Colossians 1:19 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Colossians 1:19

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What fullness does Paul mean? All the fullness of God dwells in Christ, and here is a great mystery. Various passages of Scripture tell us that we can be filled with the fullness of Christ, but whatever can that mean? If Christ is God and has all fullness, can we be filled with his divinity? Obviously not. But we can be filled with him, influenced by him, grow up in him. If you have got food and shelter and clothing and companionship, there are many people who will say, you have got all that you need. But food, and clothing and shelter and companionship? That is nothing like all that you need. That is all that you need to exist as an animal. It is not all you need to exist as a human being. In Christ you have all fullness. It means completion. You are fully equipped. Your soul is alive and functioning. You are related to God. You have a friend in heaven, you have help from on high. He has illuminated your mind and given you the ability to understand his word, the Scripture, his explanation of why everything is as it is, and who you are, and where you are going. You have got the complete context. Christ is all fullness, he has the power to give life, the power to renew, the power to cause you to be born again, the power to forgive because he has suffered and died to bear the punishment personally of sin for all who come to him. He has the power to give eternal life. These are tremendous words. This passage is about the greatness and the glory and the magnificence of the God-man, Christ Jesus.This, of course, does not mean that the Father was pleased to give to the Son the divine attributes. That is impossible for he already had them – then what does it mean? They are united entirely of the same divine essence, equal in every sense, so in the Godhead one does not say to the other, ‘Well, I’m happy that you should have all knowledge’ or ‘I’m happy that you should have all power.’ It means that it is the will of the Father that the Son of God who already possessed all the attributes of God should be incarnate, should be made flesh. He is in perfect agreement that Christ should create all things, that should be the head of the church, that he should be the member of the Godhead who will finally bring everyone into judgement, that he should bring a vast host of people under his rule, that he should then judge and deal with all those who remain disobedient to him, that he should take the world and destroy it and re-fashion it to his own taste and make it beautiful for the eternal habitation of believers, recreating all things. Now, when it comes to the roles which the members of the Godhead take up – yes, it is the Father’s pleasure that he, as the divine Father equal to the Son, should stand back and let the Lordship of the Church, the creation of the world, the salvation of souls be the prerogative of the Son.

Application

Do we personally know people in the government? Do we know members of the royal family? Do we know people who are supposed to be high and lifted up? No, not many of us know such people. But we know the one we know is the Creator of all worlds, the sustainer of everything, even those who are against him, the one who knows the precise moment he will return. That is the one we know, and he will strengthen us with power for every need.

When pope John Paul II died people queued up to have some part in the death of this man, to weep and mourn. Already they were calling him the John Paul the Great. We saw the pageantry and the spectacle and the finery on display. We saw Rome taken over by the ceremony, the different ranks of clergy, the decorations; we saw the lavish gold within the buildings, the air laden with all the different odours of Roman celebration and ceremony, and the deep scarlet of the cardinals’ hassocks. This was the image of Christianity which is being projected throughout the world, something visible – a man, not Christ, who was given the pre-eminence, human art and human wonders all mixed up with it. Here was a great power structure which the fleshly mind of man could respect: mysterious ritual which will satisfy the aesthetic desires of man and yet will remain vague so that he can actually think almost what he likes, as a substitute for a real heart relationship with almighty God. A means of disposing of sin without actually ever having to give it up: that is one description given of the Church of Rome. But Christ alone is head of the church; he alone has the pre-eminence. The headship of Christ refers to his authority and also to the access we have to him. The connection between Christ and his church is not that of a dizzy and remote monarch, but it is a head connected to the body. An intimate, working, hourly, complete organic connection. When we are reconciled to God through Christ, we have union and communion with Christ.

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Colossians 1:19 Commentary and Bible Study