All right, those verses are chapter
2, verse 3, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man
should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent
in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding
your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. rooted and built up
in Him, and established in the faith, as you have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware, lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men,
after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." Watch
verse 9. For in Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Let's read it again. In Him,
that is in Christ, and incarnate Christ bodily, in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. There is kind of a key
laid on the door when it comes to the Colossian epistle, and
by that I mean the way that Paul presents Christ to them in this
Colossian epistle gives us an idea and gives us a very strong
hint who the corruptors were of the gospel in that particular
place, as well as what the corruption consisted of with regard to Christ
and the gospel. And Paul does that for us by
alluding in his writing to those particular heresies that were
being promoted among the people of Colossae and how, in light
of that, he so highly exalts Christ in opposition and against
all of their heresies that were being injected there. Scholars
such as J.B. Lightfoot, he's recognized as
a scholar. Other men like John Eady that
I like to read on Colossians, are of the persuasion that these
particular false teachers that had infiltrated the church here
at Colossae were Jews, but not Pharisee Jews, but of the Essene
order of the Jew. For the Essenes were a type of
Jew that held more to the philosophic approach to religion than the
Pharisees did in their approach having espoused a great deal
of Eastern Gnosticism along with what they considered to hold
to from the Judaism and such like. And so because that was
here, we notice that Paul mentions such things now as I point out. For example, Colossians 2 and
verse 8, he mentions philosophy and vain deceit. That's not so
much a tenet of Phariseeism, but it was of the Essene movement. Down in Colossians 2 and verse
18, he mentions such things as voluntary humility, worshiping
of angels, intruding into those things invisible. Then in Colossians
chapter 2 and 23, he mentions will worship, humility, neglecting
of the body. For the Essene Jews were of the
sort, being philosophic, and as Edy said, and I'm quoting,
they were noted for their mystic aspiration, theosophic studies,
and self-subduing modes of life, unquote. That is, they practiced
asceticism and They tortured the body or punished the body.
Said Lightfoot, the tendency of the Essene was to mysticism. Now this mixed up with the Mosaic
Law made a mess indeed. And brought to bear upon or against
the tenets of the gospel of Christ and the person and the work of
Christ made an unholy mixture indeed. John Eady said again,
a Christianized Pharisee was apt to become a legalistic Judaizer
while the Christianized Essene was likely to become a mystic
in doctrine and an ascetic in practice, unquote. Now to such
a position, two great hurdles stood before them. Holding to
that view, they had two great hurdles that they could not seem
to get over. That is, how to harmonize the
creation of the world by God with the existence of evil in
that world that was created by God. In other words, they had
a big problem with the presence of evil what to do about it and
how to understand it. For they seem to believe, since
God made the world out of nothing, that it evolved actually from
and out of Himself, and that evil dwelt in the material world. Thus to avoid, or shall we say,
to escape evil, they punish the body with a rigid asceticism,
denying it its comforts, denying it a proper amount of food and
such things as that. So against such a perversion,
Paul, how does he do it? What is the answer? Well, He
brings before them the deity and the glory of the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. This is the best way to defeat
that, is to uphold the deity and the glory and the person
and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He declares unto them
therefore that Christ is both divine and Christ is creator
and Christ is an impeccable sin bearer. He has no sin in him. He is, in fact, very God. Now I'm going to read from chapter
1, verse 15 through 17, a view that He holds before them of
Christ. Talking to them of Christ, He
said, 15, Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature. For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him. And He is before all things,
and by Him All things consist. Now in Colossians chapter 2 and
the third verse, in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. We read in chapter 2 and verse
9, in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Thus Christ answers their every
matter. Every question that they have,
every problem that they wrestle with is answered in Christ and
only in Christ. For consider, would they know
God? Did they want to know God, who
He was? Did they want to have a knowledge
and a revelation of God? Well, then let them know that
Christ is the very image of God. He is God in very image. Secondly, did they stumble at
the origin of the world? Was that a problem to them? How
did all this come into being? And it's got evil in it. How
in the world did creation come about? Well, he tells them, Christ
both creates and sustains the world. By Him all things consist,
or the word is coherent. Not only has He created all things,
but He actually holds all things together by His power. And then
thirdly, did they seek wisdom and knowledge? Oh yeah, they
loved the wisdom and knowledge. Then may they know that in Christ
is the fullness of all wisdom. He is the sum and the substance
of the wisdom of God. Number four, did they desire
or did they seek perfection? to purge evil out of their flesh
and their life? Well, then let them know that
they are complete in Jesus Christ. They have completeness there
and only there, and need nothing else apart or outside of Christ. Number five, did they desire
and did they admire And did they trust in their circumcision? Well, then let them know, chapter
2 and verse 12, 11 and 12, in Christ they have a circumcision
not made with hands, it is made without hands. Now, to narrow
our focus to that part, in chapter 2 and verse 9, and the word,
the Godhead. The essence of the verse being
this, that the complete, absolute, total fullness of the Godhead
dwells in the incarnate Christ. The absolute fullness of that
Godhead is embodied in the incarnate Christ. So much so that the Lord
said in John 14 and verse 9, He that has seen Me has seen
the Father. When Thomas said, Show us the
Father and we will be satisfied, The Lord's answer was, Thomas,
have I been so long with you? He that has seen me has seen
the Father. Again in John 10 and verse 30,
the Lord made a statement that sent the Pharisees into orbit. I and my Father are one. Again in John 10 and verse 38,
He said the Father is in me and I am in Him." Now we're going
to focus our attention there on verse 9 of chapter 2 and the
words, the Godhead. When we have done so, we will
consider how and why the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in the incarnate
Christ as He dwelt among man. Now let's consider. Let's think. Let's meditate. Let's turn this
over in our mind. The Godhead is the words that
we are looking at here. Let's secure our vessels for
we are about to set sail on an ocean that seems to have neither
bank nor bottom, wider and deeper than our finite minds can phantom
or comprehend. We will sail, no doubt, over
the horizon, beyond our natural reason, past the ability of our
natural intellect. so that we must be guided only
by the beams and buoys of light and truth from God's Word as
the Spirit applies that. Now the Godhead. What is the
Scripture? description and realization of
the Godhead. Now, the first thing that might
come into our minds, it seems as if I remember that expression
being used at other places throughout the Scripture. I seem to recall
seeing this somewhere else in the Word of God, the same expression
as used. And if that be true, then we
want to use them and to bring them to bear to compare them
with our text here in Colossians that we might get a better and
a fuller idea. And if it helps us with our beginning
and our chosen text in the way of enforcing the truth to our
mind about the Godhead and helping us to open it up. Sure enough,
we have the English word Godhead twice in the King James Version
of the Scripture. You have it in Romans 1 and verse
20, where in speaking there of the way that God made Himself
known in visible creation, Paul speaks of the invisible things
of Him even His eternal power and Godhead." Eternal power and
Godhead. We have it again, at least in
the King James Version, in Acts 17 and verse 29. When Paul is
reasoning there with the heathen philosophers on Mars Hill, and
as he speaks to them, he tells them this, this, we ought not
to think that the Godhead is like unto silver or gold or stone,
graven by art or man's devices, unquote. The Godhead, there it
is again. Now these are not all three from
the exact same Greek word we understand, the word in Romans
1 and 20 appears only here in the New Testament Scripture.
It is the only time this particular word is used Romans 1.20. The word in Colossians 2 and
verse 9 also appears just the one time in all of our New Testament. It is the same word spelled the
same way except for one letter difference in the two words.
In Romans 1 and verse 20, it is theotes, the H-I-O-T-E-S. In Colossians 2 and verse 9,
it is T-H-E-O-T-E-E-S. The difference in the letter
I and the letter E between the two words. Now, the word in Acts
17, 29, Paul is speaking to heathen philosophers in Mars Hill. It is an adjective and it appears
at least two more times in the New Testament, both of them by
the Apostle Peter. In 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse
3 and verse 4. where the word there is rendered
divine. His divine power. The divine nature. The word divine. There's the
word we're interested in. In Acts 17 and verse 29, Paul
draws a conclusion from the quotation of one of their very own poets. Paul was very familiar with the
literature of the poets and knew how to quote them and to use
them against them. But he quotes one of the poets
who said, in him we live and move and have our being. We also are his offspring. Then Paul reasons with those
heathen philosophers there in Mars Hill, look, if we are the
offspring of God, as one of your poets has said, we ought not
therefore to deify matter, for we are not like your devotions
that you have made and that you reverent. We could render the
word Godhead in Acts 17 and verse 29 by Divine nature. The divine nature would be a
good rendering. Or the divine essence, as Paul
speaks to them of that. The divinity. That which is divine. For then, as we are the offspring
of God, we ought not to think, that is, we ought not to imagine
or we ought not to suppose that the divine nature resembles what
is fashioned by the hands of men, as that is an unreasonable
conclusion. Paul says here, we ought not
do this. That is, we are bound not to
imagine that that which is divine in any way resembles that which
is man-made. We're bound, as Alexander said
in his commentary, quote, both as a matter of interest and obligation,
unquote. Paul tells them this for a specific
reason. since in Him we live and we move
and we have our being, and since, as your poet said, we are also
His offspring, we look at what we are and we look at what your
devotions are, gold and silver and stone, fashioned by art and
man's devices, and we being the offspring of God, then we ought
not at all to imagine that that which is divine has any likeness
whatsoever to these things that you have made, and render obeisance
unto." We must remember, get a picture of what Paul saw in
Athens. There in Athens, on Mars Hill,
there were a standing, some say, of 10,000 devotions and memorials
and dedications to God that were there in that city. Devotions
and monuments named after their deities. Even one was marked
to the unknown God that Paul discovered in that place. But
let's go to the other two places where the word actually, compound
word, appears. God, of course, is the one great
and eternal God beside whom there is none else. He is the deity. He is God. The character and
the quality of being God dwells within him forever and forever. But the word head there is a
suffix describing the state or the condition of being. Those
two places are again Romans 1 20 and Colossians chapter 2 and
verse 9. Now remember we said that the
two words are spelled differently by one letter, the I and the
E. And expositors and commentators
and theologians are pretty well agreed that in Romans chapter
1, and verse 20, it describes the Godhood of God. Colossians 2 and verse 9 describes
the Godhead. What is the difference, one might
ask, between the two? Romans 1 and 20 declare the Godhead
of God, the quality of deity, His divineness, if we may use
that word. His quality as being divine,
as possessing divinity, possessing divine nature. It proves God
to be God, that is, His Godhood. And it establishes Him, therefore,
as a proper, legitimate object of worship. One having the right
to be worshipped. The one having the right to be
called God. and having the right to be worshipped
because there is a display of the Godhood of God. Certain attributes
there are that are displayed in the acts of creation itself. especially His eternal power
and Godhead or divinity, as Paul writes it. Now, for Colossians
2 and verse 9, the Godhead, that is, the very essence of God,
inclusive of the Trinity, the blessed Holy Three, so that in
this Godhead is the essence of the whole being and person of
God, the essence of deity, the Godhead with all of its innate,
all of its native attributes, all of its divine perfection,
with each eternal divine property present. every wondrous attribute
in all of its fullness. In short, it is the state of
being very God, the absolute Godhead, the perfect God, to
the exclusion of all others that might be brought to bear." Essentially,
the Godhead consists in the three persons, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, that are mentioned in the blessed Holy
Scripture. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, yet
all are God, all are equally and fully God, they share equally
the wholeness of the divine nature, each one of them being equally
and fully God, each one being eternal, each one possessing
all of the divine attributes in their fullness and perfection. And we must realize the Godhead
dwelt in the fullness of its glory. before the creation of
the world, before the creation of man and of woman, and that
creation of all things required no effectual change on the Godhead
whatsoever, neither to increase or decrease when they created
the world. They stayed in their eternal,
everlasting, essential essence. So let us use the word essence,
or divine being, to refer to the existence of God, of the
Godhead, and of the Trinity, and of the three persons. Now
we believe that Scripture reveals to us that the Godhead, the divine
essence or being, consists in three distinct persons. person, yet they do not exist
alongside of each other, for they are a trinity, not a triad. But they exist, as Herman Bebink
wrote, in, through, and unto each other." They do so in such
a way, they are related to each other in such a way that they
are fully and really God, each one of them. That each partakes
of the divine nature, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now how can we distinguish between
the essence and the being of God and the person in the divine
essence or being of God? We speak of the essence of God
and of the persons in that divine essence, how to put it so that
we can understand it that they are three in one, three persons
and yet one God. Now the word essence or the word
being are synonymous with the divine nature of God. The three persons that constitute
the divine nature, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
as we know them through the scripture, indicate unto us the threefold
distinction that is in the Godhead. and the threefold distinction
and the simultaneous modes of subsistence of each one of them
simultaneously in such a way that each one is full and entirely
divine. Nature is shared, the divine
nature or essence by all three. one nature, three person. A writer named Lorraine Bettner,
many of you might be familiar with him, called this great mystery,
quote, one substance, three persons, unquote. That's just one way
to put it. Just as an illustration, which
I admit falls short in many ways, some have sought to illustrate
the Trinity by showing that all men partake of a single human
nature, nature that is common unto all persons and therefore
universal. Gregory of Nicaea thought it
wrong to use the plural term man since all partake of one
common nature and indeed all do share human nature which is
derived of course from Adam and from Eve. But this falls far,
far short of explaining the deep mystery and the unimaginable
mystery of the eternal Godhead past our understanding. The divine nature is equally
present in all three members of the Godhead. As one put it,
quote, it is totally and numerically the same, unquote. Another way
it has been expressed is, quote, in the same divine nature is
present in each individually and in all collectively." For
there is but one eternal, one omnipotent, one omniocent nature,
but all three persons in the Godhead partake of that divine
nature and the attributes of that divine eternal essence. They being the same in essence
so that neither space nor time nor anything else is able to
separate them from that divine essence. And nothing is able
to take away their oneness and their unity as being in the triune
essence. When Christ is upon the earth,
He is in the bosom of the Father. John 1 and verse 18. There's a great mystery for us.
When Christ is incarnate, walking about in the flesh, I and the
Father are one. John chapter 10 and verse 30. We speak now of the mode of existence
of the Godhead or the divine essence or the divine nature. What is the mode in which the
divine nature exists? He has no bodily substance or
form, John 5.37. He is not a man, that we should
think of him like that, Numbers 23 and 19. He is not one like
us. Psalms 50 and verse 21. That's the mistake a lot of people
make today, to think that God or that Jesus is one like unto
us. But God is Spirit, John 4 and
verse 24. God's Spirit, it said. Some of
the older creeds express this being of God as his existing
as a pure, holy, simple, uncreated, free, invisible spirit." That
is, without material substance, without body parts, the divine
nature or essence. So let's be careful when speaking
of the existence of God that we might avoid some of those
errors that are in the world today, such as we do not conceive
of God's Spirit existing as being like a ghost or a cloud. When we think of the Holy Spirit
or the Holy Ghost, as some people have put the word, we do not
think of it like a gaseous vapor drifting around or floating here
and there, for none of these are capable that is, of having
the intelligence and the will and the purpose, all of which
are described to God and the Spirit as well. Secondly, in
saying that God is Spirit, it does not obliterate the person
of the Holy Spirit as a distinct personality from the Father,
and yet one in essence and nature and being is the blessed Holy
Spirit to the Holy Trinity. So when God reveals Himself to
mankind, especially under the old economy, it was a revelation
of His properties, of His attribute. While His essence or nature remained
or continued invisible as ever, so that, John 1, 18, no man has
seen God at any time. The only begotten of the Father,
which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Thomas Goodwin said of Christ's
words in John 5 and John 4 and verse 24, that it is a proper
definition of God as can be given, for it expresses the kind of
His being, unquote. God is Spirit, and that is the
definition of that. But how then will God be known? He is past finding out. He is
incomprehensible. He is an invisible and eternal
spirit. How then will God be known any
more than in creation and providence? That we see His hand and power
in creation, and His hand working in providence? How then shall
we know Him any further?" We answer, we answer, in Christ
Jesus the Lord. The Father is revealed by the
Son. The Son came to reveal the Father. And the fullness, Paul says in
Colossians 2.9, dwelleth in the Godhead bodily. Bodily, in the flesh. The fullness of God was in that
one who became incarnate. He could not and did not lay
aside his deity. He could not strip it from himself,
though he could veil it to his own purpose and intent. So we
answer Christ Jesus. Would you know the Lord God?
Would you come to Him? Then it must be done through
Christ. Remember all those things that
Paul says about Christ to the Colossian Stoics and Gnostics
and such like? We are complete in Him. The fullness
of God dwells in Him. In Him does all the fullness
of God dwell. The Lord Jesus Christ, He reveals
the Father. He that has seen me has seen
the Father. Ah, the Godhead. What a wonderful
but incomprehensible complexity is the divine nature of God.
And yet, as He revealed Himself to us, savingly through the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we thank God for that. We
thank Him forever for that.