do all things get summed up in Christ Jesus, but Christ is all and in all.
When you read this verse, at least in my version, it says, “Christ is everything.” That is amazing.
Oh, brothers and sisters, it would be good news if all of us discovered this singular fact: that Christ is everything. It would be liberating if we discovered Christ is everything.
This is a single discovery that will transform our Christian life and make us different.
I remember a story. I will end with this. It was of a dear old lady. She was a great saint of God. She loved the Lord with all her heart. She memorized almost the whole New Testament. That is quite a feat.
Christian, very often when he speaks, says, “How many of you have memorized the whole book?” She memorized almost the whole New Testament.
As she advanced in years—something I am getting very sympathetic to—she began to forget. She could not retain all that she remembered.
But this thing held in her heart, and she said:
I know Whom I have believed,
And am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
She remembered it.
Slowly, years took their toll, and she seemed to forget almost all of that. She would say often, “That which I have committed to Him.” She said it over and over: “That which I have committed to Him.”
This dear old lady, in her passing into glory, was on her deathbed. The family saw her lips moving. They did not know; they thought maybe she surely had a need, a problem. Maybe they could help her.
So they knelt down. They got as close to her as they could. And she said one word—all she retained. She said it over and over and over.
She said, “Him. Him. Him.” She kept repeating it.
You would say, “Poor woman.” I would say, “Blessed woman.”
At the end of her life, her hands were filled with one thing—nothing else. Do you get it?
I do not know what you think of all our problems. I am certain of this one thing: they are meant for good, that we could discover the infinity of Christ.
If you make that discovery, you have made the most precious discovery in the whole of the Scriptures. You will be like that dear lady when she went into the presence of God with one thing on her lips: “Him.”
Lord, we come to You. We are people in great need; we know that. But, Lord, we believe that our need is surely met in a discovery of the infinite, immeasurable Christ.
Everything else says nothing. All things are summed up in Christ. Christ is everything.
Lord, the prayer we offer to You is that You would open the eyes of our heart, that we would see Jesus, that we would behold the Lord Jesus in a full and fresh way.
Lord, that is our prayer. In Jesus’ name. Amen.