The Fullness of Christ

Night before last I was reading in Colossians 2:9-10 and the words, which don't forget, are active and alive, jumped right out at me!

"For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, Who is the head over every power and authority." Wow! What does all that mean? To boil it down to nuts and bolts it simply means, we have everything Christ has, so we have power over the evil of this dark world. That should make us weep with joy every time we read it.

We were sinners, doomed to hell. God sent Christ to Earth, in bodily form, to die for us--in our place--so we could live with God in eternity. Christ was perfect. We are not, BUT, now when God looks at you and me, He sees the perfection of Christ, not our sinful natures.

When Christ rose again and ascended to Heaven, He left The Holy Spirit to live in us, to comfort us, to teach us, to help us know when we do things that aren't right, sin. Because the Holy Spirit is part of the Godhead (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), equal with the Father and Son in every way, we have power over every power and authority. There are powers of darkness alive in this world, fighting to get you to do wrong. They can't take your salvation, because you have been sealed, but they can tempt you and persuade you to think wrong thoughts and do wrong things. But in Christ, we have power over those evils.

We're not helpless puppets with our strings being pulled hither and yon. Saying, "The devil made me do it," is a cop-out and downright blasphemous. The devil can only tempt you, he has no pwer over you. He only has the leeway you give him. Christ is your Master. You belong solely to HIm. He lives in you through The Holy Spirit and this verse says you have been given the fullness of Christ.

Now, does that mean you will never sin? No, that's not likely. We are not made perfect, but we do have the power to fight more than we do. I think Christians today sell God out way short. We can call on Him to fight diseases, demanding those spirits leave us alone. We can call on Him to give us His strength to deny temptation, never giving it a foothold. We can throw off shame in His name. We can throw off addction in His name.

Christ died to set us free! He died in our place, taking what we deserved, yes, but there is so much more. He died to give us new life, to make us new creations. We don't have to sit around with our hands folded neatly in our laps and fret about what we've done in the past or what we might do in the future. We are called to live as Christ. He lived a full life. He was invited to parties. He cast out demons with no fear, but with authority and according to this verse, we can do the same things! So let's start living. Let's grab the fullness of Christ and swing to the highest mountain tops and scream, "Geronimo!" when we let go and land in the Water of Life!!

Go ahead, get wet!