For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.
Colossians 2:9,10
If you’re looking for undeniable evidence that I am the product of my upbringing. If you want to see Exhibit A that I was raised by Rita and Chester, look no further than when I buy a drink that I fill up myself. Now I’m not talking about buying a drink where someone else fills it up. Or even a pre-filled bottle. I’m talking about when I put a beverage in the cup myself. It could be self-serve fountain drinks at restaurants. Or when I fill up my cup with coffee at the local café.
The way you know that I sat at the feet of the masters of drinks and getting your money’s worth is that I always, always, always fill it up to the top! Actually, that’s wrong. I don’t fill it to the top, I fill it to the very tippy-top! There’s no room for anymore. I fill it up so much that the liquid actually bulges over the top.
After paying for the drink, I go over and completely fill it up. I take a few well-deserved swallows and immediately refill it to its original fullness. And then before leaving, I make one last trip and refill the cup on the way out. This ensures that I get my money’s worth.
But God’s kind of fullness is wildly different than ours. His fullness isn’t limited to the amount of space available. God’s fullness isn’t like wind or liquid where you eventually run out of space.
That’s because God is spirit[1]. He’s not limited by the same things we are. The physical universe doesn’t and can’t stop him from doing anything. Because he made the universe and the laws that we live by, he’s lives above all the physical laws and restrictions we do. He doesn’t have to bow to them.
Jesus isn’t controlled or confined by anyone or anything. Jesus, while being fully a man, can at the same time be fully God. Jesus doesn’t need to switch back and forth between being God and man. He doesn’t take off his God shirt and put on his man shirt. He can wear them both at the same time.
But Jesus doesn’t have a small part of God. He doesn’t have his God card in his wallet that he can bring out when he needs to perform a miracle. He doesn’t have a cup of God that he carries around with him. He’s not sprayed with a mist of God like some perfume. Oh no. Jesus has the complete fullness of God. He’s got it all. The entire fullness of God is in him and with him. Jesus is the one and one person in all history that permanently carries with him the person and presence of God.
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
John 14:9
No one, and I mean no one has ever said anything like this before. Period. Not Buddha. Not Mohammad. Not Confucius. Not the Dali Lama. Not Joseph Smith. Not Charles Taze Russell. Not Mary Baker Eddy.
And this fullness of God in Jesus isn’t something that comes and goes. It’s not here today and gone tomorrow. It’s permanent. Period. It’s not going anywhere. The fullness of God was with him from all eternity. Even before his conception by the Holy Spirit[2], he was God from eternity past.
Jesus was and is the single most unique person in all of history. He was and is fully God and fully man. Not some mixed up combination that moves all around. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever[3].
Who else has made a claim anything like that about themselves? And then proved it by the kind of life they lived. The kind of words they said. And if that wasn’t enough, he didn’t just predict his death and resurrection, he did it.
When Jesus rose from the dead, it’s like God’s pointing at and yelling, “Look at my Son. Look at the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Listen to my Son. Follow my Son.” God wants you so much that he was willing to not only put together his plan to bring us back to him, but also to do it. He didn’t trust it to anyone else. No angel. No other spiritual being. God and God alone was going to save us.
And that’s the whole point. Isn’t it? That God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him will have everlasting life[4]. God did it all. God loved. God sent. God came.
The only thing we have to do is believe and we receive eternal live. But it’s a special kind of eternal life. It’s a “will have” kind of eternal life. One that can’t be taken away. No one can move it. It’s his gift, never to be changed. Never to be taken away.
Noodling Questions
How full do you fill up drinks? Have you ever thought about why?
How does seeing the Father when we see Jesus change everything?
Explain how God doing everything for salvation affects you.
[1] John 4:24.
[2] Luke 1:35
[3] Hebrews 13:8
[4] John 3:16
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