All right, here's our one verse.
For in Him, that is Christ, the Son of God, for in Him dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now look at what all
is in that verse. In Him, that is Christ, dwells
the fullness, the plenitude, the plethora and that bodily. So we have a lot in this text
this evening. Now, we made mention, I should
say, I believe we did, in our first study, if that was only
a brief mention, that God dwells as to his essence and nature
and being, God dwells as and uncreated, eternal, but invisible
spirit. He cannot be seen in any bodily
form or bodily shape and cannot be seen except in some works
of creation or some act of divine providence. He cannot be known
unless he is pleased to reveal himself unto us. Especially,
he cannot be savingly known unless he is pleased to make a revelation
of himself unto us. None can call him down from heaven
and examine Him and look at Him and see what He is. And on the
other hand, there's none that can ascend up into heaven to
have a conversation there with Him. So, as John Edie once wrote
on Colossians 1 and verse 15, a quote perhaps, the great God
remains concealed forever in the unfathomable depths of his
own essence." And were not he pleased to reveal himself unto
us, that would have been the case. And if that were the case,
then how little is known of him. Just creation, provident, and
of course the working of God in the conscience. But we see
his attributes of power in creation. We feel his wrath in the conscience
as it convicts us and we discern or perceive the hand of God to
be in particular works of his providence that are brought to
pass before our very eyes. but in accordance with a divine
purpose, but God is pleased to make a fuller, yea, a saving
revelation and redemptive revelation of Himself and that He has made
through the Lord Jesus Christ. How has He done so? What means
has God used in order that He might be savingly known? What's
the medium of His revelation unto us as He would reveal Himself? How, what, who will reveal the
Father unto us? Will it be angels who come down
from heaven and tell us or reveal unto us the Father? Or will it
be Moses that might come down out of the mountain and tell
us of the great things of God and of our Father? Some people
look to Mary. to reveal unto them the things
of God. Some look unto a human prophet. Others might think to or expect
to find help by or through a glorified saint and some prayer unto them. We say nay to all of these things. The one who reveals the Father,
the one in whom all of the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
must be one who is number one very God Himself. The one who
reveals the Father must also be God. Number two, as such He
must be an exact likeness and of the image of God Himself. We shall see and declare along
our way that this is the work performed by the Son of God who
became incarnate that He might reveal the Father unto us. But before we do, let's restate
something that we said in the first part of our study. If not,
it is essentially and peculiar to the Colossian epistle from
which we have read. That is that Christ is very very
highly exalted in the Colossian epistle. There's a reason for
that beyond simply being the scripture itself. The views of
him presented in Colossian are certainly designed by the Spirit
and written by Paul that they might refute and overturn any
particular error or heresy concerning the person of God and of Christ
that were prevailing there in Colossae. Now true, it is simply
a declaration of the great and majestic work of the person of
Christ. It is a glorifying of his relation
to the Father. It is the essential truth of
Christology that He is one and is from the Father. It is suitable
instruction for any of God's people to consider the fullness
that is in Christ. Still, such declarations of the
dignity, the glory, the majesty of our great Savior in this epistle
are, as one said, molded so as to bear against the false dogma
of those heretics that were there in circulation in Colossae." The various forms of expression
that Paul uses in Colossian are again designed to be the refutation
of certain errors and heresy, grievous ones, about the person
and work of Christ. Now, perhaps this will become
clearer to us if we pull back, take a wider view of some of
the Christological doctrines that are here in this epistle
of Colossians. Let's go all the way back to
chapter 1 and verse 14, please. This is a companion verse to
Ephesians 1 and verse 7, in whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sin. To Ephesus, where there was no
great heresy that was to be opposed, the apostle speaks of Christ's
redemption as being in accordance with that eternal purpose of
God formed before the foundation of the world. He taketh a little
bit different route in Colossae where Christ was sinfully, badly,
undervalued by some who were teaching there in Colossae. So Paul speaks of Christ's relation
unto them unto two things. A, his relation to God, and B,
his relationship under creation, saying, first of all, he is the
exact image of God and that he is creator of all things that
are in the world. Now again, we might have read
these, but let's look at these statements again from Colossians,
the Colossians epistle for the exaltation of Christ. Chapter
1 and verse 15, who is the image of the invisible God. Think of what all is involved
in that statement, that Christ is the image of the invisible
God. It also said in that verse, calling
Him the firstborn of every creature. We had a sermon on that some
weeks back, meaning not that He's the first created or He's
uncreated, not that He's the first to be, but that He has
preeminence over all things and all others. Look at the 16th
verse of chapter 1. By Him were all things created. In heaven and in earth He is
Creator. For those at Colossae had a problem
with creation. How in the world can God have
created all things and yet there is evil dwelling in His creation? Look at verse 17 of chapter 1. He is before all things. and
by Him all things can sit." That's a very important statement. Literally
it is saying, by Him all things, we could use the word cohere,
or we could use the word hold together. It is by Him, He not
only created, but He sustains and holds together all things. All things stay together by the
constant power and providence of God and of Christ. I shall quote J.B. Lightfoot
here, who said, He, Christ, is the principle of cohesion in
the universe. He impresses upon creation that
unity and solidarity which makes it a cosmos rather than a chaos."
Look also at Hebrews 1 verse 3, and upholding all things by
the word of his power. But back to Colossians 1 and
18 where he is called the beginning, the firstborn, again in chapter
1 and verse 19. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. Be permanently and continually
at home. Jump into chapter 2 and verse
3. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge. Then our text in chapter 2 and
verse 9. For in Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Now, let's look very close at
chapter 1. verse 19 and chapter 2 and verse
9. In Him dwells the fullness of
the Godhead. In Him should all fullness dwell. And it does so in relation to
His incarnation because it says bodily, bodily in Him dwelleth
all the fullness. One common truth in both verses
is this. that all the fullness, however
we can say it, all fullness, ever fullness, even the complete
fullness of the Godhead, for emphasis, dwells in our Lord
Jesus Christ bodily. So let's consider this fullness. This is indeed a theological
term. It is all fullness in chapter
1 and verse 19 with the article there, the, that is, all the
fullness of our mighty God. Now the word fullness has been
and can be understood as plenitude. All are the plenitude of the
fullness of God dwells in Him. It is a recognized technical
terms, says Lightfoot, in theology, noting the totality of the divine
powers and attributes all dwelling in the Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Now Paul probably used this word
in order to accommodate his doctrine of Christ to that Gnosticism
that had reared its ugly head among those there in the church
at Colossae. They had a word, pleorama, or
we have the word plenitude. In classical Greek usage, the
word oftentimes was used in as many as five ways, I said, in
classical Greek. One, it was used of a ship's
crew, that every man was in his place. The ship was fully staffed. Everyone was in their place.
It also was used of the dwellers of a city, of the population,
of the citizenry, that they filled up a city with a population. Third, it meant the entire sum.
The totality is the meaning of that word. Fourthly, it meant
full term or full time. And fifthly, it meant the full
and the perfect attainment or accomplishment of a certain thing. So Paul uses the word fullness,
plenitude, pliorama, whichever you prefer, of Christ against
the doctrine of the Gnostics who dwelt in Colossae. In contrast
to their perverted an imperfect notion of Christ's person and
of His glory. For in their minds, in the minds
of those Gnostic, when they considered the Lord Jesus Christ, they viewed
this pliorama or this plenitude or this fullness that we speak
of as distributed, diluted, transformed and darkened by foreign mixture
of some kind. They did not see the fullness
of the person of Christ. They did not see the entire plenitude
dwelling in the one divine person of the Lord Jesus. Thus Paul
tells them, and truthfully so, that Christ is the visible image
of the invisible God, the exact manifestation of that divine
nature, or essence or being of which He is Himself an eternal
part. For in Him does reside, says
Paul, the full absolute plenitude of the Godhead." We saw last
week that Godhead is divinity or divine. Higher critics have
wrangled about whether the fullness is active or whether it is passive,
and whether it denotes that which fills up, or whether it has reference
to the receptacle which is receiving it until it is full. But Paul's emphasis is perhaps
not on either one of those things, but he is dealing with the fact,
declaring that Christ has in Him incarnate, the divine fullness,
the absolute total sum, the full glory of God and the Godhead
in Himself. As opposed by the false teachers
who contended that this fullness was dispersed out all throughout
creation, rather than being consecrated in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
guess what Paul said? Not so. In Christ Jesus, the
whole, entire, complete fullness of the Godhead dwells, and it
dwells only in Christ. That's Paul's doctrine. Not only
is it so, But in Colossians 1 and verse 19, it pleased God that
the fullness of the Father, it was the good pleasure of God. God was well pleased that it
might be. The word pleased does not mean
just simply a wish or a desire that He wanted such to be, but
it means that God resolved it. It means that God determined
it, He purposed it, He decreed that it should come to pass.
Christ has such. Not by usurpation does He have
the fullness of the glory of God, but by the divine pleasure
and by right as He is divine. It pleased God, the Father, writes
Paul. that in Christ all Godhead glory
dwell, the fullness of the attribute, the essence, the being, the knowledge,
the glory, the majesty, the power. For he shall have the preeminence
in all things, the Lord Jesus Christ. that he represents, that
he manifests the deity unto men because, you see, there is no
competition or jealousy at all in the divine Godhead. Not only
so, but the words used dwell and fullness have the sense of
permanency, continuance, continuity. Paul deliberately writes that
the fullness of the Godhead is permanently at home in Jesus
Christ. It has its fixed abode. It is not transistory or fleeting,
as the false teachers might imagine. The thought is both past and
continued dwelling of the fullness of the Godhead in Christ. It
would always dwell in him. He would never empty himself
of it or give it up. You know, as we look at that,
there might be, say some, a reference here unto the temple, the temple
of the Jew. It was there that God was pleased
to place what we call the Shekinah glory. It was there where He
dwelt between the cherubim during the Mosaic era or economy. And the Jews might be apt to
associate God's fullness with the temple and the glory that
dwelt there between the cherubim. And yet Paul is very clear, not
there but in Christ, in the incarnate Son, the fullness of the Godhead
dwells. It only dwells in its fullness,
but it dwells permanently, not in a building. It is or has a
home forever. in the blessed incarnate Son
of God. Now that brings us to consider
another matter. Which state of Christ again is
Paul referring to? In what state does Paul say that
the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ? Is it his pre-incarnate
state, when he was yet in glory with the Father, before the world
ever began, as he says in John chapter 17? Or is he speaking,
as we think, of the incarnate state of our Lord? And if the
incarnate, is it his humiliation before his death and resurrection? Or is it his exaltation after
he had conquered death and was alive? Or could all of them be
included? There is no doubt that Christ
has had an essential glory with the Father before the world began. John 17 and 5. He was very God, possessing equal
deity, equal essence with the Father. How then are we to understand
Paul in this place? Of what state does He declare
that the fullness of Godhead dwells in Him? Now the thing
is clearly stated in the end of verse 9 and chapter 2 bodily. Yea, in chapter 1 and verse 22,
when Christ was in the body of His flesh, that is, His fleshly
body, it is the incarnate Christ in whom this fullness dwells. For as John Eady, one of my favorite
commentaries on this book, he wrote, it is Jesus in his mediatorial
person that the apostle characterizes as being the image of God, unquote. That's again, in Hebrews chapter
1. Therefore, possessing the fullness
of deity, the fullness of the Godhead, for He, the incarnate
Son, is the medium of representing, manifesting, and revealing the
Father in His fullness unto those to whom He would say. So that
it is the visibly revealed and yet divine person who has come
to reveal unto us the Father. It is a true and exact image
of the Father. He that has seen me hath also
seen the Father. Consider what Paul wrote to Timothy. 1 Timothy 3 and verse 16, God
was manifest in the flesh. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. So that even at birth, It was
said, the Son, Emmanuel, God with us. Matthew 1 and 23. Then please remember that the
Word, the Logos, was yet unfleshed, was in the beginning with God
and was God. John 1, 1 and 2. Thought it not
robbery to be equal with God? Philippians chapter 2 and verse
6, being, however, in the form of God before the incarnation. But when it pleased God, when
the fullness of time was come, the Word was made flesh. The Son, the second person of
the blessed three, assumed human nature or flesh or humanity. And according to Paul in our
text, Colossians 2 and 9, the fullness of the Godhead was embodied
in Him and it dwelt in Him. Hear this if you hear nothing
else, this fullness of the Godhead dwelt in the humanity of the
Son, dwelt in the God-Man who was flesh and who was man and
also was God. It abode with Him during the
time of His incarnation in manhood, of being Carnic Christ, and yet
without mixture. I don't mean to say that the
divine nature got over and into the human nature. Without mixture. There's two natures in the one
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was accomplished, said one,
without consuming or without deifying His humanity. or altering any of the essential
properties of the divine nature. Ah, the mystery of the incarnation. That hypostatic union. Two in one, as it were. The Lord Jesus Christ. One person,
two nature. Human and divine. God and man. Now, let's jump here, if we might,
into a very deep hole and hold our breath and jump off into
a very deep hole concerning the eternal sonship of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which will carry us again into the Trinity and a consideration
and something of a personal relationship between the three members in
the divine Godhead. Now the first person we think
of is the father, and the chief personal attribute of the father
is agonizia, paternity, father, paternity. How often does scripture
refer to him? as Father. Christ called Him
Father. He is our Heavenly Father. He was the Father of Israel,
Deuteronomy 2 and verse 6. He is the Father of believers
in Matthew 6 and verse 4. And He is the Father of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, Romans 15 And verse 6, again, the Father's
chief personality is paternity or is fatherhood. Now the personal identity of
the Holy Spirit has been called spiration or procession. For Scripture does speak of the
Holy Spirit as sent and as given, as shed forth, as poured out,
as breathed upon by the Lord Jesus Himself, as descended. The Spirit of God is said to
have descended. And Herman Bevinck described
it this way, that the Spiration is an eternal act. taking place
within the divine essence or the divine Godhead. Now we come to the personality
of Christ and that is sonship or it is phileo, having to do
with sonship or philation. Remember how often it is that
the Scriptures speak of Christ as my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased, His only begotten Son. We read in John 3 and 16,
my firstborn from Psalm 89 and verse 27. The first begotten
in Hebrews 1 and verse 5. This day have I begotten thee
in Psalm chapter 2 and verse 7. Colossians 115, the firstborn
of every creature. Now, in order to save time and
cut directly to the sonship of Christ the Lord, which we say
is eternal sonship as against incarnate sonship, that He's
always the Son, He did not become the Son at incarnation like some
preachers are holding today. Even His eternal generation is
opposed by those who make Him a created being, that He had
a beginning. It appears that the term eternal
generation came to be in theology first used against the heretic
Arius because he taught that the Son was generated at a particular
time, that He was not eternal, and that He had a beginning.
If we consider Psalm 2 and verse 7, Thou art my Son, this day
have I begotten Thee. And in John 1 and 14, we beheld
his glory as the only begotten of the Father. Christ was eternally
generated as to his essence, as the Son of God. He was the
Son of God eternally and is and was God as the Son. We need to bear that in mind.
In this one has God put the fullness of the Godhead bodily as He became
incarnate. Now, let us close by applying
our text to the context of Colossians. Why did Paul write there so exaltingly
of Christ? In chapter 2 and verse 9, for
example, the opening word for gives us the connection. The
answer is twofold. Number one, to condemn, of course,
the false teaching of those who had come among them, who devalued
Christ. Having devalued Christ, they
then trusted in lesser things to bring spiritual blessing and
salvation. to wean them from their vain,
vain philosophy and their human tradition and even the mosaic
observances, Paul writes, of this blessedness of Christ. Secondly, he does so to exalt
Christ as the perfect divine one. Could I go back and put
in the word only, as the only perfect divine one. Thus he says in verse 8 of this
chapter 2, beware, he writes unto them. Verse 9, for in him,
in Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, who is the
firstborn, who hath the preeminence among all things, who is the
one in whom all fullness dwells. In Him dwells the very exact
fullness of the Godhead. Not only so, but Paul said, you
are complete in Him. In verse 10. You don't need anything
in addition to Christ. His offices, His saving work. Nothing do we need outside or
in addition unto our Christ. You were in Him and through His
circumcision, circumcised with one made without hands, verse
11. You were baptized with Him, verse
12. You were raised from death in
your sins. verse 13, and Quicken, because
verse 14 and 15, he blotted out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against it, nailed it to his cross, triumphant over
it openly, as a victor does over his enemy. Now, let's say in
closing, you or anyone else, None will ever get to God if
they seek to bypass the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You will never know God except
you know Him through Jesus Christ. He has come that we might know
God. He has come to reveal the Father,
and the revelation is in Him. None get to know God who go around
Jesus Christ, and none can know God except they know Him through
the Lord Jesus Christ, who reveals the Father, because in Him all
fullness dwells. Thomas? He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father.